Junior Ladies Short Program | Page 3 | Golden Skate

Junior Ladies Short Program

FlattFan

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Jan 4, 2010
The overscored comment was in reply to Flattfan since she made it further up in this thread. With a BV of 30+, I don't know how 34+ TES and 25+ PCS is overscored. I would be grateful if Flattfan can point out exactly where she was overscored in relation to the others in the group.
OMG, You really have trouble reading. I SAID EVERYONE WAS OVERSCORED. I did not single her out. I wouldn't give any GOE on her lutz, maybe .5 on her axel, and .5 on her combo. In relation to the others, she's fine.

FWIW, Gracie is only 16 now (will be 17 late next summer).

I can't say whether she will continue to be successful in the future or if she will develop in the "right" ways to be successful in Seniors, but I certainly hope she does. :) It would be great to say "I knew her when..."

When Yuna, Mao, Carolina were 16, their SP were so impressive.
The only reason I was at the Junior event was to check her out. I'm excited for her, but there are so many things she can improve on from first view. It was that obvious.
 

FlattFan

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Jan 4, 2010
Flattfan, you did compare Gracie's lutz as not being as big as Tonya Harding's or Miki Ando. I think height and such will come with time. I still think they are big relative to the people she's competing with — and even some of the seniors who will be competing later this week. She also does not have a flutz and she has great flow out of the jumps.
Relative to the entire juniors and seniors who will be competing, her lutz is great, probably the best.
Relative to the rest of the world, it is unremarkable. When I first heard about her on here, I thought she was the second coming of Midori Ito and Tonya Harding. Seeing her LIVE, she's not even as explosive as Miki or Irina. I'm a bit disappointed.


I think her score was reasonable. Most of her score came on the TES side and she didn't even hit all her levels on all the elements. She benefited from a clean — albeit tight, as Doris said — program that earned her mostly +1 and +2 on GOE. Her PCS was the highest, but hardly revolutionary — mid 6s is about right for a junior skater.

As I said, she is likely win this competition easily and could even contend for a medal at JW with what she's got now. She can work on everything else that will make her a viable senior lady when she gets home.
She's definitely going to win. Probably can win/medal in the senior event, too.
I just hope her team polish her up. She's a diamond in the rough now.
 

FlattFan

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Jan 4, 2010
Yes, really. You've never said anything positive concerning a skater other than Rachel.

You misread several of my posts consistently, and just did so again. If you were a skater, you would be vying for a medal in most JGP events with your consistency. :)
 
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Jammers

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Relative to the entire juniors and seniors who will be competing, her lutz is great, probably the best.
Relative to the rest of the world, it is unremarkable. When I first heard about her on here, I thought she was the second coming of Midori Ito and Tonya Harding. Seeing her LIVE, she's not even as explosive as Miki or Irina. I'm a bit disappointed.



She's definitely going to win. Probably can win/medal in the senior event, too.
I just hope her team polish her up. She's a diamond in the rough now.
Gracie is much more explosive then Rachael ever was. Rachael's jumps were never a thing of beauty and were sloppy at times. And she never had real good flow out of her jumps and were rather low.
 

ucrgirl

On the Ice
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Feb 16, 2010
It bugs me that a novice/junior is viewed in terms of being a senior champion and has no worth if we can't picture a World medal around their neck in 4 years.

It sounds like several of the ladies had nice skates and I hope to see/appreciate their programs soon.
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2006
Just watched some of the skates. Gracie Gold is very impressive, but Ashley Cain is a goddess. And Polina Edmunds is irresistible. I hope Sr. Ladies are this much fun.
 

drivingmissdaisy

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Feb 17, 2010
I really like Gracie. I understand a lot of the criticisms but, as others have said, she is a JUNIOR skater. She competes in the junior category and skates like a junior. Guess what? Every great senior skated like a junior at some point. There are only so many hours in the day to improve every aspect of your skating; she has wisely chosen to focus on developing strong jumps for now. If she skates like this in 3 years then, yeah, it might be disappointing but she should certainly improve by leaps and bounds in the next few years.
 

Jammers

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Her coaches have played it smart. If you can't land jumps you're going nowhere in competition. It looks like it's paid off since she has better technique then 99% of the Senior ladies some of who are a mess. I actually don't close my eyes when Gracie jumps because i know she has a great chance of landing them. Now on Thursday it will be a different story with the the Senior girls. I don't know what to expect when they launch themselves into the air.
 

dorispulaski

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Sad to say, that is true.

Gracie's jump technique is a joy, precisely because so many US girls over the years have had crappy jump technique.
 

kwanatic

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I watched the SP for the junior ladies and a number of them have better technique than some of the senior ladies.

As of now, I'm not that impressed with Gracie. IDK why, but I'm not. She's a strong jumper but so was Agnes Zawadski and we see where she is right now. Good jumps don't impress me as much as they used to b/c so many junior skaters have good jumps. I'm looking for that something extra on top of the jumps that makes them stand out: Liza T's performance ability, Adelina's long lines, extension and speed, Zijun Li's lyrical presentation, Julia L.'s freakish flexibility...

At 16 years old, I'm sure Gracie will continue to grow and develop into her own, but as of right now she's just another ball of potential. We've seen a butt-load of junior phenoms turn into mediocre senior skaters; I just can't get that excited this early. Hopefully by this time next year I'll be singing a different tune. I do like her a lot better than last year's buzzed-about junior, Courtney Hicks.

I will say this year's junior worlds will be like last year (more entertaining than senior worlds). The competition will be really stiff there...
 

Nadine

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Oct 3, 2003
Just finished watching the Jr. Ladies SPs on IN (i.e. replay), and honestly the only one that I watched twice (three times already) was Hannah Miller. :)

Hannah does everything ~ Mazurka Jump, Stag Leap, Besti Squat, Russian Splits, et al ~ and she does it with style, class, sharpness, quickness, flow, so that everything is seamless. She has passion, verve, joie de vivre, and above all musicality. The program was perfect for her; signature piece already at the young age of 15. Her jumps were good, but nowhere close to Gracie Gold's of course, nobody was, lol. But what I like about Hannah is that she has both, one cannot say she's only about jumps, or only about artistry. She has it all.

Here's to seeing more of Hannah Miller in the future, starting with her FS. :)^)

p.s. when she first came out I thought she was a Russian skater due to the unusual and beautiful costume she wore. Btw, Gracie Gold's jumps are on par with the Russian ladies imho, even a tad better, not because she jumps higher than them, no, it's the beautiful & unusual way she holds her body when she does her jumps. Jmho. One more thing, these two are the only ones I did not fastforward, the others were too boring...
 

Jammers

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I watched the SP for the junior ladies and a number of them have better technique than some of the senior ladies.

As of now, I'm not that impressed with Gracie. IDK why, but I'm not. She's a strong jumper but so was Agnes Zawadski and we see where she is right now. Good jumps don't impress me as much as they used to b/c so many junior skaters have good jumps. I'm looking for that something extra on top of the jumps that makes them stand out: Liza T's performance ability, Adelina's long lines, extension and speed, Zijun Li's lyrical presentation, Julia L.'s freakish flexibility...

At 16 years old, I'm sure Gracie will continue to grow and develop into her own, but as of right now she's just another ball of potential. We've seen a butt-load of junior phenoms turn into mediocre senior skaters; I just can't get that excited this early. Hopefully by this time next year I'll be singing a different tune. I do like her a lot better than last year's buzzed-about junior, Courtney Hicks.

I will say this year's junior worlds will be like last year (more entertaining than senior worlds). The competition will be really stiff there...

The thing about the Russian girls is that they have some growth spurts to survive. Adelina wasn't the same skater this year because she's grown some and Liza has at least one growth spurt in her future. As for Julia L she's only 13 and her flexibility will not be the same in a couple years and who knows how tall she will be. Gracie has already gone through her growth spurt but these tiny Russian girls won't be so tiny in the future.
 

lavender

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Jul 26, 2003
Eh...I was hearing all this talk about Gracie so I decided to watch. I hear she's grown a lot since she impressed everyone so maybe things have changed. She has great jump tech but I guess I was expecting that to be coupled with some Sasha/Michelle presentation in there.

I think of Yuna and Mao who kept my attention when they were even juniors but Gracie has a lot room for growth so who knows.
 
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mskater93

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Oct 22, 2005
One more thing, these two are the only ones I did not fastforward, the others were too boring...
You missed two great little skaters by fast forwarding: Polina Edmunds (first warm up group) and Mariah Bell. Polina has a LONG way to go seeing as how she's only 13, but she looked like she was having a GREAT time out there and it made me enjoy her performance more because she looked like she was having fun with cute little music (not dramatic OTT or BB music) and her reaction to her scores was priceless. Mariah Bell had an awesome program to the music from Mack and Mabel and if she hadn't messed up her combo, would likely be in 2nd or 3rd. She's got GREAT presentation for only 15 and her program (according to people who skate with her) is completely along the lines of her personality (light, cute, always moving).

Hannah needs to fix her Lutz entry, but for only having 3S and 3T last year at this time (Novice National Champion), it's amazing her progress in 12 months time (actually, most from Feb-July from a tech standpoint - I saw her compete w/all through 3Lz e in July).

What impressed me was the quality of the elements all the way down. The Tech Panel is very strict and there were very few > and >> elements in Juniors.
 

drivingmissdaisy

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Feb 17, 2010
She has great jump tech but I guess I was expecting that to be coupled with some Sasha/Michelle presentation in there.

That's quite a high bar to set. :) At 16 both those skaters had better presentation than Gracie, but at least Gracie jumps better than Sasha ever did. And her technical content surpasses Kwan's when both skates clean. I think why people are so optimistic isn't because she is a great artist who can do the difficult jumps. It is that her technique is rock solid on the jumps and with that foundation she can devote more time to improving her artistry. There is going to be no reworking of jump technique like Sasha, Mao, Caroline, etc had to do.
 

mskater93

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Oct 22, 2005
No one who has said anything prior to Nationals about Gracie has said anything about her presentation skills other than to say they will need work as she continues to progress. Everyone who has seen her has mentioned technical skills (and that includes those of us who skate with her regularly). I can definitely say that her outing at Nationals was no where near her best, she definitely seemed a little cautious and appeared nervous (versus sending us all to the boards while she skates her program because 1) she's all over the rink at brek-neck speed and 2) she can be riveting when she's really super-on). She has focused on technique, stamina, consistency and skating skills this year (which is what you SHOULD be focusing on as a Junior). No matter how great an artist you are, if you don't have good technique (especially falling or under-rotating), you are going to get buried at Sectionals.
 

Jammers

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Mariah Bell really caught my eye last year when she skated in Novice. She's fast as lightning has great personality and has that "watch me' gene. She was having a great time on the ice in the SP.
 
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