Men's Short Program

"When you are world champion, [the judges] tend to cut you a little slack, but then there's the other 5 percent where the brain starts doubting," he said. "But I've been in bigger holes and recovered. This was certainly better than last year."

Click to expand...

I think it would have been wiser not to say something like that aloud, although in my opinion it is true. Of course this is not as bad as Plushenko about his transitions, which also was true, LOL.

Jaana said:

I think it would have been wiser not to say something like that aloud, although in my opinion it is true. Of course this is not as bad as Plushenko about his transitions, which also was true, LOL.

Click to expand...

I guess you probably haven't read the rest of the posts while writing the message. I had the same reaction when I first read that "quote".
Perhaps Chan's agent needs to contact Ice Network to have that "quote" corrected. It does give people a bad impression about Chan's character.

he's not the first one to say it, but I think he's the first one to say it while still competing

From Evan Lysacek's Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/EvanLysacek/status/130671297175896065)

I just saw Daisuke Takahashi's short program from Skate Canada. It was absolutely brilliant. Major props to him!!

Click to expand...

Interesting. Kind of great to see Evan acknowledge Dice-K's magic.

^^ Looking again at Dai’s sp and taking it all in (especially in comparison to Patrick), absolutely Dai deserved to be in first place in the sp (I don’t care he didn’t do a quad and Javi did). I think we all like Javi and we’re happy for him, and he performed extremely well. But I think that Dai had better spins, absolutely better artistry and musical interpretation. Dai’s was a masterful performance that went unrewarded to its deserving extent.

After putting that exquisite performance out on the ice and being miniscule points in front of a flawed Patrick and just behind a less presentation mature and less masterful Javi, must have been disappointing for Dai. And then he had to skate his free program after hearing Chan’s marks go through the roof. Dai probably put pressure on himself that he had to go clean and perfect to beat Chan, especially w/o a quad. It must have weighed heavily and led to a reduction in energy, less attack and perhaps less focus (and for sure endurance may also be a factor for Dai, having come back from injury last season, and his body is not getting any younger). No excuses for Dai, just my take. Dai doesn't need excuses, he's a World champion who has consistently challenged himself and grown as an artist/ athlete, in the process.

Serious Business said:

It was interesting to note that the judges seem to actually ding skaters for sub-par spinning this time. In the protocols, Javier got a -.13 for his level 2 flying upright spin after his 3axel, which traveled a bit but I didn't think was that bad. Takahashi's camel spin, which might have been short of rotation, because it looked really slow and a bit out of control, got a miniscule -0.04 deduction on top of only getting a level 1. Not exactly harsh, but nice to see some of them do pay attention.

Click to expand...

I am very glad to see this as well. Some of them are finally starting to listen! I feel the judging of spins still needs to be more critical (too much +GOE is getting thrown around and still not quite enough -GOE), and I still think some of the base values themselves need to be modified a bit so that lower-level spins which are executed and choreographed better become the clear choice, but it really is nice that they seem to have begun to clamp down and punish the ungainly, lackluster, and overly time-consuming spins CoP has created.

Your sentimental speech would have more credibility should you have at least got the fact right. If Daisuke decided to go clean, he wouldn't have gone for the unreliable quad flip (please check the score sheet from the following link).

http://www.isuresults.com/results/gpcan2011/gpcan2011_Men_FS_Scores.pdf

Art&Sport said:

After putting that exquisite performance out on the ice and being miniscule points in front of a flawed Patrick and just behind a less presentation mature and less masterful Javi, must have been disappointing for Dai. And then he had to skate his free program after hearing Chan’s marks go through the roof. Dai probably put pressure on himself that he had to go clean and perfect to beat Chan, especially w/o a quad. It must have weighed heavily and led to a reduction in energy, less attack and perhaps less focus (and for sure endurance may also be a factor for Dai, having come back from injury last season, and his body is not getting any younger). No excuses for Dai, just my take. Dai doesn't need excuses, he's a World champion who has consistently challenged himself and grown as an artist/ athlete, in the process.

Click to expand...

In the SP, Takahashi had the advantage of skating last. Seeing that Chan had messed up his skate, Takahashi decided to go quadless and clean and it worked out well. The SP was one of his best performances since Worlds 2010. Good for him. That was a smart stretagy to not put pressure on himself.

Takahashi, a champion that he is, doesn't need or make excuses himself and certainly doesn't need unbefitting mindset projected onto him.

fscric said:

Your sentimental speech would have more credibility should you have at least got the fact right. If Daisuke decided to go clean, he wouldn't have gone for the unreliable quad flip (please check the score sheet from the following link).

...

Click to expand...

I didn't say Dai "decided to go clean." He just may have felt increased pressure to be clean. How can anyone "decide" to go clean in any case. Everyone hopes and wants to skate a clean program. If you mean that Dai would have or should have backed off difficult jumps and skated conservatively, what good would that have done. The point is in order to try and beat Chan, Dai needed to skate lights out and land a quad. Even then, Mr. PC s-factor might still have edged for the win.

You're welcome to and please enjoy all the score sheets and protocols and math equations you adore. I don't need to look at them, because there are so many IJS highly educated fans out there like yourself to advise and correct.