Your favorite skating discipline and...why | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Your favorite skating discipline and...why

blue dog

Trixie Schuba's biggest fan!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 16, 2006
Stephane Bernadis is 5'8 (his partner is 4'10) Vadim Naumov is 5'9 (his partner was also 4'10) Robin Szolkowy is also 5'9 (his partner is 5'0). All of these guys are "short" by male pairs skating standard, but have had success in the sport. Of course finding a female partner between 4'9 and 4'11 might be more difficult, but probably not impossible.

This is true. Bryce Davison was 5'7", as well. But then again, what if I'm skating with someone, and she has a late growth spurt, like Dan Zhang!

At any rate back to the original topic-- I love dance because I feel that the lack of jumps leads to a lot of creativity. My current annoyance with dance, though, is the proliferation of twizzles. They were used sparingly in the old system. Now...
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Not that it's possible with today's more daring lifts and throws, but both Ken Shelley and Randy Gardner were around 5-8, and their partners, JoJo Starbuck and Tai Babilonia respectively, were only a few inches shorter than they. Rudy Galindo isn't very tall, though of course he was lucky enough to have Kristi Yamaguchi as his partner. She was really tiny at that point.
 

lulu

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
B&G used the lack of height difference between them to their advantage, it allowed them to perform their trademark pull Arabian cartwheels.
 
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Barb

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 13, 2009
1. ladies
2. men
3. pairs
4 dance

yes, first ladies like someone said is very graceful, the beautiful dresses and positions, but Men and pairs are very impressive, pairs can be impressive and graceful, but the problem is that there are few really good figure skaters in pairs. Dance is weird, but obviously V/M and D/W are wonderful.
 

Précision

Rinkside
Joined
Feb 29, 2012
I love figure skating, but if I really have to make a list, this would be it:

1. Synchronized skating
2. Ice dance
3. Men
4. Ladies
5. Pairs

Ice dance and synchro fascinates me the same way, beautiful and deep edges, knee action, interpretation and surprising coreography. I honestly think, that synchro has the best transitions of all the disciplines. Dance- and synchroprograms usually tell a story, I like that.

THen it's really close between men and ladies. I love ethereal and graceful ladies programs, and the strong and powerful mens programs.
I really like pairs too, but unfortunately I haven't followed pairs as much as the other disciplines.
 

lulu

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
I love figure skating, but if I really have to make a list, this would be it:

1. Synchronized skating
2. Ice dance
3. Men
4. Ladies
5. Pairs

Ice dance and synchro fascinates me the same way, beautiful and deep edges, knee action, interpretation and surprising coreography. I honestly think, that synchro has the best transitions of all the disciplines. Dance- and synchroprograms usually tell a story, I like that.

THen it's really close between men and ladies. I love ethereal and graceful ladies programs, and the strong and powerful mens programs.
I really like pairs too, but unfortunately I haven't followed pairs as much as the other disciplines.

I've been getting more into synchro lately. If it is difficult enough to have unision with two people on the ice, imagine how much more difficult it is with 20 people! I think Synchro skaters are incredibly talented.
 

R.D.

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Ladies, and that's it really. Well, occasionally I will watch a couple of pair or icedance routines.
 

clairecloutier

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 27, 2003
For me, it's:

1. Pairs
2. Ladies
3. Men
4. Ice dance

Actually, I love all four disciplines. But pairs is my favorite. I'm glad to see so many other people choose it as their favorite, too! With the general emphasis on singles in the U.S., and our current success in ice dance, you can feel rather lonely as a pairs fan in America! It's not like Russia or China, where pairs skating has a glorious history and a big fan base.
 

Skater Boy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 24, 2012
Hmmm since theatre on ice was mentioned I wonder if scotch on the rocks would make it? LOL I have to say that I tned to like an event based upon who is skating. SO right now I find men's the most exciting and pairs the least as I don't find anyone that fresh or spectacular. That leaves dance in second followed by the ladies. But if Gold, Tut, Lip, Osmond and Sot start bringing it consistently then my opinion might change.
 

Buttercup

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
Three years ago, it was 1. men 2. dance 3. pairs 4. ladiezzzzz. But I have since had a change of heart, and these days, it's...
1. Ladies
2. Pairs
3. Men
4. Dance

Here's what happened: ladies is my favorite discipline at the moment because it's fairly unpredictable, has a large number of skaters who are pretty enjoyable to watch, no skaters I strongly dislike and no huge emotional involvement - so I can just enjoy each competition and look forward to seeing what my favorites might do. It helps that Carolina Kostner appears to have finally overcome her headcasey tendencies. But really, it's mostly that so many skaters are capable of surprising us on any given day. Quick, predict who'll be on the podium in Sochi! Hard to say, isn't it? I like that.

Pairs is almost entirely because of Savchenko and Szolkowy. I can't wait to see what Ingo comes up with for them; I love having the best in the business be so committed to being creative and innovative, both technically and artistically. TakaTran's medal at Worlds also helped, because they are a joy to watch. Also, I have cast V/T as villains, which keeps me entertained. And there are some lower-ranked pairs I'm fond of/coming to like. Pairs at its best still can't be beat for beauty and wow factor.

The men are so good right now. The problem is that I have both favorites and strong dislikes, so I am too emotionally involved to actually enjoy most competitions. Also, because the men are so competitive and must squeeze every point out of their programs, they can tend towards code-whoring. I dislike that. IJS can be done right (see pairs above) but it requires commitment and vision.

Dance has let me down, even my beloved P/B. The discipline is dominated by a small number of schools and it's frankly becoming a bore - the programs out of Canton in particular. I also don't really like most of the top teams, though I admire some of them. The lack of depth compared to the past is disappointing, and the emphasis on difficulty too often results in elements that are aesthetically not pleasing. I'm not going to single out anyone, because most of the teams are guilty. And the switch from a three segment format to the SD/FD format is also to blame; in three seasons, I can think of very few SDs that I've liked. Can't we have OSPs instead?
 

BravesSkateFan

Medalist
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
1. Ladies
2. Pairs
3. Dance
4. Men

There's just something about the ladies that I love. I find it to have the most variety of any of the disciplines and its the hardest to predict (as my fantasy skating scores have shown over the years :D ).
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
I like ladies best. I don't like how COP changes men's skating. The flexibility rewarded under COP forces men to do elements that they don't do very well. Men will never be as flexible as women so I wish that aspect of COP wouldn't factor in as much in men's skating.
 
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