2012 Grand Prix Final Short Dance (SD)

[icefan1005]

protocols up http://www.isuresults.com/results/gpf1213/gpf1213_IceDance_SD_Scores.pdf
Virtue/Moir finally got a level 4 on a Polka (the other was a 3)
Cappellini/Lanotte received a level 4 for both Polkas (are the only one who did it in this season so far)

Great job for both teams, especially C/L! Nice.

 

[ImaginaryPogue]

How do skaters up their elements from a level 3 to a 4? Is it simple practice, or performing the elements in a certain manner?

Both.

 

[carriecmu0503]

How do skaters up their elements from a level 3 to a 4? Is it simple practice, or performing the elements in a certain manner?

It's both- they need to perform the elements in a certain manner, and it takes practice to do so. Particularly on the pattern dances, they need to skate as close together as possible, do ALL the turns on the CORRECT edge, and cover as much ice as possible.

 

[uncchristine99]

It's a vicious math game... do you take the time to work up to a level 4 but less GOE (Cappelini/Lanotte) or do you sit on a consistent level 3 and rack up serious GOE (Davis/White)? It hardly seems credible... D/W got level 3s on both patterns but they got the highest GOE period on the polka patterns (a 1.0 and a 0.93). C/L got level 4s on both patterns but only 0.29 and 0.21 GOE. Then there's Pechalat/Bourzat, who got the highest individual pattern score of 7.86 on the first pattern but also the lowest individual pattern score of 5.57 on the second pattern. It just seems all over the place!

Math aside, it seems like everyone had a good performance (though I haven't seen V/M's video yet). I always want D/W on top but I AM surprised that it's a 2 point spread. It's so weird from competition to competition--I seriously don't see how D/W and V/M can ever be more than half a point apart unless one of them has a major mistake. They're both so good... granted, they're good at different things but math-wise, it usually tends to even out anyway. On to the free! It should be full of drama and anguish!

 

[Mao88]

SHORT DANCE - VIDEOS & RESULT (Updated)

1. Meryl DAVIS & Charlie WHITE (USA) - 73.20 Short Dance, 2nd Copy
2. Tessa VIRTUE & Scott MOIR (CAN) - 71.27 Short Dance
3. Nathalie PECHALAT & Fabian BOURZAT (FRA) - 68.70 Short Dance, 2nd Copy
4. Ekaterina BOBROVA & Dmitri SOLOVIEV (RUS) - 66.23 Short Dance, 2nd Copy
5. Anna CAPPELLINI & Luca LANOTTE (ITA) - 66.11 Short Dance, 2nd Copy
6. Elena ILINYKH & Nikita KATSALAPOV (RUS) - 63.56 Short Dance, 2nd Copy

 

[rosacotton]

It's both- they need to perform the elements in a certain manner, and it takes practice to do so. Particularly on the pattern dances, they need to skate as close together as possible, do ALL the turns on the CORRECT edge, and cover as much ice as possible.

Thank you for the helpful explanation, carriecmu!

 

[Tinymavy15]

This is a big confirmation for Davis and White. Traditionally they have lost points in the SD and came back with the free. The spread is enough to give them a victory in the FD if they skate up to par with what they have been doing all season...even if Virtue and Moir are clean.

 

[Skater Boy]

I don't disagree with the results though I would have V and M closer to D and W and I would have oddly B and S closer to P and B. I and K and V and M need to work on levels.

 

[blackswanphoto]

Moir blabbing off at the mouth again... Just when I start to like them a bit more, he puts his foot in his mouth.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/figur...tend-to-lose-to-american-rivals-again-dimanno

 

[Whitneyskates]

I'm not Moir's biggest fan, but I don't get what was so bad in that article? He said they don't watch D/W when they're on the ice. Every skater/team says they don't watch other skaters when they're practicing so that they don't get distracted.

 

[wallylutz]

Moir blabbing off at the mouth again... Just when I start to like them a bit more, he puts his foot in his mouth.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/figur...tend-to-lose-to-american-rivals-again-dimanno

Moir: “What we took from last year’s Grand Prix finals was a pretty hard lesson. We were trying too hard to prove that we were the best. That doesn’t really work for us. Luckily, it happened at the Grand Prix finals because we were able to take advantage of that for the world championships.

“It would be nice to only learn that lesson once.”

So what exactly you found objectionable in this quote?

 

[wallylutz]

I'm not Moir's biggest fan, but I don't get what was so bad in that article? He said they don't watch D/W when they're on the ice. Every skater/team says they don't watch other skaters when they're practicing so that they don't get distracted.

Me neither, it seems to me someone is hell bend on putting words in Moir's mouth even when he has said nothing of note.

 

[Whitneyskates]

And reading it again, it really does seem like the author was trying to build up some big tension filled dramatic moment, when it really is nothing of the sort. The skaters rarely ever interact during practices, they're concentrated on what they're doing.

 

[Tinymavy15]

And reading it again, it really does seem like the author was trying to build up some big tension filled dramatic moment, when it really is nothing of the sort. The skaters rarely ever interact during practices, they're concentrated on what they're doing.

right. you don't get to be at this level by socializing during practice. That dosen't mean that the skaters don't laugh and talk during their off-time...some of my closest friends are still the girls I grew up skating with. On ice we were all business and didn't even make eye contact, off ice we were like sisters.

 

[aftertherain]

Moir blabbing off at the mouth again... Just when I start to like them a bit more, he puts his foot in his mouth.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/figur...tend-to-lose-to-american-rivals-again-dimanno

I think we already discussed in a previous post in "The Edge" that DiManno is not the author to go to when discussing figure skating. She's like one of those girls in high school who like to start drama and can't handle it when someone disagrees with her.

See this post: http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?39067-Plushenko-won-t-bother-with-figure-skating-Grand-Prix-season-by-Rosie-DiManno&p=686282&viewfull=1#post686282

With that said, I really liked D/W and V/M's routines!

 

[sky_fly20]

Moir blabbing off at the mouth again... Just when I start to like them a bit more, he puts his foot in his mouth.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/figur...tend-to-lose-to-american-rivals-again-dimanno

the author is a discredit already, lol

 

[dorispulaski]

For one thing, DiManno's not accurate, even in this piece. She never fact checks herself. She should be fired, IMO.

There's two obvious errors in the piece, and perhaps more if she misrepresented what Scott said, something that I would definitely not put past her.

V&M never won a GPF title, so there is no way they can recover it. It's like Alice at the Tea Party. And it was Charlie who was the serious hockey player. Moir played in Squirts, and maybe PeeWees, but I never heard he played in Midgets, Bantams, or high school.

http://www.meryl-charlie.com/2012/11/charlie-visits-nhl.html

Charlie, OTOH, continued to play hockey until D&W's last season in Juniors (after he broke his leg/ankle playing hockey). There is an interview with Charlie on NHL.com of all places (link above).

It developed over a childhood split between hockey and figure skating. As a playmaking center, White competed in the Detroit metro area playing AAA hockey for the Honeybaked Hockey Club, a prominent local organization that has sent more than 50 players to the NCAA ranks and seen 18 former players drafted by NHL teams since 2000 -- including Ryan Kesler, Tim Gleason and Jim Slater.

While White developed world-class skating skills that would eventually earn him Olympic glory, he was also playing hockey at an incredibly high level, all while balancing both sports with school. Already established as a teen as one of the country's top junior skaters, White won a state hockey championship as well. But when it came time to choose one sport, he knew his future was in ice dancing with Davis; it's an on-ice relationship that remains one of the longest lasting in the country. White's hockey teammates were more than understanding.

"I was such a good skater that they really respected what figure skating was able to do for my hockey. I think that led them to respect figure skating. Through the years, I've been in contact with the guys and they continue to be very supportive," said White, who followed up Olympic silver in 2010 by winning gold at the World Championships in 2011, the first by an American team in ice dancing. "They were very understanding when I decided to step away from hockey."

Both Scott & Charlie are huge hockey fans.

The one thing I found odd about the interview part was Scott calling Charlie "Charles". I wonder whether he did, or whether that was just Rosie DiManno being Rosie DiManno.

And DiManno's opinion that Charlie & Meryl were old skool Russian when it is usually Scott & Tessa who are compared to the balletic Klimova & Ponomarenko is . You could say that D&W have great speed, like Grishuk & Platov,, maybe, but they are not alike in other ways. Then she opines that Scott & Tessa are "English" in style. Who does she mean there? The Kerrs? Torvill & Dean? June Markham & Courtney Jones? None of these comparisons really work. Really both teams are unique and like no one but themselves.

This is due to the fact that the sport G&P and K&P and T&D competed in is not the same sport that D&W and V&M compete in, namely COP ice dance.

 

[Olympia]

Thanks for the article extract, Doris. I love that Charlie was at such a high level in both sports, and also that his partnership with Meryl is so enduring. I can't even keep track of pairs skaters in this country anymore.

I think that if I were Canadian, I'd still have the same trouble choosing between D/W and V/M. I have decided just to be greedy and love both. I demand a tie in every major competition from now through Sochi!

 

[emma]

^I can't choose between them either and love loving them both! And, I find it very difficult to pick a winner - so, I vote for a tie too!!!

That said, I find D/W's SD so very charming this year, I just love watching it and it's one of the few that 'feels' polka-ish to me.

Can't wait for more tomorrow!

 

[ice coverage]

For one thing, DiManno's not accurate, even in this piece. She never fact checks herself. She should be fired, IMO.

There's two obvious errors in the piece, and perhaps more if she misrepresented what Scott said, something that I would definitely not put past her.

V&M never won a GPF title, so there is no way they can recover it. It's like Alice at the Tea Party. And it was Charlie who was the serious hockey player. Moir played in Squirts, and maybe PeeWees, but I never heard he played in Midgets, Bantams, or high school. ...

Both Scott & Charlie are huge hockey fans. ...

The one thing I found odd about the interview part was Scott calling Charlie "Charles". I wonder whether he did, or whether that was just Rosie DiManno being Rosie DiManno.

Definitely agree in general that DiManno does not inspire confidence in her accuracy.

Her mistake re Virtue/Moir's GPF history had jumped out at me too. Someone on the skating beat should have known better.

"Charles" is in a quote that DiManno attributes to Virtue (not Moir) -- but the point that it seems odd remains the same. (Although Johnny Weir has been known to use "Charles" in reference to White, it is harder to imagine that V/M ever would.)

(On the other hand, I believe that White himself would find her description of Moir as a "hockey-playing guy" to be perfectly innocent, as I do. True that White was a serious hockey player, but that does not mean that Moir was not an active hockey player as well. After they had gotten to know each other through ice dance, they eventually realized that years before they even had played for opposing teams in a contentious hockey game. Not sure, but I think that Moir played organized hockey until his early teens. I wonder whether he had to stop because V/M left home at that young age to live and train intensively in Kitchener [whereas White continued to live at home until adulthood]. I've seen at least one photo of Moir at an older age playing in a casual hockey game. Virtue gave up her serious pursuit of ballet to concentrate on ice dance, and I would say that in a roughly analogous way, Moir gave up hockey for ice dance.)

ETA:

... you don't get to be at this level by socializing during practice. That dosen't mean that the skaters don't laugh and talk during their off-time...some of my closest friends are still the girls I grew up skating with. On ice we were all business and didn't even make eye contact, off ice we were like sisters.

Love all this great insight. :thumbsup:
White once said in an interview something like (not a direct quote), "Scott is one of my best friends now, and long after we stop skating, he'll still be one of my best friends."
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