- Joined
- Aug 18, 2010
...or even "Jason will someday beat Patrick Chan."
I can pinpoint exactly where this has been said. It was in 2012 US Nationals thread.
...or even "Jason will someday beat Patrick Chan."
Heeeey, slow down, Doris! Some of us are still hoping Jason will pull out the big jumps and be a contender at the senior level. He's only 17--we can hope!SkateFiguring-people that admire Jason Brown are in many cases, those that admired Rohene Ward and Shawn Sawyer-they are not talking about who is going to win competitions. They are talking about who they enjoy watching and why.
They would like to hope Jason will get a consistent 3A. It may not happen. So they look for skaters who had at some times problems with a 3A, and they find:
Patrick Chan, who had no such thing as a good 3A=he had a 3A he could land well sometimes, but often fell on in competition, for whatever reason. And now he has a relatively consistent one.
Patrick is picked to compare to because HE WAS SUCCESSFUL AT OVERCOMING HIS PROBLEMS. And that is what those that admire Jason, hope for him. Do you think they want to cite Shawn Sawyer, a very interesting skater, who never did manage to have a consistent, well performed 3A, thus predicting failure at the outset?
No one is attacking Patrick Chan.
No one is saying Jason Brown will ever even be in an event where he will be competing with Patrick Chan.
No one is even saying Jason Brown will ever win or place top 3 at US Nationals.
They are just hoping he will succeed in going on a bit farther because they like his skating.
Why do they not talk about Han Yan or Jonathan Farris, who have 3A's, and probably a more assured future in skating?
Because they are not at this time mature performers, who use every beat of the music, and have interesting, quirky choreography, and who are memorable. And because, therefore, they are not at all interested in Han Yan or Farris.
Farris & Han Yan have at this moment not yet become memorable. And in fact, memorable skaters are a lot rarer than skaters with triple axels and quads. Can Farris & Han Yan become memorable? In fact, that is as a difficult a proposition is Brown getting his triple axel. Skaters that are memorable are pretty few and far between, and most of them were memorable from the first time you saw them.
Brian Boitano is a skater who became memorable later in his career, so the trick can be done. Of the two, I think Han Yan may, with the right choreography, become a memorable skater. I have less hopes for Farris.
But you see how this is? When you look at a skater that you like with a bar to leap, you look to see whether that bar has bothered some previous skater that has then overcome it successfully. With "memorable" this is tricky, because it is possible to win an Olympic Gold Medal without ever being a particularly memorable skater, or ever wanting to be a memorable skater. Witness Evan Lysacek.
That is not saying that Han Yan will win the Olympics like Brian Boitano, only that he may yet become a memorable skater.
I don't see people proclaiming Brown to be the next Patrick Chan. That's not regarded a compliment by many and Brown has actually been proclaimed as better than Chan in some aspects or will soon surely be. I don't see people stating Brown is about to win international Senior medals though some have said he would have won this JW if only he had the 3A and his Senior success is extremely likely.
I am just a stickler for facts and well reasoned speculations and not one for twisted or wrong impressions stated conveniently as truth. I don't deny Brown is talented and has great potential. But wrong statements are made about someone else and premature announcements are made about Brown.
Chan is precocious and successful. He is admirable in how determined and fast he overcomes obstacles and improves himself. As such, he has not had long term struggles. His struggles are always exaggerated and ingrained in people's memories but they have not been "long term". He often resolves them within half a season. That's one of the factors of his amazing rise to the ever higher level in skating.
My hope is that Jason Brown will not only conquer his 3A struggles but end up with a text book 3A that will garner lots of +GOE. I think that's what he is working toward.
I'm surprised that you think "complete package" is a compliment.
I don't
It is what Dick & Peggy used to say of skaters whose technical content not quite first rate (but acceptable), or who tended to fall a lot, and whose artistry they were trying to convince the TV audience of. It was said of skaters like Sasha Cohen, who were very pretty, and had lovely extensions, but kind of crappy jump technique. Or Jill Trenary, same deal-when she was competing with Kristi Yamaguchi & Tonya Harding in 1989. Or Nancy Kerrigan.
Patrick is better than that. I hope that some day Jason will be better than "the whole package".
For me, the "complete package" applies to the all round best like Browning, Yagudin, Lambiel, Chan, Takahashi, et al. There are complete packages missing nerves/consistency such as Abbott and Sandhu. Some of my favorite skaters are great artists without the biggest jumps, like Sawyer, Beacom, Britten, etc. Some others may be even more beautiful to watch if they dumb down the technical contents further. They would made good show skaters but they don't get a chance without big medals. While I think Lysacek won his OGM fair and square, my problem with him is not about his on and off quad but lack of artistry and charisma. Kozuka and Oda are almost there, missing just a little to account for their relatively fewer wins.
I have not been interested in Juniors before but this year's crop is truly promising. I posted a few months ago Han Yan was my discovery this season. Farris is getting my attention too. (Brown is a can't miss with all the GS gushes.)
Of the future of these three, I would send them shopping. Yan needs a good choreography, while Farris should buy himself some personality and Brown technical prowess. Who do you think has the best chance of getting what he needs very quickly and easily?
Since they are all so young and talented, I have no doubt eventually they will all grow into the complete packages or nearly so
eta. I formed my impression of Farris watching his SP but after the LP, I wouldn't even call him dull. He has flair and just needs refinement and expression, like all young ones do.
Bluebonnet said:I can pinpoint exactly where this has been said. It was in 2012 US Nationals thread.Mrs. P said:...or even "Jason will someday beat Patrick Chan."
:scratch: For some reason, This is beginning to sound like a Wizard of Oz movie moment. I expect Han Yan, Farris & Brown to break out singing "If I Only Had a Brain/Heart/Nerve," but changing it up this way:
Han Yan
If I only had a show
Farris
a style
Brown
the jumps
So we're off to see the Wizard
etc
etaa. I had wanted to write a story of three little princes going to the Wizard of Oz but couldn't come up with a good name for Farris. There lies his problem. No obvious and distinctive characteristics, physically or name and style wise.