Hi guys!
I've been lurking, not posting much after being shooed off by some name-calling on another thread, and of course doing this :dumb::hpull:
for most of the Men's FS. So be kind, ok? I mean well, but I am not here to praise Patrick, but to offer some views about how and why he didn't deliver his best. I feel like I'm walking on eggshells sometimes on these forums.
I had a very bad feeling about the escalation of the...ahem..."practicegate"...but one good thing about that is I started to find out more about the Frank Carroll method, and I think Patrick can really take a leaf from his experience and expertise.
What I mean is that to Frank Carroll, anything that doesn't help a skater win is absolutely to be thrown outside, eg. tears, moods, etc. he'll kick you out of his rink for the day and call security on you.
It can seem heartless, which was why many skaters parted, eg. Mirai and even Kwan, but, but, but.....does it work? Looking at Gracie now compared to her pre-Carroll days, she is absolutely poised, grown up, tough-minded, no longer a skating princess and a precious snowflake. Yes, she fell, and couldn't capitalize on her SP, but she never skated better, and it's a matter of time for Gracie.
He is RIGHT - in the end, all that matters for the top tier athletes is that you put up one of the best performances like you did during a good practice on the day when it truly counts, no ifs or buts. It's psychological attrition, in his words.
Everything else is mental and psychological debris, they just get in your way of delivering at the moment when it counts the most, like the ruts and puddles on the ice.
So why and how is it that the 4CC Patrick didn't show up at World's?
Yes, it could be true it was the ice, but WHY didn't Patrick or his coach prepare for such an eventuality? Didn't they encounter another difficult ice condition previously?
To me, telling it AFTER the competition will not make a difference, Patrick didn't deliver, didn't podium and his detractors cracked jokes about Patrick's wine.
Now, at the moment when he stepped on the ice, Patrick knew and felt the unevenness of the ice, why didn't he have the presence of mind to think of a way to remedy it?
Don't laugh, but this is what I would have done if I were Patrick - I would have stumbled a few times as I skated around before getting into position, the audience would gasp, I would then skate towards the judges and tell them the ice was full of ruts.
Mindful of the consequences or ignoring such a complaint, they might do a quick flooding and although the audience had to wait for 5-10 minutes, their reward would be one of the better performances of the famed Chopin FS, whether or not Patrick wins.
In the end, Patrick is entitled to skate on decent ice, like all the other skaters, the playing field must be even, ha, pardon the pun.
Unfortunately, what happened was Patrick felt the ruts in the ice, felt the fear/worry about the blades, and he carried that thought with him and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Frank would have told him to ABANDON any thought or mental/emotional debris other than the ones that run through your head during your best practices! These psychological debris are perhaps worse, because Patrick might have been capable of overcoming them with his excellent SS and pure physical power being the athlete that he is.
In the end, it was the carefree Javier, fresh from a foot massage away from all the drama, who jumped, skipped, hopped and smiled his way into the audience's heart and to historic gold.
, compact and fast! It was nice that he received a lot of applause at practices (Mao and Yuzu did also). He looked good during the SP, and I had high hopes for him and the other men. My heart broke for for Patrick, Shoma, and Yuzuru with their rough free skates. Some people were commenting that these three use their edges more than the others and seemed affected more by the poor ice conditions. I felt like the crowd was quite partisan towards the Americans (standing O's for all of them, really?) and did my best to cheer loudly for the others, especially my guys. Was thrilled to see that Patrick was selected for the exhibition - his number really showed off his great skating. As I said I'm not a skater, nor a particularly knowledgeable fan but wanted to share some of of my impressions.
so that next time, maybe we don't have to play there or a better piano is used)... 
