Why so many headcases in Figure Skating today?

[silverlake22]

Also, what qualifies as a headcase? One meltdown? Repeated meltdowns? Occasional brilliance amid otherwise consistent mediocrity? Do you take the skater's physical health into account?

Multiple meltdowns and the occasional brilliant performance or moments of brilliance in a performance. In order to be a headcase, a skater has to be talented and have had good results at one point in time. If they don't ever have good results, then they wouldn't be a headcase they would just be a not very good skater.

The main headcases right now are Carolina Kostner, Tomas Verner, Alissa Czisny, and Jeremy Abbott. More people can be added to the list but those are the first ones I think of, because no one can deny that any one of the above skaters is very talented (Alissa I guess in the jump department not so much but still). They have been national champions and European champions, won grand prix medals, etc and yet sometimes they are awful.

 

[ankka]

I find it weird that two top European skaters (Carolina and Laura) both have great speed, good jumps, good spins and excellent performing skills but they seem to go from meltdown to another (apart from Laura at the Olympics).

Laura's case might be that she really is a late bloomer, mainly due to injuries. She had to spend a year off ice not that many years ago due to a hip fracture, and basically had to relearn most of her jumps AND learn new jumps at the same time. 3-3 and lutz are the jumps she only managed to start landing three years ago so it's no wonder her confidence is still lacking. But having seen her at the Olympics it may well be that her self-confidence will be given a healthy boost. Or not.

 

[silverlake22]

I find it weird that two top European skaters (Carolina and Laura) both have great speed, good jumps, good spins and excellent performing skills but they seem to go from meltdown to another (apart from Laura at the Olympics).

Laura's case might be that she really is a late bloomer, mainly due to injuries. She had to spend a year off ice not that many years ago due to a hip fracture, and basically had to relearn most of her jumps AND learn new jumps at the same time. 3-3 and lutz are the jumps she only managed to start landing three years ago so it's no wonder her confidence is still lacking. But having seen her at the Olympics it may well be that her self-confidence will be given a healthy boost. Or not.

I think it may just have to do something with the coaching not being as good in Europe. It's not just Carolina and Laura, but also Kiira, Sarah, Susanna, Elena, Elene, etc - none of them are as consistent as the American and Asian girls. You see it in the men too. I mean, Tomas WON Europeans in 2008 with a popped triple axel and a hand down on his quad, Joubert is always making mistakes even if normally what he does is enough to get him on the podium, Lambiel isn't super consistent, Contesti just had a meltdown at the Olympics, and even Michal Brezina who is one of the most consistent Europeans usually has a popped jump and a couple other mistakes in his LPs. I tend to think American and Asian coaches are stricter about run-throughs and it is apparent in their skaters' peformances.

 

[dlgpffps]

I feel that stricter edge calls and UR calls make skaters more nervous. You also have to be constantly counting in spins and spirals. Not knowing how well you did until scores come up is very difficult to deal with.

Good comment. It reminds me of a NYT article I read a while back:

The new scoring system has left her head full of numbers, Cohen said, as she makes sure that she spins the proper number of revolutions and holds her spiral for the required number of seconds. It’s something she does not like, counting instead of simply performing. But she also appears more relaxed, believing that her real accomplishment is simply showing up here

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/sports/olympics/23longman.html

But I get the feeling there's more to it than that with the headcases listed in the initial post.

 

[Jaana]

To answer your rather long post with a short answer - Liz Manley said during her commentation on the men's program that "Evan does complete run throughs of his program at every practice session." She says "he comes prepared and lays down his program." I guess the other guys must be resting on their laurels....

I believe she said that many other skaters are not doing all their jumps in Olympic practices, just kind of skating through their programme and only kind of "measuring the place" where the jumps are supposed to be done.

"The new scoring system has left her head full of numbers, Cohen said, as she makes sure that she spins the proper number of revolutions and holds her spiral for the required number of seconds. It’s something she does not like, counting instead of simply performing."

I´m really surprised about that! I remember reaading that Tarasova just simply told Arakawa to count "one icecream, two icecream, three icecream", LOL. That should not have been too difficult for Cohen to do, in my opinion.

 

[figureskatingfan22]

I think Katarina Witt's take on this issue interesting (in her book "Only with Passion). She says you can only train it till a certain degree. Beyond it it's a gift you're born with.
Plushenko usually doesn't do full-run throughs at competitons. I think he even missed a practice in Torino 2006 IIRC. But he usually skates clean. It's a new system now, but even compared to Yagudin, he mostly went clean. The only real meltdown I remember (several mistakes) was 2000 Worlds LP. Since than he was clean or had just one mistake IIRC. He and Katarina Witt are among the mentally thoughest skaters I know of.
Since the new system there seem to be more headcases, not only because of the reasons already mentioned, but also because it encourages artistic skaters that tend to be more headcases on average (probably because of the higher level of sensitivity you need for it).
[There's a reason Mishin doesn't like programs full of transitions etc, because it takes away from the concentration on the jumps.]

Some coaches are also better able to deal with it than others: Nikolai Morozov (has certain techniques to make skaters less nervous etc.) - e.g. Takahashi
The opposite seems to be Michael Huth (Silvio Smalun, Kostner and Verner were/are famous headcases).