Mid-Season Takeaways

[Daniel1998]

Now that the GPF is over, I thought it would be fun to do a bit of a note-taking sheet on what I've seen so far- things I liked, things I disliked, random opinions, stuff like that.

Men:

I feel almost bad for saying this, as a very big fan of Hanyu, but I almost feel like his performances (long program in particular) are so technically difficult that it almost seems like four minutes of holding my breath and waiting for the next difficult jumping pass than it feels like a cohesive program. I'm exhausted just looking at him, and I didn't quite get that feeling last year. I also feel like his jumps have gotten scratchier as a result. Of course, his dedication to improvement is very admirable.

Is it just me, or are the judges really taking a liking to Fernandez? Every time he skates I'm surprised at the scores that come up. Maybe it's just me, but I think the judges have really gotten behind him this season.

I think in general, as the base value of the men's discipline goes higher and the skaters start attempting more quads, I find myself going, "oh my god, is he going to fall?" more often than I find myself relaxing and enjoying the performance. I also think we've seen less high quality landings this year, although I don't have any statistics to back that up. It's great from the sport's perspective that the envelope is being pushed, but I don't know if I'm enjoying it more from a viewer's perspective.

Ladies:

Evgenia's been able to stay on top of the world for a year and a half, which is, like, basically an earth-shattering record for a Russian lady. I wonder how much further she can go- I'm curious how many of you think she'll win in Pyeongchang, or if a new star will have risen by then.

If I were to give someone a most improved award, I'd give it to Anna Pogorilaya. What a turnaround! She's my favourite top Russian lady, and I personally think she could be even better if she landed her jumps the way Osmond does, with full extension of her limbs. She sort of does an arm wave thing on every landing kind of like Alexander Petrov does, which I'm not a fan of. But to each his own, I guess.

This could be the year we look back on in the future and as "the turning point of Canadian ladies' figure skating". Osmond was the fourth best lady in the grand prix this year, and Gabby has just as much potential with all those big jumps she has. What these ladies share is huge jumps, great speed, and a strong presence on the ice. They've never been consistent, but finally are showing signs of brilliance. I really believe they may be able to secure three spots for Canada at next year's competitions.

While the Canadians are flourishing, the Americans... are floundering. While I'm not bothered at all by Ashley and think she will come back strong, I'm actually worried for Gracie's chances at the world team. She got beaten by Amber Glenn this week, who I've never even watched before, and Mariah Bell and Mirai Nagasu have looked at times stronger than her. Will she make the world team?!?! (Same goes for Mao, I would actually be surprised to see her make the world team.)

Minor note about Satoko Miyahara: I sincerely wish the judges would give her some consistent feedback about her jumps. They have been all over the place this season, and it's ridiculous to say she underrotated five jumps at one competition and skated everything perfectly fine two weeks later. Make up your mind and give her some feedback she can trust- stop confusing the tiny queen, it's not doing her any good.

I think ladies in general are where we can see the most confusing and ridiculous judging in figure skating. I'm supportive of all the ladies here, but to say that any of the ladies in the grand prix final come close in skating skills and interpretation and other PCS criteria to skating legends like Yuna and Carolina is, imo, a false statement. I'd watch Yuna and Carolina perform Send in the Clowns and Ave Maria ten MILLION times before watching any of the programs this week. We need to hold PCS in check here- just because we are missing Yuna and, up to this point, Carolina, doesn't mean we should bell curve everyone up to 70+. The judges have been screwing over Mao for years in this regard, so I'm very curious, assuming Carolina makes it to euros or worlds, if the judges will dare give her lower PCS than Medvedeva and the rest of the top ladies. That would be... well, wrong.

Pairs:

The revelation in pairs this year for me is the success of the new Chinese pairs teams. Yu/Zhang are, if a little awkward, absolutely beautiful, and in a world where quads seem to be the name of the game and pairs are dropping like flies, I find their style so refreshing. Every element is crisp, clean, and elegant. Peng/Jin as well are very lovely, if not quite as refined as the former pair. I'm very happy that this ended up working out in the end.

More ridiculous judging, imo: Tarasova and Morozov getting incredibly high program component scores. I understand that Russian pairs is in a state of turmoil, but there's something about this pair that doesn't click for me. Whenever they do classical music it just seems bland, and whenever they do uptempo music it's confusing and awkward. Compare their short program to the nearly identical Savchenko/Massot program and I think there's a world of difference. I'm genuinely confused by the way the judges are scoring them, not just this week but the whole season- if you remember, they propped them up immensely at Skate America in the short. Is there something i'm not understanding? Maybe they're just not my thing.

Do we need to do something about these injuries? Is there something wrong with the set-up of the pairs discipline, or is this just a freak year? I never, ever, want to see so many top teams disappear again, and I hope it's not because of the recent technical revolution. Even if it was, I'm not sure what we'd do about it. What do we do, tell people to stop doing quads?!

Dance:

I don't watch the discipline too much, but I think Tessa and Scott's short dance is so amazing. I could watch it over and over again, you can tell they've been practicing dance off the ice.


What do you all think? Agree? Disagree? Any dance notes that you'd like to add to fill in the emptiness I've left? What things have caught your eye so far this season?

 

[HanDomi]

Now that the GPF is over, I thought it would be fun to do a bit of a note-taking sheet on what I've seen so far- things I liked, things I disliked, random opinions, stuff like that.

Men:

I feel almost bad for saying this, as a very big fan of Hanyu, but I almost feel like his performances (long program in particular) are so technically difficult that it almost seems like four minutes of holding my breath and waiting for the next difficult jumping pass than it feels like a cohesive program. I'm exhausted just looking at him, and I didn't quite get that feeling last year. I also feel like his jumps have gotten scratchier as a result. Of course, his dedication to improvement is very admirable.

Well , they changed peaking plan for this season. I think there was some interview which said that he hasn't done yet any hardcore training like last year he did before NHK and GPF. Clear target is Worlds this time. I think weak point is placement of quad sal combo in FS. He should do combo on 1st one.
Quad loop became consistent, which is good thing.

His programs are mighty hard because he is putting all that choreo between those quads and spread them trough program. It will be awesome once he nail it but yes, it's very hard. But that's what makes program complete. When you watch Nathan program, first minute is just quad after quad after quad after quad

 

[Nocturne]

My midseason thought is that I should take a little break from watching figure skating. The scoring makes me mad and then I get angry and complain all the time about it to my super-uninterested-in-figure-skating BF xD

It's just not fun to watch anymore, especially Ladies, which is the dicipline that got me hooked on the sport years ago. I will never understand why there has to be a clear favorite that the judges are showering with points even if others perform equally good. Why give Katelyn, Anna and Saktoko about the same PCS and elevate Medvedeva 4 Points higher?
Im by no means a TR or SS specialist, but why would Medvedeva's CO, PE or IN be better than that of the others? 4 very different programs that are lovely in their way, then why score 3 equally and boost the last one? Makes no sense to me.
Where is the competition when the winner is predetermined whatever happens?

Sadly I'm rather indifferend towards pairs when there's no Sui/Han to cheer for, but I think the chinese pair switch does work out. I really enjoyed Peng/Jin's SP

Men is the most exiciting right now and I'm very surprised to see both Javi and Patrick bomb themselves out of the Podium. Since they were my favorites that's of course sad, but it was an exciting competition. Hanyu may be the favorite but even he doesnt get the judges love that Med receives and he has to do more than just take part in the competition to win.

Dance is lovely to watch, but since I know nothing about the levels I cant really say much about correct rankings. But at least in dance there arent PCS gaps of 4 points between the medallists...

 

[blackey]

My opinions are very similar to you generally..
men: still not a big fan of yuzu's both programs this year. I mean I don't dislike it, but it just not giving me goosebumps as other yuzu programs. His ex is superb tho. Maybe it's just he hasn't done a very clean one yet. And I'm actually kinda glad he didn't skate very well at gpf like he used to do(but still win), so he could sell the programs at worlds now. lol
I'm looking forward to see what's the future gonna be like in men's event, we still have another kid boyang who's not here at gpf but it's already very exciting. can't image how 2018 would go.
And I never understand javier's score. His pcs is higher than chan and his TR is higher than yuzu. ??what
got nothing to say about ladies.
pairs: just like many of you mentioned, the exchange partner of the chinese teams seem to be very successful?! I still feel mad about the whole thing but their programs just turn out lovely. I particularly enjoy PJ's sp, my fav pairs program this year.
dance: vm's both programs are everything to me. I didn't expect that at the beginning of the season(actually hated their fd for a while), but wow. they're at another level.

 

[[email protected]]

so I'm very curious, assuming Carolina makes it to euros or worlds, if the judges will dare give her lower PCS than Medvedeva and the rest of the top ladies. That would be... well, wrong.

I know, it's an ongoing debate but I am personally in the camp that pcs and TES are connected. You can have nice ice coverage, skate fast with nice long spirals, be very artistic, show powerful interpretation. But if you just jump doubles or a few triples should you be judged in pcs the same way as a 7 triple person with on-going transitions, difficult entries vs. telegraphed jumps? I say no, because it is much easier to skate beautifully and emotionally, paying attention to deep edges if you don't have to jump big time. Hence, if Caro manages to show her Sochi form doing 7 triples even with 3T-3T and she does not fall, I would not mind if her pcs are higher than Medvedeva's - she is a beautiful skater and a legend. 4-5 triple program with falls - no way should she have the same pcs as clean Medvedeva. Falls disrupt the program and this should be reflected in pcs: skating skills presume that a skater does not fall, interpretation is disrupted after a fall, etc.

 

[sabinfire]

Where is the competition when the winner is predetermined whatever happens?

There is no predetermined winner. I think most people here would believe that Yuzuru Hanyu & Evgenia Medvedeva will win any competition they are in, if they skate clean (or close to clean).

Yuzuru will sometimes lose an event to a skater like Patrick Chan or Javier Fernandez, because Yuzu is prone to having very off-nights and missing many of his valuable technical elements.

We really don't see that with Evgenia due to her consistency. She delivers every single time. Once in awhile she falls once, but she is always able to correct on-the-fly to minimize the bit of damage caused. Most other skaters are not able to do this & are prone to inconsistency or full meltdowns on occasion. There hasn't been a consistent top level female skater over the past two seasons that can challenge this, so the obvious thing is happening.

 

[eta]

Is it just me, or are the judges really taking a liking to Fernandez? Every time he skates I'm surprised at the scores that come up. Maybe it's just me, but I think the judges have really gotten behind him this season.

Not just this season, it isn't anything new... being the sole hope for European men (minus Russia) comes with perks...



I'm so so so glad Yuzu isn't pushing himself like last season, those two new programs are just too hard, it'll be horrible if he gets injured before Worlds again...

 

[chuckm]

I have one concern about the return of Virtue/Moir: it has thrown Canadian dance into havoc. So many senior (and junior) teams have left because there didn't seem to be any opportunity this season and next to make any headway. But we all know that V/M's goal is to win that second OGM, and once they do, there is little or no incentive to continue in competitive ice dance. So after the Olympics, where does that leave Canadian ice dance? With Weaver/Poje, 28 and 31, Gilles/Poirier both 26, Paul/Islam both 26, and some recently teamed Senior skaters who haven't had much competitive experience yet. None of the junior skaters have even won a JGP medal this season.

 

[4everchan]

are you really concerned for Canadian dance or are you just concerned that Tessa and Scott indeed do have a legitimate podium chance now for the Olympic... because last year, Weapo and Piper and Paul didn't do so well at worlds...

Fair enough, it may be that weapo lose a chance at being world champions or olympic medallsts... yet I do not count them out at all... they could stick around another year after 2018.... Please keep in mind that before Tessa and Scott, ice dancers skated until much older before retiring... and actually, to be fair, Tessa and Scott never formally retired... they simply said they were taking time off... so other Canadian teams got a chance to shine for a couple seasons rather than the opposite.

Finally, the teams who retired or have split... they were not getting outside of Canada much in any case.... Paul and Islam were off the podium at Nationals... they seem to have plateaued after Sochi...

Paul and Piper are still very young and could be the flag bearers for Canadian ice dance up to 2022... would I be concerned with this? Not at all!!! Piper has improved so much in the last couple years and they have made huge statements through great preparation, presentation and a style of their own.

What do you say about US ice dance if you are so concerned? I am pretty sure a lot of the teams will retire after 2018 as well.. and we will see then, if those teams who are all transitioning from juniors to seniors will have a spot ... it's hard to tell... it seems like Russia is rebuilding strongly... France is still there... It will be interesting and as a proud Canadian, I have little concern about the Tessa and Scott "throwing Canadian dance into havoc"

I have one concern about the return of Virtue/Moir: it has thrown Canadian dance into havoc. So many senior (and junior) teams have left because there didn't seem to be any opportunity this season and next to make any headway. But we all know that V/M's goal is to win that second OGM, and once they do, there is little or no incentive to continue in competitive ice dance. So after the Olympics, where does that leave Canadian ice dance? With Weaver/Poje, 28 and 31, Gilles/Poirier both 26, Paul/Islam both 26, and some recently teamed Senior skaters who haven't had much competitive experience yet. None of the junior skaters have even won a JGP medal this season.

 

[Warwick360]

Here's my midseason takeaway: The GPF medals this season must be the most cheapest looking medals I have ever seen. Not even sure what to compare them with because I have never seen a more disappointing medal in any sport in my life!!!! :disapp:

On a side note, to the people in the other forums who suggested that Radionova should go and be an actress as she can't compete, I'd say, have you guys no shame? To doubt a fighter like Radionova, all I have to say is.https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SrDSqODtEFM/hqdefault.jpg

I really hope she bounces back. Even if she doesn't manage to find the podium in the nationals, I really really do hope she finds herself in the trio group to Pyeongchang next season. The ones that should worry in my opinion is Elizaveta and Lipnitskaya. I reallydo wonder what they can do, if anything. Tuk's spins aren't going to get any better, while Yulia's jumps is something I have trouble imagining ever going back to its heyday level. :disapp:

 

[chuckm]

are you really concerned for Canadian dance or are you just concerned that Tessa and Scott indeed do have a legitimate podium chance now for the Olympic... because last year, Weapo and Piper and Paul didn't do so well at worlds...

Fair enough, it may be that weapo lose a chance at being world champions or olympic medallsts... yet I do not count them out at all... they could stick around another year after 2018.... Please keep in mind that before Tessa and Scott, ice dancers skated until much older before retiring... and actually, to be fair, Tessa and Scott never formally retired... they simply said they were taking time off... so other Canadian teams got a chance to shine for a couple seasons rather than the opposite.

Finally, the teams who retired or have split... they were not getting outside of Canada much in any case.... Paul and Islam were off the podium at Nationals... they seem to have plateaued after Sochi...

Paul and Piper are still very young and could be the flag bearers for Canadian ice dance up to 2022... would I be concerned with this? Not at all!!! Piper has improved so much in the last couple years and they have made huge statements through great preparation, presentation and a style of their own.

What do you say about US ice dance if you are so concerned? I am pretty sure a lot of the teams will retire after 2018 as well.. and we will see then, if those teams who are all transitioning from juniors to seniors will have a spot ... it's hard to tell... it seems like Russia is rebuilding strongly... France is still there... It will be interesting and as a proud Canadian, I have little concern about the Tessa and Scott "throwing Canadian dance into havoc"

US ice dance will be fine. Pogrebinsky/Benoit have done quite well in their first senior season, and Hawayek/Baker are finally coming into their own. The Parsons and MacNamara/Carpenter will be moving up to Senior next year, so they will fill any voids left by retiring teams after the Olympics. In Juniors, Carrera / Ponomarenko have another year of eligibility and the Greens will finally be eligible for the JGP this coming fall. The Greens won the NRW Advanced Novice event last month, beating the second place Russian couple by 18 points.

 

[Sugarpova]

my takeaway is that dance & pairs are finally more unpredictable than before (so sad about C/B tho I hope they bounce back @ US Nats! dances who stand out against Montrean mush get mt respect!)

+ women got more interesting with Osmond & Caro in the mix + Masha Sots
Hopefully at Euros someone can have a breakthrough too aside from CAro & our gals & challenge them!
Really curious about Euro dance section. C/P & B/S are a given. Interesting to see where S/B's pseudo 'tango' can place!
Local SKIZ battle at Nats would be exciting.
Same with Spanish battle of H/K vs S/D!!! I just watched H/K & Im super pumped!!

+ potentially US nats can be a turn around for ladies aside from Ashley who I bet on 90% (Mirai, Courtney & Mariah, Amber, Tyler) I hope some of them step up & skate lights out


Juniours had amazing season. Some lovely new names appeared. SOme not so new (well relatively new if someone follows national comps)
Parsons shine & improved so much since last season I cant wait for them to turn seniour & beat both HD & HB!! & become US top 3!
ha 2 sibling teams in top 3 would be cool!!
Cha outshone all the hyped Korean girls
MM cemented themselves as leaders (sooo lovely :luv17: almost like dance)
Not a fan but Zagitova can even medal at senior Nats
Not a fan again of Krasnozhon but getting into GPF was a great success for him as well
Alisa rose like a phoenix!
Lots of people saw Polina in a new light & she delivered imo the best ladies programm this year. (get well sweety!:luv17

 

[gsyzf]

Men:

I feel almost bad for saying this, as a very big fan of Hanyu, but I almost feel like his performances (long program in particular) are so technically difficult that it almost seems like four minutes of holding my breath and waiting for the next difficult jumping pass than it feels like a cohesive program. I'm exhausted just looking at him, and I didn't quite get that feeling last year. I also feel like his jumps have gotten scratchier as a result. Of course, his dedication to improvement is very admirable.

I think a person's enjoyment of a performance depends a lot on his/her expectation. It's better to set a realistic expectation based on the technical difficulty of a program. When that person surpasses your expectation, you will be surprised and enjoy the performance even more. If that person doesn't deliver very well, you won't be disappointed either because that's to be expected. When I saw Hanyu's layout of both of his programs this season, I thought I would be lucky to see any clean SP or LP from him this season. I don't think it's possible for him to give any flawless performance of either sp or lp this season. He maybe able to give some cleanish performances like he did in the SP at GPF this season but not flawless performances like last season. (By cleanish, I mean no fall, but not flawless performances either because he still needs to fight for some of his jumps. ) It was possible for him to give better performances last season because he was re-using an old SP and he didn't include any new quads. But this season, he is doing two new programs, adding a new type of quad and adding a 4th quad to the LP, which makes it a lot harder. His 4lo isn't consistent yet and he hasn't landed any 4lo with great quality in competition. If we are lucky, we might be able to see a real clean SP at national or 4cc. (I think 4cc is more likely than national.) I don't think we will see a real clean LP performance this season. But I think he intends to re-use his LP in the olympic season. So he will have another season to perfect his LP. Given the location of the next olympics, I believe anyone skating to Hisaishi's music this season intends to re-use the program in the olympic season. Also, I highly doubt he had no intention at all to perform his current LP at the olympics when he named his LP "Hope & Legacy".

 

[Sydney Rose]

I think a person's enjoyment of a performance depends a lot on his/her expectation. It's better to set a realistic expectation based on the technical difficulty of a program. When that person surpasses your expectation, you will be surprised and enjoy the performance even more. If that person doesn't deliver very well, you won't be disappointed either because that's to be expected. When I saw Hanyu's layout of both of his programs this season, I thought I would be lucky to see any clean SP or LP from him this season. I don't think it's possible for him to give any flawless performance of either sp or lp this season. He maybe able to give some cleanish performances like he did in the SP at GPF this season but not flawless performances like last season. (By cleanish, I mean no fall, but not flawless performances either because he still needs to fight for some of his jumps. ) It was possible for him to give better performances last season because he was re-using an old SP and he didn't include any new quads. But this season, he is doing two new programs, adding a new type of quad and adding a 4th quad to the LP, which makes it a lot harder. His 4lo isn't consistent yet and he hasn't landed any 4lo with great quality in competition. If we are lucky, we might be able to see a real clean SP at national or 4cc. (I think 4cc is more likely than national.) I don't think we will see a real clean LP performance this season. But I think he intends to re-use his LP in the olympic season. So he will have another season to perfect his LP. Given the location of the next olympics, I believe anyone skating to Hisaishi's music this season intends to re-use the program in the olympic season. Also, I highly doubt he had no intention at all to perform his current LP at the olympics when he named his LP "Hope & Legacy".

Do we know how many hours Hanyu is allowed to practice now? His ISU bio still has him at only 14 hours a week.

It seems very likely that his restricted practice time, as well as not being able to skate at all for a couple months, would also be contributing factors to him taking longer than usual to master his LP.

 

[semosk8tfan]

The state of US Ladies took an unexpected turn this fall with Gracie floundering and Ashley failing to medal in China. Who would have predicted less than a top 4 placement for either? With Polina being a question mark for Nationals (will she even compete?), the door is wide open for new bodies on the World team. It will be interesting to see who handles the pressure and skates onto the podium. After watching the technical level of the GPF skaters, the US ladies really have some work to do.

The Men's event is officially a jumping competition and the price for doing 4 or 5 quads in a program is interpretation and artistry. There are a few that can give us both but that is rare and I fear will be even rarer. Javi has a great presence on the ice and when he is "on" like at Worlds last year, his jumps are integrated into the program not the basis of it. Patrick could not even jump and his program would still be worth watching. In the US our senior men (outside of Nathan) still struggle to incorporate one quad into their programs let alone four. If you had told me that two US men would make the GPF I never would have predicted those two would be Nathan and Adam. Again, the door is open for a changing of the guard in US mens and it will be interesting to see what happens in January.

Pairs: Pairs is kind of in a transition phase, everyone is trying to up the technical ante and it is causing some rough performances and injuries. I am old-fashioned, I would prefer less quad throws and better basics (LANDING jumps and throws, UNISION on SBS spins, beautiful death spirals). The outlook for US Pairs remains bleak, we have talented teams but they have great difficulty in landing jumps and throws and skate small in comparision to the top international teams. If we aren't careful, holding onto two World spots might be an issue.

Dance: Remains my favorite event. I was surprised at how V/M showed everyone up so quickly. I thought they might struggle a bit this season and then dominate next year. But their skating skills and performance ability is light years ahead of all the other teams and I see a golden future for them. US nationals is going to be insanely competitive at both the SR and JR level and I am glad I have a rink-side seat to watch!! I want the SR teams to watch the Parsons sibs' SD and see what unison looks like.

 

[rosy14]

Well , they changed peaking plan for this season. I think there was some interview which said that he hasn't done yet any hardcore training like last year he did before NHK and GPF. Clear target is Worlds this time. I think weak point is placement of quad sal combo in FS. He should do combo on 1st one.
Quad loop became consistent, which is good thing.

His programs are mighty hard because he is putting all that choreo between those quads and spread them trough program. It will be awesome once he nail it but yes, it's very hard. But that's what makes program complete. When you watch Nathan program, first minute is just quad after quad after quad after quad

Yeah, but me too have thought: perhaps a quad less and better, cleaner skate overall, so we can relax and enjoy. I'm not a big fan of quad, quad, quad, or in general jump, jump, jump. If a skater is able only to jump, I can understand his/her programme is so, but if you have very good skating skills, you spins are exceptional, and you are very musical, it's better to focus on it and sacrifice another jump, even though you can master it well. Especially if the music you're skating to, does not require a jump in this particular moment.

 

[rosy14]

There is no predetermined winner. I think most people here would believe that Yuzuru Hanyu & Evgenia Medvedeva will win any competition they are in, if they skate clean (or close to clean).

Yuzuru will sometimes lose an event to a skater like Patrick Chan or Javier Fernandez, because Yuzu is prone to having very off-nights and missing many of his valuable technical elements.

We really don't see that with Evgenia due to her consistency. She delivers every single time. Once in awhile she falls once, but she is always able to correct on-the-fly to minimize the bit of damage caused. Most other skaters are not able to do this & are prone to inconsistency or full meltdowns on occasion. There hasn't been a consistent top level female skater over the past two seasons that can challenge this, so the obvious thing is happening.

I'm starting to think she's so consistent, because her layout are the same in the last three year at last. I heave reviewed some programmes of her and other Eteri's skaters, and more or less they skate very similar one to another with very similar layouts.
Hanyu tries to change, at least doing quads where previously were triples. So it is never the same layout, or at least, it doesn't seem so.
And consider Chan. and his winning programme in China: he performed in the second half a quad toe and a quad salchow (OK, fall, but the jump was well rotated), which he has never done before.
So if you start to skate the same layout day in and day out, it becomes a mechanical routine and it's easier to be consistent.
You win, of course, but people start to getting bored. And if you're a World champ, you should change something, at least in the year pre Olympics.

 

[sabinfire]

I'm starting to think she's so consistent, because her layout are the same in the last three year at last. I heave reviewed some programmes of her and other Eteri's skaters, and more or less they skate very similar one to another with very similar layouts.
Hanyu tries to change, at least doing quads where previously were triples. So it is never the same layout, or at least, it doesn't seem so.
And consider Chan. and his winning programme in China: he performed in the second half a quad toe and a quad salchow (OK, fall, but the jump was well rotated), which he has never done before.
So if you start to skate the same layout day in and day out, it becomes a mechanical routine and it's easier to be consistent.
You win, of course, but people start to getting bored. And if you're a World champ, you should change something, at least in the year pre Olympics.

If the ladies aren't doing 3A or quads, we've basically reached the ceiling as far as ladies pushing the sport technically.

Evgenia has fallen on missed combinations in the past and can make changes to her layout mid-program, so this is no challenge for her.

How about they change the rules so she can experiment with 3-3-3 and 3-3-3-3 combinations, like the ones she's always doing in practices and galas?

 

[gsyzf]

Do we know how many hours Hanyu is allowed to practice now? His ISU bio still has him at only 14 hours a week.

It seems very likely that his restricted practice time, as well as not being able to skate at all for a couple months, would also be contributing factors to him taking longer than usual to master his LP.

I think his practice time should be normal by now. Compared to last season, his progress this season so far is about the same as last season. He had a so-so senior b, bad first GP, much better 2nd GP and GPF last season. He also had a so-so senior b, bad first GP, and much better 2nd GP and GPF this season. His performances in NHK and GPF are about the same. He had a better LP at NHK but a better SP at GPF. I think his performances in this season will be more stable than last season. I don't think we will see his performances fluctuate between super clean and super messy for the rest of the reason.

 

[gsyzf]

Yeah, but me too have thought: perhaps a quad less and better, cleaner skate overall, so we can relax and enjoy. I'm not a big fan of quad, quad, quad, or in general jump, jump, jump. If a skater is able only to jump, I can understand his/her programme is so, but if you have very good skating skills, you spins are exceptional, and you are very musical, it's better to focus on it and sacrifice another jump, even though you can master it well. Especially if the music you're skating to, does not require a jump in this particular moment.

The technical demand in today's field is a lot higher than before. Jin and Chen already skated 4 quad LP clean. If the veterans can't keep up with the technical demand, they will be out-jumped by the younger skaters very soon. The younger skaters have nothing to lose and they don't stay stagnant.

Every skater needs to to have some competitive edge in order to stand out from the rest of the field so they can be noticed by the judges (and feds). Hanyu's competitive edge had always been his ability to execute super difficult tech with high quality (this includes everything, jumps, spins, steps, transitions). His competitive edge isn't his artistry. He isn't a universally acclaimed artist and he isn't perceived as a superior artist than his rivals by the majority of fans/judges/commentators/coaches, etc. If he has lower difficulty than his rivals, he will lose his competitive edge and lose the competitions.