2018-19 Russian Ladies' figure skating

[Dmitryfromsiberia]

I know, even with the injuries Zhenya managed to skate clean and break world records. Amazing, right? But last season she wanted to up her TES but couldn't because of the injuries. This season, she already said that her aim is to complicate her program to the maximum and challenge the Quad Salchow. As for Alina, depending on the change of rules she might have to drop the backloading, and like I said, Eteri might not want her to try to complicate her TES further because she'll need consistency. So, there are a lots of questions marks around, and I think the next season will be very different from the previous one, in many ways.

In the new season Alina will jump the same content as last season. She talked about it in an interview.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Looks like Polina and Masha are on a retreat to a resort in Turkey and have even brought along Sasha Proklova! Anyone else on the trip that I left out?

 

[Fluture]

At some point, she will ( my feeling by end of next season). It's not about Orser's approach, but a necessity. In that case, both Eteri and Orser will have done the same.

As for Alina updating her TES so far she didn't given signs that she is able to do 3A or quad. Plus she is on body changes period, it will be risky to train on that. Most likely next season will be for her as well.

Alena K, apparently worked/tried on 3A even during the season so they will try to make it stable. I don't think they will go for 4T, again because it's to risky and I expect her to have body changes next year. So two difficult elements in one summer it's too much. People may critisize Eteri by pushing the girls for TES but I find the aproach very carefull so far.

Even Trusova learned the quads in two year period, by taking it step by step. Same with Anna.

She might. I‘m still not convinced, though. She was injured, she needs to get her jumps back, she‘s never done anything like quads (unlike Anna who had quads before she broke her leg) and she‘s past puberty which means learning quads doesn‘t come as „easy“ to her as to some smaller girls like Anna or Sasha. I can see her try the 4S but for it to be really competitive in actual programs... well, maybe in 2022. Not earlier. But that‘s just what I think.

And for Alina: Why would she change her technical layout anyway? Nobody besides Zhenya can challenge her anyway really, so with the body changes she‘s going through at the moment that wouldn‘t be just risky but beyond stupid...

I‘m interested to see what Alena and Sasha will show in the future. I just hope they stay injury-free. Eteri might try to make it as safe as possible but... I can‘t help it, they‘re just so tiny and ice is slippery and... well, I‘m scared. Let’s just hope those fragile bones don‘t break (again.)

 

[moriel]

In the new season Alina will jump the same content as last season. She talked about it in an interview.

Which actually makes sense.
She needs to gain more consistency with that, and the quadsters will turn senior only a season after that. I see her going for the safer bet.

 

[Scott512]

She might. I‘m still not convinced, though. She was injured, she needs to get her jumps back, she‘s never done anything like quads (unlike Anna who had quads before she broke her leg) and she‘s past puberty which means learning quads doesn‘t come as „easy“ to her as to some smaller girls like Anna or Sasha. I can see her try the 4S but for it to be really competitive in actual programs... well, maybe in 2022. Not earlier. But that‘s just what I think.

And for Alina: Why would she change her technical layout anyway? Nobody besides Zhenya can challenge her anyway really, so with the body changes she‘s going through at the moment that wouldn‘t be just risky but beyond stupid...

I‘m interested to see what Alena and Sasha will show in the future. I just hope they stay injury-free. Eteri might try to make it as safe as possible but... I can‘t help it, they‘re just so tiny and ice is slippery and... well, I‘m scared. Let’s just hope those fragile bones don‘t break (again.)

Alina broke her hand and leg two years ago. She is in no rush to do quads which are dangerous. She already does the most complex routine among the ladies. If other girls surpass Alina in a couple years then Alina will have a big decision to make where learning quads and 3a are concerned.

 

[moriel]

Alina broke her hand and leg two years ago. She is in no rush to do quads which are dangerous. She already does the most complex routine among the ladies. If other girls surpass Alina in a couple years then Alina will have a big decision to make where learning quads and 3a are concerned.

TBH, Alina has a different situation.
She already has an OGM, so there is less pressure to remain competitive until Beijing.

 

[tars]

Does anybody expect a small decline of senior Russian ladies next season with Alina going through puberty, Evgenia having adaptation problems in Canada, Sotskova growing even taller and getting even blander progs, Gubanova, Panenkova and Konstantinova adjusting to and being lowballed in their rookie senior season, Radionova and Tuktamysheva regressing even further technically, which make Japanese, Canadian ladies and Korean newcomers even more hungry smelling the blood of weakened prey?

I'll root against it, but Worlds indicated it's not a total sci-fi scenario.

 

[Dmitryfromsiberia]

TBH, Alina has a different situation.
She already has an OGM, so there is less pressure to remain competitive until Beijing.

Less pressure and less motivation.

 

[moriel]

Does anybody expect a small decline of senior Russian ladies next season with Alina going through puberty, Evgenia having adaptation problems in Canada, Sotskova growing even taller and getting even blander progs, Gubanova, Panenkova and Konstantinova adjusting to and being lowballed in their rookie senior season, Radionova and Tuktamysheva regressing even further technically, which make Japanese, Canadian ladies and Korean newcomers even more hungry smelling the blood of weakened prey?

I'll root against it, but Worlds indicated it's not a total sci-fi scenario.

I think Alina is pretty fine. I dunno, at this point, she seems to have a woman's body, which means she is already past the growth spurt and all.
And its not like she changed TONS since Olympics, so my bet is that she is reasonably safe.


@Dmitry
as for motivation, i think she has enough of it - for example, she is not a world champion yet. Also, Eteri will obviously motivate her to beat Zhenya.
She has no pressure to remain competitive til Beijing, but there is this pretty obvious thing - there is a lot of pressure for her to win stuff next year.

This is what i mean by no pressure to learn quads.

 

[Dmitryfromsiberia]

I think Alina is pretty fine. I dunno, at this point, she seems to have a woman's body, which means she is already past the growth spurt and all.
And its not like she changed TONS since Olympics, so my bet is that she is reasonably safe.


@Dmitry
as for motivation, i think she has enough of it - for example, she is not a world champion yet. Also, Eteri will obviously motivate her to beat Zhenya.
She has no pressure to remain competitive til Beijing, but there is this pretty obvious thing - there is a lot of pressure for her to win stuff next year.

This is what i mean by no pressure to learn quads.

I meant motivation before Beijing, not next season.

 

[colormyworld240]

What if the judges didn't inflate Alina's PCS through the roof? Would could play this game all night

This argument is the same as "What if the judges didn't inflate Zhenya's GOEs through the roof". They're both way inflated, for different things (also same things). But what we see is that if both skate cleanly with the same technical content as the past year, then Alina will end up on top. What is iffy is if they change their tech, but I don't see that happening for either of them this season. Zhenya tried to upgrade her tech even before she was injured, but was inconsistent. To my understanding, they had to switch back to her old layout before she was injured. And Alina won't be upgrading her tech because there isn't any incentive to yet, and even without backloading she would still have the most difficult program. This is going to be more of a test season for them to see how they do with what they currently have, and upgrades will happen next year

 

[Leonardo]

By the way, I'd say that the best Lutz technique(for ladies) in the entire world right now belongs to Elizaveta Berestovskaya, a Russian skater(10yo). And yes, Berestovskaya's Lutz has cleaner technique than Yuna's.

 

[OswinOswald]

This argument is the same as "What if the judges didn't inflate Zhenya's GOEs through the roof". They're both way inflated, for different things (also same things). But what we see is that if both skate cleanly with the same technical content as the past year, then Alina will end up on top. What is iffy is if they change their tech, but I don't see that happening for either of them this season. Zhenya tried to upgrade her tech even before she was injured, but was inconsistent. To my understanding, they had to switch back to her old layout before she was injured. And Alina won't be upgrading her tech because there isn't any incentive to yet, and even without backloading she would still have the most difficult program. This is going to be more of a test season for them to see how they do with what they currently have, and upgrades will happen next year

With the new rules (and the backload limitation) i'm not sure that Alina is above Zhenya. She sure still have a higher TES, buf if we take the Olympics as reference, I think the difference between them would have been way smaller with these new rules.

 

[KiraraChin]

This argument is the same as "What if the judges didn't inflate Zhenya's GOEs through the roof". They're both way inflated, for different things (also same things). But what we see is that if both skate cleanly with the same technical content as the past year, then Alina will end up on top. What is iffy is if they change their tech, but I don't see that happening for either of them this season. Zhenya tried to upgrade her tech even before she was injured, but was inconsistent. To my understanding, they had to switch back to her old layout before she was injured. And Alina won't be upgrading her tech because there isn't any incentive to yet, and even without backloading she would still have the most difficult program. This is going to be more of a test season for them to see how they do with what they currently have, and upgrades will happen next year

Zhenya did experiment a bit in the beginning of the last season, but as soon as her consistency dropped a bit (which is normal), Eteri told her to stop. Then the injury came and it became truly impossible. So Zhenya's been wanting to upgrade her TES since at least the last season. She took 'the hardest decision of her life' (her words) to change coaches and move countries so she can achieve this. She might not have the technique and health at this point, but the intention and determination to increase the TES are there, I assure you.

 

[KiraraChin]

With the new rules (and the backload limitation) i'm not sure that Alina is above Zhenya. She sure still have a higher TES, buf if we take the Olympics as reference, I think that Alina loses more than 1.31 points compared to Zhenya with these new rules.

Exactly. Also, what happens if Zhenya is healthy and manages to increase her TES, even slightly...

 

[Azikin]

Does anybody expect a small decline of senior Russian ladies next season with Alina going through puberty, Evgenia having adaptation problems in Canada, Sotskova growing even taller and getting even blander progs, Gubanova, Panenkova and Konstantinova adjusting to and being lowballed in their rookie senior season, Radionova and Tuktamysheva regressing even further technically, which make Japanese, Canadian ladies and Korean newcomers even more hungry smelling the blood of weakened prey?

I'll root against it, but Worlds indicated it's not a total sci-fi scenario.

I don't expect any decline. Worlds right after Olympics is hardly any indication. That result was more of an anomaly IMHO..

 

[Elucidus]

Does anybody expect a small decline of senior Russian ladies next season with Alina going through puberty, Evgenia having adaptation problems in Canada, Sotskova growing even taller and getting even blander progs, Gubanova, Panenkova and Konstantinova adjusting to and being lowballed in their rookie senior season, Radionova and Tuktamysheva regressing even further technically, which make Japanese, Canadian ladies and Korean newcomers even more hungry smelling the blood of weakened prey?

I'll root against it, but Worlds indicated it's not a total sci-fi scenario.

You forgot about new rules - dismissing backloading and favoring 3T jumpers. So it's absolutely not sci-fi scenario.

 

[yoloaxel]

Personally, I think Liza Tutkamysheva has the best lutz technique out there. Kostner also has a good lutz if I’m not mistaken .

 

[Shayuki]

Personally, I think Liza Tutkamysheva has the best lutz technique out there. Kostner also has a good lutz if I’m not mistaken .

Tuktamysheva pre-rotates a bit too much to be quite there for me. Kostner's is the best out of the current senior skaters, if she ever actually lands it.

 

[alvina9894]

Tuktamysheva pre-rotates a bit too much to be quite there for me. Kostner's is the best out of the current senior skaters, if she ever actually lands it.

I wonder what's your opinion on Trusova's 200+ degrees prerotation on her lutz?
https://i.loli.net/2018/05/30/5b0e7a52175bd.gif
It occurs to me that prerotation has never been an issue