2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

[Skatesocs]

Does someone here have a link to Tuktamysheva piece she skated in the free? It's beautiful.

Asian style but the composer is russian.

https://soundcloud.com/bhimau/bhima-yunusov-japanese-bird-1

 

[rollerblade]

Alena and Liza both had a 3A last season. Alena no longer has it, and Liza does. So I would say Alena has declined, and that has nothing to do with this weekend's performances. It just shows that it was possible to keep the hardest jumps with the covid interruption. And I'm not saying Liza is better than either Alena or Sasha, just that 2019 Alena is better than 2020 Alena at this point.

Or maybe Alena also has to adjust to body change from puberty, on top of coaching change and covid disruptions?

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

This reminds me one czechoslovak commedy with the scene "the grades are not great, but I wouldn't see it that dark" (which caricatured the Party conferences). Long story short. Three falls from quads and one from other jump can't be hardly beated by "but the Salchow" claim. This was bad day for Sasha (and honestly not very good day for Aliona) and such moments are the true trials for any coaching team and only when I see how the team is dealing with such moments (not once, not twice, but permanently) I can say it's a good team.

Well then, let's wait and see how team Plush will deal with the situation before we reach any premature conclusions, shall we? I am curious myself, I have to admit.

 

[mrrice]

Alena and Liza both had a 3A last season. Alena no longer has it, and Liza does. So I would say Alena has declined, and that has nothing to do with this weekend's performances. It just shows that it was possible to keep the hardest jumps with the covid interruption. And I'm not saying Liza is better than either Alena or Sasha, just that 2019 Alena is better than 2020 Alena at this point.

I was wondering why Alena didn't include a 3A in her SP. I figured she was saving it for the LP. Is that possible, or has she lost that jump?

 

[lopsilceci]

Well, this aged nicely.

Jinxed it? It's the curse of the hip shimmy.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Or maybe Alena also has to adjust to body change from puberty, on top of coaching change and covid disruptions?

Maybe. But a decline due to body changes is still a decline, right? At the end of the day, she's better, the same as, or worse than last year. It's only one of those three options. Why do people get so defensive when we acknowledge the truth?

 

[Lunalovesskating]

I was wondering why Alena didn't include a 3A in her SP. I figured she was saving it for the LP. Is that possible, or has she lost that jump?

Aliona said it is still inconsistent, so they haven't included it yet.

 

[Skatesocs]

Will Plushenko and her wife condemn the blatant PCS overscoring here? Even if the recipient is his own skater?

Nah, it was politics, as we all know.

Will say, if Trusova was indeed doing 4 quads despite injury, that is moronic, and definitely on Plushy. It's the coach's job to guide his athletes.

Without injury I stand by her needing only three for this competition, with the SP 3A if Anna were competing. If she was injured, then since Anna wasn't even there, she shouldn't have tried that SP 3A, built her lead, and sealed the deal with a single 4Lz in the LP.

 

[yume]

Rostelecom just tried to kill me. I choked on my pizza when i read the results.

 

[silveruskate]

So you're saying Evgenia improved after leaving Eteri then. If you think that we really can't have a realistic discussion.

Much less consistent, but at Rostelecom her technical jump content was higher and that is just a fact. It isn't improvement because she wasn't consistent, but the point is she had the ability to put all the content together at a competition in 2019. By your logic Zagitova also declined a lot after Olympic season, and Anna has declined now compared to her best at RusNats 2020. Consistency and ability are different things. Leaving Eteri can be a factor.....a lot of it looks mental since even when Evgenia was missing on her programs she was having clean practices all the time.

Obviously from my comments you only mention Zhenya and say nothing else!

 

[esteticlove]

I was wondering why Alena didn't include a 3A in her SP. I figured she was saving it for the LP. Is that possible, or has she lost that jump?

To me it seems she is not there yet. And I am glad that they are giving her some time with the 3A, especially now when she is coming from injury. She is obviously struggling to rotate even some of her other triples. The good think about Ryazanov is that he learnt well under Eteri and so far is using her strategy - stable what you have now and then upgrade. Alena has definitely more room to grow score-wise, even withou a 3A. Today we didn't see the maximum of her, and she still got 220 points.

 

[NAOTMAA]

I read that she's injured. If that's true (again, not confirmed), then doing 4 quads is the WORST idea ever. Sorry but it's just irresponsible.

And REALLY stupid strategy wise considering her biggest competitor was recovering from injury and didn't have her money jump.

It's not like she was up against Anna who has a quad too. She could have easily done just 1 or 2 and it would have been enough. I hope she didn't hurt herself further if it's true

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

I didn't watch today's warm-up, but in the SP warm-up Sasha landed a beautiful 4T so she can still do quads.

 

[nussnacker]

I was wondering why Alena didn't include a 3A in her SP. I figured she was saving it for the LP. Is that possible, or has she lost that jump?

Before this competition they filmed a segment on Aliona, I think she said she was landing it 2 times out of 5. They also filmed one attempt, but it was UR (possibly DG?) with a turn-out, so it wasn’t one of the successful ones I’d say.
I think Aliona’s just always been more risk-averse in her content, she probably has it back, she’ll just put it in when she’s confident enough.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

To lighten the mood, Mishin's students and grand-students sweeped places 1-4 today, so kudos to the Professor!

 

[nussnacker]

Rostelecom just tried to kill me. I choked on my pizza when i read the results.

I also didn’t manage to watch it live, and was in complete shock when I saw the results.

 

[CrazyKittenLady]

I didn't watch today's warm-up, but in the SP warm-up Sasha landed a beautiful 4T so she can still do quads.

Well, the fall on the 3A in the SP looked pretty nasty, maybe she bruised her ankle there? It's all just speculation, though.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Much less consistent, but at Rostelecom her technical jump content was higher and that is just a fact. It isn't improvement because she wasn't consistent, but the point is she had the ability to put all the content together at a competition in 2019. By your logic Zagitova also declined a lot after Olympic season, and Anna has declined now compared to her best at RusNats 2020. Consistency and ability are different things.

I agree with the bolded statement. Ability without consistency doesn't win competitions though. Alina was less dominant after winning the Olympics. And Anna was probably better at 2020 Nationals than she is now because she was attempting, and achieving, the more difficult 4Lz.

 

[silveruskate]

She was in Novogorsk for less than 2 months, around 1,5, since she left 2 weeks earlier.
Since then, it’s practically 4 months with Plushenko, so she wasn’t with Eteri most of the time (post-quarantine I mean)

Well we can easily see test-skates in September with the SP which very little time since leaving Eteri, and it was much the same as right now. Same issues. Also didn't have the 3A. The point I'm making stands.

Also, March-July with Eteri, and August-November with Plushenko, or am I missing something? My point was she went to the Eteri training camp too which is meant to be the most intense part of the season in terms of training, and that was with Eteri.

The way Aliona made it sound, even when she went to Novogorsk her conditioning itself was not where it should have been. She controlled her weight, but couldn't replace the feeling of training every day.

 

[eterialskating]

The Queen has zero to do with these poor outings. Why try to bring her up when she has zero to do with her former pupils lack of form and preparation.