2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[icybear]

Plushenko really on a one man mission to destroy the top Russian ladies. Yesterday Alena, today Veronica zhilina.

 

[Dawn825]

Next season will be stellar in the senior’s group. Both will compete with Kami, Dasha and Maia at Rusnat.

Not sure who you mean by both. Sofia S and Adelya are first year Juniors, so I think they can compete at senior nationals next year. Sofia A is only a novice this year, and wont be old enough next year.

 

[Vlad Karigov]

the pb is not Plushi but her mother for meddling with her training.

Like I already said, it’s a waste of her talent.

This is even worse... because any coach who respects himself takes the mother out of training... that's what Eteri always does. But in the end, that differentiates a real coach from a publicist who, however, wants to maintain good publicity no matter how many races are destroyed in front of his eyes...

I say it again, Zhilina is destroying her career by being in this environment fostered by all the adults around her... I repeat "all the adults"

 

[Shayuki]

Not sure who you mean by both. Sofia S and Adelya are first year Juniors, so I think they can compete at senior nationals next year. Sofia A is only a novice this year, and wont be old enough next year.

She will be because eligibility for Russian nationals isn't decided on July 1 but rather at the time of the competition.

 

[dhjh811]

Wow i didn’t realize Samodelkina was so tall!

isn't Petrosyan's height 131cm and Akatieva's 140cm? Rather than Samodelkina being tall, those two are astonishingly short for 13 years old

 

[Idiote]

Popping here to give a shoutout to Polina Sviridenko ! I've watched all the Cup stages and she's really one of the few non-famous skaters who impressed me and stuck with me since the beginning. I particularly love her spins, especially her layback - she spins super fast and with some pretty original positions. I feel like she skates with a lot of poise and maturity, her programs are quite nice and she really feels the music. I wished she was scored higher today, I really liked her performance the most but I guess there were underrotations and stuff, so well. She's still my personal favourite Her eyes and smile remind me a bit of Emilia Clarke, I hope she gets a good Daenerys program someday

Overall I enjoyed the juniors more than the seniors for this competition, the programs were all very different and mostly well performed.

I usually don't enjoy Sofia Akatieva much, but today she was stellar and performed the hell out of her program. I wish the choreo was more than a few cool moves and a lot of overused others, but she sold it well and looked like she had fun.

Sofia Samodelkina did very well, I really really hope she lands everything clean tomorrow and wins, I was sad to see her just off the podium at Nats. I like her style, personality and interpretation so much, a lot more than Akatieva. This program is quite awful though, like use French songs all you want I'm here for it, but this cheesy musical garbage is quite painful to listen to ^^' I would love Sofia to skate to a Barbara song - La Solitude is absolutely beautiful, both lyrically and musically, and would fit her melancholic style really well !

Adeliya was on fire too, I'm not a huge fan of the program but she sells it, has fun and is sparkling all across the rink like fireworks. Her jumps are a bit scary to me, she explodes like dynamite and my heart drops each time thinking she's gonna a nasty fall ^^' My bad for not trusting her ability to eek out a perfect extended landing out of any jump O.O I just hope she keeps them as she grows and doesn't injure herself, but well I don't know anything about the technicalities of skating so I guess I'm concerned over nothing.

I was so sad for poor Veronika, her program and skills are awesome but her mom needs to give her a break, really. This talented girl is so young, and maybe just needs more time to learn how to cope with the nerves (or maybe even just needs to stop competing and enjoy skating for herself or shows, which is in no way bad if competing is too painful for her). Competitions are not for easy for everyone, it's okay, and most importantly scolding and pressuring someone who's not a natural competitor won't help. I wish little Veronika all the best for tomorrow, and I hope her coaching team sort things out to provide the best safe and nurturing environment to help her truly shine, she deserves to. I remember one of the first comps of the year there was Elena Ilinykh along with Plushenko, and she was very sweet and caring with Veronika. Why isn't she around anymore ? I feel like it's been a while since we saw her at the boards.

I like Agneta Latushkina's Caravan, it's fresh and fun. The step sequence to the drums solo is quite bold though, here she seemed quite off-tempo and slow. But otherwise great job !

Liza Ozokina is quite amazing and her program is really fun, you just can't help dancing along with her ! I do feel that she's a bit stiff in the arms and upper body, that does happen when you're very energetic in your dancing, but that's one of the rare things she needs to really improve IMO, otherwise she's my second personal fav

I don't remember much of the other girls, I'm so sorry 'x' And my rambling was all over the place x') I wish all those great girls the best of luck for tomorrow !

 

[chasingneverland]

She won't be elligible for 22/23 yet, only 23/24.

Sorry. I took that information from her page on here. That one says 2022-2023. However, I just looked up at her birthday and I think you're right - she's junior eligible 2021-2022 and senior eligible 2023-2024. By 7 days. That doesn't apply to nationals though she just needs to be 14 that year usually.

 

[starlight97]

After the Russian Cup final I think it's time for a little
Summary of this season
so far and for the future of FS in general.
Love her, hate her, she can't lose
No good has come to anybody who has left her school (go argue about Trusova) and at the end of the day she always ends up on top of the podium, with whatever interchangeable girl currently delivers and completely independently of whether some posters on this internet forum enjoy her methods or not.

 

[Anya00]

isn't Petrosyan's height 131cm and Akatieva's 140cm? Rather than Samodelkina being tall, those two are astonishingly short for 13 years old

Speaking of height do we know 3A + Kamila's current heights? I think they were all pretty short when they were Akatieva and Petrosyan's age too.

 

[chasingneverland]

Thanks for the update on today's action with the junior Russian cup final.

Vika needs things simplified where she can have practice's for a couple weeks where she skates her SP clean. Because once it gets in your head that you can't skate clean you probably won't.

It's also incredibly risky to do a 3A in juniors. Because you can't as a solo jump. You only can in combo. (Which is really just a loophole no one anticipated - no one saw juniors doing a 3A in combo so when they let them do triples in combos they didn't think to say you can't do a 3A as one of them haha.) However, that's what makes it sooo risky. Because they still have to do a 2A and single jump.

So basically as soon as Vika fell on her opening 3A she not only get penalized for her 3A and it's fall but she also lost out on a combo and couldn't do a combo anywhere else, without making things even worse. (It would be even worse if the 3A was downgraded.) Then she did the 2A and that was fine but she already didn't have a combo and couldn't add anything to her 2A. And then - probably because she was so rattled - she fell on her 3Lz. That's why a 3A in juniors is soo unforgiving. Because it doesn't replace a 2A like it does with the seniors. It replaced a triple in a combo and so it needs to be rotated and you need to salvage some kind of combo on it...

It's really not worth it at all in juniors unless you can land it..

 

[chasingneverland]

Not sure who you mean by both. Sofia S and Adelya are first year Juniors, so I think they can compete at senior nationals next year. Sofia A is only a novice this year, and wont be old enough next year.

Sofia A will be old enough for senior nationals - she just won't be old enough internationally for juniors. RusNats usually just wants you to be 14 - which Sofia will be - they don't have the July 1 birthday deadline internationals does. So all 3 of them should be age eligible...

 

[Scott512]

It's also incredibly risky to do a 3A in juniors. Because you can't as a solo jump. You only can in combo. (Which is really just a loophole no one anticipated - no one saw juniors doing a 3A in combo so when they let them do triples in combos they didn't think to say you can't do a 3A as one of them haha.) However, that's what makes it sooo risky. Because they still have to do a 2A and single jump.

So basically as soon as Vika fell on her opening 3A she not only get penalized for her 3A and it's fall but she also lost out on a combo and couldn't do a combo anywhere else, without making things even worse. (It would be even worse if the 3A was downgraded.) Then she did the 2A and that was fine but she already didn't have a combo and couldn't add anything to her 2A. And then - probably because she was so rattled - she fell on her 3Lz. That's why a 3A in juniors is soo unforgiving. Because it doesn't replace a 2A like it does with the seniors. It replaced a triple in a combo and so it needs to be rotated and you need to salvage some kind of combo on it...

It's really not worth it at all in juniors unless you can land it..

It's just foolish to have Vika do of 3A in the SP at this point when she struggling. No way in the SP maybe the free skate.

 

[chasingneverland]

Popping here to give a shoutout to Polina Sviridenko ! I've watched all the Cup stages and she's really one of the few non-famous skaters who impressed me and stuck with me since the beginning. I particularly love her spins, especially her layback - she spins super fast and with some pretty original positions. I feel like she skates with a lot of poise and maturity, her programs are quite nice and she really feels the music. I wished she was scored higher today, I really liked her performance the most but I guess there were underrotations and stuff, so well. She's still my personal favourite Her eyes and smile remind me a bit of Emilia Clarke, I hope she gets a good Daenerys program someday

Overall I enjoyed the juniors more than the seniors for this competition, the programs were all very different and mostly well performed.

I usually don't enjoy Sofia Akatieva much, but today she was stellar and performed the hell out of her program. I wish the choreo was more than a few cool moves and a lot of overused others, but she sold it well and looked like she had fun.

Sofia Samodelkina did very well, I really really hope she lands everything clean tomorrow and wins, I was sad to see her just off the podium at Nats. I like her style, personality and interpretation so much, a lot more than Akatieva. This program is quite awful though, like use French songs all you want I'm here for it, but this cheesy musical garbage is quite painful to listen to ^^' I would love Sofia to skate to a Barbara song - La Solitude is absolutely beautiful, both lyrically and musically, and would fit her melancholic style really well !

Adeliya was on fire too, I'm not a huge fan of the program but she sells it, has fun and is sparkling all across the rink like fireworks. Her jumps are a bit scary to me, she explodes like dynamite and my heart drops each time thinking she's gonna a nasty fall ^^' My bad for not trusting her ability to eek out a perfect extended landing out of any jump O.O I just hope she keeps them as she grows and doesn't injure herself, but well I don't know anything about the technicalities of skating so I guess I'm concerned over nothing.

I was so sad for poor Veronika, her program and skills are awesome but her mom needs to give her a break, really. This talented girl is so young, and maybe just needs more time to learn how to cope with the nerves (or maybe even just needs to stop competing and enjoy skating for herself or shows, which is in no way bad if competing is too painful for her). Competitions are not for easy for everyone, it's okay, and most importantly scolding and pressuring someone who's not a natural competitor won't help. I wish little Veronika all the best for tomorrow, and I hope her coaching team sort things out to provide the best safe and nurturing environment to help her truly shine, she deserves to. I remember one of the first comps of the year there was Elena Ilinykh along with Plushenko, and she was very sweet and caring with Veronika. Why isn't she around anymore ? I feel like it's been a while since we saw her at the boards.

I like Agneta Latushkina's Caravan, it's fresh and fun. The step sequence to the drums solo is quite bold though, here she seemed quite off-tempo and slow. But otherwise great job !

Liza Ozokina is quite amazing and her program is really fun, you just can't help dancing along with her ! I do feel that she's a bit stiff in the arms and upper body, that does happen when you're very energetic in your dancing, but that's one of the rare things she needs to really improve IMO, otherwise she's my second personal fav

I don't remember much of the other girls, I'm so sorry 'x' And my rambling was all over the place x') I wish all those great girls the best of luck for tomorrow !

All of this. Except for I actually enjoy Sofia A but regardless she performed today.

But ESPECIALLY the stuff on Veronika! She's 12 and skaters much older and more experienced than her have bad skates - it happens. She knows she made mistakes too - that's the time for comforting her not interogating and belittling her. Also I think they need to get rid of her 3A - she's too nervous right now and she doesn't need it yet anyway. It's too risky in the SP for juniors anyway. I hope someone gives her a hug and let's her know it's OKAY!!

But overall everyone was amazing!! <3

 

[chasingneverland]

It's just foolish to have Vika do of 3A in the SP at this point when she struggling. No way in the SP maybe the free skate.

Yeah. It's risky when you're a good competitor - or as good as you can get at 12-13 - and it's stable - or as stable as a 3A gets haha. It's even worse when you're a nervous competitor who's struggled recently. It's just NOT worth it. It's waaay too much pressure in the SP where it's completely unforgiving. Maybe in the FS...but only maybe..

 

[dhjh811]

Speaking of height do we know 3A + Kamila's current heights? I think they were all pretty short when they were Akatieva and Petrosyan's age too.

Kamila's height now is in the early 150s and was in the late 140s during her first junior season. If my memory is correct then Trusova and Scherbakova's heights were also well in the 140s during their first junior seasons (with Scherbakova not competing internationally ofc) and they both were over 150 by their second junior season. Kostornaia was always a bit shorter than both of them by a few centimeters. Petrosyan is not just short compared to average 13 year old girls, but also compared to Kamila+3A who are pretty short themselves.

 

[Scott512]

Yeah. It's risky when you're a good competitor - or as good as you can get at 12-13 - and it's stable - or as stable as a 3A gets haha. It's even worse when you're a nervous competitor who's struggled recently. It's just NOT worth it. It's waaay too much pressure in the SP where it's completely unforgiving. Maybe in the FS...but only maybe..

Someone needs to advise the mother to take the triple axle out of her SP. If Nika can start skating clean short programs that could carry over to the free skate.

 

[katymay]

Veronika actually overrotated the 3A. She has huge power in her legs, and obviously, not enough control yet. When she was having trouble on warmup she should have stuck with a double, not sure if that was her mum's choice, or hers. The delayed rotation on the lutz is also an issue (won't be if she does a quad, but for the triple...) Even bombing today, she has such a huge athletic gift.
The rest of the girls were lovely, polished and solid. Some are a bit better at spins, some a bit better at the StepSeq, some have more solid easy jumps, but all of the girls can do the same 3X3X jumps-which means, those who can land the 3A move to the top. Without that one jump, you are left behind. We are getting to a point that even most of the 12 years olds have identical tech content, and by next year it will be who can do the 3A and who cannot.

 

[TripleAxelQueens3]

I really wish they'd get rid of the rule not allowing junior ladies to do 3A in place of 2A. Frankly, it's ridiculous.

 

[Shayuki]

I really wish they'd get rid of the rule not allowing junior ladies to do 3A in place of 2A. Frankly, it's ridiculous.

Limitations in the SP are dumb in general. Just allow quads and 3As if the skater can do them, if they're allowed in the FS as well.

 

[chasingneverland]

I really wish they'd get rid of the rule not allowing junior ladies to do 3A in place of 2A. Frankly, it's ridiculous.

Me too! But I think the same about the rule of not allowing senior ladies to do quads in the SP. It doesn't prevent them from learning them so what's the point? I get not wanting just jump programs but there are other rules for that.