Thank God Evgenia managed to get a medal. I’m so proud of her and… relieved!!! It is still possible for her to make it to the GPF, although we must be prepared in case it doesn’t happen, because she will be facing a tough field in France. However I think that if she had to miss the GPF in this new cycle this will be the best year to do so because I think she could still make it to the world team (Pogorilaya in Evgenia’s first senior season didn’t make it to the GPF and she still won a world medal that season) . The following years would be tougher though, with all the juniors coming up, but that’s another story. Besides not making the GPF will give her more time to prepare for Russsian Nationals. Don’t get me wrong, I want her to qualify for the GPF, but I’m just trying to be positive in case that doesn’t happen.
I really like Zhenya’s new hairstyle and the fs dress. I like the colour of the sp dress but I’m not convinced about the shape of it.
Talking about the programs, I think the problem with the combination in the short happened because lack of concentration, as Evgenia explained. I think she still isn’t used to that kind of ‘extrovertive non-dramatic program’ and that might have caused her to be less focused. I still think that having the combo backloaded is a good strategy (unless she upgrades it to 3F3Lo), at least for this season (because this is the year to make mistakes!). Still, if she decides to change it to the first half, I would totally understand her.
About the fs, it was much better here than at ACI. She obviosuly needs to practice more her spins and needs more stamina not to underrotate her 3Lo, and, of course, just one Lutz, although the fact that they came here with 3 Lutzes makes me think that in practices they are making great progress with the edge.
So for IdF I think that they’ll go back to the ACI layout. Although I don’t know if it would be better to put the 3S as the last jump so she doesn’t get a 3Lo< if it’s just a problem of lacking strength at the end. I was thinking about a layout like this:
3Lz, 2A3Lo, 3F, 2A/ 3F3T, 3Lo2T2T, 3S.
Now, Evgenia has received a lot of criticism about everything, but the one that I can’t stand is that the style of the programs don’t fit her. I mean, come on, she has been doing the same imposed style for five years (I’m not criticising her older team for doing so, no one can deny that it really fit her and allowed her to win A LOT of competitions) but she needs the chance to explore other styles and choose the one she likes. Of course at the beginning it’s going to be difficult for her to get used to them but that’s normal SHE NEEDS TIME, and experimenting with new styles can only help her grow as a performer, and if in the end she finds that her former style was the best then she can always call Averbukh.
Last, I’ve searched on wikipedia Yuna Kim’s competitive highlights and I found that she was third in Canada in the first year of the Olympic cycle (it was also her first year as a senior). Now, I don’t know if she was coached by Orser back then and I’m not trying to compare Evgenia to Yuna. But we can learn a thing from Yuna's competitive record: NEVER GO BACK TO SKATE CANADA!