Alissa is ready! | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Alissa is ready!

Thanks

Thanks for the report Mathman. Hoping for the best for Alissa. She has many fine qualities. Hope she can keep the nerves under control.
 
OK, Alissa Czisny can pack her bag for Vancouver, with a brief stopover in Spokane. :laugh: I just saw her do her final pre-Nationals performance at the Detroit Skating Club send-off event. She did her complete long program (Dr. Zhivago, purple dress).

She hit 3Lz+2T+2Lo (+1 GOE),
3F (0 GOE -- landing maybe not quite as secure as her other jumps),
I couldn't quite see the next jump, probably a triple loop, no problem that I could tell,
2A (excellent, +1 GOE, but no sequence)
3Lz (step out of landing, possibly underrotated)
3T+2T, good
I couldn't tell what the last triple was, maybe another loop, looked good to me.
Someone who was at the show last night passed along jump notes for Alissa's FS as follows: 3Lz+2T+2T, 3F (underrot.?), 3Lo, 2A+2A, 3Lz fall out, 3T+2T and 3T. Maybe a video of this performance will be uploaded to youtube at some point and then we can reconcile the jump lists, LOL!

Thanks very much for your positive report on Alissa, Mathman, and I look forward to reading your full report when you have time to write and post it! :)

ETA: Here's the link to a report on the Detroit show: http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?p=445005#post445005
 
Gimmie Kimmie (Uh, Duhhhhh, remember me?).Oh well.............Of the principal five ladies battling for the two spots, I'd hate to see any of the five miss out. Alissa, Ashley, Rachael, Caroline, Mirai - they are all wonderful, wonderful ladies and may the best two win. Pinned down to a choice of two, my heart wishes most for Alissa and Rachael. Ummmm......Gimmie Kimmie.
 
Gimmie Kimmie (Uh, Duhhhhh, remember me?).Oh well.............Of the principal five ladies battling for the two spots, I'd hate to see any of the five miss out. Alissa, Ashley, Rachael, Caroline, Mirai - they are all wonderful, wonderful ladies and may the best two win. Pinned down to a choice of two, my heart wishes most for Alissa and Rachael. Ummmm......Gimmie Kimmie.

Well said. I miss Kimmie too, she was cool and a real jock. Hope her injuries healing well :)
 
Alissa has underrotated every 3 loop she has attempted in competition this season, and every one has been downgraded. Of course, all these URs will be overlooked at Nationals, which will mean Alyssa will receive scores she won't ever get in an ISU competition.

There's no doubt that Alissa has superb non-jump elements. But I'd hate to see her deprive a deserving skater of a shot at the Olympics by virtue of ridiculously inflated Nationals scores such as she received last year. Alissa showed at her last two Worlds appearances that she just is unable to bring it when the stakes are high. It's time to give someone else a chance.
 
IMO Alissa and Rachael will be going to Vancouver with Ashley as the alternate and Caroline coming in fourth. That is my prediction from my crystal ball and I will be very surprised if I am wrong.
 
That's good news! Glad she got consistent jumps now. So far Rachael and Alissa are the front runners at Nationals, plus USFS really wants to send Alissa to Vancouver (she and Sasha are the only two ladies shown in the USFS commercial), so her chance is really good.
 
It's time to give someone else a chance.

They will all have their chance in two weeks. :)

Someone who was at the show last night passed along jump notes for Alissa's FS as follows: 3Lz+2T+2T, 3F (underrot.?), 3Lo, 2A+2A, 3Lz fall out, 3T+2T and 3T.

That's probably right. Alissa must have whipped off that 2A-2A sequence so fast that by the time my eyes caught up with her it looked like only one jump. :laugh:

I can easily believe that the 3F was underrotated, because she did not have a good edge coming out. I am, frankly, in awe of the skill of judges and technical specialists who are expected to see and evaluate so many things in a split second.

If Alissa has decided to change her last junp from a loop to a toe-loop, I think that is good strategy. As ChuckM points out, Alissa underrotated both of her triple loops at Skate Canada. The 3T is a much better jump for her, and is worth 4.4 points at the end of the program.

I think that Team Alissa's original plan called for a 3T-3T combo instead of 3T-2T. Since that didn't happen, she can do the extra 3T at the end.
 
The 3T at the end of the program might be better----provided Alissa doesn't have any falls during the program. When that happens, she has a tendency to either double or UR jumps towards the end of the program.
 
That's Dan Hollander. :laugh: Here is the view from his camcorder.

http://www.twitvid.com/7FFA0

Apparently, he was Santa at the ice show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPvK4oOafD8

Dan Hollander is sharp as a tack. He has parlayed his comedic talent into a respectable professional career, and he has big entrepreneurial ambitions as well.

Speaking of which...

In the thread in the Announcements about this event, Mystic Chic mentions that the club deliberately did not promote the show because, with three U.S. champions slated to perform, they wouldn't have been able to accommodate the crowd. As it was, there may have been 800 or 1000 people there for what was essentially a secret event.

I wonder if there was an opportunity to rent a larger faciltity and go all out in advertising a big family-oriented New Years / Olympic send-off show.

In previous years, Belbin and Agosto organized two local charity events and raised $20,000 each.
 
Someone who was at the show last night passed along jump notes for Alissa's FS as follows: 3Lz+2T+2T, 3F (underrot.?), 3Lo, 2A+2A, 3Lz fall out, 3T+2T and 3T.

Very wise if you ask me for her team to replace her final 3loop, which she performed during the GP, with a 3toe. Czisny's 3loop has too much of a tendency to be downgraded due to under-rotation, so there's certainly no incentive for her to attempt two of them. The 3flip and the 3loop will be key jumps for Alissa to rotate at Nationals. Those two are her most problematic jumps I think.
 
IMO Alissa and Rachael will be going to Vancouver with Ashley as the alternate and Caroline coming in fourth. That is my prediction from my crystal ball and I will be very surprised if I am wrong.

I wouldn't count Mirai out yet, especially because questionable URs and ! or e calls she sometimes gets internationally could easily be ignored.. I'm also not sure that Alissa and Rachael are the frontrunners, I don't think there really are any frontrunners this year, and if there are, Ashley is one of them.
 
I wouldn't count Mirai out yet, especially because questionable URs and ! or e calls she sometimes gets internationally could easily be ignored.. I'm also not sure that Alissa and Rachael are the frontrunners, I don't think there really are any frontrunners this year, and if there are, Ashley is one of them.

I think that Ashley and Racheal are "frontrunners" but not very far out in front. Alissa is right behind them as is Mirai.
 
Gimmie Kimmie (Uh, Duhhhhh, remember me?).Oh well.............Of the principal five ladies battling for the two spots, I'd hate to see any of the five miss out. Alissa, Ashley, Rachael, Caroline, Mirai - they are all wonderful, wonderful ladies and may the best two win. Pinned down to a choice of two, my heart wishes most for Alissa and Rachael. Ummmm......Gimmie Kimmie.

:chorus: :rofl: Yup, I certainly do! Wow, you haven't skipped a beat all these years, have you? ;) Just the same as ever...:p

Anyway, I think actually you said it all right there. Meissner would have been my sentimental favorite if she was able and fit enough to compete (as we all know, she is neither). But without her, I'd say Wagner is my next choice. That said, I want Flatt on the team as well, since she'll provide us some badly-needed stability (even when she's off, she still seems to do ok). I want Mirai to have a shot as well but it may not be her time yet. Czisny seems to be the sentimental fave of a lot of people but I guess I'm just not "feeling the love" for her at the moment. At least not with other, more consistent skaters around. ;)
 
I see the US ladies as:

1. Rachael
2. Ashley
(small gap)
Alissa
(large gap)
Mirai
(larger gap)
Caroline
(HUGE GAP)
Emily
Sasha
 
I see the US ladies as:

1. Rachael
2. Ashley
(small gap)
Alissa
(large gap)
Mirai
(larger gap)
Caroline
(HUGE GAP)
Emily
Sasha


I'm not sure of the size of the gaps but I think your order is about right. In reality though, each lady is competing against herself. All the ladies you've listed have/had the potential to be great, it's just a matter of whether or not they will skate to their potential at nationals when it really matters. The talent level of these ladies is high.
 
I wanted to really like Ashley's programs this year. I started to...but by the Grand Prix Final I still wasn't captivated. I feel like Ashley's too focused while she skates-- on each element, always in the moment. I have trouble enjoying her programs because she never seems to really skate with her heart/soul. I wouldn't be surprised if USFSA sent her to Vancouver but I'm waiting to be wowed by someone else.

I wasn't thrilled about Alissa being on the Worlds team last spring but I have a soft spot for senior skaters who have stuck around for a while. She's never gone to the Olympics before and I really hope she skates well and has a chance to this time around :)
 
I wanted to really like Ashley's programs this year. I started to...but by the Grand Prix Final I still wasn't captivated. I feel like Ashley's too focused while she skates-- on each element, always in the moment. I have trouble enjoying her programs because she never seems to really skate with her heart/soul. I wouldn't be surprised if USFSA sent her to Vancouver but I'm waiting to be wowed by someone else.

I don't think Ashley's that type of skater though. She never struck me as that type. In fact, I don't think any of the Americans currently do that...

I wasn't thrilled about Alissa being on the Worlds team last spring but I have a soft spot for senior skaters who have stuck around for a while. She's never gone to the Olympics before and I really hope she skates well and has a chance to this time around :)

But neither have her competitors (save Emily Hughes and Cohen IF she shows up) It's the biggest comp of her career alright. And she's going in as the reigning champ. Pressure's on, Alyssa- wow us :cool: ;)
 
I wanted to really like Ashley's programs this year. I started to...but by the Grand Prix Final I still wasn't captivated. I feel like Ashley's too focused while she skates-- on each element, always in the moment. I have trouble enjoying her programs because she never seems to really skate with her heart/soul. I wouldn't be surprised if USFSA sent her to Vancouver but I'm waiting to be wowed by someone else.

I have similar feelings about Ashley. I get the feeling she's rushing through the task of completing all her elements, not really finishing off each one all that well, and not really relating to the music. In the end, the performance is somehow less than the sum of its parts, and that's why Ashley doesn't get high PCS scores.

IMO, it's also the rushing that causes the URs.

Ashley was very lucky that Rochette and Leonova seriously bombed their FSs, or she would have been last in the GPF because of her low SP score.
 
I love Alissa and hope she nails all her jumps and goes to Vancouver, but this weekend when watching her on YouTube, I noticed that her upper body carriage is nothing special. That's one area where Sasha far exceeds her. Sasha's beautiful straight back and "connected" arm movements are superb.

In fact, I'm not sure if anyone right now in eligible American ladies excels in this element--I suspect Caroline and Mirai do, but I'll have to go back and look. Certainly Rachael doesn't. I was kind of taken by surprise about Alissa, actually. Her skills all tend toward the meticulous and the artistic, so I expected to see real balletic fluidity from neck to waist. But the placement and flow of her upper body is no more than ordinary, to my unpracticed eye. Does anyone have anything to say about this, either pro or con? I'm more than willing to be corrected on this!

(Besides Sasha, I think standouts include Michelle, Yuka Sato, and Dorothy Hamill--and of course the ballet-trained Caryn Cadavy. Now I'm going to look at all the current ladies and see if anything stands out in either direction for me. I'm fairly certain Asada would go on my "A+" list, but I suddenly can't envision her.)
 
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