2021 Worlds Pregame Chat: Ladies

[Dawn825]

Aw where is everybody's my favorite Shin Amano?

Lol they'd never let him judge a ladies event

 

[rollerblade]

Lol they'd never let him judge a ladies event

Who's this "they" you speak of? He was at 2020 Europeans, though he was a softie there lol.

 

[Jontor]

It's a pity Viktoria Safonova had to withdraw. She scored 200 points at Ice Star this season and beat Samodurova and Guliakova comfortably. She had a chance to be a surprise top 10 finisher.

 

[Jontor]

Any updates/videos from the 4th ladies practice (the one scheduled between 17:15-21:15 Stockholm time on March 23rd, that should have ended approx. 3 hours ago)?

The Russian Ladies thread has a lot of updates. Apparently Anna is crying...and Sasha landed all her 5 quads...(!) (or was that the previous practice?)

 

[figureskatingandrainbows]

The Russian Ladies thread has a lot of updates. Apparently Anna is crying...and Sasha landed all her 5 quads...(!) (or was that the previous practice?)

Nope, it was for this practice. But what's this about Anna?

 

[Jontor]

Thanks, Jontor. That was the previous practice. I am glad Sasha landed all 5 quads -- all that hard work of re-learning proper technique is starting to pay off! I also hope Anna is ok and can recompose herself before tomorrow. That faulty jumping technique was eventually going to have these effects, as it happened with Medvedeva (and Lipnitskaya before her), and it's so sad so see these girls experience such effects during the most important competitions in their careers.

Yes, it doesn't look good for Anna. But I believe she is a fighter, she's had these awful pratices before but then somehow she manages to pull herself together. I think she needs an audience though, she thrives off the energy it gives.

 

[Jontor]

Nope, it was for this practice. But what's this about Anna?

There were posts on Insta showing her crying and miserable...heartbreaking to watch. Check out the RSL thread.

 

[rollerblade]

Any updates/videos from the 4th ladies practice (the one scheduled between 17:15-21:15 Stockholm time on March 23rd, that should have ended approx. 3 hours ago)?

https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/threads/2021-worlds-practice-reports-videos.88053/

https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/s...-skating-championships-2021-tuesday-practice/

There are also some posted in the respective ladies fanfests.

 

[rollerblade]

Oh sorry, I saw the time stamp of 10PM on the Olympic channel blog, so I figured it would cover the evening practice reports. Guess they only did updates at the main rink, where the men had their evening practice.

 

[saturdaysun]

Thanks, Jontor. That was the previous practice. I am glad Sasha landed all 5 quads -- all that hard work of re-learning proper technique is starting to pay off! I also hope Anna is ok and can recompose herself before tomorrow. That faulty jumping technique was eventually going to have these effects, as it happened with Medvedeva (and Lipnitskaya before her), and it's so sad so see these girls experience such effects during the most important competitions in their careers.

You're getting a little ahead of yourself here. The competition hasn't even happened yet. If we go by past events, Sasha can have good practices and still bomb when it counts, and Anna almost never falls in competition, even when she's falling on every jump just seconds before in the warmup. So it's still very much all up in the air.

 

[Jontor]

Anna SHERBAKOVA (RUS) FP 2021 Stockholm World Championship Figure Skating

www.youtube.com

I don't know from which practice this is, but you can clearly see that Anna is frustrated. She fell on all of her quads and missed the Lz+Lo combo the first time around.

 

[saturdaysun]

Thanks for the post, saturdaysun. I notice Anna has been struggling with all her jumps, both today and yesterday, which is due to the incorrect jumping technique that was taught to her. Short-term, she may be able to pull it off, but unfortunately long-term this technique will cause her major difficulties, in the same way it happened with Medvedeva and Lipnitskaya. This is not a matter of having an off day (or two off days now) -- she has not been able to land a single quad jump across all of her run-throughs during this competition (and only one successful quad outside of run throughs so far), and she is even struggling with the triples not in combination (see 3Lz step out). Look closely at her approach to jumping: it worked ok while she was younger, but as she is growing and maturing this technique is no longer serving her. This is certainly concerning, especially before the Olympic season.

In Sasha's case, it is important to distinguish the pre- and post- coach switching performances when making inferences about her quad success rates in competition, as there is a radical change in her technique, which is now substantially better, relying on the law of physics to induce height, speed, and rotation, rather than on a torqued upper body and muscled out movements. Before the coach switch, it was hit and miss for her, as she had not been taught proper technique. Now she is using proper technique and lands most jumps, except for the occasional errors when she is sick or injured (as was the case at Rostelecom), or very tired (as was the case with the fluke falls at the end of the second training session yesterday). The ability to jump with proper technique is there, and will likely enable her to have longevity and medal not just at one but potentially at two Olympics.

Guess we'll see.