2018 US Championships Sr Men SP | Page 54 | Golden Skate

2018 US Championships Sr Men SP

Jimmy Ma had me feeling all the emotions:

From "This is the worst music I've ever heard." to "Oh I get it, he's serving trap-music, millennial realness." to "Holy ****... he's skating to Turn Down For What. In a competitive program. At US Nationals. :rock:" to "I hope everyone in that arena is as turnt as I am right about now..." [emoji23]
Amazing.

It was BOLD AS HELL and I love that.

If only the triple-triple had been clean and the spins had been faster.
 
I'm proud of Nathan for gutting that one out. I hadn't read anything beforehand but could tell he looked sick in the K n C.
I agree about hating the costume and missing the curls. I'm fine with the simple dress shirt he'd been wearing earlier in the season - fits this modern style program. This Vera Wang costume doesn't have the right vibe for this music. It's definitely athleisure, exerting power rather than something more cool, casual with swagger.
Let's start a write in campaign to change the costume. Also need a weave to get those curls back stat.
 
Was at the arena today! Have some notes:


Johnson: Easily my favorite performance of all the men. Here's someone who was actually dancing along with his music with his entire body and using his blades to skate (side eye to Rippon). He mooooved so well! :love: I'm in love with him.

:hap93: So happy to hear that his performance was as amazing live as it was on my screen. Judges, wake up and give the man his PCS! :pray:
 
Can someone please explain to me the controversy over Jason's axel? I'm asking seriously. I read this forum a lot even though I don't post much and know you guys know your stuff. It didn't look like an under rotation to me. It has to be a quarter of a full circle or less on the ice, right? It was close, but it seemed to me like his blade hit at about what would be 3 o'clock if the circle were a clock so that would be enough to get the triple. I must be seeing or understanding it incorrectly.
 
Stylistically, Adam isn't my favorite kind of skater.

But, my REAL favorite kind of skater is one that skates cleanly with some flair. So I thought he was magnificent.

Maybe it's because the people on television spoke about how Nathan wasn't feeling great, and that skewed my opinion, but I thought Nathan didn't skate that program as freely as I've seen it before. He looked restrained, as though he were conserving energy, simply trying to get through it. Whether I would have thought that without advance notice of his illness? Who knows. Still, the elements other than the 3A were very good, so no big complaints.

Jimmy Ma seems to be a sensation, but if I'm honest, I think I'm just too much of a geezer to appreciate a program like that.

I thought Jason's score and placement were a scandal, but in all honesty, I've been off his bandwagon for a while, so take that with a grain of salt.

Note for Mathman: For the first time tonight, I could see why you are such a fan of Grant. It was a cracker of as performance!
 
Can someone please explain to me the controversy over Jason's axel? I'm asking seriously. I read this forum a lot even though I don't post much and know you guys know your stuff. It didn't look like an under rotation to me. It has to be a quarter of a full circle or less on the ice, right? It was close, but it seemed to me like his blade hit at about what would be 3 o'clock if the circle were a clock so that would be enough to get the triple. I must be seeing or understanding it incorrectly.

I think the judges were lenient on Jason tonight. A more conservative called could have reasonably dinged it.
 
Can someone please explain to me the controversy over Jason's axel? I'm asking seriously. I read this forum a lot even though I don't post much and know you guys know your stuff. It didn't look like an under rotation to me. It has to be a quarter of a full circle or less on the ice, right? It was close, but it seemed to me like his blade hit at about what would be 3 o'clock if the circle were a clock so that would be enough to get the triple. I must be seeing or understanding it incorrectly.

If you watch the NBC link they slow down the replay. If you were picturing the same clock, and the toe pick at 6 o’clock ideally, where he landed, his toe pick was aimed at 10 o’clock, plus he was 2 footed.
 
Can someone please explain to me the controversy over Jason's axel? I'm asking seriously. I read this forum a lot even though I don't post much and know you guys know your stuff. It didn't look like an under rotation to me. It has to be a quarter of a full circle or less on the ice, right? It was close, but it seemed to me like his blade hit at about what would be 3 o'clock if the circle were a clock so that would be enough to get the triple. I must be seeing or understanding it incorrectly.

It has to be under the quarter mark, not at, just to clarify.
 
Amazing.

It was BOLD AS HELL and I love that.

If only the triple-triple had been clean and the spins had been faster.

This is what I loved the most about these short programs. From Miner's Macklemore, to Ma's DJ Snake, to Dolensky's Mumford & Sons, to Max's Les Mis, to Nathan's Nemesis, to Jason's Hamilton, to Zhou's Chasing Cars, to Tomoki's Emerald Tiger, to Grant's Your Song, to Johnson's Legends, to Rippon's Let Me Think About It, with some classical pieces like Krasnozhon's and Torgashev's... and many more.

The US men served up EXCELLENT diversity of music and performance in this SP, and I was thoroughly enjoying it. There's obviously a place for classical music and many skaters do it well, but this variety was so refreshing and I loved loved loved the BOLD AS HELL (as you said) risks many of them took.
 
Can someone please explain to me the controversy over Jason's axel? I'm asking seriously. I read this forum a lot even though I don't post much and know you guys know your stuff. It didn't look like an under rotation to me. It has to be a quarter of a full circle or less on the ice, right? It was close, but it seemed to me like his blade hit at about what would be 3 o'clock if the circle were a clock so that would be enough to get the triple. I must be seeing or understanding it incorrectly.

Welcome! And please don't be shy about posting! As you can see, we have a wide range of characters with a wider range of opinions. You needn't be nervous about chiming in.

The defining moment for a rotation call is when the toepick hits the ice, not the flat of the blade. In my opinion, his toepick hit so close to 180 short that the jump could have been called a downgrade. Still, it was clear (to me) from watching the video that he pirouetted on the toe pick and the jump was still more that a quarter short when the flat of the blade hit the ice. Of course, judges in the arena have a closer look at the tracing left on the ice. Not that they're judges, but the commentators absolute insistence that the jump was short is further evidence - like them or not (and I generally don't) Johnny and Tara are former high level skaters who can see a tracing and know for sure. The tech caller - for whatever reason - disagreed.

It's kind of a big deal, because Jason would have lost about 3 points on that jumping pass if the 3A had been called UR, and many championships (and other medals and team placements) have been decided on less.
 
How sweet of Grant to say about Caroline in an interview with NBC. "My program is dedicated to my fiance, Caroline, and that's what it's about. It's not about the Olympics, but it's about love and overcomes everything"

I hope he delivers a good performance in the FS as well for not only him, but also his beloved Caroline.
 
How sweet of Grant to say about Caroline in an interview with NBC. "My program is dedicated to my fiance, Caroline, and that's what it's about. It's not about the Olympics, but it's about love and overcomes everything"

I hope he delivers a good performance in the FS as well for not only him, but also his beloved Caroline.

Very sweet indeed! He said this earlier in the mixed zone.
https://twitter.com/goldenskate/status/949130527642185728
 
lol @ Johnny for calling out Jason's UR but then when re-viewing Nathan he was like 'oh, that was a ..... tight landing but under a quarter turn, so no UR' when it was just as UR as Jason's jump....

I'm kind of so sick of this 'Nathan is the greatest' theme, when he had a UR and a step out in the SP, that I don't even get annoyed anymore... I'm just baffled as how an SP with an UR and step out can count as a great skate, especially since he is actually capable of doing it better ....??

And I just can't with Vincent's jumps, half of them are regularly UR AND he has some pre-rotation on them (though not as much as Shoma).

Even though I'm not really a fan of Max's skating, he had the cleanest quads in terms of rotation today. 4toe and 4sal may have been two-footed and stepped out, but he didn't UR them and he didn't pre-rotate them.

Adam was nice though and I'm glad he sticked to what he can do

Did Jason fall out of grace with Johnny and Tara? They criticized him for not having a quad to rely on, but then brought Grant and Adam as an example of skaters having a quad, lollolol. I'd argue, that both Grant and Adam are not more consistent with their quads then Jason (maybe Grant a little bit more, but Adam definitely doesn't really have that 4lutz... he may land it one time out of 50 tries)

I won't even start with those PCS ... 42 for Vincent ... 9,5 in SS for Nathan ... this is seriously competing with Russian nationals for PCS inflation
 
FS is going to be exciting, anything can happen! Good luck to all the skaters!!
 
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