Ladies Short Program: 2013 NHK Trophy | Page 12 | Golden Skate

Ladies Short Program: 2013 NHK Trophy

Shayuki

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 2, 2013
Well, Mao Asada rotates her triple axel well, I just feel like it's a bit too low to be comfortable... I'm not sure if it's a good idea to have such a risky move in the olympics. If she underrotates it(about 50/50 with today's performance) it's going to pretty much single-handedly ruin her chances at a gold. I guess it's unreasonable to expect Midori Ito-level triple axels but hmm... I'd imagine that she could get the ~3 extra points with more reliable methods, for example by aiming for a really high +GOE double Axel late in the program.
 

sapphiresky

Rinkside
Joined
Nov 3, 2012
Well, Mao Asada rotates her triple axel well, I just feel like it's a bit too low to be comfortable... I'm not sure if it's a good idea to have such a risky move in the olympics. If she underrotates it(about 50/50 with today's performance) it's going to pretty much single-handedly ruin her chances at a gold. I guess it's unreasonable to expect Midori Ito-level triple axels but hmm... I'd imagine that she could get the ~3 extra points with more reliable methods, for example by aiming for a really high +GOE double Axel late in the program.

I think if Mao's goal was solely for scores, then yes, sure, aiming for less risk would be good.
But, it is her last season, and I think in her mind, she wants to give it all she has trained for in the past 4 years, which include adding all the jumps back into her arsenal. This way, no matter what happens, she won't regret anything. I personally think that is more satisfying as well. She wouldn't be happy winning without her 3A, it was also her Mom's fav jump as previously reported.
 

Sara

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 6, 2013
The more I watch Radionova skate the more it disturbs me how bad her posture is! She often elevates her shoulders when she skates (it looks even worse as she has really short neck).
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
It was and it's my favorite of Mirai's (and Leonova's for that matter). Mirai just never seemed to find an SP to equal or surpass it. :(

Thank you Mao88 for posting the videos! I'm off to watch them now!

At least Gracie is still very much in it. I'm interested in how a tie break works in figure skating. Way back when under 6.0 it was the technical score through the '88 Olympics then I think they went with the artistic mark in the following Games. I don't have a clue as to how it works under this COP.

My recollection that TES is the tiebreaker in the SP and that the free skate score is a tiebreaker for any ties overall.

Akiko was way overscored for a 3t-2t combo and a skaky 3f. NHK Trophy is always a joke, with the over scoring for Japanese skaters.

Elena is such a fighter, to come back with that 3lo-3t in the second half of her program.

She is the opposite of Gracie. That music is so awful, and she looked so slow and had no projection to the audience. She had a fluke 2011-12 season where she was consistent with her jumps. Now, she is only a slightly better version of Agnes.

Mirai is done. The girl cannot rotate her jumps.

Besides Ashley, the US ladies are so disappointing to me this season. They aren't competitive internationally.


Um, last I looked Elena and Gracie have the same exact score? How does 62+ for one skater makes them a fighter and the other makes them a failure? :confused: As far as I'm concerned both preferred well-below what they care fully capable of doing, but both still did enough to stay in the game.

Would you have preferred that Gracie muscled the 3T when it was clear the 3Z wouldn't allow her to do so? If she had tried to do that, she would have like got a 3Z-3T< or 3Z-3T<<, probably fell and got massive -GOE. At Skate Canada last season she did that and got 3Z-3T< -3s across the board and a total score of 6.10.

Here she scored 7.80 for a decent 3Z-3T.

I call that playing smart.

And as it stands Gracie's 69+ ISU season's best in the short program has only been surpassed by Mao Asada and is higher than Ashley's (until Ashley, I hope breaks it in TEB). And even with a sluggish FS, her total ISU season's best is 6th in the world. Pray tell, how is that not competitive internationally?
 

kwanatic

Check out my YT channel, Bare Ice!
Record Breaker
Joined
May 19, 2011
I'm watching the IN feed. I really like the realtime TES comparison...as each element is completed it's added together and compared against the leading TES.

I like that! :thumbsup::thumbsup:
 

chloepoco

Medalist
Joined
Nov 1, 2009
Satoko Miyahara is a beautiful skater~her skating is just gorgeous!! I especially love her spins in opposite directions.
 

daphna

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 6, 2004
I love gracie's SP and the music, I don't really get why so many people think it's a wrong choice. It suits her non-classic style perfectly.
Mirai is a pain to watch. She's overweight (not fat, by any means) and it really hurts her skating.
 

tulosai

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 21, 2011
I love gracie's SP and the music, I don't really get why so many people think it's a wrong choice. It suits her non-classic style perfectly.
Mirai is a pain to watch. She's overweight (not fat, by any means) and it really hurts her skating.

:jaw: Whether Mirai is at her optimal weight for figure skating can be discussed (though she looks in good shape to me) but calling her overweight with no qualifiers is ridiculous. She is at a healthy weight on what I'm sure is the lower end of the healthy weight spectrum for her height. Also I'm sick of the word fat in general, even though here I get you'r saying she's not. We all HAVE fat, but the way people are called 'fat' is almost 100% of the time bullying and in some way intended to shame or insult them.
 

LiamForeman

William/Uilyam
Medalist
Joined
Nov 24, 2006
Poor Mirai.... Well at least she did this one to herself and won't feel overscrutinized.

Radiogaga has an interesting body type, with her shoulders and neck. I'm not really sure it's all a posture issue as it is her body type.

Gold better start getting herself together. If she's disappointing every time out this season, she'll start losing her golden aura and maybe her PCS will settle down to where they should.

Great for Mao, but her tendency to UR her 2loop is worrisome. But that program is light and ethereal, and always great to watch.
 

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
How did Gracie skate? I see her score was much lower then at SC.

She did a 3Z-2T (but it was clean) and had a step out on her 3L.

I sort of confused at why people think this was such a terrible performance. It wasn't her best, but hardly a meltdown! I've seen worse performances from her and from other skaters. She's inconsistent at getting a clean program, sure, but it's much improved from earlier this season and from last season when we weren't sure how she would do.

As I noted earlier, the fact she opted to do 3Z-2T rather than force 3Z-3T, shows she's getting a better feel of how to think on her feet at competition.

So far she's turned in two 60+ SPs this season in a row, whereas last season, it was 50/50 (one meltdown SP, one decent SP).

I guess we'll see how she will fare in the FS.
 

ice coverage

avatar credit: @miyan5605
Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Back before it became official that Frank and Gracie were working together, Dave and Jenny (TSL) mentioned that Frank had other obligations for NHK and that arrangements were already being made for someone else to travel to Japan with Gracie...

Once again goes to show that whether you love or hate TSL, their info has been spot on.

Thx, kwanatic. You have a great memory. :bow:

Off topic:
Agree that TSL has a strong record re inside scoop on Team Carroll.
But do not remember either way whether TSL has been ahead of the game on news unrelated to Carroll.
(And to go further OT: after all the kerfuffle over their rejected application for SLC credentials, I found it curious that TSL showed no sign of interest -- AFAIK -- in reporting on the ground from Skate America.)

The former State Senator from MA? He wouldn't be my first choice for coaches but hey... who am I to judge.

Just kidding. ;)

Sorry, one more OT comment of a different sort:
The "other" Scott Brown was a U.S. senator, of course, as well as a state senator.
 

demarinis5

Gold for the Winter Prince!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 23, 2004
Beautiful skating from Mao and Akiko, well done ladies! :yay:

Shout out to Gracie, I love her SP. I feel bad for Mirai hopefully she will do better in the FS.
 

bramweld

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2012
Perkova's "Pirates of the Caribbean" is one of the worst choreographed SPs I have ever seen. When she originally competed it, she at least showed a lot of attack and expression. Tonight's performance was slow and sluggish.

No redeeming features whatsoever.

How quickly we seem to forget Alena, has almost always been like this. Her talent is mid-level at best. Worse she doesn't handle her nerves well, so with all this exceptional talent around she loses her focus. She should just try to enjoy the ride because literally her programs are empty because that is what she can do. For her to be any better she'd need to go back to her previous coach where she could probably receive, her full undivided attention. However she didn't like this because she did not like working so hard. Hence she decided to ship herself off to Morozov. The girl seems to me somewhat of a spoilt little brat. Why Morozov chooses to continue with her is the only interesting question in this entire scenario:rolleye:
 

FlattFan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 4, 2010
Valentina should have the third highest PCS.

Judges need to be held accountable. I think there should be postmortem review after every single competition, pick a case like Valentina and Gracie gold, and have the judges explain what the hell are they doing giving Gracie better IN and CH than Valentina?

If they don't have a good explanation, they need to be banned by a few months, repeated offense, banned for longer period of time, again, banned for life. If you can't even judge, why are you a judge? Go do something else, like knitting or fishing or something.
 

ManyCairns

Medalist
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Country
United-States
She did a 3Z-2T (but it was clean) and had a step out on her 3L.

I sort of confused at why people think this was such a terrible performance. It wasn't her best, but hardly a meltdown! I've seen worse performances from her and from other skaters. She's inconsistent at getting a clean program, sure, but it's much improved from earlier this season and from last season when we weren't sure how she would do.

As I noted earlier, the fact she opted to do 3Z-2T rather than force 3Z-3T, shows she's getting a better feel of how to think on her feet at competition.

So far she's turned in two 60+ SPs this season in a row, whereas last season, it was 50/50 (one meltdown SP, one decent SP).

I guess we'll see how she will fare in the FS.

I'm puzzled, too. Gracie may not be skating the lights out every performance, but as I mentioned upthread, to me she gives off a vibe of settling into her groove/settling into competing in a more levelheaded way, rather than being caught up in an adrenaline rush and maybe skyrocketing but maybe also crashing and burning. [shrug] That's just the subjective impression I get, and like you said, nothing to do but keep watching. I hope she just gets better and better, though, because I find myself really enjoying watching her.
 

TheCzar

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 30, 2013
People need to look at the protocols, period. Barring the two-foot on the 3A, the rest of Mao's SP was divine. I think you have to either be a.) a hater, b.) in denial, c.) blind, or d.) completely devoid of artistry and understanding of the sport to ignore her overall skating. There was no falls or evident mistakes, and her short program was beautifully skated. Clearly THAT was enough for the judges to reward Asada's skating. She only got 6+ point on it anyway! Like the Eurosport guys said- the 3A didn't even factor in the overall scoring.

It's not the skaters who are killing the sport. It's not Patrick Chan or Mao Asada who are ruining the sport.

It's the idiots who continue to watch and pretend they know what they're talking about (uhm, go apply for a license to judge. I'm sure Cinquanta would be more than pleased.) who are killing the fun or figure skating.

Peace.
 
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