- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
Yeah she seems kind of shy in person, I was surprised at that too. Although apparently Yu Na is shy too, but you wouldn't guess it from her programs and exhibition numbers
Caroline Zhang's 2009-10 season
- Thread starter Spun Silver
- Start date
Yeah she seems kind of shy in person, I was surprised at that too. Although apparently Yu Na is shy too, but you wouldn't guess it from her programs and exhibition numbers
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
Funny you say that though, I know Alissa practiced a lot in a pairs setting to work on presentation. She also has taken all her ice dance tests, so you need to dance with a guy for that. She's a slow skater and she looked GREAT dancing with a partnerv:yes:
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- Feb 17, 2007
I was in the arena when this was recorded. See my link on page 34 of this thread. This was apparently before her injury.
As in Czisny? Wow, I did not know this.
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- Nov 12, 2009
Yeah she's passed the tests for all the ice dancing levels. I guess she just did it on the side of her singles skating. I think the pairs work is more to just enhance her performance. I know she used to (maybe still does?) work with Jared Swallow once a week skating with a partner. I found that out when I watched Ice Diaries and thought it was interesting. I think her skating has gotten slower since then though...
Didn't it happen just before her injury was diagnosed? I think she was already having trouble with her flip and lutz (that's why she only did triple loops at the show), and she didn't know why, later they found out she had an injury.
She also had her skates stolen right before the show and got it barely in time for the first show (with no chance to practice at all).
It is sooooooooo good to see her *happy* while skating! Oh my God, I really miss her smile on the ice!
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
Are you serious??? That's awful
! I didn't know shenanigans like this still went down....I thought they had addressed those problems long ago. It's amazing Mirai and Caroline are friends 
, shows a ton of maturity, esp considering this horrible behavior is still going on- Joined
- Feb 17, 2007
Are you serious??? That's awful
Caroline's skates were stolen by a stranger, not by another skater.
I was hoping to read a news article or interview from Caroline so we would know what the problem was at Skate Canada. But I haven't seen anything yet. Has she posted anything on Twitter or Facebook?
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2006
I knew that she did all the ice dance tests to help her footwork, but I never heard of her skating pairs before. I question her goals in that. She is way to tall to skate pairs competitively, I am surprised that they found a guy who would want to even do it recreationally. Honestly I feel as if working with a pair's coach and partner would take away from valuable ice time and money as well as be distracting because in pairs one would have to work one very different things (like timing jumps perfectly, death spirals, unison etc) that are not important in singles skating. I understand that she would want to try pairs, I skated pairs once for a little while and it is a lot of fun (esp. when the guy is cute lol) but that can wait until after Vancouver no?
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
It probably wasn't that hard...it says on her bio that she's only 5'4". She does seem a lot taller than the other skaters though so I don't know how accurate that height is...she looks a couple inches taller to me, but I've never seen her in person. When they showed her doing pairs on ice diaries she said it helped with her presentation and nerves, she seems like a pretty shy person so skating with a guy probably helped her get more comfortable expressing emotion.
If I remember correctly (and, granted, that may be a large if), a few years ago there was an interview with Alissa where she stated that in order to get her jumps more consistent, she was working on making sure every jump take-off was the same (for a same type of jump, obviously), so that muscle memory could be increased and used to help in competitive situations. In that regard, maybe practicing in pairs (ie. with someone else) would force her to have a consistent timing on her elements and thus help her become more consistent.
Just an idea,
-Kypma
If you don't mind, would you please clarify how you know that Alissa Czisny "practiced a lot in a pairs setting"? I don't recall ever hearing about her doing or testing pairs, only dance.
Because you also posted this follow-up:
Did you mean dance all along and not pairs? Because in that "Ice Diaries" episode, she was having an ice dance lesson with Jered Swallow and her dance partner was Jonathan Cassar (a very talented singles skater from her club who qualified for Nationals in Senior Men both last year and this season -- link to his official site: http://www.figureskatersonline.com/jonathancassar/ )
Back to Caroline...
Thanks for posting the link to the professional video of Zhang's "On My Own" exhibition performance this past summer. I think it really does show off many of the admirable qualities in her skating. I agree with the people who have commented here in the past that Caroline generally tends to skate "freer," as well as faster, in her exhibition numbers versus in competition.
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- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
Yeah maybe it was just dance, I just assumed it was pairs because she was skating with a guy. I do think I remember hearing that either Alissa or her twin Amber wanted to switch to pairs though, but she couldn't find a partner because she's a lefty and tall....I actually think it was Amber though, she is about 3 inches taller than Alissa and i'm pretty sure it would be hard to find a partner at 5'7"
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2006
Yeah, that sounds more like it. and don't forget that skates add another 2-3 inches at least, so Alissa would be 5"6 or 5"7 with skates on.
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2007
I had never heard that Alissa did pairs. That's interesting. I don't think that would work for Caroline. She needs to hit the gym and put on some muscle mass. And muscle is heavy.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
That's the problem though, if she buffs up then she gains weight so even though she'll be stronger she still might struggle with the jumps because she'll have to adjust again. This muscle weight might be negligible though as Caroline is naturally thin and the asian girls don't seem to gain much weight as teenagers compared to the americans. I think she's still growing though so she might want to hold off on the buff sessions and jump boot camp for a couple years until she reaches her full height, otherwise she'll probably get stress fractures or a broken growth plate which would cause a lot more trouble than it's worth.
silverlake22 clarified above that Alissa did (tested) dance, not pairs.
ETA the following excerpt from a June 2009 IFS article: http://www.ifsmagazine.com/archive/2009/JUNE/INDEX.PHP
IIRC, Amber Czisny rotated the "regular" direction (counterclockwise) in singles while twin Alissa is a "lefty" (clockwise) rotator.
Sorry for the OT.
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- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
Thanks for the clarification, I always confuse pairs and dance because both are done with a partner. So Alissa is the lefty and Amber is the tall one. Weird that there's that big a height difference between twins. Does skating stunt your growth like gymnastics does?
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