Figure skating "trends" that you think will be outdated in the next few years?

[Princessroja]

On the topic of vocals, just want to add that without them we would have missed out on some amazing programs like Patrick Chans beatles sp.
Things I hope will be outdated:
- Rippon on every jump (although unlikely unlikely be outdated if skaters continue to be unable to control their axis without it)
- being lost in a rainbow. Yes, Kevin had a masterpiece. But I've heard it from maybe 8 different skaters.
- copying famous skaters at a junior level. I don't mean taking inspiration, I mean using same cut of music with same costume.
- "q" - get rid of this tech panel call please. Its impossible to tell if a jump is perfectly on the quarter, depending on who the skater is they will get clean, q, or under. Such an arbitrary call.
- having very little one foot skating in a program.
- GOE given purely based on landing without taking into account takeoff, height, rotation axis, edge.(looking at the 4Lz GOE from the sp Boyang Jin).
- arms that make no sense to the music but are just there for no reason.
- schindlers list.
- mishin interchangeable step sequences.

Yeah...

On the "arms that make no sense to the music," I'd like to see skaters having nothing to do with their arms choreographically so they stick them out to the sides and wave them wildly, trying to express emotion in the music, be a trend that comes to a screeching halt ASAP. It always screams, "Look at me, I'm feeling the music but I don't know how to actually express it," and I just cannot. I hope my description made sense... I can't think of anyone in particular to link to since it's so common.

 

[lariko]

Lol, I feel pretty unrefined, because I love wild arms, rippons, knee slides, voiceovers and lyrics. Keeps drama going for me. I mostly watch skating on TV, so I feel that small movements are too hard to pick up, particularly when the camera is far away, so, yeah, hit me. Plus, I am text based creature, so I love voiceovers, particularly with solid writing. I am not musical, never listen to it on my own, so I basically just get to know all the music from the figure skaters’ selections. they are, like, musical people, it’s their bread and butter, they can bring it into my life. I can, however, live the rest of my life without ever again hearing either Roxanne or Hallelujah.

 

[pesto]

Please god, Moulin Rouge programmes.

 

[rinkside_user]

First, I certainly hope age-inappropriate music will be noticed and opposed to on a larger scale and less junior/underage skaters will choose/have to skate to sexualized or questionable lyrics (e. g. Big Spender, I'll Take Care of You, Candyman, Moulin Rouge etc.). It is definitely a process on a global social level but I'm hopeful it will be found garish, out of taste, inappropriate, and simply unacceptable more and more often.

On a lighter note, I also hope unnecessary glitters and frills on boring costumes that are only added to make an outfit more "eye-catching" or "vibrant" or "elegant" will slowly fade out. Don't get me wrong, glitters and frills are completely fine when they are part of the design scheme or simply executed well (e. g. Chock's oriental FD dress last year) but I still see so many costumes that feel super outdated and straight out of the 90s to me (e. g. with Della Monica and Guarise, I have constant flashbacks to the times of Mishkutenok/Dmitriev and Klimova/Ponomarenko - and those were 30 years ago). Of course, I realize costume is a costly issue and such ensembles largely stem from structural inequalities (=lack of access to funding and/or a good costume designer).

 

[anonymoose_au]

" I'd like to see skaters having nothing to do with their arms choreographically so they stick them out to the sides and wave them wildly, trying to express emotion in the music, be a trend that comes to a screeching halt ASAP.

I dunno...have you watched old school skating with airplane arms? Dick Button comes to mind, he looks like a wooden post. It's not a pretty sight. Now I'm biased because I love armography, but seriously, if you think arm waving is bad...

 

[WednesdayMarch]

bad judging? ok.. who am i kidding?

Oh, you sweet, summer child...

I'm on the fence with the vocals, but totally there for voiceovers. Enough already.

Ripponing all jumps is just boring. Do it when it's appropriate for the style of the program, otherwise no.

Costume changes should be kept for exhibition programs.

Overboot tights are hideous. Period. I have no quarrel with those that go over the ankle of the boot, or even down and under the heel, as they make me feel less queasy about the potential for catching a lace but overboot ones are just clunky and ugly.

And my main bugbear... Y- and I-spirals and spins. They are not aesthetically pleasing. You want to do that stuff, stick with gymnastics. See also A-frame spins. Just why? Nope.

Part of me would like to see quads go. Because I worry for the longterm consequences on the body and also feel that there's so much emphasis on them nowadays that it interrupts the flow of the skating and puts truly beautiful technique and musical interpretation at a disadvantage.

 

[iluvtodd]

I knee slides, particularly when Paul Wylie or Todd E. does them, so no qualms with those.

 

[flanker]

Oh, you sweet, summer child...

I'm on the fence with the vocals, but totally there for voiceovers. Enough already.

Ripponing all jumps is just boring. Do it when it's appropriate for the style of the program, otherwise no.

Costume changes should be kept for exhibition programs.

Overboot tights are hideous. Period. I have no quarrel with those that go over the ankle of the boot, or even down and under the heel, as they make me feel less queasy about the potential for catching a lace but overboot ones are just clunky and ugly.

And my main bugbear... Y- and I-spirals and spins. They are not aesthetically pleasing. You want to do that stuff, stick with gymnastics. See also A-frame spins. Just why? Nope.

Part of me would like to see quads go. Because I worry for the longterm consequences on the body and also feel that there's so much emphasis on them nowadays that it interrupts the flow of the skating and puts truly beautiful technique and musical interpretation at a disadvantage.

Having arms on your chest is so boring...

Seriously, I don't understand at all why having arms on the chest during all jumps should be fine and ripponing should be reduced/banned etc. Doesn't make sense at all, let the skater does it as he likes.

 

[moonvine]

Part of me would like to see quads go. Because I worry for the longterm consequences on the body and also feel that there's so much emphasis on them nowadays that it interrupts the flow of the skating and puts truly beautiful technique and musical interpretation at a disadvantage.

I was listening to David Santee’s podcast. His guests were David Jenkins and Carol Heiss Jenkins. They’ve all had hip replacements. David Jenkins and Carol Heiss Jenkins in particular were doing far fewer jumps and far fewer revolutions. That was back before there was a short program.

I’m scared of what will become of a lot of these skaters joints (hips, knees, ankles especially) when they’re 50. Then again rheumatoid arthritis is devouring my joints at an alarming rate. I’d rather have something to show for it.

 

[Amei]

I was listening to David Santee’s podcast. His guests were David Jenkins and Carol Heiss Jenkins. They’ve all had hip replacements. David Jenkins and Carol Heiss Jenkins in particular were doing far fewer jumps and far fewer revolutions. That was back before there was a short program.

I’m scared of what will become of a lot of these skaters joints (hips, knees, ankles especially) when they’re 50. Then again rheumatoid arthritis is devouring my joints at an alarming rate. I’d rather have something to show for it.

Todd Eldredge had hip replacement surgery when he was 41.

 

[Amei]

I hope Billie Eilish and The Black-eyed Peas music goes to figure skating purgatory never to return again

 

[Kinga]

Also, tights that go over the boots. Either partially or fully. Aesthetically horrible.

Don't you have a feeling that tights over the boots are much rarer nowadays? Maybe they are already outdated? I truly hope so.

I hate knee slides (with exceptions). Majority of them are very ugly. I hope they will disappear soon.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

Don't you have a feeling that tights over the boots are much rarer nowadays? Maybe they are already outdated? I truly hope so.

I hate knee slides (with exceptions). Majority of them are very ugly. I hope they will disappear soon.

Many ladies wear their tights that should be down in their boot (and really technically shouldn't even be wearing those kind of tights for competition b/c they are heavy practice tights), pulled down and it looks like crap. They need to wear proper competition tights that have a foot and go down in the boot.

 

[theblade]

Oh, to be able to source Mondor tights from the '80s-'90s. Thick, and the ones with shimmer were even more awesome.

 

[gliese]

If they have to touch their blades they're going to wear gloves.

Not true at all. It is not painful at all when you get used to it. I wear gloves in practice to protect my hands because I do over 100 catch foot spins per day (yes I counted) and it can rub a bit and it gets cold because blades are icy but in competition, shows, or run throughs the gloves come off. It's not painful or even uncomfortable really.

 

[labgoat]

I dunno...have you watched old school skating with airplane arms? Dick Button comes to mind, he looks like a wooden post. It's not a pretty sight. Now I'm biased because I love armography, but seriously, if you think arm waving is bad...

I think the right amount is somewhere in the middle. The Button era was too stiff, too much arms looks flailing and often hides that little is going on with the feet. Most skaters don't have the skills that P/C have to do whaacking armography well and skate and should stick to arm movements that have a defined purpose or serve as accents to the music. Too many movements looks like the skater is constantly using them to say ta-da after every single stroke whether warranted or not.

 

[labgoat]

Not true at all. It is not painful at all when you get used to it. I wear gloves in practice to protect my hands because I do over 100 catch foot spins per day (yes I counted) and it can rub a bit and it gets cold because blades are icy but in competition, shows, or run throughs the gloves come off. It's not painful or even uncomfortable really.

That is an impressive number of spins. I used to love to spin in the era before catch-foot spins were a thing and just loved to see how many revs, changes of positions and directions I could do. I miss spinning the most since I stopped skating.

 

[purplecat]

I'm hoping that back sit spin where the skater twists their free leg behind the other will go out of fashion. A few skaters do it well, most do not and quite a few slow down so much they end up almost coming to a stop. Does that back sit have an official name by the way? Just curious.

 

[gliese]

I'm hoping that back sit spin where the skater twists their free leg behind the other will go out of fashion. A few skaters do it well, most do not and quite a few slow down so much they end up almost coming to a stop. Does that back sit have an official name by the way? Just curious.

I'm not sure which one you are referring to. Do you have a video?

 

[apgold]

I would like to see more moving around of elements in programs in the future. Right now almost every pair team starts out with the lift twist, it's predictable. In singles, too many back to back spins at the end of a program. And too many ladies doing an Ina Bauer into a 2A.

I'm also tired of bad music cuts and cover versions (ie a slow cover into a much better original version - see Aliona's "New York, New York," Knierim/Frazier's "Fix You") and/or 2 songs that have no reason being together in the same program, such as Niki and Viki's "Rach 2" into whatever that thing is they tacked onto the end.