2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Scott512]

Everyone is at Sasha’s mercy because there is nobody with as much scoring potential as her and she’s the only skater who doesn’t need to rely on the mistakes of others when she skates her absolute best. Nobody can beat five quads and a triple axel.

Sasha hasn’t skated clean because of bad luck and letting the pressure overwhelm her. It’s not because she can’t do it. She can do everything perfect in practice. It’s just a matter of doing five quads and a triple axel in competition.

Things change really quickly. If/when Sasha wins her gold at Euros and/or Worlds, nobody will be talking about her earlier misfortunes.

You said a lot in your post but the key point was that the pressure is overwhelming Sasha. Hmmmm. Can that really be fixed? Remember when her baby brother said that Sasha will tear everyone apart? It's just too much for one tiny girl to handle. She is having a very good senior debut season we can't forget that even though the expectations were for her to physically dominate everybody . Eteri should let Sasha make normal progress and take everything step by step as it should be

As I've said ad nauseam she should pull back and do maybe four quads in her free skate and then when she starts the nail that consistently I build her confidence up for real then maybe move to five. I personally think they have over cooked her in senior debut season. But we still have to see what will happen at Europeans and worlds where she will not be the favorite. Look how the same team and same handlers are handling Anna. They are doing it perfectly. She is doing a lot so early in her career but it's more of a step-by-step basis which is what Sasha should be doing.

 

[Skuratov]

...the key point was that the pressure is overwhelming Sasha. Hmmmm. Can that really be fixed? Remember when her baby brother said that Sasha will tear everyone apart?.

pressure is overwhelming Sasha. Can that really be fixed? Remember Alina, she struggled all long season 2018-2019, she was questionable to make the World Championship and Eteri elaborated I don't know what strange magic about Alina and the latter skated cleanly and perfect.

He said that Sasha will tear everyone apart?. Sorry but he didn't say that.
Older brother: "I wish her to always win and to stay the same kind person."
Younger Brother: (here there is an implicit I wish her)"...and to tear everyone down. Into pieces." Semantics.

 

[flanker]

What about Pagianni or Lindfors? I agree though it will be tough to stop 3A unless someone steals their skate or the skates get broken like Evgenia. Even with a melt down like Trusova at Nats she still was significantly better than most in Europe.

Entries are still not on ISU page but it is on wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_European_Figure_Skating_Championships

As it was said, apart from Loena the only skaters that could somehow be a threat for 3A are ex-Russians Ryabova, Kurakova and Safonova, but only by improbable coincidence.

 

[macy]

Everyone is at Sasha’s mercy because there is nobody with as much scoring potential as her and she’s the only skater who doesn’t need to rely on the mistakes of others when she skates her absolute best. Nobody can beat five quads and a triple axel.

Sasha hasn’t skated clean because of bad luck and letting the pressure overwhelm her. It’s not because she can’t do it. She can do everything perfect in practice. It’s just a matter of doing five quads and a triple axel in competition.

Things change really quickly. If/when Sasha wins her gold at Euros and/or Worlds, nobody will be talking about her earlier misfortunes.

unfortunately potential doesn't win medals. Sasha hasn't been at her best all year and has been behind Anna and Aliona each time they've met so far...she has been at their mercy and has had to rely on their mistakes. you are correct, no one can beat five quads and a 3A, but she also hasn't done it in competition all season. i don't think you quite understand how extremely tall of an order that is to put out in competition, even for someone as ambitious as Sasha.

how do you know she can do it perfectly in practice? or that her 3A has a 50/50 success rate? do you have insider info the rest of us don't have access to? i don't doubt she has done clean runthroughs in practice before, but we don't know at what rate of success. based on what she has put out in competition thus far, i don't think it's too high. all we see are competition practice runthroughs which aren't even the tip of the iceberg. i have wondered what her success rate is at home myself.

i also don't think she's had much "bad luck" this season...i am sure she has skated last many times in her career before. i think it's more along the lines of she's just not consistent with these jumps yet and it's extremely difficult to do that content.

i hope she skates well at Euros and worlds, but i also hope she decides to knock it down to 2 or 3 quads and go for cleaner skates. but of course we are talking about Sasha and i don't think that is likely.

 

[DenissVFan]

As it was said, apart from Loena the only skaters that could somehow be a threat for 3A are ex-Russians Ryabova, Kurakova and Safonova, but only by improbable coincidence.

Alessia Tornaghi should be in contention for 4th this year. She scored 190.02 at the Italian championships (domestic scoring but still, she has a lot of potential).

 

[nussnacker]

I don’t think last 2 performances are really that indicative of who Sasha is.
And Sasha DID have clean performances with 3 quads, multiple times, she did a clean 4 quad program too, but it’s the fourth and fifth quads that throw her off the most.
But she also skated clean with 4 quads at practices at Russian Nationals.
In her k&c I saw she told Eteri as she was crying „I just don’t know what happened“.
Eteri said that due to a very good practice Sasha went into competition a little less focus, which caused the mistakes. Anna on contrary, had a bad practice and went into competition with extreme focus.
Sometimes fluke performances happen even to the toughest girl like Sasha.
What I do know though, is that last year she got fed up when she lost 2 times, and went on with her killer mood to win junior nats and worlds. I’m confident killer Sasha will be back with vengeance to take her golds! Go Sasha!

 

[flanker]

unfortunately potential doesn't win medals. Sasha hasn't been at her best all year and has been behind Anna and Aliona each time they've met so far...she has been at their mercy and has had to rely on their mistakes. you are correct, no one can beat five quads and a 3A, but she also hasn't done it in competition all season. i don't think you quite understand how extremely tall of an order that is to put out in competition, even for someone as ambitious as Sasha.

how do you know she can do it perfectly in practice? or that her 3A has a 50/50 success rate? do you have insider info the rest of us don't have access to? i don't doubt she has done clean runthroughs in practice before, but we don't know at what rate of success. based on what she has put out in competition thus far, i don't think it's too high. all we see are competition practice runthroughs which aren't even the tip of the iceberg. i have wondered what her success rate is at home myself.

i also don't think she's had much "bad luck" this season...i am sure she has skated last many times in her career before. i think it's more along the lines of she's just not consistent with these jumps yet and it's extremely difficult to do that content.

i hope she skates well at Euros and worlds, but i also hope she decides to knock it down to 2 or 3 quads and go for cleaner skates. but of course we are talking about Sasha and i don't think that is likely.

Before RusNats Sasha had pretty good success ratio with quads with five clean Lutzes (Nepela, JO, 2xGP+GPF). The only falls were 2x Salchow (twice during GP) and 1x 4T (at GPF). Other mistake was doubled 4S at GPF. Sasha attempted 20 quads during the season before nats, with 3 falls and 1 doubled (plus negative score for 4-Eu-3 combo at JO, but it was 3S that was UR, 4T was clean). That's 16 succesful attempts, more than 75 % success ratio, which I would call pretty stable, the only unstable was 4S, 1 succesful, 2 falls, 1 doubled.

With RusNats it is 24 attempts, 17 succesful, 7 unsuccesful (5 falls, 2 doubled jumps), still 65 % success rate, higly influenced by one mischance. BTW that is higher ratio than Rika had last year with 3A and I don't think the problem is stability with jumps (apart from 4S), but nerves.

With all this, saying that "she's just not consistent with these jumps yet" or even that "she has been at their mercy and has had to rely on their mistakes" is pretty daring, when in fact those are the ones with lower BV who have to rely on mistakes of Sasha.

 

[Scott512]

pressure is overwhelming Sasha. Can that really be fixed? Remember Alina, she struggled all long season 2018-2019, she was questionable to make the World Championship and Eteri elaborated I don't know what strange magic about Alina and the latter skated cleanly and perfect.

He said that Sasha will tear everyone apart?. Sorry but he didn't say that.
Older brother: "I wish her to always win and to stay the same kind person."
Younger Brother: (here there is an implicit I wish her)"...and to tear everyone down. Into pieces." Semantics.

Why are you making a big deal about what I said about Sasha's little brother saying she was going to tear people apart when he actually said tear them into pieces? It's the same thing. Sasha is having an excellent debut season all things considered. But she is probably frustrated by not doing even better than she has.

And Alina felt the pressure after winning the Olympics which is only normal. Before she won the Olympic she was clean at every event and did not act like the pressure got to her.

 

[Scott512]

unfortunately potential doesn't win medals. Sasha hasn't been at her best all year and has been behind Anna and Aliona each time they've met so far...she has been at their mercy and has had to rely on their mistakes. you are correct, no one can beat five quads and a 3A, but she also hasn't done it in competition all season. i don't think you quite understand how extremely tall of an order that is to put out in competition, even for someone as ambitious as Sasha.

how do you know she can do it perfectly in practice? or that her 3A has a 50/50 success rate? do you have insider info the rest of us don't have access to? i don't doubt she has done clean runthroughs in practice before, but we don't know at what rate of success. based on what she has put out in competition thus far, i don't think it's too high. all we see are competition practice runthroughs which aren't even the tip of the iceberg. i have wondered what her success rate is at home myself.

i also don't think she's had much "bad luck" this season...i am sure she has skated last many times in her career before. i think it's more along the lines of she's just not consistent with these jumps yet and it's extremely difficult to do that content.

i hope she skates well at Euros and worlds, but i also hope she decides to knock it down to 2 or 3 quads and go for cleaner skates. but of course we are talking about Sasha and i don't think that is likely.

You made the point of the poster you quoted about not understanding what an extremely tall order it is for Sasha to hit on five quads and a triple axel. That's a very good point. But does Sasha understand this? She will have to learn the hard way. There is no doubt she's very special and very unique. But I believe Sasha is also very frustrated she is not dominating on the senior level as much as she did on the junior level. Now it's up to her team and especially her parents to explain things to her about this being a process and she's doing great so far. She does the most difficult free skate so of course it will take more time to perfect it or nail it at an 80% or 90% level which would be absolutely phenomenol.

Sasha only doing two or three quads in her free skate? That is not going to be her New Year's resolution.

 

[macy]

You made the point of the poster you quoted about not understanding what an extremely tall order it is for Sasha to hit on five quads and a triple axel. That's a very good point. But does Sasha understand this? She will have to learn the hard way. There is no doubt she's very special and very unique. But I believe Sasha is also very frustrated she is not dominating on the senior level as much as she did on the junior level. Now it's up to her team and especially her parents to explain things to her about this being a process and she's doing great so far. She does the most difficult free skate so of course it will take more time to perfect it or nail it at an 80% or 90% level which would be absolutely phenomenol.

Sasha only doing two or three quads in her free skate? That is not going to be her New Year's resolution.

i think her frustrations lie more in the fact she isn't skating as well as she knows she can, rather than not being as dominant as she was in juniors. if Sasha wants to be able to complete a 5 quad plus 3A FS, i think she should work her way up to it, and not keep adding difficulty so quickly. i think it also may be too much too soon. this is part of my reasoning to knock it down to probably 3 quads for now- make sure you do it in competition a few times cleanly or close to it, and go back home and work on adding one more in, eventually reaching the end goal. i do believe she has grown a bit since last season as well, this could also be leading to her struggles with the jumps.

 

[Good Vibes Only]

I think that Sasha’s quads are consistent enough to do them clean in competition, so I agree with Eteri that Sasha lost focus at some point during the competition. She was in a hard position when she skated. Going last is not easy, she probably had wait about 40 minutes off ice. Then going on ice and trying to re-warm up five quads is a tough task. In addition, one of her quads she only performed once in competition. Sasha also had to skate after hearing Aliona’s and maybe Anna’s total scores. They scored some monster points, no matter how you look at it. In the end, Sasha had a subpar performance and will learn from this experience. I think that it is better to have a bad performance now versus worlds or europeans. I don’t know if Sasha will win Europeans, but I have a feeling that she will skate better than at nationals.

 

[Arbitrary]

Sasha is like Pluschenko, he also was not in mood to skate after his major competitors.
Going before them he skated pretty well.

 

[Scott512]

i think her frustrations lie more in the fact she isn't skating as well as she knows she can, rather than not being as dominant as she was in juniors. if Sasha wants to be able to complete a 5 quad plus 3A FS, i think she should work her way up to it, and not keep adding difficulty so quickly. i think it also may be too much too soon. this is part of my reasoning to knock it down to probably 3 quads for now- make sure you do it in competition a few times cleanly or close to it, and go back home and work on adding one more in, eventually reaching the end goal. i do believe she has grown a bit since last season as well, this could also be leading to her struggles with the jumps.

I think we agree that they're giving Sasha too much too soon and I think we also agree that she is growing more than the other two girls of 3A. It will be interesting to see if puberty hammers Sasha like it does some girls. I don't think Sasha will grow that much but it's possible a growth spurt could affect her jumping ability. Whatever happens it will be fascinating to see unfold and to see how long eteri can keep these three incredible kids together. But at the end of Nationals when only one of 3A was happy you kind of wonder what the other two are thinking. Hmmmm.

 

[Mathman]

I have to wonder if Sasha Trusova actually feels overburdened by expectations and "pressure." It seems to me that we are the ones saying that, not Sasha.

She seems like a cool cucumber when it comes to managing her emotions. Sometimes you skate your best, sometimes you don't. On to the next round. :yes:

 

[macy]

Anna Pogorilaya popping off clean 3Lzs

https://www.instagram.com/p/B63L1t2oR7T/

 

[karina17]

She seems like a cool cucumber when it comes to managing her emotions. Sometimes you skate your best, sometimes you don't. On to the next round. :yes:

That's so true. She started crying so hard when her skate ended and then within the next thirty seconds or so she was smiling again. I wish I could do that.

 

[Supernovaimplosion]

I think that sasha will do a lot better with four quads without the sal, because the sal caused her the most problems. Her toe and lutz are pretty consistent

 

[Edwin]

I have to wonder if Sasha Trusova actually feels overburdened by expectations and "pressure." It seems to me that we are the ones saying that, not Sasha.

She seems like a cool cucumber when it comes to managing her emotions. Sometimes you skate your best, sometimes you don't. On to the next round. :yes:

!! This !!

We are way too worried, over invested in our idols.

They probably laugh about our angsts and attachments ;-)

Important part of the psychology of a top athlete is not to linger in the past, or even dwell too long on the present. Always look ahead.
Take off your medal, analyse what went wrong and plan to improve from there.

I think after personal evaluation, a thorough talk with her coaches and a sit with her parents while on Holiday in Dubai, Aleksandra knows perfectly well what needs to be done.

There seems to be no need for any ‘psychology’ above plain common sense of Aleksandra and those that surround her.
Keep your sphere of influence as small as possible and have a nice cocoon of friends around you.

It's a learning process, as much physically as psychologically and mentally. First senior season is only halfway after all ...

 

[Arbitrary]

I think that sasha will do a lot better with four quads without the sal, because the sal caused her the most problems. Her toe and lutz are pretty consistent

Sasha cannot totally discard 4S before and if her would-be 4Lo stabilized. When and if.
Theoretically she could swap 4S with 3Ax and drop one 4T for another 4Lz.

 

[Supernovaimplosion]

Sasha cannot totally discard 4S before and if her would-be 4Lo stabilized. When and if.
Theoretically she could swap 4S with 3Ax and drop one 4T for another 4Lz.

No, the program at rnats was 4F, 4Lz, 4T, 4T. I think that's a good layout. When she gets the 3A, it'll be even better.
I dont think her 4Lo will ever be super consistent. Theres probably a reason why top men dont include it in their programs, even if they've landed it in competition before.