2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[NAOTMAA]

Maybe it's time to work with a sport psychologist.

She maybe have the unbeatable who got beaten syndrome.

That confidence issue is there maybe since her last junior season.
I mean in her 1st junior season she was unbeatable. Even though she botched the quad all the season, she was consistent on triples and was always winning with big margin. But that Kosto's win at JGPF with big margin due to pcs may have shaken things. She started to do more mistakes.

When she's against opponents who have realistic chances to win if she falls, she gets nervous.
If Kostornaya didn't have that 8 points lead maybe Trusova would have been more relaxed like at 4th stage CoR.

I think a lot of what you said is true although she wasn't that great at her GP events last year when victory was pretty much guaranteed.

It might be when all is said and done a case of simply growing up and starting to think more and becoming less fearless. And of course the more she skates unclean the more her confidence gets shaken and she can't let it go. Letting go of a bad skate probably gets harder to do the older you get. This in top of the media calling her the "Quad Queen trailblazer" can't help at all

 

[Ophelia]

I think a lot of what you said is true although she wasn't that great at her GP events last year when victory was pretty much guaranteed.

It might be when all is said and done a case of simply growing up and starting to think more and becoming less fearless. And of course the more she skates unclean the more her confidence gets shaken and she can't let it go. Letting go of a bad skate probably gets harder to do the older you get. This in top of the media calling her the "Quad Queen trailblazer" can't help at all

Trusova, her family, and her original team was the one who kept pushing her as "quad queen trailblazer", so don't blame the media for that. Trusova is the victim of her own hype.

 

[Edwin]

Has the voice tracks with the interviews

 

[Amei]

She said last year that she needs to be able to have room for mistakes, that’s when she feels more confident and that’s why she always wanted to have more and more quads. To be frank, at her last stage I was starting to believe that this is indeed true for her: she fell 2 times, but landed more quads than previously.
Now I am again not sure about that strategy of hers, I too think she has to get used to skating everything 100%, it will be very important for the most important competition of their lives, the Olympics.

Perhaps the problem with that strategy of "need to be able to have room for mistakes" is that you get complacent that mistakes happen.

 

[dhjh811]

Well because of covid I would cancel the gala and not let any fans in for that. It's too much a risk of covid to have something that's unimportant and meaningless as a gala. Sorry. But this is the world we live in.

ok? I agree with that. Not sure what that has to do with Kamila not being able to compete yet skating in the gala.

 

[NAOTMAA]

Trusova, her family, and her original team was the one who kept pushing her as "quad queen trailblazer", so don't blame the media for that. Trusova is the victim of her own hype.

That is true. I mean you don't hear quad quad quad when people talk about Anna and she's the only other one at the moment who has them in competition too. With her people talk about other things. The fact she took one out for this season (so far) and people barely mention it says something. If Aleksandra took out one the forum would probably crash due to all the talk and speculation

 

[McBibus]

This if is disgusting (min 5:37)... to see a coach provoking the crowd as if he were a hooligan ... this will never be seen in any decent coach, outside or inside Russia ... Now with what authority is he going to claim if he is the only promoter of the toxic environment that is beginning to be seen in Russian skating ...

It's just pushing the crowd to cheer Sasha in the moment that Sasha is in the spotlight.
Unless of course he said something bad in russian I could not understand.
How do you relate that to some idiot shouting at a girl waiting for her scores that she does not deserve to win?
Calling support for your skater while he's performing may be "too much" or classless but is a "positive" interaction and it's not offensive to anyone.
Shouting that someone else was better while the skater is waiting for the score is "negative" like boohing.

Anyway, I don't care what he claims and I don't even like him.
I do claim that fans like that should stay away from the rink.
Justifying them with some whataboutism is wrong.

 

[McBibus]

Too bad he didn't leave the skaters out of it.

you know: there is something of him that I really like
The impression that when he's on the ice he's right in his element, he's happy to be there and seems able to pass this to the people that are on the ice with him for example, or the way he tried to cheer Sasha up tonight, but his tongue is a bit longer that it should be.
I doubt I could ever appreciate his personality.

 

[NAOTMAA]

It's just pushing the crowd to cheer Sasha in the moment that Sasha is in the spotlight.
Unless of course he said something bad in russian I could not understand.
How do you relate that to some idiot shouting at a girl waiting for her scores that she does not deserve to win?
Calling support for your skater while he's performing may be "too much" or classless but is a "positive" interaction and it's not offensive to anyone.
Shouting that someone else was better while the skater is waiting for the score is "negative" like boohing.

Anyway, I don't care what he claims and I don't even like him.
I do claim that fans like that should stay away from the rink.
Justifying them with some whataboutism is wrong.

Do you think it does help Aleksandra when he does that trying to get the crowd pumped? I mean for a showman like Plushkenko who thrives on attention, pressure and other things it certainly does but does it for her? I don't know enough about her personally to say

 

[chasingneverland]

Hey everybody the new star KV is going to skate in the gala after she was not allowed to skate in the competition! Wow isn't that nice? But if she's too young for the stressful competition why isn't she too young for the gala when she has to show your beautiful artistry and musicality? The stress might be too much for her.

That's actually really common. She's too young because of eligibility not that she can't technically or physically..

 

[karina17]

But I thought that she didn't fall on the 4sal because neither her knees nor her butt touched the ice

I'm not 100% sure on the exact wording, but I think the rules define a fall as a moment where the body weight isn't mainly on the skates - I don't think knees or butts are mentioned anywhere.

Either way, her 4S was definitely counted as a fall here, you can see the fall notation on her protocol.

 

[Edwin]

Trusova, her family, and her original team was the one who kept pushing her as "quad queen trailblazer", so don't blame the media for that. Trusova is the victim of her own hype.

And I even commented on this around 2019 Russian Nationals, when I remember to have written that Aleksandra might never actually reap the rewards of her effort and sacrifices of being the "ice breaker" and "destroyer of stereotype that girls can't (and shouldn't) jump quads ?

 

[McBibus]

Do you think it does help Aleksandra when he does that trying to get the crowd pumped? I mean for a showman like Plushkenko who thrives on attention, pressure and other things it certainly does but does it for her? I don't know enough about her personally to say

I agree with you.
Sasha may look a machine on the rink, but I always have the impression of a sweet shy girl out of it.
Probably not the best course of action.
Strong emotions seems to make her smaller while Aliona for example literally lives of strong emotions.
For sure he's much more of a diva than his skaters

But tht wasn't the point of my post.
The point was that even if he's out of the line, that is no justification for the fans to be offensive toward the skaters, especially when they did not just imitate him: the did worse.
Each one is responsible of his own actions

 

[Supernovaimplosion]

Sometimes I do think Trusova opened the door but other girls went through it when it comes to quads.
That being said, she does have the biggest quad repertoire when it comes to the ladies. I do think 4 quads is too much. Has she ever landed 4 quads at serious competition?
But her timing looked off all of this competition so maybe it was just a one off

 

[meadow]

Where did aliona finish? Reading your post Guliakona finished third?

Alena finished second and yes, Guliakova was third

 

[Tolstoj]

https://soundcloud.com/bhimau/bhima-yunusov-japanese-bird-1

It says removed sadly.

I'm trying to find it on Spotify but nothing so far.

 

[Lunalovesskating]

But I thought that she didn't fall on the 4sal because neither her knees nor her butt touched the ice

It counted as a fall because most of her weight was on her arms. Her legs were about to slip.

 

[karina17]

I do think 4 quads is too much. Has she ever landed 4 quads at serious competition?

Japan Open.

 

[Imagine]

Liza should consider adding a mask to her costume. It’s one of the only programs where that would work thematically.

 

[colormyworld240]

It does make the jump more difficult... which is why it's less effective technique. I kinda liked the leg wrap in juniors (and still like it on her floaty 2A) and delay in rotation can be beautiful (always loved Polina's jumps even though she was hammered with URs) but it's become a problem now and it's better to address it before it gets worse. I'm just not sure how you go about that. I'm an Aliona fan - kinda obvious judging by my avatar lol - so nothing malicious there. So, I'm hoping for some objective answers.

Alena's issue isn't with delayed rotation, she starts rotating her body right as the pick touches the ice (same as Sasha and Anna). If you watch Polina, her issue was delayed rotation because her body doesn't turn until she is well in the air and she didn't bring her arms in until almost 1 full rotation. That's why despite big jumps and being relatively tight in the air she was prone to URs. Alena's issue is that her legs are very loose in the air, which slows down her rotation a lot. That's why despite the height, she's very borderline here. She has this on her axel, flip and lutz but her toeloop has good air position. Leg wrap and loose legs is incorrect technique just like edges or landing positions are. I tried to mention this before but it was thrown out as "it's an aesthetic choice" like it's a tano, which it's not; it's a whole GOE point and also affects rotation.

To fix this she'd have to rework those 3 jumps so she keeps her ankles close and legs tight, which is extremely difficult and I'd imagine would be as successful as people trying to change their edges or take offs. The only one I know who had a technique overall was Mao, and it took her many seasons and all her consistency. So I don't think it can be done while still being competitive for any skater. Small changes can be made but big changes require completely relearning the triples (much more difficult than learning them for the first time because you have muscle memory).