That's interesting news, thanks for sharing! Do you know what kind of 3-3? Lutz-loop like last year?
Your Hopes for US NATIONALS
- Thread starter Joesitz (RIP)
- Start date
I don't know, the poster on FSU doesn't recall. I hope it's not 3Z-3R, as she flutzes, automatically devaluing the combo, and the 3R is prone to downgrading as a backend of a combo. She'd be better off with a 3F-3T, or at least 3F-3R.
One hope is that Katrina Hacker gets some well-deserved recognition. She is a lovely skater and her On Golden Pond SP is exquisite.
As others have said- I hope everyone skates well. Sometimes great skating begets great skating. So let's hope the vibe in the arena is positive for all.
Specific other hopes are for great performances by Caroline and Johnny (and Jeremy and Adam and Eliot ...).
As others have said- I hope everyone skates well. Sometimes great skating begets great skating. So let's hope the vibe in the arena is positive for all.
Specific other hopes are for great performances by Caroline and Johnny (and Jeremy and Adam and Eliot ...).
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2004
My hopes are simple:
I hope that Kimmie, BeBe, Alyssa & Emily have great performances - regardless of placement (granted, if Kimmie has a great performance, she'll end up on the podium...)
I hope that the top, worlds bound skaters are 1) old enough to go 2) show that they are on par with top contenders 3) scores are not inflated but reflective of a skater's true ability - esp. in regards to the ladies division 4) stay on their blades! Nothing and I repeat nothing irritates me more than National splatfests.
Hope springs eternal!
I hope that Kimmie, BeBe, Alyssa & Emily have great performances - regardless of placement (granted, if Kimmie has a great performance, she'll end up on the podium...)
I hope that the top, worlds bound skaters are 1) old enough to go 2) show that they are on par with top contenders 3) scores are not inflated but reflective of a skater's true ability - esp. in regards to the ladies division 4) stay on their blades! Nothing and I repeat nothing irritates me more than National splatfests.
Hope springs eternal!
Your wish is granted.
Caroline Zhang is the youngest senior competitor and she is old enough for ISU championships.- Joined
- Dec 29, 2004
Your wish is granted.
Excellent! I thought so, but wasn't 100% sure... last year felt like sucha waste of time because of the age limits. Very frustrating. Now I can hope that my husband & son have something else to do that night so I can watch the competition in peace!
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2004
Here's to Zhang and Nagasu in hoping they get their act together.
IMO, it is pretty much looking that Rachael Flatt is the favorite coming in and has the best shot at winning
IMO, it is pretty much looking that Rachael Flatt is the favorite coming in and has the best shot at winning
I must agree, actually.
But I still think it's an open field. She's only the favorite by the slimmest of margins. Not in the way Kwan was, or Cohen was, or even Meissner was previously. Nagasu is the defending champ and she will likewise have the Pressure to Defend.
I really think it's wide open for the ladies.
I saw Mirai in a recent Disson show and her skating looked great -- I mean, still some iffy jump landings, on the 3R and 3T that she tried in the exhibitions, but better than at NHK, and I think the rest of her skating is really stellar: fast, smooth skating, good basic skating skills, great spins and spirals, energetic and difficult step sequences, and better musical interpretation than in the past. I always felt like she didn't connect with her music unless it was a cutesy piece where she got to be silly; whenever she tried something lyrical or serious, the connection to her music disappeared. I think that has now improved. With Mirai, it's really about how well she can rotate her jumps and how strict the tech panel decides to be.
Rachael did her FS as part of some USFSA monitoring session recently, and the video was on line until it got taken off. She basically did a clean program, except for a late lutz which I thought was both a flutz and UR'ed. Rachael seems like quite a steady and reliable competitor, though she has been imperfect too, namely in the FS at SA and SP at CoR this year, and several times in the SP last year on the JGP circuit, and the year before that in the FS at National's. I think with Rachael, her steadiness comes both from her mental calmness and her sound jumping technique. I would say that her major weakness is her presentation skills, connection with audience, and speed/power/transitions, all of which are critical for high PCS. But I remember last year she really improved all these things by the time National's rolled around, so maybe she'll have a similar transformation this year (and, please, please, someone work on her hunched shoulders and give her a nice hairdo).
Ashley has improved a great deal in the presentation department this season. I really see a great transformation in her since moving over to Priscilla Hills' tutelege. I think that was a very smart decision, and her high SP score (surpassing all other U.S. ladies this season) really reflects on her improvement -- primarily due to a rise in her PCS. However, I feel like her jumps have actually weakened since last season, I don't know whether due to diversion of attention to presentation skills, or because of body changes. Compared to last season, Ashley looks to me like she's filled out more, and combined with conditioning issues, I think that's why she's losing stamina in the second half of her FS, thus making her jumps more prone to under-rotations and other errors. But I did hear that she did a 3-3 and skated the rest of her FS well at a recent Wilmington Delaware National's send-off. So I think if she's been working hard on her conditioning since GP's and brings back the 3-3, then she can easily win it all with her now much better PCS.
Caroline's strength is her TES, despite the persistent criticism of her jumping technique on the skating forums. When she skates clean, and with confidence, she generates such a wonderful connection with the audience which none of the other young skaters have managed to achieve so far. Unfortunately this hasn't translated into high PCS, as the CoP mentions Kwan-style audience connection only as an afterthought in the way the difference PC's are defined. In terms of garnering points, her major weakness so far has been a lack of speed and power. She gracefully gets into these pretty spins and spirals, and has these tidy jumps (minus the mule-kick entrances), but the lack of speed has really hurt her with the PCS. Actually, her speed improved noticeably from previous seasons to this GP season, but lack of clean programs seems to have countered that, with a net result of lower PCS. Sadly, this has pushed her back to Ave Maria, and her fans will probably never again see the lovely Sleeping Beauty program, which I actually think is the best program Lori Nichols has choreographed for her so far. But if she's more comfortable skating Ave Maria, i.e. more likely to land all her jumps, skating through the elements with more speed and confidence, then so be it. Plus, she's supposed to have been working hard on increasing her speed since TEB. So perhaps with her "new" old FS, and increased speed, she can skate her best at National's and grab one of those spots to the LA World's.
Alissa looked great at the start of this season, winning Senior B competition, a summer competition, even a bronze at SC, and skating several almost-clean programs. Her PCS are really high this season, the judges apparently love her new Dr. Zhivago program. But she went back to her inconsistent ways at her second GP event. If she skates clean at National's, even without a 3-3, she will definitely podium, and probably win gold. But stringing two clean programs together is not Alissa's forte...
I saw Mirai in a recent Disson show and her skating looked great -- I mean, still some iffy jump landings, on the 3R and 3T that she tried in the exhibitions, but better than at NHK, and I think the rest of her skating is really stellar: fast, smooth skating, good basic skating skills, great spins and spirals, energetic and difficult step sequences, and better musical interpretation than in the past. I always felt like she didn't connect with her music unless it was a cutesy piece where she got to be silly; whenever she tried something lyrical or serious, the connection to her music disappeared. I think that has now improved. With Mirai, it's really about how well she can rotate her jumps and how strict the tech panel decides to be.
Rachael did her FS as part of some USFSA monitoring session recently, and the video was on line until it got taken off. She basically did a clean program, except for a late lutz which I thought was both a flutz and UR'ed. Rachael seems like quite a steady and reliable competitor, though she has been imperfect too, namely in the FS at SA and SP at CoR this year, and several times in the SP last year on the JGP circuit, and the year before that in the FS at National's. I think with Rachael, her steadiness comes both from her mental calmness and her sound jumping technique. I would say that her major weakness is her presentation skills, connection with audience, and speed/power/transitions, all of which are critical for high PCS. But I remember last year she really improved all these things by the time National's rolled around, so maybe she'll have a similar transformation this year (and, please, please, someone work on her hunched shoulders and give her a nice hairdo).
Ashley has improved a great deal in the presentation department this season. I really see a great transformation in her since moving over to Priscilla Hills' tutelege. I think that was a very smart decision, and her high SP score (surpassing all other U.S. ladies this season) really reflects on her improvement -- primarily due to a rise in her PCS. However, I feel like her jumps have actually weakened since last season, I don't know whether due to diversion of attention to presentation skills, or because of body changes. Compared to last season, Ashley looks to me like she's filled out more, and combined with conditioning issues, I think that's why she's losing stamina in the second half of her FS, thus making her jumps more prone to under-rotations and other errors. But I did hear that she did a 3-3 and skated the rest of her FS well at a recent Wilmington Delaware National's send-off. So I think if she's been working hard on her conditioning since GP's and brings back the 3-3, then she can easily win it all with her now much better PCS.
Caroline's strength is her TES, despite the persistent criticism of her jumping technique on the skating forums. When she skates clean, and with confidence, she generates such a wonderful connection with the audience which none of the other young skaters have managed to achieve so far. Unfortunately this hasn't translated into high PCS, as the CoP mentions Kwan-style audience connection only as an afterthought in the way the difference PC's are defined. In terms of garnering points, her major weakness so far has been a lack of speed and power. She gracefully gets into these pretty spins and spirals, and has these tidy jumps (minus the mule-kick entrances), but the lack of speed has really hurt her with the PCS. Actually, her speed improved noticeably from previous seasons to this GP season, but lack of clean programs seems to have countered that, with a net result of lower PCS. Sadly, this has pushed her back to Ave Maria, and her fans will probably never again see the lovely Sleeping Beauty program, which I actually think is the best program Lori Nichols has choreographed for her so far. But if she's more comfortable skating Ave Maria, i.e. more likely to land all her jumps, skating through the elements with more speed and confidence, then so be it. Plus, she's supposed to have been working hard on increasing her speed since TEB. So perhaps with her "new" old FS, and increased speed, she can skate her best at National's and grab one of those spots to the LA World's.
Alissa looked great at the start of this season, winning Senior B competition, a summer competition, even a bronze at SC, and skating several almost-clean programs. Her PCS are really high this season, the judges apparently love her new Dr. Zhivago program. But she went back to her inconsistent ways at her second GP event. If she skates clean at National's, even without a 3-3, she will definitely podium, and probably win gold. But stringing two clean programs together is not Alissa's forte...
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2004
Any news on Kimmie? Also I would not count Mirai out to repeat
as the winner at Nationals.
as the winner at Nationals.
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- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
Kimmie is branded as an UnderRotater. That scar will stick with her from all the Tech Specialists whether she underrotates or not. The penalties are extremely heavy for URs and it would be better for her to just fall and hide any shortcomings. That's just a -1. Clean routines are not exactly what the nitpicking CoP looks for.
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
In theory, chuckm, but in practice?
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2007
We learned that at TEB. Caroline skated a squeeky clean LP while the world class skaters were polishing the ice with their butts.
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2005
We learned that at TEB. Caroline skated a squeeky clean LP while the world class skaters were polishing the ice with their butts.
Caroline was no where near clean. She had two downgrades and an e. Actual clean programs with adequate difficulty usually wins; it's just that almost nobody does them. Having good presentation helps.
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2005
Oh, yes, in reality. I think falls are more heavily scrutinized for UR than landed jumps, except with the "known offenders"
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2005
just out curiosity, what do you call a program with no visible or invisible mistakes. Or do you not consider there to be a difference.
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I'd call it a program that looks clean. Whether it actually is clean, that's for the tech panel to sort out.
^ More or less what I would have said.
