2018 Four Continents Mens FS

[qwertyskates]

I myself find it odd that such an established choreographer like Lori Nichol could come up with such weird cuts.
Lori did a great job with the China pairs choreo though.
Maybe its the coach has something to do with it. Yao Bin and now Zhao wouldnt have allowed it for their pairs. Hopefully someone mentions something to Boyang's coach.

I don't know why Spidey and CTHD work so well but not La Strada or this weird Cantina. Boyang can definitely do a much faster heart-thumping Stsq or Chsq interlude in Star Wars, like the WOW :eekingne he performed in CTHD SP. Didn't think Lori did Sui/Han justice either...last year's Blues and Bridge were much more sophisticated and nuanced. I think Alyona beats Sui hands down this quad simply because of better choreography.

 

[ruffledgrouse]

I always wondered why there isn't a solo equivalent of ice dancing. Then we can have two new events solo ladies ice dance and solo men ice dance.

There is! It's called solo ice dance.

It's relatively popular in Britain, and gaining steam in the US. USFSA even did a spotlight on it for youtube . I've been kinda following it for a while and have noticed a huge leap in quality in the skating just in the last quad.

 

[qwertyskates]

I always wondered why there isn't a solo equivalent of ice dancing. Then we can have two new events solo ladies ice dance and solo men ice dance.

Please, please, please...if there's a petition I'll sign it. More Elladj, Aymoz, Jimmy Ma!:agree:

I think solo dance should be unisex, i.e. both ladies and men can compete against each other.

I think more people will watch FS if it gets more fun and creative.

But it needs some standards too, like BV, technical difficulty, etc.

 

[Alifyre]

I would 100% support there being a solo ice dance discipline that rewards skaters with great performance and skating skills! I'd much prefer that than the separate "artistic" and "technical" program idea that was being tossed around...

 

[qwertyskates]

I would 100% support there being a solo ice dance discipline that rewards skaters with great performance and skating skills! I'd much prefer that than the separate "artistic" and "technical" program idea that was being tossed around...

Ooh....:agree: Somebody make a thread or start a petition. FS can be so much more for those extra special skaters, the Bonalys, Elladj, Aymoz of figure skating. It can be so surprising, quirky, thrilling or wild. :eekn:

https://twitter.com/tenten740502/status/957230446978347008

 

[da96103]

Please, please, please...if there's a petition I'll sign it. More Elladj, Aymoz, Jimmy Ma!:agree:

I think solo dance should be unisex, i.e. both ladies and men can compete against each other.

I think more people will watch FS if it gets more fun and creative.

But it needs some standards too, like BV, technical difficulty, etc.

Jason Brown v Rika Hongo in riverdance.

 

[Makkachin]

I fell asleep halfway through like many of you in this thread, but I have spent the morning catching up on what happened.

From everything I've read on this forum and elsewhere, not everyone is super excited about Shoma's skating...actually, he's quite heavily criticized. I have to say though, even if his jumps are a bit frightening sometimes I really, really like many of his elements. His spins and triple axel are some of the best in the field. When I saw that Boyang won, I was expecting multiple mistakes from him, but aside from the one fall it was a beautiful performance.

Then we have Boyang. I'm so glad he's showing us what he can do. Very proud of him. What a great performance in front of a largely Chinese audience, and gaining great momentum going into the Olympics. The jumps were great, program was fun, and I loved it.

Somewhat disappointed that we didn't get to see Inner Love again from Jason, but I was happy to see him land the triple axel he's been struggling with and skate comfortably.

I said my piece on Kevin Reynolds after his skate, but he was a standout even if things didn't quite go his way rotation-wise. So was Han Yan in the SP - this is the FS thread but gosh, I love that program, it's like he is dancing through it.

 

[silverfoxes]

There is! It's called solo ice dance.

This needs to take off so skaters like Adian Pitkeev, Anna Pogorilaya, etc. can stay in the sport!

 

[eriecold]

A little late to the party on Donovan Carrillo (from Mexico). Just had a chance to watch his program. Wow! He was like a breath of fresh air out there with that 1,000 watt smile! I'm anxious to read up on him and see what his story is! I'm really not even sure how much figure skating there is in Mexico. Congrats to him on a season's best!

There's several kids doing FS in Mexico, but only a few cities have rinks and the coaches are not top world level, so you see some international competitors once in a while. I used to always see people doing spins and practicing when going to the rinks. My sister did it for a while but never reached a level anywhere near competition. Donovan trains in that same rink because the one he started at closed and his coached moved there. (He lives with his coach in my hometown, 2.5 hrs away from his parents).

 

[Skater Boy]

I'd have had the PCS a bit lower, because there was a lot of jump to jump in there, but I'm so happy he scored above 300. Two strong programs and one of the best SP+LP of the men this season. He put the other guys on notice, and his two World bronzes are no joke. #Jinvincible

It is exciting to see because of the quad and the risk factor the battle is huge Javier, Yuzuru, Shoma,Nathan and Jin but kind of sad too when beautiful skating like Jason or Patrick just can't compete. It is a new world and we are learning new isn't always better and new is sometimes old.

The assumption that the new scoringsystem will bring better skating and simplify things for the average watcher has not been true. And you still have the judging- based on people sothere is tonnes if not moreroo for biases.

 

[Barb]

There's several kids doing FS in Mexico, but only a few cities have rinks and the coaches are not top world level, so you see some international competitors once in a while. I used to always see people doing spins and practicing when going to the rinks. My sister did it for a while but never reached a level anywhere near competition. Donovan trains in that same rink because the one he started at closed and his coached moved there. (He lives with his coach in my hometown, 2.5 hrs away from his parents).

wait, what? Donovan trains in México? wow, his achievements should be doubly praised, I hope he gets the 3a. I know Andrea Motesinos had to move to Connecticut for a better training camp and I think she moved again ans she now trains with Rafael A., I think the Cantú sisters trained with Rafael A. too.

Boyang was fantastic, I know that there are some guys with quads but his quads are my favorites, always so beautiful and impressive!!

Jason was wonderful, excluding jumps, he is the best in the world for me.

Max A. was great too, I am so glad that Jason and Max came to 4cc, you know, certain skater spoke too much after Nationals, but Jason and Max only came to do their thing, that is admirable.

 

[Skater Boy]

While I am happy for Boyang, Shoma and Jason especially I am a bit sad the direction skating is going Beautiful skating is not so important as quad and even quad attempts. While a fall does a - ffect pcs a bit it isn't too bad. A fall on a quad especial a flip or lutz or loop is worth like another triple lutz or a bit flawed triple axel. Now since there are only two jumps you can repeat it is like an extra triple jump added just rotate it and heck a messy landing is worth over ten pts or two triple jumps.

 

[deedee1]

Congrats to all medalists!

So many emotional moments for me :sad4:; Kevin, Grant, Elladj, Taka, Nam, Jason, Max... did their best here, fighting all the way till the end even though they knew they weren't headed to the Oly Games;;;; Misha was divine. Sad to see Julian, Han and Denis;;;;

A bright side for me is I am super happy and so much relieved to see both Boyang and Shoma are back on track, just in time for the upcoming BIG competition! Their improvements, almost in every aspects I'd say, since their junior days are more than worthy to mention, because I remmeber at one point, Shoma in jump-wise and Boyang in skating-wise respectively, they might not be competitive enough once up in the seinors. They both have come a LONG way. :thumbsup: I esp. relieved to see Team Uno seems to settle down with downgrading his jump layouts. I said before, it's not worthy at all putting 4F in the second half, despite 10% bonus, at the expense of botching two 4T and/or two 3A later. :yes: 'He hasn't won any big title yet?' 'Why not?! Just save his best skate for the upcoming BIG competition', I'd say. My only small complaint should be Boyang's step sq in th, e middle; every time I see it, I go like

Anyway, to all skaters who are heading to Korea: Stay healthy, good luck, and enjoy every seconds of your time at your dream place!

 

[TCAngel18]

I didn’t watch any of the 4CC live, and am just catching up now. I do have to say though that this is the first time I can truthfully say that I enjoyed Boyang Jin. He really put himself back in that Olympic conversation. This really is the right vehicle for him.

Not sure if I’m being obstinate (probably, it’s me ), but it’s a slight pet peeve of mine when they just call this program Star Wars, where at the beginning he is skating to Mars the Bringer of War from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets”. Such an ominous song, really fits the program well. They may mention it in introductions, and I’m just being obtuse so I can have that music snob moment, I’m weird LOL.

I do also love that in another recent Star Wars program by Satoko, that she included Holst’s Jupiter.

 

[chopinskate]

Shoma Uno doesn't know I exist, so he cares exactly that much about me defending him on GS, as about people thinking he is a cheater: Zero. And I'm glad about it.

You do realize that I don't think he's a "cheater", right? That's a rather simplistic, childish viewpoint to have. As is thinking that everyone who doesn't think he has the best jumps thinks he's a "cheater".

He's a beautiful skater. He doesn't have the best jumps. I think he should fix them. You're free to defend them however you like. Doesn't make you right.

 

[chopinskate]

I thought Nathan nickname was Slaythan?... :scratch3:

:agree:

 

[cell]

That this was Jason's best LP of the season is such a shame to me. It had a few moments that weren't quite up to his usual level of polish, presumably because he hasn't been training it all year. Inner Love had all kinds of potential but I think it was also choreographed as a vehicle for his 4T which never materialized successfully in competition. Given what he was gunning for, I don't think he had much choice other than to give it his best shot with a program like Inner Love with a 4T. If he'd stayed with this program, people would have said he wasn't serious, wasn't trying to improve/develop technically, etc Which isn't to say that this wasn't a great program for him which seems to have finally pulled him out of his funk and given him some stable ground under his feet. It's a greta program to be training as an alternate precisely because it doesn't push him as far beyond his comfort zone, plus this got him his first ISU championship medal. His spiral sequence was absolutely gorgeous.

I don't understand the bolded part at all. I loved Inner Love. Why did he change the program?

 

[TontoK]

I don't understand the bolded part at all. I loved Inner Love. Why did he change the program?

It could be something as simple as "vibe."

Like you, I loved the program, but did he ever skate it clean?

Maybe his team just decided to be done with it, and return for his (probable) final comp of the year to something he liked and had skated well.

 

[Mrs. P]

I don't understand the bolded part at all. I loved Inner Love. Why did he change the program?

I loved it too, but watching that skate last night made me wish they changed it earlier. It was really obvious that he never got his arms around the Inner Love free skate -- the choreography was challenging and he never got the jumps to work with this program.

In hindsight, this might have been a good program to do next season -- and I'm hoping maybe they'll return to it for next season, though I don't know what impact the rule changes could have on the programs.

It was obvious that Jason was FAR more comfortable with this program -- even with the minor errors (which cost him about 3-5 points, he could have broke 180!) it was obvious he felt much more at ease with himself and his skating that we didn't really see this season.

Be sure to read Jason's quotes from the GS articles -- it's quite telling. I think he shouldn't have regrets about trying to be ambitious and go for the quad with those choreographically packed programs, but I think he also allowed that to override his usual philosophy of showing the best of what he has to offer and he kinda psyched himself out. This competition I think allowed him to kind of go back to that "show what I got best" philosophy and I hope he'll come away from this season learningthat there's a good middle ground between ambition and being stuck in a comfort zone.

 

[synteis]

I don't understand the bolded part at all. I loved Inner Love. Why did he change the program?

The program he performed here is one he's used the two seasons before this. His first season with this program, he was injured and so didn't have much of a season. So it would certainly have been possible for him to reuse it especially given that it was an Olympic year. After his struggles this year in the LP, particularly at Nationals, he decided to bring back that LP which he performed here at 4CC.

Other people in the chat had wondered what his season this year might have been like if he had given how uncharacteristically unstable he's been all year. I was saying that given that he is a strong competitor who wants to excel and challenge himself and do well in competition, a new program like Inner Love which was designed to show off and include a 4T was his only option. I also brought up that if he'd stayed with his older program he would have been criticized for not working to improve enough especially given his challenges in getting a 4T. This would have been a problem not just for him on here but could also have taken him out of the conversation for the Olympics. Like many other athletes, he challenged himself this year in the hopes of making and doing well at the Olympics. Some skaters like Dmitri Aliev at Euros were able to make their quads when it counted in spite of low consistency the rest of the year. Unfortunately, Jason wasn't able to.

As for your question, I don't know his exact reasons for bringing back this LP but I assume it has to do with his inconsistency with Inner Love all year, particularly at Nationals. As others pointed out, he had the second best BOW before Nationals so he may have felt that it was his spot to lose. I imagine that his placement at Nationals was a disappointment to him. Now that he can only make the Olympics and the Worlds as an alternate, I imagine he has different goals for the rest of the season than he did at the beginning. That change in goals as well as his struggles with the program are likely part of why he went from Inner Love to a safer and more familiar one like Piano.

Hope this makes more sense and it's just my opinion.