Caroline Zhang's 2009-10 season

[LeCygne]

Wow, that was a very good SP from Caroline. Much improved from Golden West - better speed, better landings, better spins as well. And I love her dress! Gorgeous red detailing.. I also think she was pretty undermarked here, but oh well. The only reason I can think of that Alexe scored higher is that her solo jump was a flip while Caroline's was a loop. And Alexe did 3lutz-2toe I think? Ehhh..

But overall, I thought Caroline did great. I hope she has an awesome long tomorrow, and she can only better as her injury heals.

 

[feraina]

Caroline skated a lot better here than at GW. I also thought she paid more attention to choreographic details than she did before. I think this program has the potential of being co-best with the Spanish Guitar piece she did before. Her spins were a lot faster here, which helped to move the program along, and the fast spins fit the musical ending. But I think she slightly lost balance out of the I spin (I love the final tight position, and how she actually gained speed), and then lost some speed and choreography before going into the final spin.

At least she lost to Alexe on TES and not PCS. The 1 point is easily explained by the fact that Alexe had 3Z and she had 3R, isn't that 1 point difference in base value? I thought maybe her COE spiral's second half wasn't held long enough, which might've made her spiral seq only level 1.

I think the footwork section of this program is what makes it look slow. The little pauses and flourishes are beautiful and musical, but really slow her her down. I wish she could skate through them with her legs while using only her arms and upperbody to mark the phrases. I don't think she has the power to stop and start so many times...

Well, good luck tomorrow, and I hope she gets more sleep tonight!

 

[Andalusia]

It's been confirmed that Caroline received a Level 2 on her footwork and a Level 3 on her spiral sequence. None of her jumps were downgraded. How many points would she have made up for if she had gotten a Level 3 and 4 on these respective elements like she can?

I don't know if it has been posted or not, but her SP is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAoVDLKHuL8

Overall, I thought she looked pretty sharp for this early in the season, and I was honestly expecting her to look close to terrible. The jumps looked the same as she's always done them, but she was noticeably faster from the start and she really attacked the programme. I also noticed that she's paying more attention to her extension in her spirals and I-spin - there was a time when she seemed to be slacking a bit on those fronts.

 

[feraina]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAoVDLKHuL8

Thanks for posting that. It's much better quality than the fuzzy version I saw. How did you find out her levels?

I was worried about her footwork. Not only did it lack speed/power, but I couldn't make out its shape for a while. It had to be circular, but it really didn't start out looking that way, I was confused. Maybe she got docked GOE for that.

Her PCS generally goes up through the season. It happens to be exactly the same as what she had at TEB last year, her second GP. I think 24.96 might the highest PCS she's gotten so far on her first ISU event of the season, and it mainly came on the strength of PE, CH, and IN, and rightly so. I hope she takes heart in that. Maybe she was disappointed with her score because she has worked hard on the PCS part and was hoping for a more visible improvement. Well, if she skates a clean LP, it will for sure go up. None of the skaters ahead of her, excepting Yu-na are as consistent of LP skaters as herself, especially Alexe, whose PB is only 87.36. So Caroline has a good chance of climbing up a spot or two if she can nail her six triples.

Go Caroline!

 

[Tinymavy15]

I thought Caroline looked fantastic. I different girl than what showed up at Golden West. Her jumps have a lot more height and at no point did I cringe and say "how slow" as I did at GW. She looks past, powerful and sold the chreo.

 

[Alicja]

I think Caroline has improved a lot on facial expression for this particular program, it still looks a little forced but I believe it'll come to her more naturally as the season goes on. I agree that she no longer looks as slow as she did before(as far as I can tell from Youtube), the only part of this program that shows that she's a quite slow skater is her step sequence which could definitely use more power. But other than that I think Caroline is on her way to programs that suit the young lady she is now.

 

[cornell08]

Dear LORD haven't we seen this dress about a million times before?

 

[Tinymavy15]

Dear LORD haven't we seen this dress about a million times before?

Have we? I think it is perfect for the music, just what I had in mind.

 

[cornell08]

LP dress I mean....almost exactly like her 2007-2008 dress.

 

[harmy18]

Have we? I think it is perfect for the music, just what I had in mind.

me 2:agree:

besides the low height and speed of her jumps, I find nothing to criticize, everthing sounds well on her, except the marks

 

[LeCygne]

Yeah, I'm pretty disappointed in that LP dress after the gorgeous SP one... But she skated well, so that's what matters. I guess her score was low because of the stepout and 2 downgrades... What did she score last year at TEB? Any downgrades there (besides 3-3)?

 

[cornell08]

Yeah I'm curious what the downgrades are.

Actually, I find that when I watch her compete live-streaming/on tv I get nervous for her so it seems like she's skating faster. When I rewatched her SP on youtube, I found her to be much slower and not as improved as I initially thought. Her long program had some nice moments (better footwork than the SP at least) but I really wished she'd reverse the spirals she's got for the Long and SP. The forward Charlotte fits much better in the Nutcracker program...though I still feel that her forward charlotte is not vertical enough, especially with her left arm out at an awkward angle which kind of ruins the line.

I enjoyed the free skate but I had a bad feeling she might fall on the flip (the same place she stumbled at GW)....patterns unnerve me. When the same fall/stumble/stepout happens more than once in a season...course, its early still so hopefully it'll get there.

I agree that dress is not that important, but having the same dress over and over suggests something static that I think is the last thing she needs right now.

Also, Carolina and Yukari beat her in the long program with a ton of mistakes but with better skating skills so I don't even know what Caroline can do at this point....consistency or go back to basics?

 

[herro]

I wish Caroline could somehow just go back to very basics. I mean, not much she can do this season for her basic jumping technique, but just for her future career after this Olympic season, I hope she goes back to rework her technique. I just don't think that her "mule-kick" jumping style will get her far. Her speed just has to improve also. I think for the long run, going back for a season and really trying to fix these techniques may save her career.

 

[krenseby]

I wish Caroline could somehow just go back to very basics. I mean, not much she can do this season for her basic jumping technique, but just for her future career after this Olympic season, I hope she goes back to rework her technique. I just don't think that her "mule-kick" jumping style will get her far. Her speed just has to improve also. I think for the long run, going back for a season and really trying to fix these techniques may save her career.

Can you help me here and specify what basics need to be worked on? Because the speed isn't her only issue. There are others. What are the top three things other than speed that she needs to work on?

 

[herro]

Can you help me here and specify what basics need to be worked on? Because the speed isn't her only issue. There are others. What are the top three things other than speed that she needs to work on?

Hey krenseby,

There are others, but for me the two things that she could work on are speed and her jumps. I was mainly referring to those when I said "basics" (sorry if I made it seem like she has no foundations or anything like that - she's talented for sure!). I first thought only her toe jump techniques were off, but even on her edge jumps she twists her body too much in an effort to complete her rotations.

I feel that once she improves in those aspects, her skating will become much more sophisticated and mature.

 

[fairly4]

i am tired of you people making excuses for the judging.

mao ur get high pc, yukari doesn't have greatest technqique get high pc.
kostner flubs gets high pc--the gilles and us junior skater get high pc, not because of caroline --because the USFSA told the international judging community they didn't want her up ther and she has to skate perfect to get the scores and pcs like michelle--they don't want the benefit of doubt given to caroline zhang--why-
they are arrogant--usfsa-they don't want to be told they are wrong, discrimnatory and anything else that is bad--they are right no one but them is right.
they won't listen to anyone else
the international community is wrong and arrogant as well, they don't want to be human and public declare they make mistakes and are discrmintatory agasaint chinese americans
sorry for the rant-=
but this proves me right and how they debelireately look for downgrades for caroline zhang aned overlook yu-na ur, and didn't downgrade the pcs scores for othre skaters as well as alexe gilles.
the us has something to prove to the media and public.
they don't want to know what is really going on--they (usfsa )has to save face

 

[krenseby]

Hey krenseby,

There are others, but for me the two things that she could work on are speed and her jumps. I was mainly referring to those when I said "basics" (sorry if I made it seem like she has no foundations or anything like that - she's talented for sure!). I first thought only her toe jump techniques were off, but even on her edge jumps she twists her body too much in an effort to complete her rotations.

I feel that once she improves in those aspects, her skating will become much more sophisticated and mature.

I also think she has to improve her footwork and choreography. I honestly feel that both her music and choreography are very monotonous compared to some of the other ladies. The music needs to have more contrast and her movements need to be more detailed, more complete. I honestly think she even had a lot more detailed choreography in Ave Maria and when she skated it well at 4CC, her scores showed it.

 

[evangeline]

I'm all for Caroline getting rid of the mule kick and other technical deficiencies, but part of me wonders if it is too late--sort of like it's probably too late for Yukari to fix her leg wrap?

I guess an option would be to take an entire season off competition and completely work her technique from scratch, but is the cost too high? Is it even possible?

 

[oleada]

She got negative GOE for all her jumps. Which, was, frankly, not unfair. Her skating was also very slow and the program was underwhelming. Additionally, Caroline didn't interpret the music at all - she just skated on with the same expression on her face. Frankly, it was a boring program, that while clean, was not done with high qualify aside from the spins.

What the judges are telling Caroline, IMO, is to fix her jumps, increase her speed and develop a connection the music, or she'll never reach the very top of the sport.

 

[lakeshore]

Frankly I think Caroline Zhang has exhausted her potential & talent. Every amateur pundit seems to suggest you can just 'fix' things so fundamental such as jumps, speed and basic skating skills. I really doubt so.

Her jumps have no height. It is what it is. It's not like she didn't try to jump high. She can try another coach, but I doubt it can make much difference.

Kostern is still a hot mess after switching to the legendary coach, Frank.