The Gang of Four becoming the Gang of Five?

tripleflutz · Jan 23, 2005

Micki Ando ????

I hear what you're saying about JR, and I think she's a medal condender. But if Micki lands her quad at Worlds that might turn everything on its head. If she does , she could become a "gang of one".

tripleflutz

Fossi · Jan 23, 2005

I think Rochette will be a huge force of pressure for Irina at Moscow. Has Irina ever landed a 7 triple performance? I know when she won Worlds, she was the first lady in a few years to win it WITHOUT having a 3/3, and I think she only landed 6 triples? Rochette is going to force Irina to come with a full arsenal, she can't afford NOT to have a 3/3.
Shuzika is awesomely amazingly wonderful. Don't count her out.
Miki Ando could land the quad, however that jump alone won't win her a championship. We will soon see though.
When is the last time Michelle landed a 3/3? I think it was QR Worlds '02? It's been almost 3 years. Has she been practicing them? She will need one at Worlds in order to stay competitive.
What about Sasha? I read she has only landed ONE :eek:

3/3 combo in her entire senior career? Is she going to be able to be competitive with this field?
Wowwy Wow Wow :agree: such a mixture of grace and athleticism. Da, da, da. da, da.....I'm lovin' it! :rock:

Tony Wheeler · Jan 23, 2005

tripleflutz said:
I hear what you're saying about JR, and I think she's a medal condender. But if Micki lands her quad at Worlds that might turn everything on its head. If she does , she could become a "gang of one".

tripleflutz

Ando has scored consistently lower than about 5 or 6 ladies in the SP this year, not including Cohen and Kwan, even when her 3/3 is counted as rotated. If she does indeed turn heads, I have a feeling it's going to have to be done from the second to last LP group.

bleuchick · Jan 23, 2005

I don't know what will happen to Joannie at worlds but what I do know is:

- she has barely scratched the technical part of her skating. There is more coming. She just started
- she is quick at learning jumps. It wasn't long ago at worlds when she talking about doing a 3/3 for this season.
- I guess warmups are not just warmup for her. She use them to debut new jumps in practice. Last year, she did a quad in practice[not a warmup per se] and this year she did a 3/3/2 in her free skate warm-up.

What I think is working for her is a combination of

- Music - A couple of times, she said that she loves her LP.
- Choreography
- Confidence
- Much improved technique

Will she medal? as long as she skate like she did this week.

BravesSkateFan · Jan 24, 2005

Michelle hasn't skated under the GOP yet.

That's ok...I wouldn't want her skating with the Republicans anyway. :rofl:

millie · Jan 24, 2005

BravesSkateFan said:
That's ok...I wouldn't want her skating with the Republicans anyway.

Sorry BravesSkateFan, typing error, meant COP. She still hasn't skated under the COP. :rofl:

SMARTY PANTS :laugh:

IndieBoi · Jan 24, 2005

millie said:
Sorry BravesSkateFan, typing error, meant COP. She still hasn't skated under the COP.

Sasha's skated under both systems and still never won any major championship. Another system is overdue, maybe? :sheesh:

:rolleye:

Linny · Jan 24, 2005

But she handed him the phone

Sasha has skated under CoP, PLUS she has handed her cell phone to the Head of the GOP.
Linny

Ogre Mage · Jan 24, 2005

IndieBoi said:
Sasha's skated under both systems and still never won any major championship. Another system is overdue, maybe? :sheesh:

Neither U.S. Nationals nor Worlds have used CoP yet. Moscow will be the first time.

It's been used on the GP circuit for quite a while and Sasha has racked up many wins there. However, those events were relatively low pressure.

IndieBoi · Jan 24, 2005

Ok... my bad.

chuckm · Jan 24, 2005

Here's my take on Joannie Rochette:

I think she's a fine and very promising skater with a great future. From what I heard, she had an absolutely amazing skate at Nationals. But she should have had an amazing skate at Nationals! She really had no competition except Cynthia Phaneuf, who's really been struggling this season, so Joannie's confidence had to be skyscraper-tall. It's a lot easier to nail all your jumps when you're the challenger for a title and the current title-holder is having an off year. Joannie literally ROMPED at Nationals!

Worlds is a different thing entirely. Joannie suffered from nerves at the GPF where Irina and Shizuka were far from sparkling, and she turned in FS with only 3-4 clean triples. The stakes are a lot higher at Worlds, and nerves will be a factor. It's going to be very hard for Joannie to duplicate her Nationals FS there, and that's what she will have to do to medal.

Mathman · Jan 24, 2005

Linny said:
Sasha has skated under CoP, PLUS she has handed her cell phone to the Head of the GOP.

Tony Wheeler · Jan 24, 2005

chuckm said:
Here's my take on Joannie Rochette:

I think she's a fine and very promising skater with a great future. From what I heard, she had an absolutely amazing skate at Nationals. But she should have had an amazing skate at Nationals! She really had no competition except Cynthia Phaneuf, who's really been struggling this season, so Joannie's confidence had to be skyscraper-tall. It's a lot easier to nail all your jumps when you're the challenger for a title and the current title-holder is having an off year. Joannie literally ROMPED at Nationals!

Worlds is a different thing entirely. Joannie suffered from nerves at the GPF where Irina and Shizuka were far from sparkling, and she turned in FS with only 3-4 clean triples. The stakes are a lot higher at Worlds, and nerves will be a factor. It's going to be very hard for Joannie to duplicate her Nationals FS there, and that's what she will have to do to medal.

So many people saying the same thing and I just don't get it. Joannie faced Slutskaya, Kostner, Suguri, Ando, Sebestyen, and others in her two GPs and she landed 6 triples in each. So it's not like Nationals was her only good skate of the year because there was no competition.

And if you recall, Joannie was 2nd in the GPF LP.

chuckm · Jan 24, 2005

Joannie was 3rd at Cup of China behind Irina and Volchkova, and she was pretty nervous. She won TEB, but Shizuka had withdrawn, Kostner had been wildly inconsistent, and Julia Sebestyen was struggling--none of Joannie's competitors performed well at that event.

Joannie was more nervous at the GPF than she had been at CoC and that's probably why she had a shaky landing on her 3F in the SP. Yes, Joannie finished 2nd in the GPF FS, but none of medalists--not Irina, not Shizuka, not Joannie--had a clean FS.

In short, Joannie had good results at her GP and GPF events, but they were by no means spectacular results. Moreover, GPs are early-season events where many of the skaters are not in top condition yet, or haven't had enough practice on their programs. With 3 more months of practice, these skaters will be in fighting trim and performances that won the GP events won't necessarily beat the same skaters at Worlds.

hockeyfan228 · Jan 24, 2005

Rochette had every reason to be nervous at Nationals after her performance last year -- losing her chance at the title in the SP -- and given the expectations put on her after her GP performances. She also went into the LP as the leader. 2005 Nationals wasn't a coronation that she could phone in.

Tony Wheeler · Jan 24, 2005

chuckm- let me get this right... so, because Joannie has been quite consistent all year (even if her GPF LP wasn't great, it was still good), we should not expect anything out of her come Worlds because everyone else is just going to suddenly be consistent and pass her easily? Some people can manage their nerves, and I expect Joannie to do just fine.

And for being barely in first in France after the SP, never in that position before, I guess 6 clean triples and a score over 110 in the LP shows that it was just a so-so result, eh?

I completely agree with hockeyfan, too.

mzheng · Jan 24, 2005

chuckm said:
Here's my take on Joannie Rochette:

I think she's a fine and very promising skater with a great future. From what I heard, she had an absolutely amazing skate at Nationals. But she should have had an amazing skate at Nationals! She really had no competition except Cynthia Phaneuf, who's really been struggling this season, so Joannie's confidence had to be skyscraper-tall. It's a lot easier to nail all your jumps when you're the challenger for a title and the current title-holder is having an off year. Joannie literally ROMPED at Nationals!

Worlds is a different thing entirely. Joannie suffered from nerves at the GPF where Irina and Shizuka were far from sparkling, and she turned in FS with only 3-4 clean triples. The stakes are a lot higher at Worlds, and nerves will be a factor. It's going to be very hard for Joannie to duplicate her Nationals FS there, and that's what she will have to do to medal.

I agree your saying about her National. But again at Worlds, since she never being at top 6, there is nothing to lose either. She might on fire, let's see if she can keep the momentumn going. in another words if she has peaked yet.

The one could have nerves kicked in, I see would be Arakawa. She would skated under tremondus pressure being a defending champion and also some pressure from Japanese Federation.

Just look back in history (well recently, last decade at least), whoever won lady's World Champion or Olympics had a slack down next season for whatever reason.

chuckm · Jan 24, 2005

I never said Joannie wouldn't be good at Worlds. What I said was:

Joannie couldn't rely on a GP-type performance to medal at Worlds because you could expect the skaters she beat in the GP to improve in the interval between those events and Worlds. Joannie would need a performance such as she had at Nationals to medal at Worlds.

In other words, she needs to equal or better her Nationals performance. The competition (Irina, Shizuka, Sasha, Michelle, Miki) didn't have great Nationals, but you can expect them to perform better at Worlds.

shine · Jan 24, 2005

chuckm said:
Joannie was 3rd at Cup of China behind Irina and Volchkova, and she was pretty nervous. She won TEB, but Shizuka had withdrawn, Kostner had been wildly inconsistent, and Julia Sebestyen was struggling--none of Joannie's competitors performed well at that event.

Joannie was more nervous at the GPF than she had been at CoC and that's probably why she had a shaky landing on her 3F in the SP. Yes, Joannie finished 2nd in the GPF FS, but none of medalists--not Irina, not Shizuka, not Joannie--had a clean FS.

In short, Joannie had good results at her GP and GPF events, but they were by no means spectacular results. Moreover, GPs are early-season events where many of the skaters are not in top condition yet, or haven't had enough practice on their programs. With 3 more months of practice, these skaters will be in fighting trim and performances that won the GP events won't necessarily beat the same skaters at Worlds.

So, what is your point EXACTLY? That Rochette cannot skate under pressure, basically? :sheesh:

And as for your claim that all of Arakawa, Slutskaya, Ando, Cohen and Kwan will all do so much better at Worlds and outskate Rochette, I wonder what logic is that theory based on? Because Rochette is so mediocre that even if she skated a clean program she wouldn't deserve to medal, as long as these skaters skate better than they did at their respective Natioanls?

chuckm · Jan 24, 2005

shine said:
So, what is your point EXACTLY? That Rochette cannot skate under pressure, basically? :sheesh:

Obviously, there will be more pressure on Rochette at Worlds than at Nationals. But there's also more pressure on everyone else, too.

shine said:
And as for your claim that all of Arakawa, Slutskaya, Ando, Cohen and Kwan will all do so much better at Worlds and outskate Rochette, I wonder what logic is that theory based on? Because Rochette is so mediocre that even if she skated a clean program she wouldn't deserve to medal, as long as these skaters skate better than they did at their respective Natioanls?

I did not say the other ladies would outskate Rochette. YOU said that. And nowhere did I say she was mediocre. YOU said that.

You are taking my post and embroidering it to mean something completely different from what was written. All of the skaters I mentioned tend to peak later in the season, so you can't assume their Nationals performances are predictive of what they will do at Worlds. That's all.

If any or all of those Ladies are able to skate their best at Worlds, then Joannie will have to skate her best too, in order to medal. What is wrong with saying that?

Are you suggesting that those other ladies have no chance because Joannie's Nationals performances is predictive of how she will do at Worlds? Because that is just as ridiculous as what you are imputing to me.

The Gang of Four becoming the Gang of Five?

tripleflutz

Fossi

Tony Wheeler

bleuchick

BravesSkateFan

millie

IndieBoi

Linny

Ogre Mage

IndieBoi

chuckm

Mathman

Tony Wheeler

chuckm

hockeyfan228

Tony Wheeler

mzheng

chuckm

shine

chuckm

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