2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating
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- Oct 14, 2020
Hi all, long time watcher on this thread, first time poster. Thank you all for making my life in America more entertaining during this long and unrelenting lockdown. 
Just two comments/questions:
1) Kostornaia's understanding of what she can and can't do is pretty impressive--I thought her interview showed a lot of maturity. But why not try the 3A after Sasha's and Maiia's performances (poor Maiia)? She already knew she wasn't going to win. If there were any time to get her confidence back on the 3A it would have been then.
2) I know this is small but anyone know why Sasha didn't have a new dress in the LP? I didn't see it in the interviews. Clearly she didn't need one to hit some good quads today though.
Just two comments/questions:
1) Kostornaia's understanding of what she can and can't do is pretty impressive--I thought her interview showed a lot of maturity. But why not try the 3A after Sasha's and Maiia's performances (poor Maiia)? She already knew she wasn't going to win. If there were any time to get her confidence back on the 3A it would have been then.
2) I know this is small but anyone know why Sasha didn't have a new dress in the LP? I didn't see it in the interviews. Clearly she didn't need one to hit some good quads today though.
She landed a beauty on warmup. But coming at the end of the program-maybe time to put it aside.
I don't like tanos, but watching the women again (not on my phone this time) I think Sofia should have been 3d in the freeskate. I'm impressed by her conditioning and fitness-very little rest in that program, and she had great speed and strength throughout. It is also a fun program that holds your interest.
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- Feb 17, 2010
I could not disagree more. Yes, her jumps are in worse shape than last season but, for me, she has far more innate musicality than any of the other Russian women.
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- Apr 26, 2018
Oh, but of course! As we all know, every skater is average without Eteri. Only she with her unshakable wisdom could ever manage to take these girls and transform them into Consistency Queens and Ballerinas and Angels and Quad Goddesses. Without her, they are nothing but average shadows of their former selves.
But really, we have to marvel: how very kind of Eteri to work with such talentless, average individuals in the first place! It is really quite astounding that not everyone understands this. After all, they come to her sweet, kind, with a straightforward gaze, wanting to get results, to prove it to themselves and others. Time passes, they work oh so productively and sometimes, sometimes they even achieve outstanding results! But then the inevitable passes and there‘s a feeling that the world changes their sweet and kind ones. And when they leave, they‘re not the same. All the Eteri-given magic vanishes of the face of the earth as soon as they leave Sambo70 behind. And the curtain falls and we find out that it was naught but an illusion - the beautiful swans overnight turned into average ducklings. If only they had stayed with the one that had made them great! But they had to have their own mind, the shame, the tragedy! Alas. Such is life. Now we can only hope for the last loyal ones to remain or else they too will see the magic dwindle. But let‘s not lose hope. After all, they are doing everything right. And I am sure that of those who are with them, there are those who are solid, trustworthy, steady in the face of external irritants!
Right?
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- Jul 3, 2018
"After missing the train back to Moscow today, Evgeni Plushenko booked a hotel presidential suite for Alexandra Trusova, so "she can rest and feel like a queen. I think this will be a pleasant bonus for her phenomenal skating at the stage in Kazan."
the passive aggressiveness aliona is getting today so ridiculous like did some of y’all forget it’s been almost one year since she last competed we shouldn’t be expecting from her to be her best on her first competition after the things she went through this season.
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- Jul 3, 2018
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- Oct 20, 2017
Future, I understand the reason for your sarcastic post (the user you replied to was rude). But I would try to explain you my point of view, as someone who also thinks that most skaters lose their magic after leaving Tutberidze.
Every time I watch a competition, I myself am awed how much better Eteri's skaters are (presumably, they also skate clean). There are a lot of young ladies from other coaching teams that have better technique, have better spins or skating skills, or are born performers, but they can never build the "whole picture" for me. Despite the strategic layouts and trainings, I cannot unsee the attention to detail in Team Tutberidze. Of course, their skaters are not 100% perfect, they constantly have to work on improving, but generally despite the technical part, they excel on n extensions, equal arm and leg involvement, nice hits of the music notes etc. Due to the trend in the past years, we see more and more teams trying to integrate this style but still they don't reach the same effect. Just hitting the music accents or adding some rippons, doing fancy combos is not enough..because a wholesome concept for the certain skater is missing. That's why I also thing that anyone could alure her entire coaching team (Daniil, Dudakov and Zheleznyakov), and the skaters training with them would be very good... but would never reach this uniqueness, because the artistical idea of how someone should develop in the following X years won't be there.
Edit: this doesn't mean that Sasha and Aliona got worse or something. For Sasha nothing changed for me on the exterior, she is focusing on improving her technique, but this was always her main priority. Aliona is suffering more from puberty and injury right now than from leaving Eteri. On the long term, I see, however, a possible problem to find the suitting style for her.
Every time I watch a competition, I myself am awed how much better Eteri's skaters are (presumably, they also skate clean). There are a lot of young ladies from other coaching teams that have better technique, have better spins or skating skills, or are born performers, but they can never build the "whole picture" for me. Despite the strategic layouts and trainings, I cannot unsee the attention to detail in Team Tutberidze. Of course, their skaters are not 100% perfect, they constantly have to work on improving, but generally despite the technical part, they excel on n extensions, equal arm and leg involvement, nice hits of the music notes etc. Due to the trend in the past years, we see more and more teams trying to integrate this style but still they don't reach the same effect. Just hitting the music accents or adding some rippons, doing fancy combos is not enough..because a wholesome concept for the certain skater is missing. That's why I also thing that anyone could alure her entire coaching team (Daniil, Dudakov and Zheleznyakov), and the skaters training with them would be very good... but would never reach this uniqueness, because the artistical idea of how someone should develop in the following X years won't be there.
Edit: this doesn't mean that Sasha and Aliona got worse or something. For Sasha nothing changed for me on the exterior, she is focusing on improving her technique, but this was always her main priority. Aliona is suffering more from puberty and injury right now than from leaving Eteri. On the long term, I see, however, a possible problem to find the suitting style for her.
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- Feb 22, 2014
This is actually epic and way better then when I try to dish it out in this thread.
I hereby dub thee "The Queen of Shaaaaade"
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- Dec 29, 2013
That StepSequence in Nastya Tarakanova’s program today was a thing of beauty! Loved it 
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- Feb 22, 2014
I know! Nastya was fab! And she was so happy too! Warms the heartThat StepSequence in Nastya Tarakanova’s program today was a thing of beauty! Loved it
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- Oct 10, 2020
I imagine people were expecting a crowning moment instead what they got were 2 lacklustre forgettable perfomances. The disappointment from her fans is quite palpable.This is actually epic and way better then when I try to dish it out in this thread.
I hereby dub thee "The Queen of Shaaaaade"
I'm curious why they went with a foreign choreographer where they would have to work virtually vs. someone in-house or in Russia like Averbukh where they could have worked in-person with her, especially when she has to re-gain the triple axel and recover from prolonged absence from the ice and the program was going to have to be done quickly given she transferred late.
I think her going for the more difficult loop combo is 2 things: Trusova doesn't want to take an 'easy' route she wants to quad her way to gold, but also playing the long game of going against Kostornaia and Shcherbakova and to a certain extent Valieva - Trusova and her coaches know she's not going to get the PCS score or the spin scores of Kostornaia and Shcherbakova and once they get back to where they were last season, Trusova needs to have all the difficulty in BV she can to beat them.
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- Dec 9, 2017
Yep they always are! It's a shame she can't find consistency and better packaging because she definitely has so much wow factor. Her speed, edges, and smoothness are really second to none ever since her novice days and she's so passionate. So many Russian ladies have one or a few outstanding qualities but can't seem to get the whole package together unfortunately.That StepSequence in Nastya Tarakanova’s program today was a thing of beauty! Loved it
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- Feb 22, 2014
Well perhaps those fans are being unfair. Aliona has had a lot of difficulties this year, I confess to not being a fan of hers, but if I was I hope I'd be more understanding and supportive of her at this time.
She was 2nd though, which is pretty good for "lackluster" I'd say. Some skaters end up completely off the podium on an off-day!
Lots of skaters have had difficulties this offseason, she's touted out as being a top artistic skater in the world and rightfully so, earlier this year she was 1 of 3 favorites for winning Worlds, but she performed pretty forgettable performances at this competition. I've said before that criticizing the programs on the first competition outing is being hasty; but it's a bit concerning because how much will she really be able to work on them considering she's got a busy month of November with competitions, next week is GP Russia then like 2 weeks later is the Russian Cup Final
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- Apr 17, 2018
I, for one, did not find her performances lackluster nor forgettable. Those words are defined differently from every person's experiences, and besides, with as subjective a sport as FS, it strange to outright declare something as "forgettable". There are plenty of people praising the performance and saying there is great potential.
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