- Joined
- Apr 5, 2018
I loved your post and it's observations, taking a cue from it, let's look at all 5 PCS components.
This season, looking at all the three competitions we've had so far (yes I'm including Japan Open for the fun of it even if it doesn't count for ISU stats it still had ISU judges and the Tech Panel had the head of the ISU Technical Committee).
So looking at only the final, raw (already averaged between judges, highest and lowest taken out - but not factored, as in multiplied to get final PCS), her PCS numbers are:
- SP
At Nebelhorn: Skating Skills 9.05 Transitions 8.85 Performance 9.30 Composition 9.10 Interpretation 9.20 (Highest: Performance; Lowest: Transitions)
At GP Helsinki: Skating Skills 8.89 Transitions 8.93 Performance 8.86 Composition 9.04 Interpretation 9.00 (Highest: Composition; Lowest: Performance)
- FS
At Nebelhorn: Skating Skills 9.35 Transitions 9.20 Performance 9.45 Composition 9.40 Interpretation 9.45 (Highest: Performance tied with Interpretation; Lowest: Transitions)
At Helsinki: Skating Skills 8.86 Transitions 8.86 Performance 9.07 Composition 9.14 Interpretation 9.14 (Highest: Composition tied with Interpretation; Lowest: Transitions tied with Skating Skills)
At Japan Open: Skating Skills 9.21 Transitions 9.14 Performance 9.36 Composition 9.25 Interpretation 9.43 (Highest Interpretation; Lowest: Transitions)
The take away: Performance, Interpretation and Composition are her strong suits, she should keep at it to build it up even more; and the points she need to improve on the most are Transitions and Skating Skills.
Skating skills is already on her improvement radar and I'm sure her Transitions score will rise as she increases the former, as a stand alone Transitions is where she stands to gain the most score in the short term. But, both things are probably somewhat tied to one another, when one score rises so will the other one.
The fact that she has incredibly complex programs and is newly performing both of them is probably what's keeping these scores somewhat below the rest. By the end of last season she was above 9 in all the PCS components and when she lagged in any of them it was in SS and Transitions.
With her programs, when the wheels come of the bus, these two components are the first to get under that bus, possibly because, again as she has intensely packed and super hard to perform programs, that's where the struggle becomes more noticeable for the judges.
Taking this into account the two GP Helsinki programs mark a turnaround for Alina, for the first time in a while, when one wheel popped out of the bus she managed to keep driving it until it was safely back in the garage with only three wheels remaining. As you can see from the scores above, in the case of her SP, that save was amazing and she got her deserved 1st place because her job was exceptional there.
For her the technical depends on being cool headed to deliver as she knows she can, and once she gets the jumps under her belt in a confident manner with an execution she can be happy about, she is able to let her skating skills and performance abilities shine through and take a bow (and a bunch of high scores). As we've seen from her amazing cone slalom in Japan, she has skating skills to spare, she needs to be calm to let them take her on a smooth trip around the ice performing her demanding programs.
I know this is already beyond super long but I just have one more thing to add: and guys, she will only get better, and better, and better. Yuzuru's first medals at Senior GP Final and Senior World Championships were a silver on the first and a bronze on the later both in 2012 when he was 17. Alina is 16, and already won a gold in Senior GP Final, placed outside the podium at WC but got an Olympic Single World Medal plus a Team Silver one.
Please, a moment of silence for this great woman who gave us a great coach who gave us Alina.
