2015-16 State of U.S. Men's Figure Skating

[StitchMonkey]

Jason has done Nebelhorn in the past two years (silver in 2013, gold in 2014) so I think he'll probably do one Challenger event at least?

I am hoping Jason does at least one and I hope it is Nebelhorn. I think it could be useful for him to practice defending a title before nationals.

I do think Jason and Max will each do one, but who knows which one. Josh... i think will try to do one if he is physically able to but who knows. The total radio silence especially just after the TSL trip is concerning. I can't help but worry that the lack of any pics with them might have a reason. (which could be a coach saying no, but anyway). A poster who appears to work with them said if he was there, there will be footage - implying that they wanted to involve him, but so far nothing. To be blunt TSL knows the game, and knows we are wondering, which means if got a chance to even get an off ice pic of him, they would be posting it ASAP unless they were requested not to. The fact that they are not commenting on his absence makes me wonder if they know something and are politely not talking.

 

[ice coverage]

... The fact that they are not commenting on his absence makes me wonder if they know something and are politely not talking.

Or it is possible also that Jenny and Dave simply have no factual information about Josh, and therefore have nothing to say about him.

Here's what happened with TSL regarding Liam Firus:

The Skating Lesson

July 26 at 6:58pm
Liam Firus has broken his tibia :frown emoticon:
https://www.facebook.com/TheSkatingLesson/posts/739023296219641​

Then on its road trip to Colorado last week, TSL posted its own fresh videos of Liam landing gorgeous jumps.
Strangely, TSL made no reference whatsoever to its own recent post that Liam had broken his tibia.

Don't get me wrong: I was very happy to see TSL's new videos of Liam, and I appreciated lots of other stuff from TSL's road trip.
But TSL's failure to cite its own previous "reporting" re Liam makes me wonder whether it was accurate to begin with.​

 

[StitchMonkey]

Or it is possible also that Jenny and Dave simply have no factual information about Josh, and therefore have nothing to say.

Here's what happened with TSL regarding Liam Firus:

The Skating Lesson

July 26 at 6:58pm
Liam Firus has broken his tibia :frown emoticon:
https://www.facebook.com/TheSkatingLesson/posts/739023296219641​

Then on its road trip to Colorado last week, TSL posted videos of Liam landing gorgeous jumps.
Strangely, TSL made no reference whatsoever to its own recent post that Liam had broken his tibia.

Don't get me wrong: I was very happy to see the new videos of Liam, and I appreciated lots of other stuff from TSL's road trip.
But TSL's failure to cite its own previous "reporting" re Liam makes me wonder whether it was accurate to begin with.​

They should have retracted their statement on Liam, I agree. I had heard that it was a rumor actually already so i think TSL just fell for it. And update/retraction would have been wiser than ignoring it.

As for Josh. I was thinking more of a "we did not see him during our trip" type statement. That could still be factual statement and would not feel like they are avoiding talking about him. If they say they did not see him, that is factual but still something to say. I would be less worried if they openly just said they did not see him while in CO.

 

[apgold]

TSL are still uploading their videos from their trip and will probably do a video of their own recap of the trip to Montreal and the Springs, so perhaps we'll know more by the end of the week. It's possible he wasn't there, maybe working in Toronto w/Jeff or visiting family, who knows? I'll be more concerned if Josh is not at Champs camp.

 

[StitchMonkey]

TSL are still uploading their videos from their trip and will probably do a video of their own recap of the trip to Montreal and the Springs, so perhaps we'll know more by the end of the week. It's possible he wasn't there, maybe working in Toronto w/Jeff or visiting family, who knows? I'll be more concerned if Josh is not at Champs camp.

Good point! They do at least post the class photo type thing at the start, fingers crossed he front and center and smiling.

You are right, we might see/here something still - if nothing else we will see videos so there is that.

 

[musicfan80]

Who knows about Josh? Maybe he just wasn't there when TSL was there - or somewhere else in the arena. Isn't that a HUGE place?

He could be still completely off the ice from injury or at physical therapy or taking a college class or WHO KNOWS? Also keep in mind that Josh doesn't exactly post a lot on social media like Jason or Max does.

I do wonder if Adam will do a competition before Skate Canada. Maybe he and Ashley will go to one together.

 

[StitchMonkey]

If anyone is interested.

The Challenger Series events before Skate America are
US Classic (September 16-20)
Nebelhorn (September 24-26)
Ondrej Nepela (October 1-3)
Finlandia (October 8-11)
Mordovian Ornament (October 15-18)

Skate America is the same week as Denkova-Staviski Cup (October 20-25)

Skate Canada is the same week as Ice Challenge (October 27-November 1)

The next one is Tallinn Trophy which falls after both TEB and COC and is the same weekend as Rostelecom - so not really a spot for pre Grand Prix skates.

I would guess that the latest Jason and Max would want to do would be Finlandia and Mordovian for Josh and Adam. Richard's first is COC so he could maybe do Denkova-Stviski. I guess they all could do a later one if they are ok with going one competition to the next.

So I am guessing Finlandia for Max, Nebelhorn for Jason, Ondrej for Josh, Mordovian for Adam. Who knows on Richard he may do Denkova.

 

[ice coverage]

.. Skate Canada Ice Challenge (October 27-November 1) ...

Skate Canada does not have a Challenger comp this year.

Skate Canada's senior international is the Autumn Classic (Oct 12-15).

ETA: never mind. I see that you have edited your post above .​

 

[StitchMonkey]

Skate Canada does not have a Challenger comp this year.

Skate Canada's senior international is the Autumn Classic (Oct 12-15).

Actually i meant that Skate Canada was the same weekend as an event called "IceChallenge" Isu has it as one word but I hate the spell check lines. It is in Graz, Austria.

But I can see your confusion!

If you want the source I was using
http://www.isu.org/en/single-and-pair-skating-and-ice-dance/series/isu-challenger-series

Scroll down and click to expand the events.

 

[ice coverage]

Actually i meant that Skate Canada was the same weekend as an event called "IceChallenge" Isu has it as one word but I hate the spell check lines. It is in Graz, Austria.

But I can see your confusion!

If you want the source I was using
http://www.isu.org/en/single-and-pair-skating-and-ice-dance/series/isu-challenger-series

Scroll down and click to expand the events.

Thanks for going back to re-word your post above. The original wording was esp. confusing b/c "Skate Canada Challenge" is the name of a (non-international) event [qualifying comp for Canadian Nats].

(I already loiter way too frequently on the ISU Challenger page .)

 

[StitchMonkey]

Thanks for going back to re-word your post above. The original wording was esp. confusing b/c "Skate Canada Challenge" is the name of a (non-international) event [qualifying comp for Canadian Nats].

(I already loiter way too frequently on the ISU Challenger page .)

Oh believe me, I laughed at myself. I think i was just trying to get the info in here and forgot to turn it into a sentence.

 

[karne]

Some love from USFSA for Ricky, Ross and Tim, as they have been assigned the SLC Classic

Thoughts?

*makes surprisedface*

No Max? That'd be the first time in like...three years.

Go Tim!

 

[Ice Dance]

It looks like a trial run to see who will get the TBD spot at Skate America, in most disciplines.

Not if the quote in another thread is correct. It says the USFSA plans to announce it's TBA by Sept. 15th. The Classic starts Sept. 16th. Also, Dornbush already has two spots on the Grand Prix. And I find it interesting that Grant isn't on this list after defeating Timothy at Glacier Falls. Grant had a good showing there. It's entirely possible he may get that third spot.

Personally, I think Shoma is the current frontrunner of the four participants we know for the Classic. Though Ricky always has the potential to surprise.

 

[Mrs. P]

Congrats to Vincent Zhou for his silver medal in his JGP debut and wow to a very ambitious FS that included a 4S (landed, but UR) , a 3-3 and a 3-1L-3!

He's definitely on the shake-things-up list for the senior U.S. men.

Easiest international comp score tracking list ever.

Overall
Vincent Zhou: 203.72 (JGP Bratislava)
Kevin Shum: 163.54 (JGP Bratislava)

SP
V. Zhou 68.07 (JGP Bratislava)
K. Shum 58.74 (JGP Bratislava)

SP TES
V. Zhou 36.66 (JGP Bratislava)
K. Shum 31.17 (JGP Bratislava)

SP PCS
V. Zhou 30.92 (JGP Bratislava)
K. Shum 27.57 (JGP Bratislava)

FS

V. Zhou 132.78 (JGP Bratislava)
K. Shum 104.80 (JGP Bratislava)

FS TES
V. Zhou 66.61 (JGP Bratislava)
K. Shum 47.92 (JGP Bratislava)

FS PCS
V. Zhou 66.64
K. Shum 57.88

Obviously too early to do any ranking now.

ETA: Putting Kevin on the list for now, but anyone know whether Kevin is moving up to the senior level? If no, NBD, probably would be good to do a separate junior men list anyway.

 

[silverlake22]

That's about right. I think we'll have our answers to those worries/concerns this season. Nathan can simmer in Juniors another year, and hopefully do really well, as long as he stays injury free.

FWIW, in some of the TSL footage, Jason did a fantastic 3A, with great height and landing. As for the quad, that's another story.

Jason is certainly capable of doing high quality 3axels, it's just that he doesn't always do them in competition. And I know there are way to manipulate the points so it doesn't matter much, but I still think frontloading both his 3axels makes his jump layout seem like a juniors - especially if he doesn't attempt/land a quad. As of last season, Jason couldn't land his second 3a (when it was in the 2nd half) in his FS cleanly, it was always < or <<. Hopefully this season that will change, though, as I do feel that his 3a is continuing to improve.

 

[StitchMonkey]

Jason is certainly capable of doing high quality 3axels, it's just that he doesn't always do them in competition. And I know there are way to manipulate the points so it doesn't matter much, but I still think frontloading both his 3axels makes his jump layout seem like a juniors - especially if he doesn't attempt/land a quad. As of last season, Jason couldn't land his second 3a (when it was in the 2nd half) in his FS cleanly, it was always < or <<. Hopefully this season that will change, though, as I do feel that his 3a is continuing to improve.

Actually it was not always an issue. He landed it cleanly twice, once at Rostelecom with negative GOE but rotated, and with positive GOE at 4CCs. So mostly but not always.

 

[Tavi...]

Jason is certainly capable of doing high quality 3axels, it's just that he doesn't always do them in competition. And I know there are way to manipulate the points so it doesn't matter much, but I still think frontloading both his 3axels makes his jump layout seem like a juniors - especially if he doesn't attempt/land a quad. As of last season, Jason couldn't land his second 3a (when it was in the 2nd half) in his FS cleanly, it was always < or <<. Hopefully this season that will change, though, as I do feel that his 3a is continuing to improve.

You know, some juniors have quite hard layouts, so I'm not sure it makes sense to say that a program with two 3A in the first half is juniorish. This year's junior world champion had two quads in the first half of his FS and a quad combo in the second half, all fully rotated.

Besides, with his "juniorish" layout at 2015 WTT, Jason still managed TES of 87 + and a total score of 176+.

We'll see what happens this season as he adds the quad (or attempts to ).

 

[Ice Dance]

I prefer clean, solid hard jumps to backloaded sloppy ones. Denis does his hard jumps at the beginning & there is nothing juniorish about them. If Jason's hardest jump is the triple axle--and it is thus far--then I want to see him hit it. He may or may not manage to crank some points out of that quadruple jump, but he has to hit those axles.

 

[ice coverage]

‏@amyrosewater

@USFigureSkating tells me that @joshDfarris is not at #ChampsCamp15 b/c of concussion and full recovery expected.
2:24 PM - 24 Aug 2015
https://twitter.com/amyrosewater/status/635925714198376448​

Best wishes to Josh!

ETA:

Rosewater tweeted the same news again a few minutes later:

A rep from @USFigureSkating tells me that @joshDfarris is not at #ChampsCamp15 b/c of concussion and full recovery expected.
2:31 PM - 24 Aug 2015
https://twitter.com/amyrosewater/status/635927518709608449​

And then Rosewater deleted the first tweet (I think only b/c the original version was a tweet at @USFigureSkating that others would not readily see -- or now that I think about it, maybe b/c she was emphasizing that she managed to get a scoop from one of her USFS sources).​

---

ETA, when asked how/when Josh got the concussion, Rosewater replied, "details are not available as of now."

https://twitter.com/amyrosewater/status/635946217155923969​

 

[Jammers]

Wow Josh really is injury prone isn't he? It seems like he's always starting from behind compared to the other skaters in terms of being prepared for the season.