2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Scott512]

Leonova: Trusova needs to restore her moral strength going into the World Championships

MOSCOW, Feb 2 - RIA Novosti, Anatoliy Samokhvalov. Medalist in the championships of Russia and Europe, Aleksandra Trusova, needs to be put in order in order to fight for the Gold at the World Championships, said Silver medalist of the 2012 World Championship Alyona Leonova.

The World Cup will be held March 18-21 in Montreal. This season, Trusova won the Bronze medal in the Grand Prix Final, the championships of Russia and Europe, losing at these starts to compatriots Anna Shcherbakova and Alyona Kostornaya. In the Grand Prix Final, the skater included five quadruple jumps in the free program, of which she completed three, in the National Championship - four quadruples (made one), in the European Vhampionship - three quadruples (made one). Trusova herself said that she did not want to perform less than five quadrupe jumps in her free program.

“ On the other hand, at the Russian Championship she had more than four quads declared, and she managed only one ”, Leonova said over the phone. “ It’s difficult to understand which option is better. I think that the girl is just mentally tired, she needs to breathe out and to approach the World Championships with new powers. I recall the feelings with which she skated at the beginning of the season. I think in this case she will master three and five quadruples. "

“ In any case, she will be able to fight for gold, but only if she regains her moral strength ”.
-----
From: https://rsport.ria.ru/20200202/1564171850.html

Sasha really does need a mental break like Leonova said. It also has to hurt her physically as well as mentally when she's trying four or five quads in a free skate and falls two or three times. landing 3 cleanly would be better than trying 4 or 5 and landing one or two cleanly in my opinion. The question now is where are her coaches? They are obviously doing a better job with Anna and Aliona. That is not debatable. Now Sasha gets to rest mentally and physically before the world championship. If she tries only three quads in the free skate she will be a real threat for a medal other than bronze. Sasha has a much better chance of landing three of three quads or three of four then landing all five which is virtually impossible.

 

[Jontor]

This can sound little frustrating for the other skaters when you know that any of the 3A performing "not her best" is still nearly unbeatable for the others.

Yes, and it's very telling when you compare the scores at RusNats with the men.
If they have the same factoring in PCS the scores would have been:

1. Shcherbakova 289.32
2. Kostornaia 288.68
3. Aliev 260.98
4. Trusova 254.33
5. Danielian 253.42

So, even though Sasha had a "bad" skate she beat all the Russian men except Aliev.

 

[Arbitrary]

Yes, and it's very telling when you compare the scores at RusNats with the men.
If they have the same factoring in PCS the scores would have been:

1. Shcherbakova 289.32
2. Kostornaia 288.68
3. Aliev 260.98
4. Trusova 254.33
5. Danielian 253.42

So, even though Sasha had a "bad" skate she beat all the Russian men except Aliev.

Pointless.

Men skaters usually do (or attempt to do) Quad/Quad-Triple/Triple Axel SP.
The best female skaters may do only Triple/Triple-Triple/Triple Axel...

Even when quads to be allowed in SP there are little chances we will see more than one.
SP decides...

 

[Good Vibes Only]

Sasha really does need a mental break like Leonova said. It also has to hurt her physically as well as mentally when she's trying four or five quads in a free skate and falls two or three times. landing 3 cleanly would be better than trying 4 or 5 and landing one or two cleanly in my opinion. The question now is where are her coaches? They are obviously doing a better job with Anna and Aliona. That is not debatable. Now Sasha gets to rest mentally and physically before the world championship. If she tries only three quads in the free skate she will be a real threat for a medal other than bronze. Sasha has a much better chance of landing three of three quads or three of four then landing all five which is virtually impossible.

While she does have a better chance landing an ‘easier’ layout, this is exactly what she said her mental issue is. She said that for these programs with lower amounts quads/simplified layouts she is expecting to do everything clean because they are not as difficult. She likes the idea of fighting for her jumps and when her layouts are easier she doesn’t have the fight mentality. It will be interesting to see how Eteri is able to handle this.

 

[VenusHalley]

Sasha really does need a mental break like Leonova said. It also has to hurt her physically as well as mentally when she's trying four or five quads in a free skate and falls two or three times. landing 3 cleanly would be better than trying 4 or 5 and landing one or two cleanly in my opinion. The question now is where are her coaches? They are obviously doing a better job with Anna and Aliona. That is not debatable. Now Sasha gets to rest mentally and physically before the world championship. If she tries only three quads in the free skate she will be a real threat for a medal other than bronze. Sasha has a much better chance of landing three of three quads or three of four then landing all five which is virtually impossible.

People said thatnshe had been really pushing 4Lz in practice on EC. She must have been all bruised and sore from that. She should take it easier at times.

 

[VenusHalley]

While she does have a better chance landing an ‘easier’ layout, this is exactly what she said her mental issue is. She said that for these programs with lower amounts quads/simplified layouts she is expecting to do everything clean because they are not as difficult. She likes the idea of fighting for her jumps and when her layouts are easier she doesn’t have the fight mentality. It will be interesting to see how Eteri is able to handle this.

It is strange though. Like she resigned to the fact she will fall in every program...

 

[Lzbee]

This can sound little frustrating for the other skaters when you know that any of the 3A performing "not her best" is still nearly unbeatable for the others.

Should it be though? It's kind of like having a skater that only has 3 triple jumps being frustrated that they have no chance to beat Bradie or Mariah. I would understand if they were doing similar content and being outscored, eg. Rika with lutzes, but for everyone else, as the zoomers would say, get good.

 

[flanker]

Should it be though? It's kind of like having a skater that only has 3 triple jumps being frustrated that they have no chance to beat Bradie or Mariah. I would understand if they were doing similar content and being outscored, eg. Rika with lutzes, but for everyone else, as the zoomers would say, get good.

I agree but unfortunately there are some who think that "something should be changed" (consider yourself lucky you didn't hear the czech commentators during Europeans).

 

[Scott512]

While she does have a better chance landing an ‘easier’ layout, this is exactly what she said her mental issue is. She said that for these programs with lower amounts quads/simplified layouts she is expecting to do everything clean because they are not as difficult. She likes the idea of fighting for her jumps and when her layouts are easier she doesn’t have the fight mentality. It will be interesting to see how Eteri is able to handle this.

It will be very interesting to see how the coaches handle this. we also don't know how much Sasha is growing physically. I think she's an inch or two taller and probably 5 lb or so heavier than a year ago. And that growth could be making doing these unbelievably tough jump she does even harder than they used to be. I think we all remember what the growth spurt did to Alina and she wasn't doing quads and learning triple axels like Sasha does.

People said thatnshe had been really pushing 4Lz in practice on EC. She must have been all bruised and sore from that. She should take it easier at times.

Don't you think someone in Sasha's corner needs to see the big picture which is 2 years from now? But at the pace she's going at she'll be so beaten up in 2 years she may not even make the Olympic team especially with other girls coming like Kamila. Meanwhile brilliant Aliona is doing anything she wants at her own pace. And Anna ballerina is right there with Aliona. Sasha needs to skate cleaner in the free program then perfect that then add another quad or a triple axel when she can skate free skates in big events without falling one or two times.

 

[Jontor]

1000 pages and almost 20000 posts

 

[Jontor]

Pointless.

Men skaters usually do (or attempt to do) Quad/Quad-Triple/Triple Axel SP.
The best female skaters may do only Triple/Triple-Triple/Triple Axel...

Even when quads to be allowed in SP there are little chances we will see more than one.
SP decides...

But that's my point. Even without the quad in the SP, Sasha/Anna/Alyona are outscoring all the men. It's only Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu that can compete with them.

 

[Decoder]

So much talk that Sasha was "lucky" because Evgenia and Alina could've beaten her at nationals. But there's a difference between could and would. Let's remember that Sasha beat Alina at Japan Open and Evgenia at Rostelecom. Not really fair to compare Sasha's worst to Evgenia and Alina's better skates. Sasha bombed for her standards but let's not forget both Evgenia and Alina have bombed before too. It can go any way on any given day. If we're going by past results, Sasha has not lost to either of them this season so there's no reason to assume she wouldn't have made the podium even if both had competed. What a way to disregard someone's achievements: bringing up an alternate universe where others skate their best but Sasha's still skates her worst.

Could Evgenia and Alina have beaten Sasha at nationals? Sure, anything can happen. Would they have? No one knows. But the fact remains that neither have won against her when they did meet this season; Sasha won both times.

Right after the test skates, I (as well as many others, I guess) thought Alina/Sasha/Anna would form the world team. After Alena showed her triple Axel, people started worrying about Anna. After the Euro, people started worrying about Sasha? Interesting!

 

[BabySloth]

Does anyone have the Junior Nats schedule? And do we know anything about the broadcasting with Ted?

 

[katymay]

It is strange though. Like she resigned to the fact she will fall in every program...

I thought at the Russian Test skates Trusova was wonderful. And then at EC-the worst I've ever seen her skate, and not just the jumps. The entire program was a sloppy mess, like she really didn't care. As a huge Trusova fan, it was hard for me to watch. There is something going on with her-illness? injury? training issues? coaching conflict? emotional issues? Another skate like that, and she'll be down around 6th at Worlds, certainly she will be off the podium. I hope she is able to regroup before Worlds. Alina has bombed jumps before in competition, but she always continued to bring what she could as far as spins, steps etc. Alina never just gave up the program. What Trusova did at EC was unacceptable-unless of course there was some great reason (like injury or illness) for that disaster.

 

[Edwin]

Varvara Kisel' just competed in BLR Junior Nationals. No triksel, but 63.12, leader.

She competes hors de concours for Minsk.

Has she switched federations?
Explains her absence from Russian Junior Nationals.

In the chat it was said Var’ya has a BLR passport and is training with Urmanov, so the transfer process probably has started.

 

[flanker]

Does anyone have the Junior Nats schedule? And do we know anything about the broadcasting with Ted?

Schedule:
https://fsrussia.ru/files/docs/competitons/1920/junnat1920_competition_schedule.pdf

Ted will probably just comment public stream just like at senior nationals.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

I thought at the Russian Test skates Trusova was wonderful. And then at EC-the worst I've ever seen her skate, and not just the jumps. The entire program was a sloppy mess, like she really didn't care. As a huge Trusova fan, it was hard for me to watch. There is something going on with her-illness? injury? training issues? coaching conflict? emotional issues? Another skate like that, and she'll be down around 6th at Worlds, certainly she will be off the podium. I hope she is able to regroup before Worlds. Alina has bombed jumps before in competition, but she always continued to bring what she could as far as spins, steps etc. Alina never just gave up the program. What Trusova did at EC was unacceptable-unless of course there was some great reason (like injury or illness) for that disaster.

I think she just needs to streamline her training and focus on getting two different quads solid instead of training four and missing most of them in competition. She's already lost her lutz-loop combo, and it costs her a few points in the SP. These jumps are probably going to get harder for her as she grows in the next few years, so I believe it's really important to focus on quality over quantity.

 

[SkateSkates]

I think she just needs to streamline her training and focus on getting two different quads solid instead of training four and missing most of them in competition. She's already lost her lutz-loop combo, and it costs her a few points in the SP. These jumps are probably going to get harder for her as she grows in the next few years, so I believe it's really important to focus on quality over quantity.

She did not lose her lutz-loop combo. She landed it in her LP the last 2 events? I think she’s just been playing it safe in the SP, going for higher quality on her lutz-toe.

 

[Arbitrary]

She did not lose her lutz-loop combo. She landed it in her LP the last 2 events? I think she’s just been playing it safe in the SP, going for higher quality on her lutz-toe.

I have a bad feeling Sasha was ordered "to play safe". To downgrade both of her programs.

Whenever it's a tactical step or a sign of her real problems we will see at Worlds.
There're nothing to hide now.

 

[lpt]

She's already lost her lutz-loop combo

RusNats https://youtu.be/Vt20Utl4KgU?t=10136
Europeans https://youtu.be/Wwmmm_DnvXE?t=201