Technical Breakdown of the Senior GPF SD 2011/2012 season | Golden Skate

Technical Breakdown of the Senior GPF SD 2011/2012 season

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Here it is. It's your turn to view the competition from the perspective of the technical specialist or the judges, when they assign technical levels and grades of execution for each element, if you'd like, play the videos. Each link is indexed to start just before the named element begins, but you'll have to hit the stop button yourself to move on.


You will notice the that teams finished in the same order by technical scores as they did overall, but within the elements, some teams were stronger at one, and some at another.

Meryl & Charlie scored the highest in every element this time.

Short Dance Technical Scores

1 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 38.50
2 Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR CAN 35.36
3 Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT FRA 34.85
4 Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE CAN 34.28
5 Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI USA 34.15
6 Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV RUS 31.72

There are five scored elements in every Short Dance this year:



TWO SEQUENCES OF THE RHUMBA

Four of the six teams got two level 4's. Only V&M and B&S got a level 3 on one of the 2 sequences, which is why they are at the bottom this list. S&S didn't have the speed of either D&W or P&B or W&P. W&P do a very nice rhumba compared to their other elements. The deep edges of that first key point are very nice for D&W. The camera does you out of seeing them in the second sequence. D&W and W&P do the two sequences nearly back to back with a few transitional steps between, so there is only one link for them. The other 4 teams put other elements between the two sequences.


D&W Rhumba 16.00 R2Sq4 8.00 3D&W R1Sq4 8.00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3hpoOQ5KlM#t=1m26s


P&B Rhumba 15.28 R1Sq4 7.71 4P&B R2Sq4 7.57
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_R5BO0SgQ0#t=1m13s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_R5BO0SgQ0#t=2m7s

W&P Rhumba 14.86 R2Sq4 7.43 2W&P R1Sq4 7.43
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFMGFyKCTN0#t=1m22s

S&S Rhumba 14.86 R1Sq4 7.50 3S&S R2Sq4 7.36
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnx0XZuYY50#t=0m54s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnx0XZuYY50#t=1m47s

V&M Rhumba 14.72 R1Sq4 7.79 1V&M R2Sq3 6.93
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV7LcF10B1c#t=0m51s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV7LcF10B1c#t=2m0s

B&S Rhumba 13.93 R1Sq4 7.64 3B&S R2Sq3 6.29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKEvSSjP8cc#t=1m1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKEvSSjP8cc#t=2m4s


CIRCULAR NONTOUCHING STEP

This is where Meryl & Charlie blew the rest away, as the only team this season to get a level 4 on the new circular step sequence. In some ways, it's tricky to watch these because they are filmed from a single viewpoint, so the perspective on the circle causes the dancers to appear as if the distance between them changes when it doesn't. In any case, check out the deep edges and the unison, especially in those low twizzly steps. :clap: V&M had one or two steps that were on a flat. Even one drops your level to a 3. P&B had many failures of unison in this step; I could see them lower in it, except for their speed.

The Shibs had nice unison, but less speed than P&B or W&P They skated the closest together so far, but it's easier when you're going slower. W&P-Andrew had a tiny stumbly bit. Also ending the circular step with a transition of running on flats is a bad move, since if the techs were to think even one of those steps was included as part of the sequence, it would drop the level. B&S were clearly the worst, with the level two, due to shallow edges. They had some unison breaks, too.


D&W NtCiSt4 10.00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3hpoOQ5KlM#t=2m33s

V&M NtCiSt3 8.64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV7LcF10B1c#t=2m52s

P&B NtCiSt3 7.64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_R5BO0SgQ0#t=1m34s

S&S NtCiSt3 7.64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnx0XZuYY50#t=2m32s

W&P NtCiSt3 7.07
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFMGFyKCTN0#t=3m5s

B&S NtCiSt2 6.29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKEvSSjP8cc#t=2m54s


LIFT

I could see either D&W's or V&M's lift in first-both are smooth, interesting, go up quick, exit smoothly and fit the character of the dance . Maybe D&W get back into the dance faster. Both teams 'dance', i.e. respond to the beat and emphasis of the music during the lift, so that the lifts are a seamless part of their dance.

Comments on some of these lifts: P&B's is complex, but ungainly and is flirting with the deduction for "gynecological" exposure. The Shibutani's lift is well executed, but seems more basic (though still level 4), B&S's lift doesn't look wholly secure, & W&P's is just really ugly. That's the way it's choreographed (and it echoes a step she does in their introductory moves), but I can see why the judges put it last.


D&W CuLi4 5.29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3hpoOQ5KlM#t=3m2s

V&M CuLi4 5.07
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV7LcF10B1c#t=2m19s

P&B CuLi4 5.00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_R5BO0SgQ0#t=0m58s

S&S RoLi4 4.86
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnx0XZuYY50#t=3m5s

B&S SlLi4 4.79
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKEvSSjP8cc#t=2m27s

W&P SlL4 4.71
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFMGFyKCTN0#t=2m1s


TWIZZLES

The camera angle was not great for filming these for some of the teams. A twizzle is good if it covers a lot of ice, if the rotations are very fast (regardless if that is right for the music), if the team is in good unison, and if the skaters seem to be on balance.

Even though D&W twizzled faster (rotationally) and got good ice coverage, I thought V&M had better control. I might have disagreed with the judges here, but not by much. The camera angle didn't help figuring it out either.

P&B did 3 twizzles, and Fabian looked off balance in the third set. The Shibutanis were slower across the ice and didn't get the ice coverage of P&B. B&S looked rather unsteady in the second set. W&P's unison was not good, and because they did 3 sets, you had plenty of time to pick up on it.

D&W STw4 7.21
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3hpoOQ5KlM#t=0m51s

V&M STw4 6.93
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV7LcF10B1c#t=1m17s

P&B STw4 6.93
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_R5BO0SgQ0#t=2m45s

S&S STw4 6.79
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnx0XZuYY50#t=1m13s

B&S STw4 6.71
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKEvSSjP8cc#t=1m20s

W&P STw4 6.64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFMGFyKCTN0#t=2m45s

I hope you have fun!
 

emma

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
I'm only just starting to go through this, but I cannot tell you how helpful and informative it is! Thanks so much for doing this. So, i started with twizzles because for whatever reason, D/W specifically his, caught my eye as a 'glitch'....it still seemed, asb you said, less controlled, than V/M, but I can appreciate the speed and coverage now! So thanks! I think that V/M appear so polished in this element that I can't really see the speed or coverage comparison, but will try. And of course, I will look at all the others too.

From there, I will go to lifts because It thought both D/W and V/M had spectacular lifts and Liked some of the other teams too. thanks again for making this available to us.
 

KKonas

Medalist
Joined
Oct 31, 2009
Excellent job, Doris. Don't know how you have the time to do all this. Kudos to you for all you do to explain how the results came out the way they did.
 

WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
Doris--you are a big reason why I love this site. This is just so informative, clear, and concise. NBC should hire you for the next Olympics and maybe people will stop whining that COP is so confusing, unfair, yaddayaddayadda. It's been a real boon to ice dancing.
 

semosk8tfan

Medalist
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Country
United-States
Question for Doris: in the circular footwork section you mention teams with "steps on a flat", what do you mean by that?
 

jcoates

Medalist
Joined
Mar 3, 2006
Question for Doris: in the circular footwork section you mention teams with "steps on a flat", what do you mean by that?

She's referring to them not being on clear inside or outside edges while performing their steps and turns. They are literally skating on the groove in the middle of the blade (the flat) rather than on distinct edges. Not being on a deep clear edge is far easier for skating. It also reduces you level of difficulty.
 

semosk8tfan

Medalist
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Country
United-States
She's referring to them not being on clear inside or outside edges while performing their steps and turns. They are literally skating on the groove in the middle of the blade (the flat) rather than on distinct edges. Not being on a deep clear edge is far easier for skating. It also reduces you level of difficulty.

Thanks! Between you and Doris I am learning a lot about ice dance technique this weekend.:)
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
I want to make clear that almost all the time V&M had lovely edges, but I spotted one clear case of a flat on Tessa's part and one other probable. There are 3 eagle eyed tech panel members looking for flat edges in the step sequence. Typically one watches just the man and one just the lady, to make sure no fault is missed. If I saw it, they saw it, so there is no wonder V&M got level 3...like everyone else this year, including D&W at their other two outings.

One of the problems with the circular step not touching is that the distance between the pair should stay the same. If the couple are in hold, as they usually are in a circular step, this is easy enough. But not touching, there are two obvious choices in the way to do it: side by side, which means the team member on the inner part of the circle has to skate slower than the outer team member to keep the distance constant, or the team has to follow each other in the same circle. Some teams swap between both alignments, and outside the arena, it is very difficult to judge this.

COR gave us an overhead view of a circular not touching step, which is helpful to see to figure out what is going on (D&W doing a significantly worse circular not touching step than they did at the GPF, overhead view for most of it):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulOzZgElf2k#t=2m55s
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
overhead views always make my head dizzy. :laugh: but I'm sure you're right that it's the better perspective.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Well, it's all wrong for grading the step, but worthwhile for seeing that the skaters are actually skating a circle and how they're doing it.
 

jcoates

Medalist
Joined
Mar 3, 2006
NBC uses Tracy Wilson for these sort of breakdowns once in a while at major events like Olympics and Worlds (when they bother to air them). Sadly, none of their other analysts are qualified to do the same when Tracy is calling dance. They really need to clone her a couple of times and then replace everyone else or hire Judy Blumberg to work alongside her on NBC and not just UniSport.
 

CARA

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 16, 2009
Country
United-States
NBC uses Tracy Wilson for these sort of breakdowns once in a while at major events like Olympics and Worlds (when they bother to air them). Sadly, none of their other analysts are qualified to do the same when Tracy is calling dance. They really need to clone her a couple of times and then replace everyone else or hire Judy Blumberg to work alongside her on NBC and not just UniSport.

Or better yet, hire Doris. ;)
Thank you Doris for your effort in explaining, and you, too, jcoates, for your additional comments. This thread had been quite informative. :)
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
NBC uses Tracy Wilson for these sort of breakdowns once in a while at major events like Olympics and Worlds (when they bother to air them). Sadly, none of their other analysts are qualified to do the same when Tracy is calling dance. They really need to clone her a couple of times and then replace everyone else or hire Judy Blumberg to work alongside her on NBC and not just UniSport.

I don't know why they don't use Blumberg, unless she just doesn't want to?
 
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