A Let's See List - Do you have one?

Here is my LET'S SEE LIST for the forthcoming season::

Michelle - at least one 3x3 combo; preferably two.

Sasha: That quad! but only if necessary; preferably two 3x3s and the conistency under fire.

Irina - As Rhoda would say New York, this is your last chance! Let's see a real old fashion Irina.

Carolina - C'mon make my day. You haven't so far. Let' see.

Yukina - You're the best. Let's see you get a place on the Team.

Shizuka - Let's see you do another personal best.

Michael - the quad, of course, and a whole new approach to choreography.

Johnny = Can you repeat the beautiful skates? Let's see.

Evgeny - I hope the knee is fixed or it doesn't have to be and no excuses in Brian wins.

Brian - Let's see a little smile today.

Stephane - You go guy, you have it all just skate it. Let me see it, please.

All the American and Canadian boys: Let's see consistent programs.

The American and Japanese Ladies: Go ahead, let's see you battle it out for that third place at your Nationals.

Lots to see this coming season. What are yours?

Joe

Eman, Sasha & Jenny Kirk - consistency.

a return to 3x3s by Michelle and some great choreography to match her talent.

Good topic, Joe!

Michelle: I agree with Bronxgirl completely. I would love to see a 3/3, but I'd rather see some intricate and difficult choreography.

Sasha: I'd love to see her be consistent, but more than that I'd really like to see her let go and forge a genuine emotional connection with the audience. She did it in her 04 Worlds SP and I would very much like to see her perform this way more often.

Shizuka: I want her to keep the momentum from last year and would also like to see improved spins (positions, speed, etc.).

Irina: I just want one more vintage Slutskaya SP!

Karolina Kostner: Everything Joe said!

Johnny Weir: He is brilliant...but I think the only way he'll be a medal contender is with a quad. He also needs more speed and perhaps a bit more excitement in his programs (but perhaps that has more to do with choreography).

Inoue & Baldwin: Stand up! You are a beautiful team with loads of potential!

US Pairs: PLEASE don't let Portland be a splatfest like Dallas and Atlanta turned out to be. I think there's lots of potential in some of our US pairs (most notably Orscher & Lucash, Don & Hunt, and Evora & Ladwig) and I would LOVE to see them stand up and skate awesome this year. Give us US folks something to cheer about in Portland!

Langlois & Archetto: Please just work on skating your best and not worrying about the results. The results will come if you just skate as well as you possibly can and believe in your abilities. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see them finally become Canadian champions this year.

Michelle: Some wonderful and intricate choreography would be stellar and I would LOVE to see her crank out a new 3x3 just to shut the critics up, LOL

Timmy: Please come back stronger and healthier and know that you are SO on your way to skating with a presentation and style all your own. Don't let the quads go to crap though and I would love to see you skate beautifully at Nats this year.

Ryan Jahnke: Get that triple axel even more consistant, maybe throw a few quad attempts this year, and keep on having wonderfully choreographed and intricate programs that I can take a gazillion pictures of in Portland.

Tanith & Ben: Maybe have a FD that doesn't have quite the blatent theme this year?! The talent is there so keep on doing that but for gosh sakes, you are SOOO much better than using overused music. I do hope your OD this year is as fun as your OD from last year though! That was great.

Angela: I would love to see her put it all together again in a season back like she did in the 00-01 season, and its my greatest wish for her to medal again at Nats so she can go back to Worlds. She's still got the the goods, don't let her performances fool you because its all still there. She just needs to believe in herself more this year.

I think that's it for now, I could go on all day about this particular topic, but these are my biggest wishes.

This year I would like to see Langlois & Archetto get into the top 5 at worlds again, as well as claim the Canadian title.

I'd also like to see Melissa and Denis continue to improve and really make the leaders in ice dance have to keep up. I'd also like to see them rock out at US Nationals where I will be there cheering them on! WOOT WOOT!

I'd like to see Tim and Irina BOTH make big comebacks to competitive skating. I have nothing but great faith that they will!

I would also like to see Angela and Jenny both make the US Nationals podium... a girl can dream!

My Let's See List:

Emanuel Sandhu - please deliver two strong programs - short and long
Jeff Buttle - please land a quad and get those triples consitent. Also don't get sick again!!!!
L&A - Come on you can do it!!

My wish list:
That under COP the caller will be honest and treat ALL skater's the same (all "flutzes" should be called as such and deductions made accordingly--the same with "lips").

That judges, under COP, will deduct for under/over rotations, will give stiff deductions for falls (any fall, imo, disrupts the flow of the program--I don't care how great one's presentation is)! and finally, lack of quality edging.

That judges, under COP, will NOT "bloc judge" or cheat on the scoring. That they judge the performance being skated at the time not how great a practice session might have been.

That the "secrecy of judging" would just go away and accountibility replace it.

That fans will not be so quick to nitpick results.

I know, I know, I'm looking for "Competitive Figure Skating Utopia" and am realizing there just isn't any such thing!

Oh, yeah, that ALL the skaters have a great year and have fun skating and competing--win or lose.

Well, if Dortmund was any indication, Moscow should be a medal mania event for Rusisa. In 99, when worlds was just accross the bay in Finland, Russia swept the gold medals. I doubt that the Russian ladies can compete witht he US and Japanese anymore, but we'll see. Otherwise, I see Plushy, T&M and Zuhlin's wife& Lautova's husband as heavy favorites to retain their titles.

Even though Worlds are in Russia there would have to be a serious U-turn in opinion regarding S&Z from the judges for T&M to win. If S&Z are clean of course. They had CoP wrapped up last season and won GPF by a country mile!

Lets see if Johnny can add a quad and get on the podium
Michelle to just have really awesome programs and a 3/3/ if she feels she has to although I'm not that fussed about it.
Miki to sparkle
Stephane to point his toes, land all his jumps, spin like a demon and possibly cause the upset to end all others at Worlds.
Jeff to start landing the quad and Shawn Sawyer to skate out of the box and make GPF and 2nd place at Nats - ok that's a bit of a fantasy but anyway!

Erm lets see if dance can actually interest me enough to even bother looking at the results and for the Kerrs to be stunning and climb about 5 places in the World and Euro standings!

(Some of these may be redundant, but I lack the technical finesse to weed out 2 or 3 lines from 2 or 3 different posts and stick ITA's on them )

Michelle -- Let's see you go to the Olympics and HAVE FUN for once instead of just wanting to get the whole thing over with. (Yes, I realize that would be for the season AFTER this coming one, but it's never too early to want to see that, IMO). And the 3/3 would be nice, too. Not that I personally care much about it, but it would be nice just to get people to shut up about whether you can/will do it or not.

Sasha -- Let's see you stop with the one or two ditzy mistakes that always seem to mar your programs. And let's see you return to a program that allows you to make the most of your music, which up until Swan Lake was one of the best things about your skating.

Angela -- Let's see you get a chance to go back to Worlds and maybe pick up the medal you might have picked up in Vancouver had it not been for that one unfortunate fall.... At the very least let's see you drop the habit of missing your first or second jump and then letting all the rest of them go to pot.

Shizuka -- Let's see you wearing a costume that covers what really needs to be covered. You're too elegant a skater to be doing the Lettin' It All Hang Out Thing....

Julia (Sebestyen) -- Let's see some EXPRESSION. You had such a fabulously choregraphed program this past season and had you given any impression at all that you were FEELING the music, you could have ripped the roof off a few arenas with the ovations!!

Irina -- Let's just see you get well. The rest will take care of itself.

Emmanuel -- Let's see you put together a top 3 SP and a top 3 LP in the same competition. Then let's see you do it again the next competition.

Kevin -- Let's see you on the Europeans podium. Or at the very least let's see you skate well enough so we can see you PERIOD.

Ryan (Bradley) -- Let's see you tone down that ADD style of skating and show us some of the incredible stuff we know you're capable of.

Tim -- Let's see some of that "improvement in artistry" we've been hearing about for the last 2 or 3 years. And let's see you burn (PUBLICLY IN THE NEAREST TOWN SQUARE) that hideous "Queen Symphony" costume that looked like something Katharine Hepburn wore in the late 30s.

Evgeny -- Let's see you tone down the mugging or the strutting or whatever it is you want to call it and JUST SKATE. You can certainly do that well enough without the cocky embellishments.

Tatiana & Maxim -- PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, Let us see some expression. Skating androids do not do it for most people, regardless of how good the technique and choreography are.

Annabelle & Patrice -- Let's see you get the results I think you are more than capable of getting. I don't think a Worlds medal would be completely out of the question.

Tiffany & Philip -- Let's see you take a couple of steps forward this season instead of another step or two back.

Kathryn & Garrett -- Let's see you skate a program or two that would actually not make me wonder what all the fuss is about.

Albena & Maxim -- Let's see you do something a little less -- er -- avant-garde for once.

Marie-France & Patrice -- Let's see the in-betweens look as good as the fantastic highlights.

Sinead & John -- Let's see you move up high enough so I can get a chance to see you and see what all the fuss is about! I have a feeling I won't be disappointed.

patsue1947 said:

My wish list:
That under COP the caller will be honest and treat ALL skater's the same (all "flutzes" should be called as such and deductions made accordingly--the same with "lips").

That judges, under COP, will deduct for under/over rotations, will give stiff deductions for falls (any fall, imo, disrupts the flow of the program--I don't care how great one's presentation is)! and finally, lack of quality edging.

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In addition to these I would like to see that judges under CoP will give out +2's and +3's where they are due, particularly for each individual spin, footwork pass, and spiral, instead of playing it safe with scores of -1 to +1, leaving only the level of difficulty to distinguish among the scores.

I agree with many of the things already stated. Most of all, I want Takeshi and Jeff Buttle to have great seasons -injury-free and illness-freeI missed them terribly at Worlds.

JonnyCoop said:

Kevin -- Let's see you on the Europeans podium. Or at the very least let's see you skate well enough so we can see you PERIOD.

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Totally agree. I would like him to stop with the front loading, too, but to be honest, his programs were great with it, so imagine how good they will be when he fixes that. I hope his triple axel is back consistently.

Evgeny -- Let's see you tone down the mugging or the strutting or whatever it is you want to call it and JUST SKATE. You can certainly do that well enough without the cocky embellishments.

\.

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But some of us LOVE those cocky embellishments! But, yes, he can skate beautifully without them. His Adagio SP from last year proved that.

I want to see Viktoria Pavuk fix those minor little things in her skating and kick some butt this year at Euros and Worlds.

I want Shizuka to do another unusual and interesting program like Techno Swan Lake.

I would like Karel Zelenka, Gregor Urbas and Vakthang Murvandizde to skate well enough to make the US television broadcast so that everyone can see how wonderful they are.

Laura

Sasha: one or two consistent 3/3s, and the controlling of her nerves to skate clean programs, especially at nationals/worlds

Michelle: some programs like FOC or TRV, nothing like Shez or Tosca

Takeshi: CONSISTENCY! Stop messing up at worlds!!!

Fumie: come girl, skate with some attack!

Angela: same as above. Please don't ever double a jump again.

Michael: er, better choreo? and stop falling.

Michelle: going for a 3x3 in every program
sasha: just decent triples at the world champs, and in the LP as well
Shizuka: just keep the others working, keep putting the pressure on...
carolina: the blinder she's been keeping us waiting for.
Mikki: a better spiral sequence
sebeysten: to keep on improving

Shen&Zhao:more, more of the same please
Plushy:more of that mad blinding footwork
Baboo: just keep things cool, don't try too hard in the presentation department, you're already fine
Lambiel: consistency. All the way through the three rounds.
Weir: a quad
Weiss: a clean LP
Lindemann: more quad/triples of that quality
Dambier: a medal in a major comp.

Just us

My wish list is just for our own US Nationals: Thinking outloud-----

Sasha light the fire/keep it going. Carmen was advised against & you kept it
anyway and skated defiantly---get THAT back again in your programs.
Forget the pretty stuff and fluff. Go for "defiant woman"

MIchelle--keep the emotional content coming on strong., but don't get weird on
us with the music. It's OK to have something "different" than everyone else
but it's also OK, too, to use something that we don't have to think about, we
can just let it wash over us along with the performance...once in a while.

Michael Weiss--get new choreography, loosen up, get a back rub before each
performance.....or else load up the content on your exhibition programs to
turn them into into competitive programs. Forget all that trumped up stuff
and let it rip. Also, you don't have to hit us over the head with your "theme"
outfits. We'd "get it" even if they were a little more subtle on the "theme"

Ryan Jahnke--stay the course., but don't get too edgy with the outfits just yet.

Tim--go pro. Spare yourself ortho surgery or whatever is eventually at hand.

Johnny Weir--Do what you do. Don't ever try to learn more than ONE quad (just
to stay competitive), unless it's coming so easily that it won't rob you of the
time you need to put into "real" skating, not to mention rob you of your future.
See above.

Jenny--Gee I loved what you did this yr. Don't allow a coaching change to undo
progress. You are lyrical, even when you skate "fun" programs. Don't get
weighted down by someone else's idea of how you should skate. Are you
now going to go down the path Michelle did and skate "safe".zzzzzzzzzz?

Angela--decide to skate or retire. You need to cross-train for endurance like I
know you did at least once before Elena died. If you need more than the
average for the same results, then do it or quit. We're all in pain here.

Ann Patrice--you could be Angela. My wish for you is to cross-train for
endurance and attack your programs. But I love your mom's outfits. Maybe
you two should go into business with skatewear?

Baldwin and Inoue---you are the strongest US pair in a long time, so could
you go for a little cleaner at our own Nationals? Could you take that triple toe
out of the corner and put it somewhere else? I think it's jinxed there. I'm
excited to see what you come up with next.

Orscher and Lucash--go to ballet, esp. him. Try to skate closer together. Get
a new music cutter. Gag. You have good potential and I even liked your
last Katchetorian (sp?) long---but can't imagine having taken such rich music
and making the most repetitive and boring cut of it! You need someone
to help you on that music cutting stuff....or someone NEW to do it.

Overall I wish almost all the other pairs would dissolve and go away and Santa would bring us a big bag o' new pairs. I'm not trying to be mean. There are some really nice kids and really nice skaters among the rest. I just can't keep up with the partner changes and quitters and comer-backers and injuries and hype and no results and, sigh, so since this is MY wish list, I wish for a whole new stable of pairs below the two I already "wished" about. At least then I'd be hopeful until THEY started to poop out, too.

Last but not least, since this is MY wish list, I wish Natalie Portman would suddenly turn up as a national level figure skater. If not that, then God, please let her marry my son.

berthes ghost said:

Well, if Dortmund was any indication, Moscow should be a medal mania event for Rusisa. In 99, when worlds was just accross the bay in Finland, Russia swept the gold medals.

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Well, I would say that competition being in Finland in 1999 had nothing to do with the Russian sweep! All wins were really deserved ones (although I personally did not agree with pairs and ice dance results). I do agree though that many times the venue has a lot of importance, as seen also e.g. in competitions held in USA or Canada and now in Germany.

Just a few from me.

Sasha--forget about the quad. You need to concentrate on skating clean programs, and I don't think that trying to put a quad in is going to help you any. Forget the 3/3 for this year too practice, but don't put it in your programs yet. use this year to clean up your programs and bring on the 3/3 for the Olympic year.

Michelle--more choreography. You are awesome...let all the doubters know it.

AP--more programs like Madame Butterfly. It was awesome, and I know you can do it again. I can't wait to see you on the podium!

Johnny--show me what all the hype is about...get some connection with the audience, and I just might see it.

Tim and Takeshi--keep doing what you are doing. You both are improving every year. You were missed at Worlds this year.