- Joined
- Oct 5, 2009
Thank you for your above response. I thought I was being too harsh as well.
So for her and/or her family, Chinese connection seems to be very important,
which is understandable considering the fact
she is a daughter of the recent Chinese immigrant family.
But I think she should break away from that though I know that could be very difficult,
people in a minority community feel strong obligation to help each other
and stick to each other to survive.
Uh, even Chinese who like to start out "sticking together" for the sake of comfort and trust, will usually dump a course of action that isn't getting them the results they want, and will try something else.
Definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result.
I was expecting to see a really awful performance, but I just saw Caroline's short on YouTube, and to my surprise, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. She started off with good speed and attack, and (ignoring the mule kick and the corkscrew technique, which are the same as they've always been) went faster than usual into the 3F with quick, clean rotations.
I wondered about that. So she messed up the triple - triple, and did a triple - double with a turn in the middle. She fell on another jump. Does that deserve to be 20 points behind the leaders? Does poor jumping make everything else look bad?
And as her jumping tchnique was developed for jumping without the speed, if she adds more speed, she messes up with them. In order to compete, she has to keep using her false technique. Then she will never be able to fix it, or never have enough time to fix it, I guess.
Wow, bluelutz, this is the best post I've seen that pretty much tells the whole story.
Let me sum it up.
1.) Skater is used to performing her choreography, transitions, and executing her jumps with slow skating.
2.) Skater speeds up her skating, but can't sustain jumps, choreography, and transitions with the new speed.
In conclusion: Opting for speed has ruined her skating as a whole. The jumps are unreliable, the interpretation and execution of choreography has become significantly worse. The overall quality of the skating has suffered.
To her credit, yes, Caroline has seriously attempted to introduce speed into her skating, but lost her contender status as a result. What she needs to do now, other than recovering her jumps, is to relearn to pay attention to choreography: skate with subtlety, sensitivity, and express the music. As is, she's too tense and nervous to do that. Attempting to skate with more power has robbed her of calm and composure.
that being stated- zhang didn't skate like she should of.
Caroline grew and what worked for her at 4'10 and 75 lbs is no longer good.
Which is why she should go to Frank Carol and fix her jumps like Mirai has done. I don't know if she could handle him as a coach though, it seems like she likes to do things her way.
Nagasu and Zhang were in a similar boat back in 2007.
One of those skaters made a tough decision and decided to start from the beginning. The other kept the status quo.
Guess which one is in contention now?
I don't think Frank would take Caroline: 1) he already has Mirai, a direct competitor, also Carolina Kostner. 2) he won't put up with her wanting to do "things her way." I've heard Frank's pretty clear from the outset with his skaters, it's his way or go elsewhere for coaching.
Well to be fair, Caroline has a lot more stuff to fix than Mirai ever did, that's something I have to say for the record, just to point out that their situations were not as similar as they may seem.
Yes, but is Frank Carroll the only coach on the world who can help someone fix their jump technique?
Alissa went to someone else. Her jumps are still problematic but the technique is definitely better now. I don't think Caroline wants to move to the midwest though. What about Rafael Artunian?