Sasha Since 1999?

Mathman said:

In 1999, spectacular as she was, her edges tended to be shallow and her stroking lacked power (compared to a skater like Irina, for instance). I have seen a lot of improvement in this regard.

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I agree with your comments. Now as Sasha has grown older skill wise isn't it more likely that there is more errors to be made. Hopefully, I am making myself clear??

Dee

Dee4707 said:

I agree with your comments. Now as Sasha has grown older skill wise isn't it more likely that there is more errors to be made. Hopefully, I am making myself clear??

Dee

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Well, I would think if she were upping the technical side of her skating each season, then more errors would be expected (meaning, attempting 3/3's, 3axle, quads, difficult FW/transitions into jumps, etc). But considering her biggest weakness back in 1999-00 was her shallow edges, lack of power stroking, poor ice coverage, well, improving her basic skills SHOULD have made her overall performances stronger. I think we have seen improvements in such areas. Like I said before-she wow'd me back then with her spirals and spins. Now, her spirals are better since she has deeper edges, and can hold the position out longer with greater ice coverage, better edges and more speed. Her spins don't travel like they did and both the entrances and exits are improved. I contribute those improvements to better basic skating skills. However, as she's grown, her jumps have gotten smaller. Her axle and salchow are still beautiful, but since she still has a flutz, wonky landings/edges, well, her jumps seem pretty much the same as back then.

Sasha's strengths have always been her gracefullness, flexibility, ability to rotate quickly and beautiful positions. I think they may be more highlighted now than in 1999 because she's improved her basic skills.

I think it's unrealistic to think any elite skater changes drastically in 6 years. Yes, improvements are made, but they are basically the same skater, as far as style and personality go.

Dee4707 said:

I agree with your comments. Now as Sasha has grown older skill wise isn't it more likely that there is more errors to be made. Hopefully, I am making myself clear??

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And maybe that could apply to everyone else as well? Cohen is NOT unique in this regard.

dancindiva03 said:

Yeah, because it never should have happened. Even she knew she didn't deserve that medal.

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the judges were the ones that decided to give it to her. As to whether she truly deserved it or not, I believe it was a close call. She certainly was LUCKY though.

Red Dog, would you do me a favor since you quoted me to make the second quote dancindiva03. God forbid anyone would think I made that quote. All you have to do is put in the first quote is [ quote=dancindiva03 ] I provided spaces but of course you know to leave the spaces out.

I would appreciate the change.

Dee

Dee4707 said:

Anniemg, see now your comment on why Sasha won the medal has substance and something backing up your statement, therefore I would probably believe and listen to what your saying.........dancindiva03 comments, inane.

I'm not even a Sasha fan but would think about the product based on the commerical aspect. I have a lot of sinus problems.

As always, you're right. Math, you're such a joy to converse with.

Dee

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Of course anyone who dares disaprove of Sasha is inane. Nevermind that with two falls (yes, that second one should have been counted as a fall) and a two-footed landing, it was NOT a medal worthy performance. I would have said that of ANYONE who skated that way. The judges once again propped up her PCS marks to get her on that podium.

dancindiva03 said:

The judges once again propped up her PCS marks to get her on that podium.

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Well, not exactly. If you actually look at the numbers, Sasha got second place in the tech scores as well. (Only Rochette scored a fraction of a point higher, and she was too far behind after the SP to be in contention).

TES scores:

Arakawa 62.32
Cohen 55.22
Slutskaya 53.87
Suguri 54.23
Rochette 55.29
Meissner 52.77
Hughes 53.82

The PCSs were just the cherry on top.

http://www.isufs.org/results/owg2006/OWG06_Ladies_FS_Scores.pdf

This ain't 6.0 anymore. Under 6.0 Sasha would be clobbered. Under CoP, she does just fine because all skating elements are rewarded. People tend to forget that.

Lanie said:

This ain't 6.0 anymore. Under 6.0 Sasha would be clobbered. Under CoP, she does just fine because all skating elements are rewarded. People tend to forget that.

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Very true. Under 6.0, Sasha would have gotten slammed for two falls and Fumie probably would have beaten her. Maybe even Joannie. BUT can't say there was any "wuz robbing" because both Sasha and Irina had COP down pat and were able to make up for their mistakes with the spins and spirals they did.

Not only that, but it seems like the program component scores are being given out on reputation more than anything else. Sasha's Olympic program was quite sound -- even extraordinary -- minus the two falls. She fully deserved her 62.41 total points in PCS.

But at Worlds she absolutely stunk, yet they still gave her almost identical scores (61.87) for program components.

The skater who got inflated PCSs at the Olympics was Irina. For a performance that I would have to classify as perhaps the least inspired of her whole career, she still got PCS of 61.35. Her performance was awful in every respect -- transitions, choreography, you name it.

In contrast, her performance at 2005 Worlds -- the greatest of her career -- gave her only 66.07 points. That's less than a .5 difference in each program component category.

Another problem is maybe she has outgrown the ballerina thing. I now much prefer her fiery short programs to her slow paced longs. Maybe she needs to reinvent herself.

Well, the status quo works, so no need to change there. She just needs to work on closing should she continue to skate.