2022-23 GPF Senior Men's Short Program

[Arriba627]

At least he didn't do the single toe...

No,, the Uno Toe is usually in the free!

 

[cheerknithanson]

I just watched Ilia's short program and I am just going to say 4 words. Drop this short program! Go back to last year's short for the rest of the season because it worked and It is good enough to get the 100 point benchmark that you need to contend for world title. Also it program that he will conformable with. His coaches can also go to simpler version to get the timing back on his jumps. I think his timing is really off because he going though yet another growth spurt, hopefully the last one, at the worst possible time. This also could means that he trying to break in a new pair of skates as well because when you grow many times your shoe size changes as well. He may be also may be dealing with a slight injury, though I think that this team may be saying this because it sounds better than Ilia grew 3-5 inches in last two months and he trying to figure out his timing on his jumps again.

So he is dealing growth spurt, timing issues, new skates, possible injury, and short program which simply is not coming together at all. Then add the pressure of being the standard bearer of US men's figure skating. It is all coming together in a bad way right now. This does not mean that his career is over or that he will never be a world champion and by nationals all problems might resolve enough that he will back to his old self again.

Remember he is only 18 years old, most skaters at his age and experience level are either in JGP or are just moving up to senior level and competing at low level CS events not GP events and not the Grand Prix Final usually. So issues that Ilia is having right now are normal for his age bracket. Even Nathan Chen had similar issues when at the same age he for example bombing two short programs at the Olympics then winning worlds about 6 weeks later. So the ups and downs are normal. So please just be patient and give the kid a break here and things will get better soon

Agreed on the SP. As much as I love Ilia’s skating, I don’t think it’s working for him. I definitely prefer his SP from last year more. Maybe it’s cause I like the music more. But tbh, I feel like I can think of better music. Halo anyone????

 

[noskates]

Yes what Kris 135 said.

 

[el henry]

Well, I saw Shoma and Ilia while walking home (multi tasking). and then rewound very quickly to see Daniel.

I love Daniel's SP. Of course I do I also love a flexible spinner. Not his best skate, but he is trying to improve, and for all the right reasons.

Ilia and Daniel are buddies, from what I read, and Ilia can learn from Daniel as well. Ilia can have charm and presence with the right skate, but he needs to want to do it so he can have charm and presence, not just to increase his PCS scores. Live by the jump, die by the jump, and he doesn't need to do that. I don't think he's grown [physically, growth spurt] that much in the past month He is unfortunately capable of inconsistent skates, not many, but they do happen. More consistency should come with senior experience.

Shoma I really enjoyed that program, doubling a jump, meh.

It will depend on the skating gods and videos whether I see the other skates, thanks Peacock

 

[mrrice]

OK....Am I the one who remembers Uncle Dick Button saying, "You can't win an event in the Short Program HOWEVER, you sure can lose it there." Poor Ilia has buried himself in such a deep pit that I don't think the skate of his life will get him on the podium unless the top 3 Bomb! Not sure what his strategy was coming into this event. I haven't seen the skates, only the scores. I hope Ilia has a "Redemption" free skate if only for his pride.

 

[apgold]

Well, I saw Shoma and Ilia while walking home (multi tasking). and then rewound very quickly to see Daniel.

I love Daniel's SP. Of course I do I also love a flexible spinner. Not his best skate, but he is trying to improve, and for all the right reasons.

Ilia and Daniel are buddies, from what I read, and Ilia can learn from Daniel as well. Ilia can have charm and presence with the right skate, but he needs to want to do it so he can have charm and presence, not just to increase his PCS scores. Live by the jump, die by the jump, and he doesn't need to do that. I don't think he's grown that much in the past month He is unfortunately capable of inconsistent skates, not many, but they do happen. More consistency should come with senior experience.

Shoma I really enjoyed that program, doubling a jump, meh.

It will depend on the skating gods and videos whether I see the other skates, thanks Peacock

I don't bother with Peacock - the Opera browser with its free VPN set to Asia while watching the ISU Channel on Youtube has worked for me for the entire GP. You can also watch galas and the medal ceremonies for all of them.

I could watch Shoma skate all day, I'm not even a John Mayer fan but that SP is growing on me because he feels the music with his entire body.

 

[CellarDweller]

Hiya Everyone!

I'm sorry I missed the chaos! I had to work at the office today, so no watching.

Zamboni Dino was sad to not be used.

 

[Jammers]

OK....Am I the one who remembers Uncle Dick Button saying, "You can't win an event in the Short Program HOWEVER, you sure can lose it there." Poor Ilia has buried himself in such a deep pit that I don't think the skate of his life will get him on the podium unless the top 3 Bomb! Not sure what his strategy was coming into this event. I haven't seen the skates, only the scores. I hope Ilia has a "Redemption" free skate if only for his pride.

How do figure that Ilia has the highest FS score of the season and if he's close to being clean he will at least get on the podium.

 

[mrrice]

How do figure that Ilia has the highest FS score of the season and if he's close to being clean he will at least get on the podium.

Is this a question for me??? Well, Ilia scored nearly 200 points in Finland and if he scores that well again, it will be great. Sadly, he can't make the podium with a score under 300. That, I don't see happening. I think it's more about redemption and knowing how well he can do internationally when he skates well.

 

[Kris135]

Is this a question for me??? Well, Ilia scored nearly 200 points in Finland and if he scores that well again, it will be great. Sadly, he can't make the podium with a score under 300. That, I don't see happening. I think it's more about redemption and knowing how well he can do internationally when he skates well.

I think that he can make the podium. He is only 7 points away from third place. Between him and the bronze medal is Grassil who he is basically tied with and Mura who is first year senior. I think he can beat both of them but the next two are going to much harder to beat he could get silver if h has the skate of his young life and Yamamoto falter a bit but I can not see him beating Uno he is just too far behind.

If he hurt though I do not want him to skate and make the injury worse. He will have other Grand Prix Finals and it is not worth risk to do permanent damage at this point in his career. If this was World's I would understand taking the chance and skating but this event is not at that level. There very little to gain and much more to lose. He needs to take the:long view and realize that he on a four year journey to Milian/Cortina 2026 Olympics. A gold there is the ultimate prize that should be his focus and he should do nothing to risk that goal. There will other competitions that he can win and I want him to be healthy to do that because I am seen career's ruined because they completed hurt and made minor injuries into career ending injuries. I just do not want that to happen to him.

 

[zebobes]

Is this a question for me??? Well, Ilia scored nearly 200 points in Finland and if he scores that well again, it will be great. Sadly, he can't make the podium with a score under 300. That, I don't see happening. I think it's more about redemption and knowing how well he can do internationally when he skates well.

I think you are greatly overestimating Kao and Sota to think that they can score 300, when they have NEVER scored over 200 in the FS. Even Ilia, with his Quad Axel, hasn't managed to do so yet. While Shoma could very well top 300, I think Ilia has the capability of still making it up to silver, if he is able to skate like in the past two competitions.

Now, if we go back to Nathan's first GPF, Nathan was in a very similar situation as Ilia in 5th place, but he got 1st in the free and bounced up to 2nd. I agree though, with Kris135, that Ilia needs to take care of his body, and if he is injured, he shouldn't force out a risky Quad Axel. The good thing is that he will have an extra day to rest before the FS, so hopefully that will help.

 

[mrrice]

I think you are greatly overestimating Kao and Sota to think that they can score 300, when they have NEVER scored over 200 in the FS. Even Ilia, with his Quad Axel, hasn't managed to do so yet. While Shoma could very well top 300, I think Ilia has the capability of still making it up to silver, if he is able to skate like in the past two competitions.

Now, if we go back to Nathan's first GPF, Nathan was in a very similar situation as Ilia in 5th place, but he got 1st in the free and bounced up to 2nd. I agree though, with Kris135, that Ilia needs to take care of his body, and if he is injured, he shouldn't force out a risky Quad Axel. The good thing is that he will have an extra day to rest before the FS, so hopefully that will help.

I agree. If Ilia is injured, I'd rather see him withdraw from the event. He needs to be healthy for Nationals. He'll have another chance to compete against all these skaters at Worlds. There's certainly no benefit in sustaining a season ending injury when he still has Nationals as his main goal.

 

[Michetta]

Judge No. 4, American judge, Deborah Currie had put Ilia second in PCS.

Shoma Composition 8.5, Presentation 8.75, Skating Skills 8.75

Ilia Composition 8.5, Presentation 8.5, Skating Skills 8.5

Total difference is 0.5

This was for Ilia’s mediocre performance and other 4 skaters did not do better than Ilia in her opinion.

 

[MaiKatze]

Shoma’s short was magic. So thankful I got to see him again. He’s simply on another level here and it shows. The World Champion title was so long overdue and did wonders for his confidence. I also love how Shoma does better every time we see him. He really knows how to pace himself.

 

[rain]

Shoma’s short was magic. So thankful I got to see him again. He’s simply on another level here and it shows. The World Champion title was so long overdue and did wonders for his confidence. I also love how Shoma does better every time we see him. He really knows how to pace himself.

There were obviously a lot of good skaters here, but as you said, Shoma really stood out as being in a class by himself. And I say that as someone who dislikes his music for the SP (not as much as I loathe listening to Michael Bolton wail as he destroys a beautiful Beatles song — he really destroys virtually every song he's ever sung, IMO — but Mayer is pretty bland). It didn't matter. His commitment to the performance, what he is doing between the elements — nobody else even came close. And it's not that the others were bad, or not trying. I hope Malinin and the other young skaters here aspire to develop this kind of skating along with their technical arsenal.

 

[TT_Fin]

Just finished watching a little while ago. Shoma and Sota .

Daniel is really smart if he really changed his program during the skate as Ted said.

Kao is cute and fun to watch. Pity about the fall.

Ilia not having his best day, but he usually does better at FS, doesn't he?

Shun not having his best day either.

Well, when pairs did good when I was knitting, I must remember to do it also when men are on ice tomorrow.

 

[sjchilly]

OK....Am I the one who remembers Uncle Dick Button saying, "You can't win an event in the Short Program HOWEVER, you sure can lose it there." Poor Ilia has buried himself in such a deep pit that I don't think the skate of his life will get him on the podium unless the top 3 Bomb! Not sure what his strategy was coming into this event. I haven't seen the skates, only the scores. I hope Ilia has a "Redemption" free skate if only for his pride.

In a 6 man field Ilia can still make it to 3rd, but I can't see Shomo messing up enough not to finish in first. In a larger field Ilia would have not have place high enough with that short program to skate his long program in the final group, a disadvantage even if scoring is not supposed to take start order into account.

 

[sworddance21]

I just watched Ilia's short program and I am just going to say 4 words. Drop this short program! Go back to last year's short for the rest of the season because it worked and It is good enough to get the 100 point benchmark that you need to contend for world title. Also it program that he will conformable with. His coaches can also go to simpler version to get the timing back on his jumps. I think his timing is really off because he going though yet another growth spurt, hopefully the last one, at the worst possible time. This also could means that he trying to break in a new pair of skates as well because when you grow many times your shoe size changes as well. He may be also may be dealing with a slight injury, though I think that this team may be saying this because it sounds better than Ilia grew 3-5 inches in last two months and he trying to figure out his timing on his jumps again.

So he is dealing growth spurt, timing issues, new skates, possible injury, and short program which simply is not coming together at all. Then add the pressure of being the standard bearer of US men's figure skating. It is all coming together in a bad way right now. This does not mean that his career is over or that he will never be a world champion and by nationals all problems might resolve enough that he will back to his old self again.

Remember he is only 18 years old, most skaters at his age and experience level are either in JGP or are just moving up to senior level and competing at low level CS events not GP events and not the Grand Prix Final usually. So issues that Ilia is having right now are normal for his age bracket. Even Nathan Chen had similar issues when at the same age he for example bombing two short programs at the Olympics then winning worlds about 6 weeks later. So the ups and downs are normal. So please just be patient and give the kid a break here and things will get better soon

I may be one of the only people on the forum who actually likes Ilia's SP. I think it works for him. He reminds me a little of teenage Nathan. Not classical, but developing his own style. It's fun, and young, and he seems to enjoy performing it - especially the step sequence. As much as I love Jason (and I DO), Shoma, etc. not all artistry has to be alike.