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Download Good For 2 Days Usually

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Downloads from Julia

Julia has taken down the Plushenko Sportsmagasinet interview.

Currently up are Zhang and Zhang's FS, which was not shown on ABC, and Lindemann's FS, which was, and Arikawa's gala, which was.

Even if you have seen the ABC coverage, Eurosport did not use the same camera angle as ABC, and the Finnish commentary efficiently gets rid of Dick, Peggy and Peter.

dpp
 

sk8m8

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
WOW!

Z&Z are going to be heavy contenders if they can pick up thier speed and make their spins and footwork faster. Solid technically and so wonderfully lyrical at the same time. It won't surprise me if you start seeing sweeps of the podium with the Chinese in the next few years if they keep producing pairs teams with this quality of skating.

Now the REALLY BIG question...If China can build a burgeoning dynasty of pairs teams, what's up with the US. I honestly think that a lot of the problem is that little girls are a cash cow for the FS coaching community, what with everyone wanting their kid to be the next MK or Tara. When will these coaches be willing to say" Yes Mr and Mrs Doe, your daughter is talented, but not talented enough to take the strain of being an individual alone on the ice. What about Pairs?" Please keep in mind that this is JUST my OPINION.

What's yours? Can we get a good post started on the problem of developing Pairs teams in the US, or even better, what to do to help eliminate the problem.

Just a thought...
 

mzheng

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 16, 2005
IMO, under the cutural and tradition of US you are not going to see top pairs any time soon.

1) The average family income is far lower than US. So if you kid is choosen for developing FS it is a bless to the family and the kid.

2) Chinese federation is able to pull all their limited resource on all their limited choosen skaters. Since their program is goverment funded. The kid choosen in program must show some early talent.

3) The ppl there still under influence of comunist society where the government used to conrol every thing.

4) Because of above, Chinese federation has the full control of their skaters. Once the kid under the program parents has no say whatsever related to the trainning schedule, coaching, partner, etc.

Compare here in US, parents pay everything, which gives family the 'rights' to say. And in pairs, it is two skaters and four parents adds up to 6 opinions, not to mention other relatives in family. Too many opinions cause to much friction. Once one or two of them not satisfy with the partnership, the pair breakup. Plus the typical fast cutural here is quick result, if the partnership diddn't show result within 2 or 3 years, then breakup, new partner. etc.

So I'd say it is much more difficult to cututral top pair team under US env.
 

soogar

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
I would also add that the American mentality of success really hampers pairs team development. The team needs to stay together for a long time and ride out the highs and lows in order to be a top team. Instead teams partner swap all the time pairs and ice dance and there is no time to develop a team. S&Z took a long time to become the polished skaters they are today. Americans tend to look for the fast results and if they don't come , switch partners.

Also safety has a lot of do with why Americans aren't into pairs skating. At my rink , there are lots of kids doing ice dancing but hardly anyone is into pairs (however there might be more pairs at another rink). If I were a parent, I would be very concerned about the injuries sustained in pairs skating, esp for the girls. I think a lot of parents would not want to expose their daughters to those kind of injuries. Also there is a limited number of men who are partner material. It's a fact that there are more girls than boys in the sport and it's hard to find the right partner.

Another thing is that weak skaters tend to go to pairs and ice dance and the reality is that you need to be a strong skater to do well in those disciplines. With all the strong skaters staying in singles, the selection of skaters and the low number of men in skating make for a weak field to create strong teams.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
What a great site, Doris! It's like a theater with a different double feature up every couple of days.

Now they are showing Belbin and Agosto and Michael Weiss from 2004 Worlds.

Mathman:)
 

berthes ghost

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
Notice how US pairs have weakened since the demise of figures? Back before 91, single skaters who just couldn't stand figures went into pairs.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
BG, that sounds like a likely solution to the US pairs problem. But it doesn't explain the existence of good Canadian pairs.
 
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