THe problem is not money. The problem is we are now a nation that produces participants and not competitors. It starts very early and it will take a long time to change. I'll explain.
THere is a huge difference between ladies and men's skating. With men's you can outscore people by learning quads. You can't do that in ladies skating. Or at least women don't do that. Therefore, they learn their triples and then they immediately start learning how to be more artistic because that's what gets you on top of the US podium. So many politics keep potential ladies from even getting close to the podium. So we are stuck with a few good skaters that aren't really challenged at the top because ladies that could more technically proficient are artificially downplayed by the tech panel.
I've followed younger skaters for years. At Juvenile, Intermediate, Novice, and Junior. I find at Juvenile there's more competition. No one is allowed to skate with higher than a 2A so girl's field is very deep at this level. Club competitions need qualifying rounds to narrow the fields down. There are always large amounts of girls to compete against at club competition. So by nationals, you are seeing very polished girls who have deliberately developed components and spins and have the mental game needed to compete.
After that the field gets smaller. Most kids will never manage a 2A, so they drop out or just skate occasionally for fun. The ones that do win are the ones that consistently land their basic triples the most. Our tech controllers at both club and national qualifying comps are lax, so many girls get by with underrotations that would never fly internationally. By juniors you wind up with two types of winners, the ones that skate clean or the ones that are the most artistic. It's only recently that triple triples seem to be a priority for some coaches. But unfortunately, that's not enough. Audrey Shin is super talented, but her under rotations are terrible. She often loses at domestic competitions because she can't rotate the jumps. Naturally, internationally that means she got hammered by the tech panel there. However, she is a second highest scoring junior lady domestically! Hannah, how outscored her in Asian open has only gotten a 152 to Audrey's 162.
There are so many problems, but I feel like many of them could be solved by a few moves.
1. Better tech controllers.
Last year, watching Brynne at Skate Detroit I saw underrotations on all of her jumps, but she didn't get called on any of them. Internationally, she got called. At the very least, at monitored competitions the tech controllers need to be at international level harshness. The < have to stop.
2. More serious competition.
Especially for Novice and Juniors, where most girls have move on. Here is when you have small competitions where it's obvious that one girl is going to win, no question. It's not because she's super talented, but because she just has the highest technical content so no one else can compete against her. So it's like winning by default. Weak competitions make weak competitors. Girl's like this will win despite being inconsistent, having falls, poor spins, or underrotations. I think US figure skating needs to make more of an effort to get novice and junior skaters in competitors with girls at their technical level. There are the monitored competitions like Skate Detroit and GF. However, I think if there was some sort of incentive more higher level ladies would compete.
For example, I would require all ladies to skate at least 3 monitored competitions to go to international competitions. Include novices in this equation. Tell them that the highest scoring 5 of each level will qualify to be sent either to the JGP or smaller international comps for juniors and novices. Kids go nuts for their Team USA jacket, so this is a definite draw. Watching Bradie was a perfect case study. She competed in three competitions from May to August. She not only won each of them, but did it with tough competition in Philly Intl. I like that method of choosing for SA and think it should be employed for all international comps that USFS can select their skaters for.
3. Do a qualifying competition for all JGP participants.
I know I just suggested an average of competitions for JGP slots, but bare with me. I feel like there needs to be one competition that puts a lot of pressure on these girls early. Like a nationals but earlier. I feel like often JGP competitors are fully prepared. If you look at Emily on the JGP and then at Junior nationals, you see a vastly improved skater. If they knew by August 7th, there was a qualifying competition, that 15 girls would be there vying for just 7 slots, that would really up the game. I already see a lot of jumping talent already. It's mostly training them to land them every time. That's not going to happen if there isn't something to lose. If you had to go to three qualifying competitions and score high and then this competition and basically win, that I feel would push girls to develop more competitive skills.
4. Send ladies to more difficult international competitions.
Last year, I thought it was a big step forward to send high level juniors to international comps. However, I think they were all easy comps. It's good to get their feet wet, but they needed more. They needed to see that they aren't really competitive with other ladies internationally. We need to send girls to competitions where we know there will be Russians, Japanese, and Koreans competing. US girls aren't the best, but they are better than most of the world. Sending them to some competitions is the same as giving them a participation trophy in a JGP event. The have to be challenged and want to rise to the occasion.
I did a search and found that they are monitoring girls from lower levels early. They send in regular reports and give suggestions. But you can't micromanage a girl into becoming a good competitor. Being a good competitor comes from learning how to compete. Knowing that there are ladies around you that are just as good if not better and having the mind set not only not let that phase you but also the burning desire to do you best to beat them anyway. And then the mental coolness to nail those programs in spite of the nerves, pressure, and intensity of competition.
I think what made Nathan such a good competitor is because as a junior he didn't have a consistent 3A or Quads, so he needed to work on his components and consistency with the elements that he did have. It's what are ladies have to learn as children if they ever want to win as adults.
Sorry for being so long winded. Yikes...
