Going down the backstretch - Skating year in review

[el henry]

I totally respect el henry but I am not sure Andrew T is in the same league or on the same planet as Jason B.

Thank you for your respect, and no, Andrew is not yet at Jason's level. But he is a sentimental favorite for me, and when he is on, can light up the rink in his own way.

What his results will be, too soon to tell. In the backstretch but not done.

 

[noskates]

Having seen Andrew "live" I can tell you he can rope you in if he's on. There are men out there with a modicum of style and smoothness but many of them are just going through their much-practiced choreography. Then there are a few that just have that innate sense of skating to their music and feel every note. Jason is definitely one of those skaters and Andrew could evolve into that with more consistency. When he's skating he's not thinking about his next move - he's going with the flow of the music. Let's hope that his success at Nationals will boost his confidence.

 

[TT_Fin]

Discussion may have not been so much, but the quality has been good this season, IMO and I have had a lot of fun. There have not been many commentators who collect the elements of the skater together, but as score boxes exist, I don't miss them. YouTube comments I hate, I watch usually full screen if the quality of the stream is good enough, but if not I use smaller screen and hide those comments. I am happy I don't understand certain language a much though I studied once a week for three years it at my free time when I lived at east part of my country. But hide the comments anyway and find them unnecessary, but there are people who want to read and write those, so it is just good those can be hidden.

I have watched this season more than many seasons before. I don't tell all of the reasons, but we did not have many projects at my job and I was part time laid of for about 5 weeks and had more time, at the first part of the season. One reason I like to see new skaters when retirees give space to them. As Europeans and GPs were at my country I organized my jobs I could go there. It is a little bit weird opinion I read music choices were boring. I think some skaters who were not there use a lot Carmen, Swan of the lake and other over-used music so is the meaning of boring music related to who uses it? I don't mind if there are couple of Carmens every year, it is kind of "there has to at least one certain music choices every year". When I was watching events live I enjoyed everything and did not care who there was or who was not. It is not many skaters "in final games" as Finns say. Only in pairs I would have wished more - not just certain pairs but more pairs. I have understood pairs is more expensive than singles and it may be the reason small feds do not have many pairs or pairs at all, beside the reason there are not enough men for everybody and there are no coaches in every country.

But there is still worlds left.

 

[Skater Boy]

WIth world juniors just over I have to say Korea and Japan are looking good for the future and The Cze team in dance was amazing. Admittedly Canada and the US didn't look great at juniors. Yes, the Americans provided the bright spot pairs but then again like it or not the Russians weren't there. I will try to be positive and the jumps were impressive including the attempts at very difficult high scoring sequences/combos. I thought the US ladies might fair better here at worlds. And Canada's hpe in dance kind of crumbled after winning almost everything. They just don't have the tech.

 

[TontoK]

WIth world juniors just over I have to say Korea and Japan are looking good for the future and The Cze team in dance was amazing. Admittedly Canada and the US didn't look great at juniors. Yes, the Americans provided the bright spot pairs but then again like it or not the Russians weren't there. I will try to be positive and the jumps were impressive including the attempts at very difficult high scoring sequences/combos. I thought the US ladies might fair better here at worlds. And Canada's hpe in dance kind of crumbled after winning almost everything. They just don't have the tech.

If you look at the list of junior medalists over the years, you do see names that went on to senior greatness on the international stage, but you also see plenty of names that had limited senior success. And you don't see lots of names who had great senior careers.

I think the Junior circuit has limited utility as a predictor, although this is less true in women's singles - where senior champions have been closer in age to juniors in recent years.

 

[skatedreamer]

If you look at the list of junior medalists over the years, you do see names that went on to senior greatness on the international stage, but you also see plenty of names that had limited senior success. And you don't see lots of names who had great senior careers.

I think the Junior circuit has limited utility as a predictor, although this is less true in women's singles - where senior champions have been closer in age to juniors in recent years.

Also, things may change as the new senior age limits take effect.

 

[SmileHappy34]

My thoughts are I thought the Juniors who skated in Two Seniors Grand Prix Events couldn't skate on Junior Worlds. They are considered Senior Skaters. I thought ISU pass a law back on 2008/2009 or 2012/2013 to be effective in the next Olympics cycle. What do I know , I bam a fan that pays some attention not all to the sport ( not only Olympic year). For this season due to a deja gue moment of winners and medalist, I think did a good job.vi won't predict worlds due to deja Vue that I have a winner list somewhere pack . All in all Japan and Korea juniors are good. U s. Needs to improve. The U.S. is doing okay. The lack of Russians, lack of talk not quantity nor quality. They was not the only ones doing the quads, triple - triple or axels. The was the main ones getting the high scores, and clean jump s. All others have issues with quality or technique. Ido believe in dance Canada will come on top.

 

[icewhite]

There has been a void, I think we can't deny it. I am mostly following the men, and the two biggest skaters of the past years, two of the biggest stars in the sport overall, have (essentially) retired. In addition the young skater who came second in last years biggest competitions has been injured all season, and then in addition the young skaters from Russia are out as well. Who is left?

Well, first of all there is Shoma Uno, better than he ever was. I don't like his programs of this season too much, but his skating has been amazing. Stability of a bunch of most difficult technical elements in addition to smooth, intense overall performances.

Then there is Malinin - not yet the superstar he can be, but apart from his 4A which is an incredible achievement, his clean technique stands out. It all depends on where he wants to go, what he wants to train, what he wants to do. His potential is sky high.

Next is, to me the break out star in men's this season, Adam Siao Him Fa. The Europeans train less in their youth. They need a little longer to develop. Adam has developed, he has taken a few pages from Aymoz' books, put them into his own, and made an exciting story of it. He can very well medal at worlds, if he's clean.

But my favourite this season, with Hanyu, Kagiyama, Kolyada out of the picture, is Aymoz. Wow, what programs does he have! I love them. My hopes aren't that high, I am a realist to pessimist, but my, I wish he could skate those programs clean, or at least close to clean, at worlds. I would be so, so happy! Although he gets some respect, I don't think he gets the attention he deserves as one of the most musical, original and technically skilled skaters out there.

Cha has not been the revelation this season that I hoped he would be. I love his skating, I think Orser is a great coach, but I honestly expected a bit more. Jumps-wise he hasn't much improved, and although I like the programs in theory they could have been a bit bolder, and also I think he hasn't yet skated them spot-on. I still hope for a great worlds for him. When he's on it is thrilling to watch him.

The Russian skaters have some really nice programs this season and I just wish they had a different nationality...

Among the women, I mostly care for Kaori. This has been a slightly difficult season for her, but I have hopes that she will be at her best at worlds... and maybe it's a good thing that she's not the stand-out favourite for them now.

My other favourites, like Eva-Lotta, are not doing too well. I don't care as much about the precision and harmony of the other Asian skaters as much as some others do. I find their programs mostly very conservative and rather boring. Same goes for Gubanova. I have to say, although Isabeau Levito seems like such a nice girl, I don't care much about her skating, and I also just don't want to see the next young girl. I want to see grown up skaters, and I want to see women breaking the female image that this sport mostly carries.

I still like Loena, her short program is so her. I wish her the best for worlds, but am sceptical that she will be able to medal.

Have been impressed with Watanabe.

And Amber Glenn and Bradie Tennell seem to be on a good path.

(One thing I noticed was the female Canadian juniors having some nice hopes for the future. Especially Fiona Bombardier looked great.)

Can't say much about ice dance and pairs.


In general there are two things I noticed about the season:
First, the programs, apart from the Russian men and my beloved Frenchmen (Economides' Cardi B deserves a mention, too, here), were less original and exciting than I had hoped. I thought that after the Olympics there would be more interest in trying things, in playing around, in picking bolder choices, but that hasn't happened on a larger scale.

Secondly I really liked that the technical panels have been a lot stricter this season. That was absolutely necessary. There are still some inconsistencies of course, but overall it was a lot better than the past years, especially than the past year, that's nice to see.

 

[lariko]

I am waiting for senior worlds. Tired of grinding my teeth every time Mozalev goes into a jumping pass, but seems he managed to stabilize 4S at the expense of everything else, so I doubt anything will come out of it. Glad Zhilina stabilized and Gorbacheva and Popov starting to become more prominent.

Gubanova’s Eu win was a highlight and Italian men are always there to add a lot of fun into competition. Rizzo shone this season! Malinin’s 4A was a big deal. Huge deal, no matter how much some people try to downplay it.

Dance is really cool this year, I LOVE that they took out the boring steps from seniors rhythm. I think it’s way better than before. I don’t miss P/C at all… lol, I never watched them before. Russian dance went up in smoke.

Nobody showed up in pairs that can come close to replacing B/K. International pairs imo didn’t constitute a discipline worth my watching this year on either senior or junior level.

I was really happy to see juniors live and Rossi is great! disappointed with Thoringren’s season, and even more with Levito, despite her medals.

All and all, not my fav season though luckily not as bad as the Olympics. After Olympics, really, it can only be better.

That exhibition skate tournament that Russians are throwing sounds like fun, though not for competition aspect with Rus judging.

The only new favs this season for me are Mrazkova/Mrazek.