2017-18 State of Russian Ladies skating

[Shayuki]

Miyahara has a very fast rotation speed as well, but as we all know, you need the height (and some of Eteri’s skaters aren’t the highest jumpers as well) so we’ll see

Actually no, Miyaharas rotation speed is not even close to being as fast. Iirc it was around 4.8 revolutions per second vs 6.0 for Anya. She jumps such low height triples with the power of prerotation and underrotation.

Anyway, hope we arent implying Anya who has actually landed clean fully rotated quads has no height on her jumps. And also, many Eteri skaters have pretty decent height. Especially the ones with actual quad prospects.

 

[tars]

Hello, Olympic supersub!

 

[atsumiri]

Sasha's jumps are pretty high, fast and powerful. Especially when you see them live. She doesn't just quick rotate her jumps but she also jumps high.
Ted https://youtu.be/DtXMAr4mMk4?t=3m56s

 

[Shayuki]

Yep, Sasha is a bit of a mix. Rotation speed is very fast but still not that close to Anyas, but she at least partially makes up for it with greater height.

She is not a slow rotator at all, likely ranking #3 in the world(with available material).

 

[Jana]

Well, I am not sure why Sotskova was 2nd and got the spot. I like some others Konstantinova (but she was 10th after SP, 3rd in FS, 4th overall), Kostornaia or Polina.


Maria made 2 mistakes in FS - hand on ice after 3Lo (-0.70 GOE? -1 by each judge) and rotation after (-0.50 GOE, 6x -1, 3x0) and still it was enough?
Actually, I can't understand Maria's PCS and the gap between Maria and 3rd lady...

SP - PCSs: Alina 36.89, Maria 36.82, Polina 34.95
FS - PCSs: Alina 76.08, Maria 74.34, Stanislava 70.47

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Well, I am not sure why Sotskova was 2nd and got the spot. I like some others Konstantinova (but she was 10th after SP, 3rd in FS, 4th overall), Kostornaia or Polina.

In an Olympic year they want to sort out the contenders for the Olympics first and foremost. In 2013-14 Radionova probably skated as well as Julia and Adelina but took 3rd and likley because she wasn’t age eligible for Sochi. Masha was probably about as close to losing her spot as she could be. Without serious errors the only person the judges were even considering to put in front of Masha was Polina. I agree that the judges propped her a bit and tossed her a life vest but keep in mind the reason they did so was to maintain her prestige a bit based on her success internationally. There is a big difference in being scored in front of international judges. Kostornaya maybe even skated better at JGPF and did not break 200.

Bottom line....Masha just barely scrapped by but the judges here know her scoring potential internationally. She’s been raking in medals all year. Nationals judging in an Olympic year shouldn’t be given much weight IMO. It’s more like a window into the how the federation ranks its own skaters. Circumstantial and personal politics are probably stronger at Nationals than any other event.

 

[schizoanalyst]

Sotskova should've gone even if she finished 5th here. She's medaled at every event and got the silver at GPF, while beating almost all the serious non-Russian contenders for the medal. I believe she has the highest PB now, by a fair margin too.

Federations place too much weight on Nationals. Nationals are weird competitions with lots of politicking, outlier scores, and skaters fairly frequently perform quite differently at Nationals. It should almost be exclusively determined by world/season rankings, medal results, an average of scores, and realistic scoring potential. Nationals should only be decisive in cases where skaters are more or less equivalent in the other metrics imo.

 

[russianfan]

Recently i was reading too much about how amazing Kostornaya is, and how bad Trusova is at presentation/performance/interpretation compared to Kostornaya, etc, etc.. so i decided to take a look at statistics and whats really interesting is the fact that Trusova is the most watched junior this season. Just look at the most popular junior videos. She is reigning strong there!

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Recently i was reading too much about how amazing Kostornaya is, and how bad Trusova is at presentation/performance/interpretation compared to Kostornaya, etc, etc.. so i decided to take a look at statistics and whats really interesting is the fact that Trusova is the most watched junior this season. Just look at the most popular junior videos. She is reigning strong there!

Yes...as the season has progressed a lot of the forum politicking has increased

Trusova is an amazing talent and very easy for me to enjoy so I’m not surprised that others are rewatching her performances. Big Spender is one of the best performered SP’s this season with a little something for everyone. She is leading the quad charge which only adds to the excitement. I still think JGPF has been the event of the year in all of ladies skating and we know who won there

Tarakanova is getting most of my rewatches though

 

[tars]

Recently i was reading too much about how amazing Kostornaya is, and how bad Trusova is at presentation/performance/interpretation compared to Kostornaya, etc, etc.. so i decided to take a look at statistics and whats really interesting is the fact that Trusova is the most watched junior this season. Just look at the most popular junior videos. She is reigning strong there!

Let's acknowledge, who's at the top: Marin Honda with +400.000 and Eunsoo Lim with +200.000. eace:

 

[LRK]

Interview with Alina Zagitova:

http://fs-gossips.com/alina-zagitova-don-quixote-is-actually-a-very-balanced-program/

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

She’s a Sushi girl :agree:

 

[[email protected]]

Let's acknowledge, who's at the top: Marin Honda with +400.000 and Eunsoo Lim with +200.000. eace:

Well, it's all nothing vs. Yulia's SL with more than 7 000 000 views.

 

[tars]

Well, it's all nothing vs. Yulia's SL with more than 7 000 000 views.

Yulia's score is irrelevant, because she's a living legend.

 

[ejnsofi]

Well, it's all nothing vs. Yulia's SL with more than 7 000 000 views.

One of Zhenya's Sailor Moon was almost 4mln few months after performance and it was taken down :disapp:
Also among juniors Sasha, Marin and Eunsoo can just dream about Donovan Carrillo's popularity

 

[hanca]

First off, remember quads are rotated faster than triples. The capability to do that must be there.

Higher jumpers would lose rotation speed all the same, starting point just is different. Anya for instance has the most gorgeous rotation technique there is and shouldnt really just lose that out of the blue. And I am just a little doubtful of Tarakanovas lutz even being higher than Anyas anyway. Comparison:
.

I think you are wrong. If having or not having quads depended only on fast rotation, no male would be able to do a quad! It is simple logic - to be able to add one extra rotation, you have to either ensure you have more time to rotate (by jumping higher you have more time) or you use the time you have more effectively with faster rotation. But majority of male skaters can’t get the same speed of rotation as a prepubescent girl who weights roughly 30 kilos. And yet there is more men having quads than ladies. Which means the strategy of making the jumps huge to get more time in the air is more effective than hoping that one will rotate fast. Rotating fast doesn’t work so well post puberty. By the way, Tuktamysheva and Nagasu landed triple axels - they definitely don’t have Trusova’s fast rotation. They went for huge jumps and it works for them.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

I think you are wrong. If having or not having quads depended only on fast rotation, no male would be able to do a quad! It is simple logic - to be able to add one extra rotation, you have to either ensure you have more time to rotate (by jumping higher you have more time) or you use the time you have more effectively with faster rotation. But majority of male skaters can’t get the same speed of rotation as a prepubescent girl who weights roughly 30 kilos. And yet there is more men having quads than ladies. Which means the strategy of making the jumps huge to get more time in the air is more effective than hoping that one will rotate fast. Rotating fast doesn’t work so well post puberty. By the way, Tuktamysheva and Nagasu landed triple axels - they definitely don’t have Trusova’s fast rotation. They went for huge jumps and it works for them.

I don't know Tarakanova's ambitions but her Lutz is huge.

https://youtu.be/2IKNh67LJKA?t=20s

For those of us familiar with being on the ice it is very easy to recognize and respect the distance she is covering. Face off circle to face off dot is no joke. You have to be absolutely flying to reach such distance and height.

I do wonder with the closeness of Eteri's girls if we might start seeing more of them go for quads. Nas2ya said in an interview that Sasha is always encouraging her and pushing her. I've noticed I tend to get more daring when the people around me are and pushing me to. I believe she is the type of girl who thrives on being daring....what's the phrase? Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.

As to the whole judging quads based on a skaters triples...I don't know. You can get a sense maybe but I wouldn't say Sasha has some massive salchow or anything so they can surprise us. Mind over matter. I don't think it's anything to put too much stake into.

BTW: Plushy and Sima are talking about a quad Salcow too

SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO SEND IT!!!

 

[hanca]

Serafima has a huge flip. I could imagine her doing flip quad, but the technique would definitely not be by having faster rotation.

 

[tars]

Radionova with quad sals in training (TAT), Tarakanova quad lutzes, Sima quad flips.

Time between Christmas and New Year is truly magical.

 

[Alifyre]

With all this talk of quads, do we think the experimentation (if it gets off the ground, which it seems to be) will end up going more in the men's direction (lots of splatting for the BV points the rotation can get)? Or will the ladies be more conservative about adding them? I know Eteri's skaters do the whole "run the whole thing again if it's not perfect" thing, so I could imagine a girl wouldn't want to put a jump in her skate she didn't feel capable of landing just to avoid having to run through her program 15 times in a day. Trusova's success rate hasn't been good in competition with the quad, and I'm a little worried that the thing I currently prefer about women's skating (the relative cleanliness at the top compared to the men) might fade away. I'm not as in the know about the Russian girls as some of you are, so I'm curious what the opinion is.

Also, has there been any deep discussion from the coaches of the risk of injury to such young bodies landing such high impact elements? With the horrible slew of injuries this season, I would hate to see a promising young lady taken out of contention because of working too hard on quads. (This may have already been addressed and if so, I apologize).