Jennifer Kirk - How skating gets its groove back

[Hsuhs]

Particle Man, thank you for making me realize how stupid, uncalled for, illogical and unprofessional my opinion on Sasha Cohen (and figure skating in general) was.

The only thing that justifies that immature way of expressing myself, is that it made you rofl. Thanks to you, I have learned an important lesson today: to not open my mouth without having done enough research & gathered sufficient evidence to support my point. Especially when discussing Sasha Cohen.

I apologize for eventual mistakes in my text. Just in case.

 

[Mathman]

I don't think it will be so much you have to root for Yu-na, Mao is getting fluff's too. It's more about don't you want to watch Yu-na. Because really that's all they kind of have right now. A pretty charismatic, reigning world champion, who speaks English. And then her rivalry with Mao.

I think you might be on to something, as far as NBC's intentions. They got a good start on the Yu-na love-in at last years worlds, with Michelle Kwan marvelling at the dominance of her performances, etc. :yes:

I agree with some of your comments re CoP, but overall I feel it's the right direction for skating. Should there be some changes? Absolutely. Should it be completely discarded? Not IMO.

As for me, I would be perfectly content with the CoP if professional competitions could somehow make a comeback. Then we could have two tracks. On the amateur circuit you get so and so many points for holding your edge properly on you triple Lutz, and so-and-so many more points if you change position three times in you layback spin.

Then the best of the World and Olympic skaters -- having paid their dues and proved that they have mastered all these technical details -- could move on to the professional circuit with more emphasis on the artistic and performance aspects.

I was thinking of this while watching Michelle Kwan's performances in the recent show from Korea. She ended both programs with a basic upright scratch spin -- very effective, the perfect ending.

Under CoP that's a level 1, 0 GOE, 1.2 points. But if she had messed around hopping from one foot to the other, that would have taken all the thrill out of it.

 

[bekalc]

I hate what COP has done to spins. Why can't they just keep all the spins on one level and just have the judges rate them 1 to 5. Surely the judges would be capable of doing this and rating the difficulty.

 

[Particle Man]

As for me, I would be perfectly content with the CoP if professional competitions could somehow make a comeback. Then we could have two tracks. On the amateur circuit you get so and so many points for holding your edge properly on you triple Lutz, and so-and-so many more points if you change position three times in you layback spin.

Then the best of the World and Olympic skaters -- having paid their dues and proved that they have mastered all these technical details -- could move on to the professional circuit with more emphasis on the artistic and performance aspects.

The Olympics is the big prize though, that's what skaters dream of and what most of the general public knows about figure skating. If the Olympics, Worlds and the Grand Prix are all CoP, then "skating" is CoP. What the pro circuit would use is meaningless, in the way that exhibitions are meaningless...

 

[antmanb]

the UK doesn't use the metric system??????? I thought we (the US) were the only ones who didn't

SO VERY OT

No we work in miles, yards, inches, feet. We don't just have ounces and pounds but also stones (that you guys don't seem to use - it's 14lbs by the way!).

Actually technically we are now metric for some things but not others. It was only in the last 6 or 7 years that sueprmarkets/Delis sell you things in grams and Kg (gone are the days of buying a "quarter" of boiled sweets from the sweet shop! So i think most things have gone metric except distances (which are still in miles).

But we are also taught the metric system in school and run the 100m in school which means i have a really weird knowledge of distances in that i can guage a distance based on meters (for short distances) and miles (for long) but not yards or kilometres....i know it's really weird! But there you go!

Ant

 

[Wicked]

Thanks Ant. I've always wondered what a stone was. I guess I could have Googled it if I wasn't so lazy!

 

[Tonichelle]

Ant - sounds like us over here I've never understood why some track races were done in the meters and others miles... oy!

 

[R.D.]

well, soft drink cans are measured in liters, so not everything is in English units.

Anyway, I don't see the US switching over any time soon (if ever). For such a large country with so many different states and counties, I think such an attempt will just be one huuuuge mass of confusion that might lead to accidents, etc. Not to mention all the documentation and engineering work that has been done. That said, I do prefer the metric system since it's much simpler to understand.

 

[Mathman]

That said, I do prefer the metric system since it's much simpler to understand.

Nah, with the English system you always carry your yardstick with you. One inch = length of the middle joint of your index finger. One cubit (Latin cubitum, “elbow”) = the distance from your elbow to the tip of your fingers. In dynastic Egypt they also used the “royal cubit.” This was the “cubit” of the Pharaoh, who, being a god, quite naturally had longer forearms than mere mortals.

One foot = …well, one foot. Englishmen had big feet, compared to Romans: One mile (mlia passuum) = 1000 paces. Romans were short. One right-left pace = 5.28 English feet, so 5280 English feet to a Roman mile.

One acre = the amount of land a team of oxen can plow in a day. My horse is 14 hands high (obvious meaning). One yard = the distance from your nose to your hand stretched out to the side, as when measuring cloth off a bolt.

One meter? I know my nose from my elbow, as the saying goes, but it’s a lot harder to know how far one meter is.

By definition, a meter is 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the North Pole. So if you know how far that is, you’re in business. Thus the circumference of the Earth is, by definition, 40,000 kilometers (actually, it’s more like 40,007, measured through the poles, but oh well.) And according to Einstein it is about 9 millimeters shorter than it should be, because of the distortion of space due to the earth’s gravitational field..

 

[Tonichelle]

and this is why we don't ask you to play more often, MM!

 

[R.D.]

A question (I know we're waaaaaayy off topic here): In the UK, do you guys measure temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit?

 

[dannyascii]

A question (I know we're waaaaaayy off topic here): In the UK, do you guys measure temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit?

Haha. Very off-topic, but Celsius.

 

[KayMil01]

Nah, with the English system you always carry your yardstick with you. One inch = length of the middle joint of your index finger. One cubit (Latin cubitum, “elbow”) = the distance from your elbow to the tip of your fingers. In dynastic Egypt they also used the “royal cubit.” This was the “cubit” of the Pharaoh, who, being a god, quite naturally had longer forearms than mere mortals.

One foot = …well, one foot. Englishmen had big feet, compared to Romans: One mile (mlia passuum) = 1000 paces. Romans were short. One right-left pace = 5.28 English feet, so 5280 English feet to a Roman mile.

One acre = the amount of land a team of oxen can plow in a day. My horse is 14 hands high (obvious meaning). One yard = the distance from your nose to your hand stretched out to the side, as when measuring cloth off a bolt.

One meter? I know my nose from my elbow, as the saying goes, but it’s a lot harder to know how far one meter is.

By definition, a meter is 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the North Pole. So if you know how far that is, you’re in business. Thus the circumference of the Earth is, by definition, 40,000 kilometers (actually, it’s more like 40,007, measured through the poles, but oh well.) And according to Einstein it is about 9 millimeters shorter than it should be, because of the distortion of space due to the earth’s gravitational field..

LOL wow!

 

[R.D.]

Haha. Very off-topic, but Celsius.

Thanks. I was wondering if the US was the only country that used the Fahrenheit scale. All the other countries I know of use Celsius, but I could be wrong

 

[seniorita]

Nah, with the English system you always carry your yardstick with you. One inch = length of the middle joint of your index finger. One cubit (Latin cubitum, “elbow”) = the distance from your elbow to the tip of your fingers. In dynastic Egypt they also used the “royal cubit.” This was the “cubit” of the Pharaoh, who, being a god, quite naturally had longer forearms than mere mortals.

One foot = …well, one foot. Englishmen had big feet, compared to Romans: One mile (mlia passuum) = 1000 paces. Romans were short. One right-left pace = 5.28 English feet, so 5280 English feet to a Roman mile.

One acre = the amount of land a team of oxen can plow in a day. My horse is 14 hands high (obvious meaning). One yard = the distance from your nose to your hand stretched out to the side, as when measuring cloth off a bolt.

wow mm

but you call it the easy way?? It looks like you need to be acrobatic to measure a meter
you can make a big footstep, and this is about a meter

if you read the whole thread at once as i did, it turns out very funny, you dont know what will found you next page

 

[antmanb]

Thanks. I was wondering if the US was the only country that used the Fahrenheit scale. All the other countries I know of use Celsius, but I could be wrong

To be honest though the weather programmes here give you the weather in both celcius and fahrenheit. I tend to find that people from say early to mid 30s and younger talk in celcius and those over talk in Fahrenheit. I don't ever understand Fahrenheit so need the celcius translation!

EDIT: I love all the (non skating) information that you actually learn about on a figure skating website!!

Ant

 

[Wicked]

Thanks for that post, Mathman. When my partner says I'm wasting time on the internet and not learning anything useful, I'm going to show it to her!

 

[Particle Man]

Fahrenheit is a human temperature scale, which is better for us since we are humans, not machines. 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's... each set of 10 makes sense. More integers, more precision. Why screw around with decimal points? When they give you the temperature in celsius, do they usually even bother with the decimal point? If not, it's less precise. Sorry, but that is not superior, quite the opposite.

But as for inches, feet, miles, quarts, gallons... not a huge fan of those.

 

[Tonichelle]

I don't anyone is truly arguing one is better than the other.

 

[Mathman]

Fahrenheit is a human temperature scale,....

It is indeed a “human” scale. The top benchmark of the Fahrenheit scale is the temperature of the human body, taken at the armpit. If Mr. Fahrenheit had had a rectal thermometer, the Fahrenheit scale would have turned out slightly different.

Fahrenheit worked in units of 32. 0 degrees was the lowest temperature that could be achieved in a chemistry laboratory in Fahrenheit’s day, the freezing temperature of salt water. 32 degrees was set at the freezing temperature of distilled water. 64 is nothing special that I know of (maybe the temperature of a nice spring day), and 96 was set at body temperature. All neat and tidy, if you like a base thirty-two numbering system (and who doesn't?) :yes: