What has changed for the better in figure skating?

[dorispulaski]

These days in Novice dance competitions, where compulsory dances are still skated, they are not boring because the teams get to pick their own music, provided it has the correct time signature and correct number of beats per minute. Picking music is easier because it is easy to slow down or speed up music appropriately to meet the bpm requirements with music editing programs. The sad part is there are no compulsories in at least Juniors. I miss them!

And yes, I remember the precision of both Torvill & Dean and Trixie Schuba's repetitions. It was reported that Trixie cut her tracings so deeply that she deliberately offset the third tracing by a tiny amount so as not to trip. Also her figures were noticeably bigger than the other competitors because she was a stronger skater. And the circles were perfectly circular, and perfectly on axis. Remember the skater had to be able to do this without any guidelines on the ice!

Torvill and Dean were the greatest of all time on 6.0 style compulsories. As many as 3,000 people would show up at Europeans to watch perfection. To get perfect overlay of tracings, the skaters had to be in amazing physical shape to maintain completely even speed throughout the program

I saw them do CD's in 1981 at Hartford Worlds. I knew how hard it was to just do figures and get them to overlay perfectly. None of the other dancers were even close.

Anything done that well can be mesmerizing.

IJS CD's had how exactly the difficult turns were to be done defined very precisely as to how the toe or heel of the skate had to be placed. It was different from the way 6.0 skaters did them. I remember one of the Russian coaches laughing that he had not learned them that way, so coaching CDs in IJS was difficult.

I like being able to watch whole competitions these days.

I remember pulling up Heather's Figure Skating Page just to be able find when skating would be on TV.

I remember taping 1988 Europeans on some 3 hour program block of random sports only to find the only skating on it was Katarina Witt's SP, and all that was discussed was whether her skirt was illegal.

 

[el henry]

@dorispulaski brings up a great point, watching skating is soooo much more accessible today, copyright or no copyright.

I was a simple fan, not a skating insider. I saw what the networks showed me. Who was finishing tenth at Nationals, so I could make up my own mind? Not so much. "Challengers" or other countries comps? Not at all. We have way more access today.

 

[AxelLover]

I'm not going to repeat all the improvements that have already been mentioned. Another thing that comes to my mind is the introduction of the reverse order in the free skate and also the fact that the division to groups in the short is based on world standings.

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

If we can extend the period to the 1980s, I would say: the rendition of Music, the quality of Ice (except in Grenoble) and the quality of the skates (blades included). IJS seems to be working well where there is no big medal at stake (in the competition or later for the same Skater) but has completely derailed, not only in PCS cooking but in Element Scores, these ten last years, after years of "some leeway" at the top.
In the 1980s, a Music with cover would have been a catastrophe because the sound was so horrible, the most artistic Skaters were so deserving for managing to skate beautifully on it! Actually even Symphonies were not adapted, only Band music was? For me it was a bit like the Gramophone recordings of the 1900s, sometimes 1910s, slightly "better" than previous ones because one could discern the main accents of the music? I would say that today's "average" rendition of Music in Rinks is somehow like 1950s Vinyl Records, quite perfectible but also quite enjoyable? And this does allow covers.
When I left Figure Skating watching briefly after Calgary Games (I was not sorry enough of Brian Orser's Silver behind Brian Boitano, for it to have been an element in my leaving; and I did like Carmen on Ice but it wasn't enough to change my mind), I just thought that these physical odds against Figure Skating were too much to overcome, but they have been overcome, and I cannot thank enough those who made these changes possible.

 

[4everchan]

@DizzyFrenchie inspired me another item... so I am at 11... and its counterpart

Music quality : it is indeed so much better than before. There are even editors who do a lot of figure skating programs (Karl Hugo for instance) even composing and rearranging music specifically to meet figure skating requirements or program construction.
The counterpart is that it's become so easy to manipulate music that it's done sometimes in ways that will piss off any musician. For instance, adding or repeating a musical fragment to allow the skater more time to complete an element. It drives me crazy to hear the opening bit of a phrase (Fragment A to make it simpler) and then get it twice before the closing bit of a phrase (fragment B). Music is often symmetrical so to have a phrase that was supposed to be 8 bars become 12, and more over in a AAB structure is very unsettling . Music editing is now so easy that the butchering or larger works can be done at a large level too. How to fit a 10 minute or 30 minute work all in a short program...

So yes, the quality is better. The editing is by far superior... but having all these tools sometimes has created very upsetting programs musically. I mean, how can you fit as many 80s songs into a rhythm dance challenge shouldn't have ever been a contest we got a while ago.

This being said, I would never go back musically to figure skating programs from the 90s with the mix and match and the awful quality.

I personally like only one piece of music or at least something very cohesive so that's just my opinion here.

 

[Diana Delafield]

Moving competitions indoors in the 1960s. Before my time, but most of the coaches of my era had competed outdoors (or partially -- didn't the Broadmoor used to have three walls and a roof but one open end?) and they had some horror stories to tell. The favourite was the Europeans in the late 1960s when Oleg Protopopov protested having to compete in the rain by holding an umbrella over his wife's head while waiting to be announced and then waiting for their marks at the end.

 

[4everchan]

I cannot believe nobody has mentioned the age rule changes we just had...

I truly believe that this is good for the sport ! Is there a counterpart to this one ? Sure, all the nagging and whining that so and so is not yet eligible...

PS I am at 12 . I got to stop.. a dozen egg is enough

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Judging transparency has improved (though still accountability isn't great and there's still apparent bias). Now skaters who make mistakes aren't able to be held up as easily as base value is base value and if a skater falls or doubles a jump a judge can't just gloss over it like in 6.0.

The introduction of levels is also a welcome change. I know sometimes you don't get those 3 revolution classic spins from the 80's that match the music, but in this day and age, I think spins and footwork need to have much greater complexity and difficulty. In 6.0 a lot of difficult turns and steps were being left out of programs, and while footwork sequences were quick and matched the music, they didn't exhibit the edge control or range of body movement that current footwork has.

Spins also used to be easy AF with not much credence, with 2-rotation revolutions, and sloppy or overly simple basic positions. I know some people think that many spins are contorted/awkward (and yes some) but I like that skaters are being challenged to do difficult, various positions than just a "simple classic sit spin" - which anyone could look up in an old-school Youtube video.

Certainly in pairs the lifts are more complex, and the spin and footwork requirements are way more challenging. You don't see as much side by side unison as in classic pairs, but I like that because it feels less robotic. Transition lifts and even just skating transitions are more evident in programs. Elements haven't gotten hugely more difficult because they aren't credited significantly, but I like how the SBS jumps is no longer the be-all end-all as it used to be, and pairs now need to focus on element quality/execution more holistically. Certainly twists and throws have more amplitude as they are measurably given credit for that.

The biggest change is in ice dance. No longer are ordinals decided pre-competition and change slightly (technical of 5.7 instead of 5.9 dropping the team maybe 1 spot at worst) if a skater falls. PCS is still frequently shady, and levels can make or break a team, but now there's greater scrutiny and requirements, rather than a team just "doing" a pattern and a judge subjectively placing the team higher or lower. Of course, the lifts are now spectacular and it feels way more of a "sport" where technique and difficulty is rewarded rather than who puts on the best dramatics and histrionics for the judges while being supported by their federation. If that's the way ice dancing is moving forward, Soviet—er, I mean, so be it.