Dance -- I liked Belbin/Agosto's FD better than the Russians', but I'm just a very casual ice dance watcher, so what do I know...
Men -- Daisuke was unlucky to skate right after Lambiel, because Lambiel's skate was so theatrical and well-executed. In comparison, Daisuke's program had much less "shine" to it, although it was skated extremely well. It just wasn't attention-grabbing/exciting like his SP. He put out a beautiful quad and only doubled a jump. I kinda feel like he ught to have won, because after all this is a sport, and athletically he's just that little bit better. Again, just MHO...
Ladies -- Mao's skate was phenomenal, it flowed from the beginning to the end. She really deserves better PCS, because she has the best basic skating skills as well as musicality and dancer's posture. The only thing she's a little weak in is her introversion/detachment from the audience. She does smile a little bit, but she doesn't quite relate to the audience Yu-na does, or even Carolina Kostner. But this should not take away from her amazing skating and dancing skills -- not to mention the incredibly difficult jumps and the great spins and spirals. I actually feel like the jump she needs to work the most on is her 3F, because she hardly gets any height (though she gets a lot of distance) on it and it's easy for her to double-foot it under pressure, and throw her off for the second jump -- right now, she uses the 3F in both the 3F/3T and 3F/3R combos, and in both I felt like the slightly shaky landing of the 3F made the second jump harder for her. The new 3T looks pretty good, much better than at the last WC.
Yu-na's jumps are great, especially 3F and 3Lz. She gets so much height on them. But I can't get into her LP program this year at all. Aside from being amazed by her good jumps, the rest of it doesn't grab me much at all. The music is not especially easy to listen to (in terms of harmonic structure), nor especially exciting (building like Lambiel's), and her poor posture really detracts from the performance aspect. Why can't she just keep her back up, point her toes, turn out her knees? I feel like she goes from pose to pose a little bit, and that worked well last year for the Tango of Roxanne SP, because the music hit periodic highs and went well with this kind of skating. The other quality Yu-na has naturally is a sense of lyricaity that plays to the tenderness of the audience, and that was demonstrated splendidly in her Lark Ascending LP last season. But Miss Saigon neither had these syncopated strong beats, nor the lyrical soft parts that touch the audience's heart; in short, it didn't take advantage of Yu-na's strengths, and instead emphasized her weaknesses (bad posture, rough transitions -- all these are in relative terms of course, not compared to the average skater, or even the average elite skater, but the best skaters, and the strengths she has in other areas). I really feel like Mao Asada ought to have received higher PCS's, at least what she got at the last WC, probably a little higher, since the choreography (skating went better with the music) and performance (her posture/positions have improved) were better in this case, while Yu-na's PCS should not be quite as high as they were. Mao made some grievous errors in the SP, so I won't argue that she definitely should've won the GPF. But at least in the LP, she should've won by a more significant margin, by at least 4 or 5 points. But... again, I've never really understood the PCS system -- I really wish the CoP would break down the PCS like they do the TES, so the skaters as well as the audience can understand why they get the scores that they do!
Caroline -- she's so cute and so sweet!
She is so amazingly talented. I feel like in a lot of ways she and Johnny are quite similar (in terms of skating
). They are both naturally gifted with an innate sense of musicality, grace, and beauty. And they give off a vague sense of fragility, which can appeal to the audience somehow. She really needs to skate
faster though, and jump higher (how she gets around those triples is quite remarkable), and open herself up a little more to the audience. Some of this can be addressed by "better" choices of music, which can motivate her to skate in a more active way, the rest will come from growing bigger, stronger, and long-term strengthening and cardiovascular exercises. Her coach said in a recent interview that their top priority now is to get her to skate faster, and that they feel there's more room for her to improve in the PCS than the TES for now. I'm glad that her coach is so wise! It's interesting that Chen Lu, when she was at Caroline's age, was an incredible little jumping bean, and not a precocious artist/dancer. So I think it must have a lot to do with natural inclinations and early influences (Caroline started learning ballet and piano before skating, and continued for years).
I found it interesting that ESPN ran a little fluff on Caroline, and asking who does she remind you of (in terms of her tender age and success): and they went from Michelle, to Sasha, to Caroline (skipping Tara, Sarah, and Kimmie, interestingly, despite their own precocious success). This little girl has a lot to live up to! Then in the LP, Paul remarked a couple of times whether Caroline could learn a 3A in the near future. Caroline's 2A right now is a lot better than before (apparently from 8-11, she would sometimes under-rotate the 2A, and now it looks easily landed). It's not a particularly high 2A compared to other skaters. But then she manages to get a 3F-3T fully rotated even though they are also very low jumps. So you never know!
I still feel, though, that her top priority in terms of jumps should be to fix that 3Lz instead of getting a 3A. Less risk of injury, and possibly more gain -- she's losing a lot through the edge deduction.
), she could be unbeatable.
), as Brian calls her a great actress on ice for her age. Perhaps this is an attribute that does not go unnoticed to the audience as well as the judges, rightfully so as a matter of presentation.
