Is It Time To Deemphasize the Quad?

[Ladskater]

A recent topic here about the judging system got me thinking about the importance of the Quad jump in the men's discipline. I watched as talented skater after talented skater was subdued by the elusive quad. So many great male skaters are sacrificing other elelments of their programs to land a quad. In fact, I believe the quad even caused Patrick Chan to deliver a flawed long program because he was so focused on landing the quad at the beginning of his program. Even Keven Reynolds, Canada's new "Quad King" struggled in his long program with some of his jumps other than the quad. It always strikes me odd that so many male skaters can pull off two or three quads and yet can't get the triple axel under their belts consistently. Brian Orser could do a triple axel in his sleep. Perhaps it is time the Quad jump becomes less important and quality skating becomes more important. I would rather watch a really talented skater do triple and double jumps and deliver a near flawless if not flawless performance over an extra rotation. Just thnking!!

 

[blue_idealist]

Umm.. no.. the quad was just re-emphasized after Evan Lysacek won the OGM without a quad. They made it count for MORE in the scoring after that, so they would not go back to making it less, at least not right away.

 

[Bluebonnet]

No. Never.

 

[Puchi]

No.

 

[brightphoton]

But then men's figure skating would just be ladies' figure skating, except with boring spins.

 

[gmyers]

You can't deemphasize the quad. You eliminate it from most men's programs. Most will not even do them if the penalty is too harsh or values of other things are raised.

 

[Rachmaninoff]

Umm.. no.. the quad was just re-emphasized after Evan Lysacek won the OGM without a quad. They made it count for MORE in the scoring after that, so they would not go back to making it less, at least not right away.

Yeah, just what I was thinking. It was valued less initially, and people weren't happy with that either and were complaining the men's technical content was regressing. Can't win, I guess.

 

[karne]

No, the quad doesn't need to be de-emphasised, the blokes need to get off their butts and start landing it.

Plushenko was landing them at 14 years old. And he's still landing them. Evidently there's something wrong with the Western style of teaching jump technique or something.

 

[spikydurian]

Yes, so that skaters who are deemed very artistic but cannot do quads and still win.

 

[merrywidow]

Judging in skating goes in cycles, a few years when the jumps are deemed more important & when the level is raised with the top 10 or 12 men it will swing back to artistry & style. By the time 2018 rolls around it should swing back to artistry & will be great for someone like Jason Brown!

 

[plushyfan]

Yes, so that skaters who are deemed very artistic but cannot do quads and still win.

They go to the shows! This is a competitive sport! That will be the death of male FS! no risk, no competition, very nice slipping

 

[silverlake22]

De-emphasized, yes, but not to the point where no one is trying it a la 2010. I do think we'll see a shift from virtually everyone trying it in the SP and 2 or 3 in the FS to maybe half the guys going for it in the SP and most going for 1, and maybe a handful for 2, in the FS. If the men keep pushing for all these quads messy skates and splatfests are going to become the norm and no one wants that.

 

[plushyfan]

And look at the guys! They are very proud of their quads!

 

[sweetskates1]

No, I am sure younger skaters are already working on the quints...

 

[Krislite]

No. Mistakes, on the other hand, should be correctly penalized. The system rewards quads just fine.

 

[ks777]

NO!! But we should get rid of GOE. The judges are giving out GOE(+3) to their favorites like candies. That's what's wrong with the system.

 

[CarneAsada]

NO!! But we should get rid of GOE. The judges are giving out GOE(+3) to their favorites like candies. That's what's wrong with the system.

Yes, positive GOE should be a 1/2 not a 1/2/3 scale. Good jumps get a +1, great jumps get a +2. That makes it much harder to prop up somebody like Chan. Negative GOE should probably stay the same, though.

 

[spikydurian]

Since the majority are complaining about winning with falls, easy-peasy ...... just raise jump points by 25% and falls to 0 so all who landed quads will be duly rewarded and those who fall will be duly punished.:yay:

Go Kevin go, go Max go, go Plushenko (alias bionic man) go, go Joubert go ...

 

[fairly4]

emphasize of not,i just know that it messes up whole program when can't land by either falling or not being able to land so-called easy jumps like triokes. It messes up the timing of next jump by landing quad, triple. It totally messes up whole program when falls on quad including "artistry".

 

[karne]

It's amazing to think that back in Salt Lake City, you had to have at least three quads to be competitive (one in the short, two in the long). And two falls would have killed you. Somehow they were able to punish falls, and yet the guys were still going for the big jumps.