Few technical and less technical notes...
1. What is alarming for me is new
blade feature.
Communication No. 2623 -
"Difficult blade feature: using the blade in a way that has a significant impact on the balance, control and execution of the spin. The feature must be executed in camel, sit or Layback position and can be achieved for example by spinning on the heel or toe of the blade."
Most of skaters chose blade feature in camel position - toe pick or heel. Spinning on those parts of the blade create smaller (toe pick) or bigger and deeper (heel) hole on the ice. Also spinning on toe pick is one of begginer's mistake in spins, so it i surprising for me that it became a feature.
But
holes on the ice ARE real issue. Thanks to different (not ideal) technique, there are already holes from flip and lutz, partially axel on the ice, newly from backflip.
If skater skates into a hole, it leads to stumble or fall. Ice resurfacing is done after two warm-up groups. For Grand Prix, European / World Championships and Olympics, ice resurfacing is done before last 2 best groups. We already have reverse skating order in Free Programs. It means that Bronze, Silver and Gold medalists after Short Program will be 10st - 12th skater to use the ice after resurfacing. While range of junior men's weight can be from let's say 40 to 65 kilograms (88 to 143 pounds), range of senior's weight can be let's say from 52 to 78 kilograms (114 to 171 pounds). Logically senior men will create bigger holes on the ice.
Loena Hendrickx didn't have the best Free Skate at 2023 European Championships, after the program she digged into the ice 3 times (she is thin and it was not done with maximal power). Some people from Figure Skating world criticised it, because it could cause troubles to Anastasiia Gubanova who was skating next. I don't belive it was intentional, I think Loena was frustrated and didn't realise the danger for Anastasiia.
This season Bronze medalist after the Short Program will enter the ice having additional 9 holes from blade feature anywhere across the ice, much deeper than Loena did. And it will be even worse for Silver and Gold medalists. We will expect top 3 senior men to execute from two to four quad jumps and two 3axels during Free Skate, each of these will need quite high entering speed. They will execute these difficult elements on the ice being damaged not only by holes from jumps, but newly from holes from blade features.
I would like to kindly ask ISU and Federation's members to remember the moment when they themselves as skaters skated into hole in full speed. It is no way positive experience. Do we really need to increase the possibility of top skaters skating into hole in full speed with this new blade feature? I personally don't think so. I would be very glad to see this blade feature to be deleted soon.
2. Camel position...during whole competition some young men were not able to get thigh of free leg parallel to the ice. I don't remember correctly original rules - was it parallel or 90 degrees?
Not counting camel position would lead to troubles. The position would be taken like upright position, right? I am not Technical specialist, so I guess only. Many skaters continued with Doughnut feature with free leg higher than in first camel position, which is camel position with difficult feature. So it would probably create flying combination spin with upright and camel position. It would create invalid element in Short Program. In Free Program it woud create two Combination Spins.
Communication No. 2623 -
"Spin in one position with change of foot must have 2 revolutions in basic position on each foot. In Short Program, if this requirement is not fulfilled, the spin will get “No Value”. In Free Skating the sign “V” indicates that this requirement is not fulfilled. The base values of spins with the sign “V“ are listed in the SOV table."
Technical panel Handbook - "...camel (free leg backwards with the knee higher than the hip level)..."
https://cdn1.sportngin.com/attachments/document/2261-3167413/Aspire_All_About_Spins.pdf - if you look at the picture of camel spin on page 2, is it quite understandable with hip level.
But in real it is complicated. All skaters are having trunk NOT parallel with the ice from front side, instead they turn the trunk, so rotating on left leg, their left side of the trunk is closer to the ice. So hip level is no way horizontal for comparing it with knee level.
Hip level as a term is questionable. In rehabilitation (and making translation into Czech language) I would expect the hip level - to be line going through the highest place of pelvic - iliac crest. Looking at Internet and some definition, I found
hip height -
"Vertical distance from the floor to the greater trochanter (a bony prominence at the upper end of the thigh bone, palpable on the lateral surface of the hip)." It would mean that hip level is line connecting both greater trochanters.
Being Rehabilitation doctor it is not always easy to find greater trochanter through muscles. And the only way how to find both greater trochanter and iliac crest is to palpate it on human's body (but palpating bones is not always precise thanks to different muscle tone on both sides). And the only really precise way to find trochanter or iliac crest is X-ray method. In our case it would mean that Technical panel would be forced to palpate every skater to find his / her greater trochanters and mark that place on costume visibly to be able to see it during spins.
Thanks to trunk position you have one greater trochanter (iliac crest) higher and one lower.
Overall I find it confusing. 90 degrees or more between both thighs or being parallel to the ice were better definitions in my opinion and much more easily measured by Technical panel. It could be also defined like position of free leg - line going through the highest part of the knee and thigh is parellel to the ice, or 90 degrees or more comparing to line vertical to the ice.
Anyway when skaters have position of free leg lower, it is not looking well and under older definition this would not be counted. Some skaters were not OK even if we would take into account lower greater trochanter. But technical panel kindly overlooked it...and we cannot be surprised, because argumenting where greater trochanter is without knowing it with palpation or X-ray...
3. Rule 350 -
Call to the Start -
"Each Skater/Pair/Couple must take the starting position of each Segment of the competition (Short Program/Rhythm Dance, Free Skating/Free Dance or Pattern Dance) at the latest thirty seconds after he/they are called to the start."
Tamir got one point deduction for late start (this one point cost him bronze medal).
I was looking for definition of starting position, I didn't find any. If somebody knows, post it, please.
Looking at video from Junior Men's Free Skate after name announcement plus 30 seconds, Tamir was already standing on place where his program started = starting position. But he took additional probably 2 seconds to put his hands down with transfer of weight from one leg to another. With definition of starting position - "place you start your program from", he would be so so in time. With definition of "having all segments of body in position the first movement of program starts from" (this sounds quite funny IMO), he would be really late.
Anyway that is a silly mistake to lose point for.
4. Backflip is kind of "wild" and purely athletic element visually, which is suitable for certain kind of modern music only (in my opinion). Such music is more often used in exhibitions, but not that often for competive programs. Because it really doesn't give sense to try to have elegant lines with finished movements and then smash it all with scratching the ice and hunched position in backflip at the end of the program. If we want skaters to execute technical elements (jumps, spins, steps) in an artistic way and incorporate it into the feeling of the music, I see not much space for backflip beside some kind of really wild modern music. Patrick's backflip looked to be executed with good technique, but I think there are many ways how to express his music better using blades + good ice coverage + arm movements.
