- Joined
- Feb 17, 2010
Is that spectacular or just very consistent?
Is that spectacular or just very consistent?
Bah, all this won't matter next season.
I certainly am very excited about her and do see her as a potential savior of US ladies figure skating. She has had incredible achievements this season but I am cautiously optimistic. A lot of skaters have had one terrific season, such as Sokolova, Zhang, Harding, etc. so this could be the beginning of a great career or just one great season. Things can unravel quickly in a sport where career-threatening injuries, eating disorders, lack of confidence, and federation pressure are commonplace. Gracie has held up very well thus far but now she will begin facing the weight of expectation.
i wouldn't be too quick to write off her choreographer just yet. after all, she was a JUNIOR this season, and knowing that Gracie hadn't made an impact at all before this season, he probably just gave her normal junior programs. now that she's starting to make a name for herself, he may step it up a notch.
Just because we think she can do more difficult choreography doesn't necessarily mean she can.
If Gracie improves during the off season then i think we saw our team for Worlds next year. Finally two skaters who seem to be good competitors and will fight.
Ashley is a much better skater then Hughes ever was and Gracie has more potential also. We'll see next season. It should be fun.
My only concern for Gracie is that she's still young enough that her body could change like Kimmie's did and totally throw off her jumps/consistency. Meissner didn't struggle with the puberty monster perse because her struggles came after puberty. Her height was the same when she won Worlds to when she was struggling so much the following two seasons, but her body build was much different. Gracie probably isn't growing any taller, but like Kimmie she also used to be a little waif and now is getting sturdier. I guess the fear is that if she continues to fill out, it could hurt her jumps, although maybe it's different, because Kimmie's jumps were never as big and her 3-3s were always suspect, and Gracie's jumps actually seem to have gotten bigger since she started filling out, but who knows. Also the pressure could get to her later, Adelina seemed to be fearless just last season and now the pressure seems to affect her a lot. Ashley is really impressing me this season but for Gracie, I want to see how she does in her first senior season first.
Gracie is similar to Agnes in a LOT of ways and Agnes has not exactly taken the senior international ranks by storm, at least not yet. She was consistent the year she won junior, and though her body did change some since then, she still has enormous jumps, she's just no longer very consistent, and her weaknesses (bad packaging, awkwardness, lowish PCS) still seem to be hurting her.
I think Gracie is further ahead in her development then Agnes.
Anything can happen of course, but I have been impressed with how she handled herself at this competition. She really soaked up the experience rather than worry about the pressure. I think it was smart she had her senior debut here instead of the GP. Unlike Agnes, who basically came into the GP cold turkey, Gracie now knows how she stacks up with the top competition and what she has to work on. (It's pretty awesome to get compete against the top 5 from the World Championships, I'm sure!)
She seems to LOVE Daisuke and CaroK, so I'm hoping perhaps she glean some lessons on what makes them tick and apply them to her own skating.
As for her body, she seems pretty developed, both height and lady wise.
Look at this photo: http://yfrog.com/nvctkuij
She is about the same height as Ashley and Meryl and she's definitely no waif! In fact, I didn't know she was 16, I probably think she was closer in age to those two.
I just hope Gracie's body doesn't change much. Look at Mirai she is much more stocky then when she was Gracie's age. But luckily Gracie has much better jump technique so she may be all right in the future.
A lot of is also about WHEN you grow too...
Here's Gracie in September 2009 when she was a novice — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg8UyTVaNHU
Here's Gracie a year later in Skate Detroit 2010 (junior) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDDWMKn9Npg
Here's Gracie at Skate Detroit 2011 (also as a junior) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEG7zOTuiSU
In this progression of videos you can see that she grew a lot between 2009-2010, but not much between 2010-2011, which tells me she's done growing for the most part.
You can also see how far she has come in just one year (between 2010 and 2011).
I seem to recall people loved Mirai's jumps when she was younger/slimmer, too. She had such a spring in her jumps. Her 2A was really spectacular. And at Gracie's current age, Mirai looked pretty developed too, but that didn't stop puberty from changing her body some more in the next two years.
We shall see, but Gracie's basically had the same figure since the summer of 2010, give or take a few inches. I don't really see her all of a sudden having a dramatic body shift. Any changes at this point will be modest and I have confidence that she can handle it.
And as I said, Gracie may be skinny but she's no waif. Again, look at the photos with her and the other lady skaters, she does not look like a skinny teenager next to Meryl or Ashley. I think she's still figuring out how to pose with her body in programs, but that's more of a packaging thing not a puberty thing.
Exaclty. At 16 Mirai was the same height she is now, didn't have a little girl's body, and didn't look that different from the year before when she was 15 and had just finished her big growthspurt. But then over the next two seasons she filled out a lot and began to struggle more with jump consistency. It's similar to what happened to Kimmie actually. Not the puberty monster but the one that comes after puberty, when it's common for girls to put on a bunch of weight. Rachael also went through the same thing starting in the Olympic season and that was when she started to have issues with URs. She was never a stick figure skater, but her weaknesses as a skater became amplified when she became more busty and womanly in her figure. Maybe Gracie will be more like Ashley though, who has always been very strong and muscular in her build and didn't gain a lot of weight post puberty. Already at 16 Gracie is quite muscular and her build is somewhat similar to Ashley.
Gracie has better jump technique then Mirai had or even Rachael or Kimmie despite the problems yesterday. But we will see next season. Hopefully she keeps those big jumps.