Alina Zagitova

[EdRoz]

"Private Johnny Rambo. You won't get anything from me."

 

[lusk8]

https://youtu.be/eWdHkUuQk1E

Let’s get back to talking about figure skating

For anyone still on the fence about Alina’s Carmen program, I strongly recommend you watch this video which is from a much better angle and allows you to see her expressions and gesture closeup. This program is much more mature than Don Quixote and has some lovely strory teling elements (like her hands behind her back during crossovers). At this angle I don’t know how anyone can say the step sequence is just copied and pasted. I think it really matches the music and is so lovely!

I think the program is relativly well build. It's a difficult one for sure, TES and PCS wise. PCS wise I think she needs to sharpen a little bit more her small moves that hit some notes, to make them more clear. Then she can add more on the generall backgroud expression and feeling of a Carmen. Each time adding bit by bit some more details in PE and IN at the end it has the potential to become a nice program. CO and TR are there already.

Thank you for the close up link, watched it again just now, so fresh comments:

- This program's music cuts will require her to switch emotions midway (kind of like Black Swan), since it starts "flirty" and then when she has her hands "tied" behind her back it should start to switch to defiant (to close with that ending pose). Alina can nail flirty to a T, she did it in her Afro Blue EX, but at the start of this run of Carmen she was more neutral, I guess more to do with her mood that by the time she took to her pose was more "preoccupied" for some reason.

- 2A was definitely her comfort jump for this program, so everything leading to the first one and leading off from it, she did with pause and giving the choreography some breathing ground. And it needs to breath, she is always very busy on the Ice (they choreograph every bit of her time and no point opportunity is wasted) the downside to this being that she needs mileage on the program to be able to find the pauses (or build pauses), so stuff like those little "flamenco" steps don't get trampled by the rest.

- After the first fall she let her discomfort get the best of her, she was obviously uneasy from the beginning, and since the program is not yet "familiar safe ground" going through it didn't calm her at all. So she ran through the steps following that, I kind of thought she was running to get to the next jump so she could calm down, either way, her FP choreography is never a good companion piece to running. I she runs, since it is such a busy choreo to start with, it looks like an obstacle run. She has to build in little pauses, like she did in DQ. The legs to the ear thing will look better if she doesn't rush it.

- As she did the other jump (two footed landing) she calmed down a bit and then came the other 2A, super difficult entry, she calmed it all down and performed it perfectly. Performed the bits after it in a more calm manner, that part has a great potential for drama with the music change, she didn't build into that this time but she will in the future I'm sure.

- As she neared the next jumping pass she started speeding up the choreo again, she was nervous and that rushed some movements that if she slows them down a tiny bit will look perfect. Her pop on the second jump of that combo was to avoid another fall, Eteri's skaters don't pop jumps (they fall if needed be) because (or so I read) a pop is the costliest mistake a skater can make in competition. So far, if I take the Junior season that just started as blue print, that adage still holds true, better to rotate and fall and get the BV than pop. Since she was not in a competition she opted to pop, smart move in her case, with her mindset, falling there would have been even more unsettling.

- She calmed and did the next 3 jump combo, stopped rushing the choreo, looked better. Then she had her second fall, but she was not running into that, she did her spins (I think she did a change of edge during one of the spins, if she did that is a new one for her). After the spins she stated running again, and that showed on the steps, that last step sequence really needs its time to be performed, I think she realized that, calmed down a bit and performed the later half of the spins and steps with more calm.

- She finished ahead of the music, even with the falls, so that give us an idea of how much she was running with it. She was tired by the end of it, as the season progresses we will never see her flustered again, she really has great stamina but it didn't kick in yet.

- Comments on the program in general: even with the jumps starting early this is a hard layout, it's good that it starts with an axel because those are, for the moment, her comfort jumps, she feels so good in them that it shows. But this new structure with the jumps is quite a change of pace for her, and harder, because before with DQ she was like "calm", "calm", calm", jump, jump, jump. Now she has to insert pause between the jumps, different tempo, she'll master it and when she does this will look super amazing. It has the potential to look amazing with all it's changes of mood, like a whole movie in under 4min, but it requires several tempo switches to happen to work to its strengths. That's the thing with her choreos, they are busy, and she has to slow them down an infinite bit so they don't look so busy (think Adam Rippon's SP of last season, that was a busy choreography, with high beat relentless tempo, but he slowed it down just a fraction of a beat and that made all the difference).

Alina is great with calm and lyrical movements, she has wonderful arm movements and great expression, as she starts to own this program more it will get to where it needs to be. And when it gets there, ladies and gents, it will be a beauty.

 

[lusk8]

See you in all in competition threads

Now we can trolling, declare a holy wars in all threads

And it brought some great surprises Now we can comment Alinka's competitions together, and all the other competitions too, and have our hearts beating faster when we see a tutu or a Carmen/POTO program. Only we can understand those emotions

These competition threads won't know what hit them, Alina's Get Along Gang is going to storm them.

I have to admit I was kind of sad for not being able to comment on competitions as they happened.

Well....I'm sad no longer.

 

[Finley]

Said it before, saying it again - this fan thread has the best group of posters anywhere on the entire internet. It always brightens my day to come here. There are no other people I would rather celebrate with, agree to disagree with, be reassured by, worry with, or just chat with, anywhere!

 

[lusk8]

Said it before, saying it again - this fan thread has the best group of posters anywhere on the entire internet. It always brightens my day to come here. There are no other people I would rather celebrate with, agree to disagree with, be reassured by, worry with, or just chat with, anywhere!

Group hug full of love!!! You all make this our very own special place.

 

[EdRoz]

your super post

Before ,Alina did not like Axel, in the new program we see them twice ,
one of them with crazy difficult entry , I really like it

 

[Finley]

Group hug full of love!!! You all make this our very own special place.

And I really want to thank some of the newer posters (new to this thread anyway) who have dropped by and shared their contribution. It's nice to 'see' new faces at the party and hear different perspectives and opinions. It's all adds up to a really nice equation.

 

[lusk8]

Before ,Alina did not like Axel, in the new program we see them twice ,
one of them with crazy difficult entry , I really like it

So much change, right? And super fast too. Now she is building up quite a 2A arsenal, and with that entry in the mix, like it's just so easy. Alina has talent to spare.

 

[lesnar001]

"Private Johnny Rambo. You won't get anything from me."

Thank you very much flanker.

 

[flanker]

I should have remained silent, I didn't expect that little note will solve the riddle for you :

For Ed. This:

"Private Johnny Rambo. You won't get anything from me."

was just note, that I don't confess anything (we used that as boys ), but it was already late

 

[EdRoz]

So much change, right? And super fast too. Now she is building up quite a 2A arsenal, and with that entry in the mix, like it's just so easy. Alina has talent to spare.

If Daniil removed 10% of unnecessary movements from the program, it would become much smoother and more elegant

 

[lesnar001]

These competition threads won't know what hit them, Alina's Get Along Gang is going to storm them.

I have to admit I was kind of sad for not being able to comment on competitions as they happened.

Well....I'm sad no longer.

Haters beware....

Nobody expects the "Alina Zagitova Protection Squad"!!!!

 

[lesnar001]

Before ,Alina did not like Axel, in the new program we see them twice ,
one of them with crazy difficult entry , I really like it

I was amazed at how easily she did both double axels.
And even the 2nd one had an intricate entry too!

Very smooth going into and out of them. Beautifully held edges. Just please - no raised leg on the exit of the 2nd one!!!!

 

[EdRoz]

I should have remained silent, I didn't expect that little note will solve the riddle for you :

For Ed. This:



was just note, that I don't confess anything (we used that as boys ), but it was already late

Thank you ! It was very nice to receive a gift .. at first I thought - maybe it's from Zorro

 

[lusk8]

If Daniil removed 10% of unnecessary movements from the program, it would become much smoother and more elegant

I agree with you, she doesn't need to be that busy. Even being super young, the young tend to need more stuff to do since leaving them to their own devices (maybe needing to come up with bits of choreo on the fly) is not the recipe for success, I imagine. The more experienced skaters can come up with stuff on the fly if a hole opens up somehow, but for someone younger that can be a real problem.

Some combination of the above coupled with the desire to leave no point opportunity unused is probably to blame for her busy choreo. At this point I'll just call it their recipe for success, and successful it is, even if I wish they would lighten the load a bit sometimes since Alina has already proved (at shows) that she can handle calm and quiet.

 

[lesnar001]

Thank you ! It was very nice to receive a gift .. at first I thought - maybe it's from Zorro

When the PM box first popped up and I saw it was from the admins -

I was afraid they were giving me a "WARNING" for something I may have posted in another thread.

I try not to upset the powers that be, but some of the nastiness in the last few days has been a little too much.

 

[EdRoz]

When the PM box first popped up and I saw it was from the admins -

I was afraid they were giving me a "WARNING" for something I may have posted in another thread.

I try not to upset the powers that be, but some of the nastiness in the last few days has been a little too much.

Me too today I received a WARNING from sports.ru and was banned for 3 days because I send to the a...s one Alinka hater

 

[lesnar001]

I agree with you, she doesn't need to be that busy. Even being super young, the young tend to need more stuff to do since leaving them to their own devices (maybe needing to come up with bits of choreo on the fly) is not the recipe for success, I imagine. The more experienced skaters can come up with stuff on the fly if a hole opens up somehow, but for someone younger that can be a real problem.

Some combination of the above coupled with the desire to leave no point opportunity unused is probably to blame for her busy choreo. At this point I'll just call it their recipe for success, and successful it is, even if I wish they would lighten the load a bit sometimes since Alina has already proved (at shows) that she can handle calm and quiet.

I really thought that with some of the scoring changes to a QUALITY vs QUANTITY mentality that they would change this.

Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case at all.

I am sure that Alina will master all this "stuff" as the season progresses, but I am saddened that we most likely won't get to see the "Real Alina" skating until she does another ice show. Too bad.

 

[Scott512]

If Daniil removed 10% of unnecessary movements from the program, it would become much smoother and more elegant

So true. Someone needs to say something to Danill.

 

[lesnar001]

So true. Someone needs to say something to Danill.

Unfortunately, I think he only listens to one person. And it ain't one of us.