The amazing confidence in current ladies skating. | Golden Skate

The amazing confidence in current ladies skating.

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
I have never seen anything like this burst of confidence enabling the extreme athleticism in the ladies. I realize when young kids are more fearless. We saw this with Prodigies like Tara, and Michelle and other skaters who were very young but phenoms, Mao and Yuna come to mind as confident very young girls. Their whole team of people truly is like a village.

Bradie Tennell has shown great bravery going up against quad kids and triple axel jumpers 5 years her junior. Still she showed great poise and her programs were skated near perfectly in her gp events. So proud with 4 Russians dominating Bradie beat out other top tier skaters to make the final. A huge achievement. Can someone tell me if Bradie plans to do the triple lutz loop? I think she is better choreographed than Alina and that if Alina didn’t get crazy PCs every time out others would beat her more often. Mariah Bell and Bradie may have less tech content but better programs and for me better presentation. It is sad that the three unicorns from Eteri were heavily rewarded outside the tech mark. For me only Alena deserves the PCs. Anyway is there anything that Bradie can do to up her base values? I don’t know what she practices. I hope she does the lutz loop in the long if she can still do it. And while the three Eteri kids are nervous a bit they show remarkable poise. And so it was with Lipnitskaya and then Zhenya. I truly wish I could watch them train for a month to see what it is like there. They all excel at such a young age. What does she say before they take the ice? I hope they do a documentary on the ladies because we may never see skaters again like the current top 8 or so. Too bad Alysia can’t play the game since they allow young teens. She has a wait. I’m so impressed by the ladies and young ladies. It truly is a revolution in singles happen8ng as we speak. Simply incredible.

I love Alena of all the Russian girls due to her sp sass and confidence. It’s so sad we don’t have at least two in the final as in the Gracie and Ashley years.
I kinda hope they change the age so the more exp skaters decide to stay in. Juniors can be promoted much more than they do. One can still be a known household gold champ among skate fans. I personally would like to see Seniors begin at 17 years for ladies and 18 for men. Just a thought.
 

flanker

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 10, 2018
Country
Czech-Republic
The worst way of how to pay a tribute to a skater is to slander the other one.
 

Fool

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 11, 2018
Country
South-Korea
Her name is Alysa :)

It's bad enough we have this constant Alena/Alyona/Aliona spelling confusion for Kostornaia, but Alysa only uses this spelling so let's respect her.
 

Tolstoj

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 21, 2015
Honest opinion? for me both Bradie Tennell and Mariah Bell are better skaters than Alysa Liu.

They skate bigger, faster, they have stronger skating skills and the jumps are better. (well Bradie also has some issues on UR)

A lot of Alysa Liu's strenght relies on the excitement of an american 13 years old landing quads and trixels, the potential is indeed huge.

Then you start to look at the actual skating and to me the jumps are not particularly impressive: yes she can rotate fast but the speed and transitions to set these jumps are almost none sometimes, and as of result you have prerotation, lack of flow and underrotations.

Personally i even think what US is doing to Bradie and Mariah is very unfair: they are always treated as second choice when this should be their moment, Alysa's moment will come in the future once she joins seniors.

Can they improve their base value? For me Bradie could try to backload her combo in the SP, while improving the quality of her triples, while Mariah has such a nice axel, she should work on 3A.
 

SkateSkates

Medalist
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
I wish so called “fans” of Aliona would stop using her as a pawn to promote whatever their agenda is (against Sasha/Anna or Alina/Zhenya). Real fans can speak about her strengths and advantages without insulting other skaters. She seems to be used to drive a wedge between the Eteri skaters, and people speak of her as if she has succeeded in spite of her training environment instead of because of her training environment. As a fan of hers, it’s very sad to see this behavior against other skaters and is turning a lot of fans against Aliona herself, which she doesn’t deserve.
 

Edwin

СделаноВХрустальном!
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Tutberidze's Terrific Trio won all their 2018/19 season Junior GP events, all medalled in JGPF and 2018 National Championships a few weeks later.

For this season, the same threesome have won all their Senior GP events, and the chance they will all medal in GP Final and National Championships is very real.

Their confidence, and the confidence #TeamTutberidzeForProgress' staff have in their skaters, is real also.
 

drivingmissdaisy

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
Honest opinion? for me both Bradie Tennell and Mariah Bell are better skaters than Alysa Liu.

They are, and I think the PCS scores at Nationals will reflect that. Alysa obviously will get a PCS boost if she's successful executing her difficult layout, which is the second highest base value in the world. However, I hope the GOE scores do reflect that Bradie's and Mariah's triples might deserve to be scored higher than Alysa's based on size, speed on entry/exit, etc. I'll be disappointed if Alysa wins the JGPF then comes to Nationals getting 35+/70+ PCS for her programs when she still has work to do to deserve those marks.
 

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
I agree I would give gold to a clean Bradie and Mariah at this point over Miss Liu. First picking on people who misspell is very Rude and I have seen her name spelled every way. In Russia I believe there are diff acceptable spellings to Kostornaia and to Alena. Both names spelled and pronounced diff on TV. Lastly this isn’t the fan fest. People can not like or appreciate a skater or several. But I see rude, childish behavior all the time when someone is too immature to accept different opinions. I don’t get upset at any other person who cannot appreciate Bradie or Mariah Bell. I don’t care where the skater is from. Alena which is I think one way Imhave seen her name spelled is a favorite of mine and I would place her ahead. It does seem that in America we care more about the total package to use the well worn phrase. It has taken Mariah years to gain confidence. She is exquisite now imo. These people are competing and the point of GS I think is not just to talk as a National or a puppet or fear criticism but compare and contrast why we prefer certain skaters over others. That is called discussion. I think we have a generational issue here as well. I know many millennials and being pc correct is hyper important. We are all entitled to opinions. There is no forum unless everyone gets that. Gushing only is for the fan fests. That is why they were created. I recall many people having a meltdown on the forum when someone make a cristicism of skater x not pointing her toes. People would literally go after each other viciously. I will watch the final and the positive I see is incredible confidence. But I think the judges are at an extreme in the sport and Russia is one of the few places where it still has an audience. Russia and Japan are sustaining ladies skating but unless they decide to reward ladies the way they reward Jason Brown despite falling on his jumps we are not going to have a sport much longer. Judging changes are needed in order to make a well rounded skater. That is really my point. Many feel the age ranges should change because we are losing these girls from skating before they are in fact what used to be considered seniors. Maybe the judges just want to see singles athletics pushed to the max esp junior girls before some sanity returns to judging. I like certain pairs and many ice dancers but I miss spirals and laybacks and beautiful artistry. That is what made us watch certain women for many years. I do think the newbies to skating really do not understand what has been lost as jumps are pushed to the absolute limit and only prepubescent or naturally very tiny women can do them. Certain European and North American skaters are lovely to watch but they are forgotten in the quad race to the finish. I feel this is a shame. Alena has an innate musicality and details seem to matter to her. The triple axel is huge and fairly consistent but I’d watch her skate without it and enjoy it. I hope she stays healthy and stays in whether she can win gold or silver or bronze. I wish to see what she can become. It’s really that simple. I wonder has Ting Cui been injured? She was already quite unique among the field.
 

Amei

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
Tutberidze's Terrific Trio won all their 2018/19 season Junior GP events, all medalled in JGPF and 2018 National Championships a few weeks later.

For this season, the same threesome have won all their Senior GP events, and the chance they will all medal in GP Final and National Championships is very real.

Their confidence, and the confidence #TeamTutberidzeForProgress' staff have in their skaters, is real also.

Anna Shcherbakova had a fairly disastrous JGPF last year, she didn't medal she finished 5th. Though a positive point of the technical failure that Shcherbakova had, she adjusted her body to the music where she still hit all the right accents of the music being off like you see some skaters.
 

rollerblade

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 12, 2014
I hope Santa brings skateluvr a keyboard with working 'Comma' & 'Enter' keys this Christmas. :p
 

JazzUp

#янехомяк!
Medalist
Joined
May 28, 2019
In Russia I believe there are diff acceptable spellings to Kostornaia and to Alena. Both names spelled and pronounced diff on TV.

No. In Russia, her name is spelled and pronounced in the only way possible - Алёна Косторная. :biggrin:
 

jenm

The Last One Degree
Medalist
Joined
Jan 28, 2014
Well, "ё"is an orphan child since quite a while, therefore, "Алена" is also a legitimate spelling.

I've been studying Russian language a bit but forgive me if I'm wrong, isn't the pronunciation still "Al-yo-na" even if the ё becomes e now? Or does the change in letter affect the pronunciation? in which case, Alena becomes correct as well?
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
I would give gold to a clean Bradie and Mariah at this point over Miss Liu.

This, of course, is not possible. Triple Axel = 8.00 points. Quad Lutz = 11.50 points. End of story.

I do think the newbies to skating really do not understand what has been lost as jumps are pushed to the absolute limit and only prepubescent or naturally very tiny women can do them.

What is amazing and counter-intuitive to me is that Yuzuru Hanyu can still do a variety of quads at age 25. Yes, he is slender, but still ... somehow as if by magic he do what we expect that only a 15-year-old girl is capable of.
 
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Draculus

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 8, 2018
I've been studying Russian language a bit but forgive me if I'm wrong, isn't the pronunciation still "Al-yo-na" even if the ё becomes e now? Or does the change in letter affect the pronunciation? in which case, Alena becomes correct as well?
Pronunciation is not changed, only writing. People just too lazy to put 2 dots over e to get ё when they write (or type), but they still pronounce it.
 

Thrashergurl

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 27, 2019
Interesting that everyone thinks Alysa shouldn’t have decent PCS. Where do you think she’d place if she was age eligible for seniors??? Her skating isn’t much different than Trusova or Anna. I’d expect her to be a podium threat, if not winning. It’s all about the quads and she had both quad and 3axel.
 

lzxnl

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 8, 2018
Interesting that everyone thinks Alysa shouldn’t have decent PCS. Where do you think she’d place if she was age eligible for seniors??? Her skating isn’t much different than Trusova or Anna. I’d expect her to be a podium threat, if not winning. It’s all about the quads and she had both quad and 3axel.

Her jumps are very iffy though, even poorer takeoffs on her jumps, and she's not very fast. We'll see soon though how much she's improved since JGP.
 

skateluvr

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2011
He is thinner than ever. Look at videos. Very skinny now. One must be to do quads. Poor Jason is simply a big guy by today’s standards but I love his skating. That part is pristine quad or no quad.
 

TallyT

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Country
Australia
He is thinner than ever. Look at videos. Very skinny now. One must be to do quads. Poor Jason is simply a big guy by today’s standards but I love his skating. That part is pristine quad or no quad.

Do you mean Yuzuru? Certainly he was and is very slim by any standards (he can still fit into his Sochi costume - hell, he proved in 2018 that he could still fit into his costumes from when he was 17!!! :shocked:) but he's built up even more muscle in the chest and shoulders: that's a simple fact, he mentioned it himself when getting his new costume fitted this year and it got tighter there between early and late fittings :laugh: So his waistline may just look narrower.
 
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