4F training by Alina!!! This is a way to welcome a great new year!!!
First time I've seen her in harness doing anything really (I'm sure she uses it for the new jumps as do everyone else doing new jumps). So what she has been doing these extra days before/between Christmas and New Year's is jump training with Dudakov.
I bet she got really fired up about the tech.
First thoughts:
- I think it's smart to go for the 4F (even more so if they plan to add anything in the short term). Her 3F is her current best jump, and in GOE among the ladies the first jump to get a solid + 4. It is also a jump she currently does as a solo. If they "monkey" with her Lz a lot hangs in that balance, she has 2 different 3Lz combos, I wouldn't go for that unless it was like super stable. With the 4F she can "kid around" a bit. She has space build around her 3F (likely for a back up combo if one of the 3Lz ones backfires, but she wasn't really working on that back up combo, she couldn't add it on the fly, so anyway....her 3F is her best jump with "room around it"). She also uses the 3F for a 3-2-2, this season she had positive GOE on that in all instances (expect RusNuts).
- Jumping with a harness is a tool to decrease the learning curve for a new jump. It helps the coach direct the take off curve, keep the skater straight in the air and keep the skater's back position upon landing. So it's not like he is lifting her up out of nowhere and keeping her up like a caught fish when she would have "crash landed" herself. She did all the full rotations on the air, she took a second longer to get her leg into it's usual air position, she had her knee a bit out at the start, but then she was in her usual air position which is very tight. She did the full quad rotations in the air and landed forward. Dudakov pulled her into the air position he wanted (but not lifted her from the ice of held her up as people assume when they see a harness), that's what the harness is for.
- She did this jump out of no set up at all.
- Since she doesn't fall and Dudakov can direct her with the harness this leads to, as I mentioned above, faster learning curves for jumps because she will get to perfect a move with "good muscle memory" and not "bad muscle memory" from developing the intel with falls included. And believe me, a harness shouldn't prevent a fall, if she was like "behind" on her capacity to get this, she would fall with a harness. The fact that she lands and he can correct her is the key here, she is well on her way to acquiring the correct technique he wants to teach her for this. And as we all know, Alina is such a fast learner of tech.
I'm excited!!! To see her going for this and going confidently at it is exciting indeed. She is leaning it with correct process and I have no doubts that learn it she will.
Will they add it now, will they add it next season. I have no idea. They are the smart ones working with her everyday and with their goals in synch, they will do what makes more sense and looks achievable. She is getting a feel for what it feels like to to a Quad in the air, take off for one, land from one, all the important things to up her tech in the future.
The fact that she is working so diligently on her FUTURE (in all caps) is the most exciting part of all this for me.
Go Alina!!! You are the best!!!
For those interested in more intel about harness here is a short review and explanation from a coach:
http://www.pro-motionharness.com/ProfessionalSkaters2007.pdf