2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating | Page 948 | Golden Skate

2020-21 Russian Ladies' Figure Skating

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Veronika actually overrotated the 3A. She has huge power in her legs, and obviously, not enough control yet. When she was having trouble on warmup she should have stuck with a double, not sure if that was her mum's choice, or hers. The delayed rotation on the lutz is also an issue (won't be if she does a quad, but for the triple...) Even bombing today, she has such a huge athletic gift.
The rest of the girls were lovely, polished and solid. Some are a bit better at spins, some a bit better at the StepSeq, some have more solid easy jumps, but all of the girls can do the same 3X3X jumps-which means, those who can land the 3A move to the top. Without that one jump, you are left behind. We are getting to a point that even most of the 12 years olds have identical tech content, and by next year it will be who can do the 3A and who cannot.
The question wasn't whether or not she can do it...obviously she can! It was whether it was wise to have her try when a fall has such a negative effect - essentially snowballing and she doesn't need it to podium as only Sofa A did one.
 
In the SP a 3A is indeed a questionable choice for juniors. The benefits are minimal - only 2.70 points in BV at best. On the other hand, if you make a mistake on the jump, it becomes catastrophical because without a combo it just is an invalid element, hence it costs you the combo pass.

If we perform some risk reward analysis, 2.70 BV gain vs a loss of 8 or 9 points, you need to land it like 80% of the time for it to be worthwhile, at the very least. Even a mediocre landing where you can only do 3A+2T isn't worth it at all, so it needs to be 80+% chance to perform the 3A+3T cleanly.
 
Ehhhh... I disagree to an extent. Plushenko has invested the most time; as far as we’re aware, into Sasha. And Sasha has shown the most improvement out of any of the senior ladies this season. She is a visibly better skater, and this is of course the season she should’ve been working on those little things even if they are not quite so apparent in podium results.

Zhilina has her mother’s involvement which is where inexperience may play a part. He may not know yet how much, if any parental involvement he wants for his athletes.

Aliona was tough to take in already. She’d not fully recovered from the quarantine period, had extensive off-ice time, had (apparently multiple) chronic injuries, and then got covid.

Given these circumstances I would think that the true extent of his abilities will not be fully assessable until next season, when he has not just a shortened, post-lockdown, middle of a pandemic, off-season period and brand new coaching team to work with but rather an established environment, and the ability to start and plan with athletes and coaches at the pre-season what their expectations are for the year.
Very true. However, while Plushy has the senior skater (that changes when we look at the juniors and even arguably when we look at Liza T) with the most improvements, no one under Eteri has regressed. Anna has at worst maintained the same level. And also, Eteri doesn't tend to have such an imbalance of effort into her skaters - as Evgenia will attest too. (Even when Eteri has favourites she doesn't stop letting the others try to beat her favourite and puts the same level of effort into their improvement as everyone else which is something we haven't seen with Plushenko.) That said, his work with Sasha is remarkable! However, it's not like that talent wasn't there before and Sasha wasn't already phenomenal under Eteri. Also this isn't the first skater whose struggled under Plushy - he did essentially ruin Anastasiia T's career by forcing her to train quads before she was ready. (Although, I will admit that that's he's not alone in this.) It is however worrying, that everyone other than Sasha has regressed. And even Sasha got injured and isn't able to train to the level she was before.

Also, Zhilina's mother isn't a new entity. She was there under Eteri and I don't think Eteri would allow for the confusion that happened with her SP.

Alena yes, however, she's not the only one who lost her jumps over the break - everyone else did too. (Anna, Kamila, etc, all had to get them back and did.) As for chronic injuries, well that may be true; however, you're deluding yourself if you think she's the only one. Sasha also got injured and wasn't able to train or perform certain jumps and it was a very serious injury which she's still recovering from. As for COVID, Liza T definitely had it and Anna probably did (depending on sources.) Also like Aliona, Anna got pneumonia as well.

I will agree though that a shortened, pandemic-riddled season makes it hard to judge;however, I'll argue that needs to apply to everyone then. All skaters and all coaches.
 
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If anyone is interested, Aliona and Elizaveta N. have been named as alternates. A bit surprising, I expected RusFed to choose Tsibinova or Samodurova, but they probably followed the results of Nationals. Not that Nugu is likely go to Sweden, but it shows that federation has trust in her and maybe will give her a place in the national team next season.
 
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5 quads and 2 triple axels landed, 1 quad attempt - usual day in Russian tourney I guess. ;):clap:
Congrats to both Sofias, stellar performances! :bow:
Eteri was not happy after Petrosyan's skate. She seems very invested in this girl.
Hey Channel 1, replaying Ovchinnikova's warm-up fall right before her skate was unnecessary, wth!? :shrug:
 
Khromykh! But because she's wearing snug clothing, it accentuates all the movements. With Valieva it's really hard to tell.
I don't think Kromykh's better because of the clothing - the movement technically I'd say is better because she ended up getting the feet/legs a bit better in terms of that dance, and her upper body is better in the first half too. I just would give it to Valieva because she looked more in pace with the music, especially towards the end (which is what matters to me more with skaters, since they're not dancers - but others may disagree).
 
Very true. However, in addition to having the senior skater (that changes when we look at the juniors and even arguably when we look at Liza T) with the most improvements, no one under Eteri has regressed. Anna has at worst maintained the same level. And also, Eteri doesn't tend to have such an imbalance of effort into her skaters - as Evgenia will attest too. (Even when Eteri has favourites she doesn't stop letting the others try to beat her favourite and puts the same level of effort into their improvement as everyone else which is something we haven't seen with Plushenko.) That said, his work with Sasha is remarkable! However, it's not like that talent wasn't there before and Sasha wasn't already phenomenal under Eteri. Also this isn't the first skater whose struggled under Plushy - he did essentially ruin Anastasiia T's career by forcing her to train quads before she was ready. (Although, I will admit that that's he's not alone in this.) It is however worrying, that everyone other than Sasha has regressed. And even Sasha got injured and isn't able to train to the level she was before.

Also, Zhilina's mother isn't a new entity. She was there under Eteri and I don't think Eteri would allow for the confusion that happened with her SP.

Alina yes, however, she's not the only one who lost her jumps over the break - everyone else did too. (Anna, Kamila, etc, all had to get them back and did.) As for chronic injuries, well that may be true; however, you're deluding yourself if you think she's the only one. Sasha also got injured and wasn't able to train or perform certain jumps and it was a very serious injury which she's still recovering from. As for COVID, Liza T definitely had it and Anna probably did (depending on sources.) Also like Aliona, Anna got pneumonia as well.

I will agree though that a shortened, pandemic-riddled season makes it hard to judge;however, I'll argue that needs to apply to everyone then. All skaters and all coaches.
You have Tarakanova, but then you also have Kanysheva.

Wasn't Zhilina improving until her mother intervened after a bad performance? I'm not sure.

I think the way Anna's recovery was handled, from the outside looks quite good. Considering she had Covid/Pneumonia, she's regained a lot and it was paced well. Evgenia recently said her training days are much much longer at Sambo again, so in a way it's expected that you would be better. As long as you don't get injured - which is what the skaters there need to be mindful of.

Not to take away from Sasha's new team, but she is one skater I doubt is training any less than she did previously. Maybe even more.
 
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