Caroline Zhang-Her Future?

[pangtongfan]

The biggest problem Caroline Zhang faced was the judges over generosity with her as a junior and when first coming up. It was clear back then she had glaring flaws in her skating, jump technique, speed, ice coverage, even security of edging at times. The judges all but turned a blind eye to those, gave her virtually no > calls, high GOE on jumps, huge skating skills scores, and the works. As a result she was led to believe she was already a sensational young skater with no weakness who only needed a bit of time in senior and a bit more improvement and she would already be on top of the World. After about a year in seniors the judges started to pull the rug on her and give her scores more accurately reflecting the flaws in her skating that had always existed. By then it was almost too late to completely revamp certain aspects of her skating, and she has struggled ever since.

It is a sign for future young skaters coming up, and to judges and coaches. You can not gloss over serious flaws of a skater, as they wont be able to be swept under the rug forever.

 

[coppertop1]

The biggest problem Caroline Zhang faced was the judges over generosity with her as a junior and when first coming up. It was clear back then she had glaring flaws in her skating, jump technique, speed, ice coverage, even security of edging at times. The judges all but turned a blind eye to those, gave her virtually no > calls, high GOE on jumps, huge skating skills scores, and the works. As a result she was led to believe she was already a sensational young skater with no weakness who only needed a bit of time in senior and a bit more improvement and she would already be on top of the World. After about a year in seniors the judges started to pull the rug on her and give her scores more accurately reflecting the flaws in her skating that had always existed. By then it was almost too late to completely revamp certain aspects of her skating, and she has struggled ever since.

It is a sign for future young skaters coming up, and to judges and coaches. You can not gloss over serious flaws of a skater, as they wont be able to be swept under the rug forever.

Good point. I like that the system does crack down on weaknesses like you mentioned, those are bad habits and if caught early are fixable and the old 6.0 system didn't always catch them. Figure skating is a sport after all, and that means technique is important. In some ways I'm reminded of Mira Leung, who seemed to be Joannie Rochette's successor, and who had some awkward technique. She started off, like Zhang, as a young sensation, finishing fifth at Canadians in 2004, then won the bronze in 2005, then silver in 2006 and made the Olympic team and finished 12th, but by age 19 was off the National Team and replaced by Cynthia Phaneuf, who though not as consistent is a stronger skater in terms of technique and artistry.

 

[Olympia]

The biggest problem Caroline Zhang faced was the judges over generosity with her as a junior and when first coming up. It was clear back then she had glaring flaws in her skating, jump technique, speed, ice coverage, even security of edging at times. The judges all but turned a blind eye to those, gave her virtually no > calls, high GOE on jumps, huge skating skills scores, and the works. As a result she was led to believe she was already a sensational young skater with no weakness who only needed a bit of time in senior and a bit more improvement and she would already be on top of the World. After about a year in seniors the judges started to pull the rug on her and give her scores more accurately reflecting the flaws in her skating that had always existed. By then it was almost too late to completely revamp certain aspects of her skating, and she has struggled ever since.

It is a sign for future young skaters coming up, and to judges and coaches. You can not gloss over serious flaws of a skater, as they wont be able to be swept under the rug forever.

I would add to this an emphasis on the point that coaches should be especially vigilant with young skaters, because to do otherwise is to handicap the skater possibly through the rest of her/his career. A skater or even a parent has no way of knowing that jump technique is incorrect. It's entirely up to the coach to notice such flaws and to correct them. When I think of Michelle, Yuka Sato, YuNa Kim, and other skaters known for their technique, I see skaters who were possibly slowed by a growth spurt but were never derailed by it. They were able to keep up because they didn't have to relearn anything. They owe their respective coaches a huge debt.

 

[coppertop1]

I would add to this an emphasis on the point that coaches should be especially vigilant with young skaters, because to do otherwise is to handicap the skater possibly through the rest of her/his career. A skater or even a parent has no way of knowing that jump technique is incorrect. It's entirely up to the coach to notice such flaws and to correct them. When I think of Michelle, Yuka Sato, YuNa Kim, and other skaters known for their technique, I see skaters who were possibly slowed by a growth spurt but were never derailed by it. They were able to keep up because they didn't have to relearn anything. They owe their respective coaches a huge debt.

Very true, YuNa has had some injuries but even when she isn't 100% healthy she can still do most triples and skate well and with quality. She not only jumps high, she gets a lot speed and flow out of it. You can relearn jumps, but not all of them. Irina Slutskaya changed the entry to her triple lutz after 1998-99, and Joannie Rochette redid her triple lutz. Though both of Irina and Joannie are athletic skaters. Relearning technique on all jumps is different and part of the problem is muscle memory. It's hard to change it.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Irina Slutskaya changed the entry to her triple lutz after 1998-99, and Joannie Rochette redid her triple lutz.

Fortunately, they both always did real lutzes so they weren't having to address edge issues on the jumps, which seems to be a very difficult thing for skaters to fix. This is why I'm not terribly optimistic for the Russian ladies because they all have tiny jumps, aside from Adelina who has big jumps (but is inconsistent). I wish the coaches would sit down with the parents and tell them it isn't important that these skaters are doing 3Z's at 12 years old because the technique they use to rotate the jumps at that age won't work when they're 17.

 

[coppertop1]

Fortunately, they both always did real lutzes so they weren't having to address edge issues on the jumps, which seems to be a very difficult thing for skaters to fix. This is why I'm not terribly optimistic for the Russian ladies because they all have tiny jumps, aside from Adelina who has big jumps (but is inconsistent). I wish the coaches would sit down with the parents and tell them it isn't important that these skaters are doing 3Z's at 12 years old because the technique they use to rotate the jumps at that age won't work when they're 17.

And neither had that high kicking free leg. Irina and Joannie are both good jumpers, they just adjusted their technique. All novices and juniors do triples now, but you need to teach good technique early or fix it early. Caroline's jumping technique was just wild the mule kick kills any height.

 

[brightphoton]

Are the Pacific sectionals live right now???

 

[Mrs. P]

Are the Pacific sectionals live right now???

Yes. They are in the middle of the second to last group.

 

[brightphoton]

I really really really hope Caroline places top 4 :yay:

 

[ks777]

oh no, poor caroline..

 

[Mrs. P]

Nail bitter time. The last skater, Anna Malkova has to score more than 85.94 to get that final Nationals spot and forcing Caroline to stay home.

Anna did several triples, but I have no idea how that will score.

ETA: 79.11. Caroline gets the last spot.

 

[brightphoton]

OMG!!! Thank goodness, I was so worried for her for a while.

:yay: yes, Caroline goes to Nationals!

 

[Jammers]

This might be Caroline's last time going to Nationals if she doesn't improve which i don't see happening. As a group the Pacific Ladies were miles behind the Midwestern girls. This group is basically skaters on their last legs or have stagnated like Lam.

 

[MFarone]

I'm curious if Caroline is still with Peter O./Karen Kwan. They were definitely in the arena, but did not stand by the boards or join Caroline in the kiss n cry. It was very odd! Caroline left as the scores were being announced and I could see Peter and Karen both standing by the boards with Anna Malkova.

Caroline goes to Nationals again, but unless something drastically changes, it will be the last trip IMO. I don't see her with anymore international assignments either after this years SA.

 

[Icey]

Is there a vid of her skate?

 

[nam57]

Why did Caroline's coaches abandon her in the K&C? Coaches need to support their students! On another note Lam was a more than 18 points below last years "Artist" program. I had heard it was a new and improved version? And Keiser used to be a contender with Nicks, Fassi, Frank and I lost track? I really thought Rachel had a chance to win it on components alone!

 

[brightphoton]

I'm curious if Caroline is still with Peter O./Karen Kwan. They were definitely in the arena, but did not stand by the boards or join Caroline in the kiss n cry. It was very odd! Caroline left as the scores were being announced and I could see Peter and Karen both standing by the boards with Anna Malkova.

Why did Caroline's coaches abandon her in the K&C? Coaches need to support their students!

WHAT??? This is the exact same thing that happened in Skate America. What is with Peter/Karen? You think they would've shaped up after abandoning her after that. I'm disgusted.

 

[mskater93]

If they had another skater, they would have worked it out with Caroline before her skate (which it sounds like they did - Anna Malkova?)

 

[loopy]

If they had another skater, they would have worked it out with Caroline before her skate (which it sounds like they did - Anna Malkova?)

It's too bad one couldn't be with one skater in the knc and the other with Anna.

 

[Nigel]

I'm curious if Caroline is still with Peter O./Karen Kwan. They were definitely in the arena, but did not stand by the boards or join Caroline in the kiss n cry. It was very odd! Caroline left as the scores were being announced and I could see Peter and Karen both standing by the boards with Anna Malkova.

Caroline goes to Nationals again, but unless something drastically changes, it will be the last trip IMO. I don't see her with anymore international assignments either after this years SA.

Karen and Peter were in the lobby with Malkova while Zhang was skating.