State of American Ladies: 2013-14 Season | Page 50 | Golden Skate

State of American Ladies: 2013-14 Season

brightphoton

Medalist
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
I know people don't like Tom Z because he made Jason skate with a broken leg at Nationals and then he made Rachael skate with a broken tibia at Worlds. However, it seems like it only bothers us, not skaters.

Jason, of course, moved away from Tom, but Rachael stayed with him, and Agnes took a break and decided she liked Tom Z after all. I remember Tom even won Coach of the Year right after Jason sobbed in pain on TV. So who knows, maybe he is not so bad.
 

bigsisjiejie

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 22, 2009
I know people don't like Tom Z because he made Jason skate with a broken leg at Nationals and then he made Rachael skate with a broken tibia at Worlds. However, it seems like it only bothers us, not skaters.

Jason, of course, moved away from Tom, but Rachael stayed with him, and Agnes took a break and decided she liked Tom Z after all. I remember Tom even won Coach of the Year right after Jason sobbed in pain on TV. So who knows, maybe he is not so bad.

Jason (Brown)? I think you mean Joshua Farris. As for Agnes, I'm not seeing how this move back to Tom is the magic potion she needs, but it's true that at least she won't have to move.
 

brightphoton

Medalist
Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Jason (Brown)? I think you mean Joshua Farris. As for Agnes, I'm not seeing how this move back to Tom is the magic potion she needs, but it's true that at least she won't have to move.

Oh yes, I guess I meant Joshua Farris. I only watch men's skating at Nationals and Worlds so they are not that familiar to me.

I still think despite Tom Z's shady practice of encouraging his young skaters to compete injured, he's at least a competent coach.
 

Jammers

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 4, 2010
Country
United-States
Oh yes, I guess I meant Joshua Farris. I only watch men's skating at Nationals and Worlds so they are not that familiar to me.

I still think despite Tom Z's shady practice of encouraging his young skaters to compete injured, he's at least a competent coach.
Maybe he is a decent coach but his skaters seems to always be slow with the exception of Max and lack good skating skills and bad choreography.
 

FlattFan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 4, 2010
Maybe he is a decent coach but his skaters seems to always be slow with the exception of Max and lack good skating skills and bad choreography.

90% of skaters lack good skating skills and good choreography.
most of them are also slow.

Who's fast, have good skills, good choreography in Yuka and Jason's group? In Frank's group? In the Boston group? In Mishin group?
None.

Let's not make it a coach's problem. A coach can only take you so far. What did Frank do for Kostner? She was the fastest with the best skating skills.
 

kwanatic

Check out my YT channel, Bare Ice!
Record Breaker
Joined
May 19, 2011
Good luck to Agnes. It's not a shocking change seeing as how she won't have to move and is already familiar with the way Tom Z runs his ship. No clue if it will make a difference or not but...whatever.
 

96skiluvr

On the Ice
Joined
Apr 3, 2013
90% of skaters lack good skating skills and good choreography.
most of them are also slow.

Who's fast, have good skills, good choreography in Yuka and Jason's group? In Frank's group? In the Boston group? In Mishin group?
None.

Let's not make it a coach's problem. A coach can only take you so far. What did Frank do for Kostner? She was the fastest with the best skating skills.

Ummmm I'm pretty sure Alissa and Jeremy have stunning choreography?
 

FlattFan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 4, 2010
Ummmm I'm pretty sure Alissa and Jeremy have stunning choreography?

Alissa's programs are as empty as the arena she performed in. Stunning?
Jeremy's programs haven't been good since forever. When was the last decent choreography?

Anyway, if anyone has a coach, that coach probably sucks more than TomZ could have ever sucked. So suck it.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
To me, both Jeremy (please omit the quad) and Alissa :love: more with such grace and elegance that it gives the illusion of great choreography.
 

tulosai

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 21, 2011
Oh yes, I guess I meant Joshua Farris. I only watch men's skating at Nationals and Worlds so they are not that familiar to me.

I still think despite Tom Z's shady practice of encouraging his young skaters to compete injured, he's at least a competent coach.

I don't think a competent coach disregards his skater's short and long term health, period. There is more to being a coach than just having skaters who can achieve ok to good results when healthy. This is especially true when your students are children (and Josh was a child) and are relying on you and their parents to look out for their best interest. In addition, I think it has been confirmed that Josh did not even want to skate that day and Tom Z essentially made him (call it encouraged strongly if you must). I think that's messed up and you can't ignore things like this when considering if a coach is 'competent'.

It's also not like it was the Olympic games or the Nationals to get to the Olympics. It's not like Josh was old or really needed to prove something at that Nationals in particular since he'd never have another chance. It was pretty much a nothing competition in the scheme of things. I think that makes it worse.
 

Skater Boy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 24, 2012
wow this is insightful. Okay you know I can see that - Abbott has those "dramatic stares" but maybe there is some point watch the feet and patterns on the ice and yeah there isn[t as much as I thought.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
New blog from Gracie Gold: http://www.teamusa.org/Team-USA-Winter-Bloggers/Gracie-Gold/Greetings-From-SoCal

Highlights:

Salt Lake City wasn't the most successful competition for me. My life was feeling frantic and out of control. I think my performances were affected by that turmoil.

Luckily, I was able to start training with Frank Carroll towards the end of September. He's wonderful to work with. When anyone speaks of him, they invariably say, "He's not just a great coach, he's a great person." I understand why they say that. I really enjoy our lessons. He's intelligent and insightful. He's also very humorous in his examples and delivery.

The Toyota Sports Center is beautiful! Everyone there has been welcoming and friendly towards us. There are three ice surfaces: an Olympic surface, an NHL rink, and a smaller surface, called "The Pond".

I was able to skate with Evan Lysacek for a few days before his injury required him to take time off. He has an energy and drive that is contagious. I hope he's back soon. Dennis Ten is there most days and I usually see Mirai Nagasu and Courtney Hicks once or twice a week. It's inspiring to skate with such great skaters.

I thought I should talk briefly about my programs. They have generated a lot of feedback, positive and negative. Of particular concern seems to be my pink, princessy free skate dress. Apparently it's too juvenile for someone of my advanced years, lol! I admit to being a little torn over the interpretation of the music — pretty princess vs. Carabosse (powerful witch). I have since changed my thinking. I picture this Sleeping Beauty as beautiful and lovely, yes. But, instead of a weak and timid nature, this beauty has the heart of a lion! She's angry about the spell, she doesn't want to take a nap! She wants to dance! She wants to live! Like all of us, she's a mixed bag. She can be light and lovely or dark and moody. I will be debuting another dress at Skate Canada. This dress gives a nod to the beautiful princess dress, but with a touch of darkness and magic. My plan is to take both dresses to competitions and decide at each competition, which one I'm "feeling” and wear the correlating dress.
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
The language she uses to describe her program is so much more colorful than then interpretation itself. I'm not sure if sassy Sleeping Beauty will work with the same music she has chosen.
 

Jammers

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 4, 2010
Country
United-States
That is the best advice anyone could give Gracie. Forget about over thinking your programs and just land the jumps. This year isn't going to be the one where she makes huge improvements. She got a new coach way too late into the season so she needs to just focus on landing her jumps. If she lands her jumps she will make the podium at just about every event except the Olympics just judging by her scores last season. Good to see that she admits things were spiraling out of control back in September it really showed in the way she skated. She needs to just take a deep breath and realize the prize at the end of the tunnel this season is making the Olympic team not becoming a great artist on the ice.
 

penguin

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 31, 2012
Eek, Gracie's blog worries me. I really want her to pull it together and do her best, but her comments indicate that she cares WAY too much about what people say about her, and about things that aren't strictly important. Okay I guess costuming is important but it should hardly be a priority. The overexplanation of her choices strikes me as defensive and nervous. I wonder if she reads skating blogs/messageboards (I would guess yes based on her comments about all the feedback), which has to be a distraction.
 
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