2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating | Page 1008 | Golden Skate

2019-20 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

We can discuss this ad libitum ad nauseam, but the fact remains the Russia's circumstances are unique.

These kids, attend specialised sports schools with dedicated facilities and a whole staff of qualified trainers and support.
Most of them have daily ice time in excess of what many of those lower ranked 4CC competitors have in a week. And we don't even speak of basic fitness, conditioning and selection by athletic criteria.
The single more 'developed as a 13 y.o.', Vaytkus visibly struggled with the loads, none of the others did, packed with muscle like Samodelkina or lean and sinewy like Moroz, they didn't flinch, used to back-to-back skating runs.
Many of them rise at 5 am and don't get home till 8-9 pm six days a week. Homework and a few family, pets and social activities fill their free time. They are not to be envied, but the kids don't complain. Most enjoy their lives as top athletes.

If ISU decides to raise the age limit for seniors, what will they do about the juniors? Do they really care about longevity and sustainability of careers of Russian skaters and the few USA, KOR that challenge them?
AFAIK, the injury rate in 'lower' difficulty program is as high as in high difficulty programs, are trustworthy statistics even available?
Then ISU must curb difficulty and disallow ultra-si in Medior events, and perhaps even disallow triple-triple jumps in Juniors, 'to protect the young, ignorant and feeble, from their own, their parents, their trainers, their programs' ambitions?

All these discussions about age vs difficulty vs maturity always start and end with Russia's skaters, and #TeamTutberidzeForProgress' in particular.

So it all comes down to turning back time to the era of shortest dress and deepest cleavage again?

Kids in the USA drop out of school to skate all day, ("online school") in fact they have more time on the ice than their Russian counterparts. Someone did an interview with 3A a year or so ago where they detailed their schedule, and I was surprised by their actual ice time, which is less than elite skaters in the USA.
 
I‘ll give you an example that I can relate to: A kid may play a piece on the piano perfectly, not a note wrong, and yet the feeling, the deep emotion, that will only come with life experiences, personal growth as one matures as a person.

You know, there is such a wonderful thing as "blind tasting." As a rule, "wine connoisseurs" look very funny in it :biggrin: (This is not surprising because most people consume not wine, but a sense of belonging, a sense of elitism)

It would be very interesting to check if you could tell blindly the difference in your example, just by listening with headphones (with perfect recording and acoustics)

It is quite possible (I'm not saying, just a fun hypothesis) that you are entering the "restaurant wine connoisseur"-mode regime when you see an "adult" skater. And you know that it is an exquisite wine because "everybody says so". (because she is so experienced and wise in life, and has seen so much in her 18 years, yeaa)
 
Kids in the USA drop out of school to skate all day, ("online school") in fact they have more time on the ice than their Russian counterparts. Someone did an interview with 3A a year or so ago where they detailed their schedule, and I was surprised by their actual ice time, which is less than elite skaters in the USA.

I think that's case by case in the US, and online school is not dropping out of school it just allows for scheduling around coaches offered ice time. Not every US skater can afford large amounts of ice time. Our elites might be doing more ice time but most of them are also much older than 3A.
 
I honestly feel like Samodelkina was pretty underscored here. Not her best performance, but with that very nice 3A+3T she should've been at around 70, give or take a point.

You forget that this is a Junior competition. Here, 3A does not replace the 2A (8 - 3.3 = 4.7), but 3Lz (8 - 5.9 = 2.1). Then don't forget that you lose the bonus for a combination in the second half (in the end it's minus ~0.5).

But on such a powerful splash of force energy is spent and voila - the first spinning is spoiled, then StSq2. And suddenly the Samodelkina's BV is 31.99 and Valieva's BV is 32.41. And 3Lo with -0.07 GOE. Tbh I don't really understand this 3A+3T thing in junior SP - as a rule this is not rational.

Sorry, but this is the thinking of the 6.0 system :) "There was a triple axel, it's cool, so come on judges!":laugh: Math on a table, as for me, everything is fair.
 
You forget that this is a Junior competition. Here, 3A does not replace the 2A (8 - 3.3 = 4.7), but 3Lz (8 - 5.9 = 2.1). Then don't forget that you lose the bonus for a combination in the second half (in the end it's minus ~0.5).

But on such a powerful splash of force energy is spent and voila - the first spinning is spoiled, then StSq2. And suddenly the Samodelkina's BV is 31.99 and Valieva's BV is 32.41. And 3Lo with -0.07 GOE. Tbh I don't really understand this 3A+3T thing in junior SP - as a rule this is not rational.

Sorry, but this is the thinking of the 6.0 system :) "There was a triple axel, it's cool, so come on judges!":laugh: Math on a table, as for me, everything is fair.

I mean 3A-3T in the SP for juniors is like 3Lz-3Lo, or anything -3Lo really, in the SP for juniors and seniors. Overall the BV and scoring advantage are negligible, and may be even detrimental because they are much riskier, especially compared to doing a -3T combo in the second half. But, the excitement gain and "wow factor" is huge as they're much more uncommon and perceived to have great difficulty. So it may not help in terms fo scores and placement but it does make a skater a bit more special technically. And when you're 1 good skater in Russia where everyone can do 3Lz-3T, being a bit more special may help in the long run (though not if you miss the jump and it costs you the podium...)
 
I hope that Sinitsyna is able to pull it off somehow. She is the best of the eligible aside from Kamila and Daria in my opinion. Such a shame about the mistake.

She is only three points away from the third highest JWC eligible competitor (3-4-5 are novices, crazy right?), its completely within reach. She just has to skate a good free like she's done before, and hope for Kromykh not to land a quad or something (which is something I've been wondering about... will she do her quad? Will Valieva do hers again?). I'd love for Kromykh to do a quad, but I also need Ksenia to get to JWorlds.
 
After watching the juniors' SP today, I can't help but notice how Kamila seems to have struck the figure skating genetic lottery. She has extremely strong legs with lean muscles that give her power like Sasha. But unlike Sasha, she is also naturally extremely flexible. Not something we see very often; generally very powerful skaters are less flexible (Sasha, Liza) and super flexible skaters don't have the ability to build lean bulky muscles (Yulia, Anna). Most skaters seems to be somewhere in between; Alina was someone who had a good combination of powerful legs and flexibility, but she wasn't as muscular or as flexible. Same with Alena. As far power and flexibility are concerned, I think Kamila really hit the jackpot. Of course she is still growing so who knows, but if puberty is kind to her and she doesn't grow like Radionova did, she can really use her natural ability to their full potential.
 
Kamila is so fast she always looks like she's on fast forward. It took me a while to get used to how fast she is and be reassured that her skating wasn't being broadcast on fast forward.
 
Valieva, Khromykh, Akatyeva and Berestovskaia will do quads, Samodelkina will do triple axels. This is the first ladies competition with such content.

Exciting! I'm very interested to see Kamila's quads back, and if Kromykh can land her 4S for the first time. I hope Akatieva can also do her quads cleanly, although I miss her triple axel, it was my favorite jump of hers. I wonder what happened. Maybe she'll get it back before Younger/Elder age nationals? Its so nice and consistent too. I also wonder if Samodelkina is working on quads, her 3A is so tidy and consistent. And then there's Sinitsyna and the always rumored 3A, I wonder if it will ever happen.

Speaking of Akatieva and her fellow novice/junior eligible girls, their schedule is so crazy. They had a competition a couple weeks ago, then the Moscow younger age qualifier last week, now junior nationals less than a week later, they'll probably have the Moscow elder age qualifier soon (anyone know when that is?) , and then will have the RCF not two weeks after Russian Juniors Nationals. Then the Youth championships (elder and younger age) will be a bit more spread out. Not to mention all the competitions they had in the first half of the season. No wonder these girls get so consistent.
 
I can understand if Figure Skating fan likes other elements more and thinks that it shouldn't be only jumps that decide winner but... frankly, if you enjoy Nicole Schott more than say, Kostarnaya, just because the former is 'more mature and artistic', you are watching wrong event.

Figure Skating is an olympic sport,not a ballet, not 'dancing with the stars' or an ice show. There are many shows and events there you can witness mature artists giving artistically charged, emotional performances and it's extremely weird that so many people seem to demand it from professional athletes.
 
Kamila is so fast she always looks like she's on fast forward. It took me a while to get used to how fast she is and be reassured that her skating wasn't being broadcast on fast forward.

Speaking about speed, I was amazed by Adelia Petrosyan, she was like everywhere on the ice in the same time.
 
Having watched 4CC ladies SP and RusJrNat ladies SP in a row just one after another I can't help but notice - how much the latter competition was better! It was so much better that it's not even funny :drama: Even jaded Ted Barton was in some state of a shock in the end of the event watching so much quality there :laugh:
And here I am not even talking about jumps (though it's worthy to mention that all 18 junior and novice girls there did 3-3 combos which weren't mere 3T-3T too) or cleanness (there was only one skater with falls). I mean PCS side of the skates. Maybe what I am going to say will sound too presumptuous for someone now - sorry for that :biggrin: But, for me, watched 4CC last flight just before - even novice girls such as Petrosyan or Akatieva - were better in skating skills, transitions and presentation - than any senior lady at 4CC was. Yep, even Tennell (who was best skater at 4CC IMO). They were just this good. Let it sink in you for some time..
I adore Akatieva and Petrosyan, but you can't seriously claim they've better presentation than skaters like Eunsoo Lim and Rika Kihira.
Very few of the Russian juniors can match Bradie Tennell's ultra fast, well-centered and flexible spins or Kaori Sakamoto/Wakaba Higuchi natural speed and power.
I don't think any of them is capable to do a spiral on artistic level of Karen Chen, etc..

We're witnessing breathtaking junior tournament, but let's not get carried away... :agree:
 
I adore Akatieva and Petrosyan, but you can't seriously claim they've better presentation than skaters like Eunsoo Lim and Rika Kihira.

I'm seriously claim that presentation of Valieva, Usacheva, Khromyh was better.

I don't think any of them is capable to do a spiral on artistic level of Karen Chen, etc..

btw, not everyone understands and shares the strange obsession of americans with spirals :biggrin:
 
I'm seriously claim that presentation of Valieva, Usacheva, Khromyh was better.



btw, not everyone understands and shares the strange obsession of americans with spirals :biggrin:

Yes, the American spiral obsession also seem to think that spirals is a sign of mature and artistic skating. All I can say is that the taste level is very different in America vs Europe/Asia.
 
Yes, the American spiral obsession also seem to think that spirals is a sign of mature and artistic skating. All I can say is that the taste level is very different in America vs Europe/Asia.

Don’t you understand that it’s not the spiral itself, it’s the beauty of holding movements and not rushing?
 
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