2014-2015 JGPF Ladies Free Skate 12/12

[Meoima]

My dear god, yes i managed to survive the tacky horrendous highly obscene costumes on these children.:disapp:
I can see this sport is still corrupted after the olympics.Wakaba was just superior despite the lack of spins, she probably has a reason for that.
It should have been:
1.Wakaba
2.Evgenia
3.Serafima

I think these young ladies are dressed very well. Why call them tacky?
And Wakaba still lacks the package that Evgania and Serafima have. She doesn't have good spins and her positions are not really amazing and graceful. She's more of a powerful skaters and right now her package is not enough. Still she's the youngest here.

 

[chairmanmao]

Its about time we see some technical upgrade from the ladies. I think 3-3's in the second half are a welcome sight, Sakhanovich even upping the ante by landing a 3LZ-3T at the very end of her program. Finally we can truly pronounce the end of the reign of the six triple Queen.

 

[[email protected]]

I wish it were the podium sweep - at least the first two places were certain as Evgenia and Sima are way above the others. But Maria could not deliver to her full potential. She explained later that at the end she became tired and that it is still the aftermath of her injury - did not have time to fully prepare. She also admitted that Sima and Evgenia have moved forward and she has to catch up. Sima was dissatisfied by being the second for the second time now when she was the expected winner. She was also surprised that her final spin received only the first level. Spin improvement is now her priority. Strange enough but Zhenya is also not happy with her skating: she could not do the planned combo and had to change in real time - overall she thinks that she had better performances than this and she has a lot of work to do.

As for Wakaba, I have not changed my mind. It is not harmonic figure skating yet - it is rushing and jumping. Yes, power and energy. But unless she improves her package in everything else I just do not see her evolving into a top skater.

 

[Totentanz]

Congratulations to Medvedeva!! Loved both of her performances. New dress is really better than the previous outfit.
Serafima was looking for a win here I guess. But when Evgenia lands her jumps, I think Serafima can't beat her score. Evgenia's jumps are looking better than hers. Although Serafima has more attack and presence on the ice, Evgenia's interpretation is also very good.
I love both, can't choose one between them.

I just hope that Maria can make the same improvement these girls did this season. I know she is coming from injury and big growth, these things may affect her progress. But if she can add more transitions to her program, skating with a little more speed and attack, Maria can actually pass Evgenia and Serafima. On the other side, my first wish would be none of these girls get injured, because of the big competition in Russia forcing themselves too much.

I didn't watch Wakaba and Yuka's free yet, but I'm so happy for these two. Former has just begun her junior career and medalled beside Evgenia and Serafima, the latter is 17 years old and she made huge impact on junior scene unexpectedly. I like watching Nagai more than Hongo, actually.

 

[ordinary person]

I think these young ladies are dressed very well. Why call them tacky?
And Wakaba still lacks the package that Evgania and Serafima have. She doesn't have good spins and her positions are not really amazing and graceful. She's more of a powerful skaters and right now her package is not enough. Still she's the youngest here.

I don't think i have to explain why i said tacky.
Anyways her jumps were much faster and smoother compared to the heavy unbalanced jumps of Serafima or the weird anorexic Evgenia.Wakaba deserved gold, period.

 

[stryke]

I don't think i have to explain why i said tacky.
Anyways her jumps were much faster and smoother compared to the heavy unbalanced jumps of Serafima or the weird anorexic Evgenia.Wakaba deserved gold, period.

Always with the physical insults with you people who dislike the Russians. Low class. Wakaba is a technical skater and that is all I see her as. Very fast and excellent jumps but no connection with the crowd at all. She has a ways to go to get on Evgenia's and Serafima's level, period.

 

[Miss Ice]

My dear god, yes i managed to survive the tacky horrendous highly obscene costumes on these children.:disapp:
I can see this sport is still corrupted after the olympics.Wakaba was just superior despite the lack of spins, she probably has a reason for that.
It should have been:

1.Wakaba
2.Evgenia
3.Serafima

Wakaba did skate a senior-level LP and SP freakishly clean, and quite expressively for a junior skater. The expression of her and her coach said it all: http://youtu.be/ufQYuD6LFzI?t=6m51s

What. The. Heck. I am so tired of the ISU bias. Wakaba deserved at least second, she should have definitely been at least 2nd in the LP. Ridiculous. I hope this favoritism is gotten rid of JWC.

Also, sure, Serafima had 2 3-3's and stuff, but the quality, the quality! IMHO, Wakaba's jumping technique blows away even the top-scoring senior ladies, matched only by that of Elizaveta and So Youn. And, I can still argue that he technique looks more polished than that of Elizaveta. Wakaba has the presense of Mao and Yu Na on ice, and it is a refreshing change from the sloppily executed but 'clean' triples of some of the others.

 

[ordinary person]

Wakaba did skate a senior-level LP and SP freakishly clean, and quite expressively for a junior skater. The expression of her and her coach said it all: http://youtu.be/ufQYuD6LFzI?t=6m51s

What. The. Heck. I am so tired of the ISU bias. Wakaba deserved at least second, she should have definitely been at least 2nd in the LP. Ridiculous. I hope this favoritism is gotten rid of JWC.

Also, sure, Serafima had 2 3-3's and stuff, but the quality, the quality! IMHO, Wakaba's jumping technique blows away even the top-scoring senior ladies, matched only by that of Elizaveta and So Youn. And, I can still argue that he technique looks more polished than that of Elizaveta. Wakaba has the presense of Mao and Yu Na on ice, and it is a refreshing change from the sloppily executed but 'clean' triples of some of the others.

I could not have said said it any better:agree:

 

[Danja]

Wakaba has the presense of Mao and Yu Na on ice, and it is a refreshing change from the sloppily executed but 'clean' triples of some of the others.

It`s just your subjective opinion And my subjective opinion is that Wakabi is already a top junior skater, but she lacks individuality. Her programs are full of energy, but rather boring artistically. They don`t tell me anything, they don`t express anything except of "Have a look at my great technical abilities". But she`s still very young, it`s a very stong debut, maybe later she`ll get more attractive programs.

 

[gotoschool]

I

 

[Meoima]

It`s just your subjective opinion And my subjective opinion is that Wakabi is already a top junior skater, but she lacks individuality. Her programs are full of energy, but rather boring artistically. They don`t tell me anything, they don`t express anything except of "Have a look at my great technical abilities". But she`s still very young, it`s a very stong debut, maybe later she`ll get more attractive programs.

I also have the same feeling. Getting a bronze when she was just 13 is a huge accomplishment already.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

I find Wakaba to be extremely talented and it's been fun watching her all season. I think a few posters are oversimplifying things when they say she should have won or even should have been second. I don't like to play backseat judge myself because as I've said before the scores are a combination of 9 opinions whittled down to seven and then factored so that one person's opinion is not taken as a final score as some seem to forget.

Here is what I think. Wakaba has speed and lands all of her jumps using a sound technique and looks very stable on landing. The jumps aren't perfect as she received edge calls on both of her flips. Now I think the judges are over punishing edge calls but thats a different story. The only thing I would nitpick on her jumps is she uses the same transition out on nearly all of her jumps. She dips her shoulder and does a spin with an arm raise or movement very quickly (too quickly IMO) after the jump and is in no way holding it on a curved edge. To me this is another area she just rushes thru the program. I saw her compared to Yuna up thread but Yuna did not do this. Yuna had a strong and pretty flow out of her jumps and used her momentum to slow down and draw connection to the music quite often. She was very strong at holding on a curved edge after her jumps IMO. Looking at Wakaba's scores it's clear the judges see this too because even the judges that gave her high GOE on the jumps were not very generous with her transition scores. One judge gave her 7.5 in skating skills and 4.75 in transitions This was the same judge that gave her a +3 for her Salchow so hardly a judge out to get her. Right now Wakaba is not using her body to create interesting lines and instead is kind of hips down with a lot of crossovers.

There is so much promise though and I don't want to sound like I'm picking on her but in order to properly asses the scores and not just simply say "I like her she should have won" we need to address these things. In just the few things that I brought up she lost about 4 pts and that's without the edge calls which cost around 5 more points. So the potential is there and hopefully she can get her SP in order because this is the second time at least this season that she put herself in 5th after the SP. The other time being in the Czech skate where she got another ! call and only doubled her combo (2f-2t w/!). While I'm not a fan of her spins she can get by with what she is doing because even compared to Evgenia who is lightyears ahead of her in that department she only loses about 1.5 pts in the FS so while they aren't impressive. They are good enough to keep her in contention.

My final assessment is that Wakaba is going to be a force to reckon with and I like watching her skate. She is so young and these little details can be worked out. But it is my opinion that at this point she lacks in interpretation (transitions and stroking) and excels in speed and lightning like delivery of jumps. She fought her way back to the podium after a disappointing 5th place in the SP. That is a good sign for her to be able to once again fight back from previous errors and reclaim a podium spot. Just think if she had skated her SP better. She would be in 2nd at JGPF and Sima's tightness and not being in her best form would have cost her a placement.

 

[sunnystars]

Awesome analysis on Wakaba, Sam and I agree with....everything that you said!

Wakaba is a star but with the other girls milking everything that the COP wants, she has to get consistent with the other elements.

Somehow, this discussion reminds me of the men's event in GPF....

 

[yyyskate]

I actually prefer Wakaba's SP... in terms of transition out of her jump, she does that thing, which Yuna also does sometimes in her program. Yuna does it better, because Yuna is Yuna (superior in lines and in terms of nuances , details in refined movement, nobody can match her...) Wakaba SP program has transitions, sufficient but I dont think it is choreographically genius.. I think Wakaba has relatively good control of edges in her spins, just not have flexibility and long lines.
but I love Wakaba's SP performance. Whether should she be placed at 5th, I dont know, cause I am not that interested in rules and protocols anymore.
Judged purely by my personal impression, I think her SP is as good as Evgenia's. All things considered, I will place Evgenia a bit higher.

 

[yuki]

I love Wakaba's jumps, but seeing the competition live another skater that stood out to me in this regard is Yuka Nagai. She has good speed in and out, great height and distance and beautiful air position.
A few examples:
3T-3T (JGPF SP)
3Lz-3T (JGPF LP)
2A-3T-2T (JGPF LP)

 

[burntBREAD]

I love Wakaba's jumps, but seeing the competition live another skater that stood out to me in this regard is Yuka Nagai. She has good speed in and out, great height and distance and beautiful air position.
A few examples:
3T-3T (JGPF SP)
3Lz-3T (JGPF LP)
2A-3T-2T (JGPF LP)

I like Yuka a lot too, and I think she's been overlooked considering the top 3 here skated so well (and so did Sotskova). Great jumps, great skating skills, quite mature (but being 17 helps compared to the others) - I'd say she needs some work on her spins as well like Wakaba in that they're fast and pretty well-centered, but the positions themselves aren't too nice. Yuka's nicely well-rounded, but I think she's a bit mentally fragile. I recall that she placed out of the top 20(!) the last two years in Japanese Junior Nationals and she was completely sobbing this year after her LP at Jr. Nationals even though she literally made two mistakes (one pop and one UR). Perhaps too much pressure on herself?

 

[ordinary person]

I like Yuka a lot too, and I think she's been overlooked considering the top 3 here skated so well (and so did Sotskova). Great jumps, great skating skills, quite mature (but being 17 helps compared to the others) - I'd say she needs some work on her spins as well like Wakaba in that they're fast and pretty well-centered, but the positions themselves aren't too nice. Yuka's nicely well-rounded, but I think she's a bit mentally fragile. I recall that she placed out of the top 20(!) the last two years in Japanese Junior Nationals and she was completely sobbing this year after her LP at Jr. Nationals even though she literally made two mistakes (one pop and one UR). Perhaps too much pressure on herself?

Omg she's like 17, that's sooo old.

 

[LittleLotte29]

Omg she's like 17, that's sooo old.

And she's still alive? How's that possible?

 

[AprilS]

But Yuka just turned 16 on November 30th?? :confused2:

 

[CarneAsada]

I think these young ladies are dressed very well. Why call them tacky?
And Wakaba still lacks the package that Evgania and Serafima have. She doesn't have good spins and her positions are not really amazing and graceful. She's more of a powerful skaters and right now her package is not enough. Still she's the youngest here.

How does Wakaba not have good spins? She doesn't get Level 4 on all of them but her positions were fine and that layback was a great example of how to get Level 4 without doing an ugly Biellmann. Her facial expression is a little blank and she looks more concentrated on landing jumps, but the Russian girls didn't really impress me with their expression either.

Wakaba did skate a senior-level LP and SP freakishly clean, and quite expressively for a junior skater. The expression of her and her coach said it all: http://youtu.be/ufQYuD6LFzI?t=6m51s

What. The. Heck. I am so tired of the ISU bias. Wakaba deserved at least second, she should have definitely been at least 2nd in the LP. Ridiculous. I hope this favoritism is gotten rid of JWC.

She did miss her 3 jump combination which the difference in quality couldn't overcome, but yeah, the point difference for PCS was too much. At least they gave her the highest Skating Skills score. Definitely my order of preference was
1. Wakaba
2. Serafima (am I the only one who likes her more than Evgenia?)
3. Evgenia