Particle Man; Skating and Chess
Excellent posts about artistry etc. You are absolutely right. To try to quantify artistry is the height of absurdity. What people in figure skating, and around figure skating forget, is that it is the general public that pays for the sport and they have to be able to understand it. For those of you who feel the 6.0 system was more difficult to grasp, well I don't know quite what to say, except that we must not live on the same planet. For the person that said the announcers should state why the skater is being given a higher "level" as they do a lift etc., you have made my point for me. The general public wants a simpler system. They don't want to have to factor in a "level," which is a nebulous thing to them and has no meaning unless they get the rule book out. This isn't chess, which is a viewer sport only to those who play chess. But it will become like chess, if we continue down this road. As for those who think skating was on a decline before CoP, there is no comaprison to what we are seeing now. When you can't get a network anywhere to carry major skating competitions, it's because it isn't profitable, and that is because there is limited viewership. Sponsors won't pay to support a sport in decline.The reason skating is popular in Korea and Japan is because of two people-Yu Na Kim and Mao Asada. It's the thrill of a rivalry bewtween two great skaters. They are lovely girls but they do not connect with American audiences like Michelle did or even Irina Slutskaya.
Excellent posts about artistry etc. You are absolutely right. To try to quantify artistry is the height of absurdity. What people in figure skating, and around figure skating forget, is that it is the general public that pays for the sport and they have to be able to understand it. For those of you who feel the 6.0 system was more difficult to grasp, well I don't know quite what to say, except that we must not live on the same planet. For the person that said the announcers should state why the skater is being given a higher "level" as they do a lift etc., you have made my point for me. The general public wants a simpler system. They don't want to have to factor in a "level," which is a nebulous thing to them and has no meaning unless they get the rule book out. This isn't chess, which is a viewer sport only to those who play chess. But it will become like chess, if we continue down this road. As for those who think skating was on a decline before CoP, there is no comaprison to what we are seeing now. When you can't get a network anywhere to carry major skating competitions, it's because it isn't profitable, and that is because there is limited viewership. Sponsors won't pay to support a sport in decline.The reason skating is popular in Korea and Japan is because of two people-Yu Na Kim and Mao Asada. It's the thrill of a rivalry bewtween two great skaters. They are lovely girls but they do not connect with American audiences like Michelle did or even Irina Slutskaya.