- Joined
- Aug 20, 2019
I'm glad to hear that Aliona knows that she needs to learn a quad. She won this time around because Sasha and Anna made mistakes (like they did at JGPF last year), but Aliona can't always rely on others making mistakes. If she wants to keep winning, she will have to increase her technical content. :yes:
From what I could tell of the auto-translated Russian comments on the Channel 1 FS video, TAT suggested that Aliona should be able to learn how to do a quad flip because she gets so much height on her 3F. I still am a bit worried that trying a 4F will mess up her gorgeous 3F, but I also feel like her 3S is not that high, so a 4S might be hard. I don't know... :think: Realistically speaking, though, if she hasn't been actively working on a quad already, she probably won't have an opportunity to do so until after Worlds, or possibly between Euros and Worlds (of course, assuming she makes those teams). Personally, I think it might be better to stabilize her existing content and aim to do it completely clean this year and work on a quad over the summer...
So, originally I thought a flip as well. But I saw something intriguing in her warm ups. She had a really delayed rotation for her 3Lz. So much so that she had enough time to put a whole extra rotation into the jump without any additional height. There is one instance specifically but she did it a few times where the lutz just looked... ready, almost. I know her lutz edge is poor, but it seems like, if they’re working a lot on the lutz to improve the edge, it may actually be a pretty good way to go. I also pick out her 3T. It is always higher than the first jump in the combo. The flip she has this sort of hammer so it makes me think it may actually not be as simple.
Also, now that Aliona has swept the Grand Prix Series, there’s something I’m thinking of that I said at the beginning of the season. She got her 3A out of nowhere. She said she landed it on the second attempt trying it, and she didn’t bother with a harness. She owed this to newfound determination following the test skates, and while obviously there is self motivation, I think Eteri is a genius.
I remember saying that there was no way her FS was a program from Sambo-70, considering the 3-2 combo at the beginning. I thought it was still being changed and reworked or that Aliona was injured. How do you do a FS in this senior’s field where girls are doing 4-3 combos and 3-3 combos and nowhere in the top of the seniors field you see a double besides an Axel? Even without the quads, there had to be a better way to manage her technical base value and her jumps.
But there was an interview with Daniil and he said you cannot force a student to jump a quad or a triple axel. They have to want to and then the coaches will assist. Aliona was OBVIOUSLY capable of the 3A, she was just psychologically not ready. I think that Eteri and Daniil gave her an intentionally weak program perfectly set up to maximize her BV if the 3-2 was a 3A-2T. They knew she could do it. All that was left was to just do it. And having that 3-2 seems, compared to her training mates almost shameful. She knew she would lose. For fear of getting left behind you as an individual are motivated to work harder, to try things you’re afraid of. We know her mentality... you do not compete for second.
I feel like that is exactly the kind of thing that would happen to Aliona though! 
