Sandra Bezic's Thoughts

Barb · Dec 13, 2017

Sugarpova said:
I certainly didnt mean she wasnt native speaker sorry :giveup:
I meant I am

"I hate that box!!" was lulzy

I have a harder time understanding to native english speakers, when I hear to Japanese, Russian and especially Hindu people I can understand it better, but only if they have a strong accent of their countries, if they have american accent I won´t understand it easily :laugh:

. I think this only reflects how bad my English is :palmf:

JustMe · Dec 13, 2017

chapis said:
I have a harder time understanding to native english speakers, when I hear to Japanese, Russian and especially Hindu people I can understand it better, but only if they have a strong accent of their countries, if they have american accent I won´t understand it easily . I think this only reflects how bad my English is

Ay Chapis, me matas de risa! :rofl2:

Blades of Passion · Dec 14, 2017

johnsmith72 said:
They tried to get Sandra to say negative things about Osmond's choice of black swan, but she was so complimentary of her posture and classical styling. It's cringeworthy when TSL tried to get Sandra to agree that Osmond doesn't deserve the PCS she gets and Satoko should get more than her, but I'm glad she refused to go down that pathway. I respect her opinions a lot and think she is a voice of reason and clarity and I love how she refuses to bash skaters.

I don't think you understand what Sandra said. She DID have negative things to say about Osmond's black swan and she DID specifically infer that Osmond deserved lower PCS for it. She talked about how the choreography, interpretation, presentation need to be judged better and said that Satoko this year IS better than Osmond in these areas (in both programs too). Sandra even specifically said "If you're skating to Black Swan you need to find your inner b.i.t.c.h. and Osmond hasn't managed to do it." (please don't censure the usage of the 'b' word here, forum mods, this is a direct quote from an interview and there's no other way to say it)

The way in which people continually try to distort, ignore issues, and hold up certain skaters is infuriating. Yes, Sandra phrased her statements diplomatically. But she absolutely DID criticize Osmond and very much stated that Satoko has superior qualities and those qualities are not being rewarded properly by the scoring system. Sandra's overall thrust was that she dislikes the current scoring system and doesn't really get into the details of the numbers. Yet, if she was forced to judge, then it's it clear she would give Satoko the higher mark. Like, if it was the 6.0 scoring system, it's apparent Sandra would have been putting Satoko ahead of Osmond on "the second mark". Sandra simply doesn't get into the details of exactly how much higher the score should be in CoP, because she finds the system to be a convoluted mess that often does not accurately reflect the full impression.

The same goes for the statements about Virtue/Moir and Papadakis/Cizeron that people are trying to distort here. Sandra clearly said P/C deserved to win the GPF. She clearly said their performance was better and that in the CURRENT Free Programs, P/C have a better program than V/M. She simply didn't commit to picking sides between who is better in terms of what they can do at their best. She essentially finds them equally talented and thinks V/M are capable of improving their program/presentation to be as good or slightly better than P/C.

Baron Vladimir · Dec 14, 2017

^^^

Yeah, she totally meant some of that. And while i think how some of her statements have a point, i totally disagree with essence of them. Its OK when you want to express your subjective view on things, but after all there are different ways to create a programme and skating to it, so i think its just outdated to claim how one style should be the right one and not to be open to different kind of styles... Do we need to find our inner b**** and skating balletic to Black Swan music... No... simply no.... We can skate the style and concept we want to the music we want... To claim how that should affect the scores is wrong ... :rock:

Blades of Passion · Dec 14, 2017

She never said one style should be the right one. I take it you're upset she does not like the Eteri school of choreography.

shine · Dec 15, 2017

GGFan said:
I don't think anyone is asking for programs to be empty, but two things should be considered:

1. Intention. If the program has lots of interesting transitions they should be musical and have a purpose. Figure skating is not just about raw difficulty but about blending in difficulty and making it look beautiful. No one was complaining when Jeff Buttle had lots of transitions because they were clever and musical. The program should not be packed full of meaningless movements.

2. Spacing. In order for something to stand out in a performance it cannot be completely cluttered. There has to be time for moves to be finished and noticed by the audience. Here the goal is not emptiness but allowing for special moves to breathe.

Sandra seemed to be complaining about programs with turns for turns sake. Turns shouldn't be an end in themselves.

So eloquently said!

Daniel1998 · Dec 15, 2017

Sandra is a queen. I enjoy TSL for the laughs, but the difference between how the two hosts and Sandra carry a conversation and present their opinions made for a really disjointed interview, I think. Two completely opposite ends of the spectrum, and it felt almost like an hour of Sandra trying to side-step all the pointed questions the TSL hosts were asking. I totally agree with all the points Sandra was able to make, though. The whole is different from the sum of its parts.

I just watched the NBC commentary of Yuna's Gershwin free skate in 2010 just to hear Sandra's legendary call during the final spin again.

Baron Vladimir · Dec 15, 2017

Blades of Passion said:
She never said one style should be the right one. I take it you're upset she does not like the Eteri school of choreography.

But she didnt like Kaetlyn eather. And she can like or dislike whatever she wants. I just dont agree with her comentating the scores, because that is not her job to do (as judges dont coment or judge her work). I dont agree cause she thinks how her job is more impactfull (or should be) on the skaters scores than it really is (or should be). I just found some of her opinions outdated and oldschool and thats all... while, like i said agree with some of them... :biggrin:

Blades of Passion · Dec 17, 2017

Daniel1998 said:
Sandra is a queen. I just watched the NBC commentary of Yuna's Gershwin free skate in 2010 just to hear Sandra's legendary call during the final spin again.

My favorite is her effusiveness at the very end of this video from Kurt Browning's 1993 performance - https://youtube.com/watch?v=yVj7blSdj2o

"That's beauty of figure skating, it allows you to grow not only as an athlete, but also as an artist!!!"

Procrastinator · Dec 17, 2017

Blades of Passion said:
I don't think you understand what Sandra said. She DID have negative things to say about Osmond's black swan and she DID specifically infer that Osmond deserved lower PCS for it. She talked about how the choreography, interpretation, presentation need to be judged better and said that Satoko this year IS better than Osmond in these areas (in both programs too). Sandra even specifically said "If you're skating to Black Swan you need to find your inner b.i.t.c.h. and Osmond hasn't managed to do it." (please don't censure the usage of the 'b' word here, forum mods, this is a direct quote from an interview and there's no other way to say it)

The way in which people continually try to distort, ignore issues, and hold up certain skaters is infuriating. Yes, Sandra phrased her statements diplomatically. But she absolutely DID criticize Osmond and very much stated that Satoko has superior qualities and those qualities are not being rewarded properly by the scoring system. Sandra's overall thrust was that she dislikes the current scoring system and doesn't really get into the details of the numbers. Yet, if she was forced to judge, then it's it clear she would give Satoko the higher mark. Like, if it was the 6.0 scoring system, it's apparent Sandra would have been putting Satoko ahead of Osmond on "the second mark". Sandra simply doesn't get into the details of exactly how much higher the score should be in CoP, because she finds the system to be a convoluted mess that often does not accurately reflect the full impression.

The same goes for the statements about Virtue/Moir and Papadakis/Cizeron that people are trying to distort here. Sandra clearly said P/C deserved to win the GPF. She clearly said their performance was better and that in the CURRENT Free Programs, P/C have a better program than V/M. She simply didn't commit to picking sides between who is better in terms of what they can do at their best. She essentially finds them equally talented and thinks V/M are capable of improving their program/presentation to be as good or slightly better than P/C.

I completely disagree with this post.

She provided assessments, compliments, and criticisms of everyone and explicitly refused to compare/rank skaters. It's true that she did not criticize Satoko, but nowhere did she intimate that Satoko should be beating Osmond. Throughout the interview, Sandra consistently kept saying that the jumps and technical elements are still a crucial part of the program. Same with the ice dance teams: she never suggested one was superior or one definitely should have won.

Again, there's no need for your negative takeaway ("Sandra suggested X was better than Y") because Sandra made no such suggestions. She explicitly refused to compare the incomparable, and to pick favorites to the detriment of other skaters.

Blades of Passion · Dec 20, 2017

Procrastinator said:
She provided assessments, compliments, and criticisms of everyone and explicitly refused to compare/rank skaters. It's true that she did not criticize Satoko, but nowhere did she intimate that Satoko should be beating Osmond. Same with the ice dance teams: she never suggested one was superior or one definitely should have won.

She explicitly said P/C deserved to win the GPF, that they were better on the day, and also that their current program was better than V/M's current program. She just never said one team was inherently better than the other in terms of talent. It's her belief they are very close and on any given day either of them could win, depending on exactly who performs the best.

She also specifically said Satoko has the best SP of the year (and also a better LP than Osmond) and the scores need to reflect it on the second mark. Read between the lines, she doesn't need to exactly say "Satoko should be scored higher than Osmond", her thoughts already tell you that. When you call something the best of the year that's inherently what it means! That one thing is better than the others. This doesn't mean Osmond couldn't still win because of the jumps though, Sandra was talking specifically about the second mark.

None of this is "negative" as you try to put it. It's analysis and I wonder why so many people still refuse to talk openly and see the truth.

Sandra Bezic's Thoughts

Barb

JustMe

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be

Baron Vladimir

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be

shine

Daniel1998

Baron Vladimir

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be

Procrastinator

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be

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