- Joined
- Oct 8, 2015
^ I was thinking of you Rosa74.
Well, you said, "Who wants to go..." . I want to go. Time will tell.
Jason Brown
- Thread starter Tavi...
- Start date
Well, you said, "Who wants to go..." . I want to go. Time will tell.
My new place is not that far from Monument (45 mins?), so if the incredible weather holds and I can get off work early enough, I am planning to go, too!
Oh wait -- you moved? Well that's cool that you're in Coloraldo!
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2014
Yup, I got a promotion!
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
Congratulations on the promotion!
Congrats!
I hope you and Rosa74 are able to be in the room where it happens for the 7K send off and that you shower them with your inner love for figure skating. Meanwhile, the rest of us who live states and time zones away will have to be content with waving at them through our windows.
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2014
Congrats!
I hope you and Rosa74 are able to be in the room where it happens for the 7K send off and that you shower them with your inner love for figure skating. Meanwhile, the rest of us who live states and time zones away will have to be content with waving at them through our windows.
Ooh you are so clever, katmari - I considered making a pun on room where it happens, but completely forgot about waving!
Anyway, I was going to post this thought in the US men’s thread, but since it’s so Jason-centric, I thought it would be more appropriate here.
I’ve been trying to figure out why he's been relatively inconsistent this season, since last season (barring the injury) was so strong for him. I guess I just kind of expected him to pick up where he left off after WTT, and it keeps surprising me when he struggles. The obvious things are the two new and difficult programs (versus year 2 with Piano) and the fact that it’s an Olympic year. But beyond that? It just seemed odd until it occurred to me that in each of the past two seasons, he dealt with significant injuries, and as a result, had a single-minded focus, not unlike Adam’s this year: to recover and come back stronger and better than ever. And as awful as it was for him to have withdraw from Nats in 2015 and then struggle with the stress fracture the following year, recovering from the injuries gave him a compelling goal, and he had the luxury of time to train without distractions.
This year, thankfully, he’s healthy - but he got a late start because of Worlds and WTT. The FS wasn’t finished until mid-July - so he didn’t have much time to prepare for the season. Surprisingly to me, his SP was choreographed with two quads, and he put quads in both programs immediately. He didn’t do well with them, and his other jumps suffered, though he never looked nearly as bad as he did in his first few months with Piano (oh God, remember?). And then he had to make time for media days, interviews, and promotions, and he decided to create his new YouTube channel. Which meant creating content. So it kinda seems to me that all season long he’s been playing catch up, trying to master the programs and regain his focus, with a lot of competing demands on his time.
I think he’s actually made a lot of progress with both programs, to the point where people are actually saying they like the short program instead of saying that it was a mistake. And leaving aside the problem jumps, the FS actually looks beautiful. Do you realize that when he holds that showstopper spiral, it’s nearly twice as long as the one he did in Piano? But he has to recover his form on those jumps, and if he needs to abandon the quads at this point to get clean and beautiful programs, I hope he does so.
Anyway, I guess this is kinda a long winded way of saying that it may be a blessing in disguise that he didn’t make the GPF. It would be a great credit, no doubt. And I know that if Boyang drops out he may still go. But I wonder if perhaps he’d be better off focusing on training for his real goal - to perform lights out at Nats and make the Olympic team - and leave trying to make the GPF until next year.
I don’t know. What do you guys think?
The Skate Canada practice shows he can do the FS with all the jumps, including the 4T (well save that wretched 3Lo 
). The NHK Trophy issues was truly one of nerves, IMO.
I think all the constant layout changes is probably another source of inconsistency. He likely practices at about 3 different SP and FS layouts, based on what we've seen in summer competitions and during the GP. But in the long-term this might be a good move cause basically he can kind of improvise, as we saw in NHK Trophy FS -- I mean he even threw a combo he's never done in competition before -- and prevent any Zayaking and maximize points I bet if he pops the 4T or 4S into a 3T or a 3S (or worse case scenario, both) he actually practices a layout like this:
3T
3A
3S
--
3A-1L-3F
3Z-2T
3Lo
3Z-2T
2A
Which has the same number triples as his no-quad layout
3F
3A
2A
--
3A-3T
3Z-1L-3S
3Lo
3Z-2T
2A
Or what if he pops both jumps into doubles? That's like super worst case scenario, but it could look like this:
2T
3A
2S
--
3A-3T
3Z-1L-3S
3Lo
3Z-1L-3F
2A
Because he's been working on all these 1L-3S and 1L-3F combs, he basically has way more flexibility if he has problems with quads.
And to his credit, his improvs at NHK actually helped him to be a little bit closer to qualifying...even if it didn't work out.
This is much different than 2013-2014, when basically stuck to his layouts from the second-half of last season (with a few changes due to choreography). And last season, he basically did one quad in both programs all season until he got injured and they had to build his way up again.
This is very much reminiscent of the 2012-2013 season when he was incorporating the 3A. He was off the podium at JGPF, which was a major issue given that one of his main competitors at the time (Han Yan) wasn't even in JGPF and he had beaten pretty much the rest of the field at some point (including Josh, though Josh had been victorious in recent head-to-heads). Nobody expected Maxim Kovtun to breakout when he did and all the 3A issues did him and Ryuju Hino beat him. BUt then he went to Junior Worlds and won the FS with a record score that stuck around for nearly two seasons. Also he just doesn't peak in October/November, even when he's healthy.
The programs are harder, I agree. The amount of jumping in the Hamilton choreography is tiring--I mean, there's all these photos of him in mid air, and they're not of him doing actual jumps -- it's just choreography! The FS looks "easy" but there is a ton of multi-directional skating and not a lot of crossovers. He basically uses edges to get to one side of the rink to the other. There's also a variety of different transitions -- a lot to remember. While I think Adam Rippon has strong performance ability and beautiful positions (and good for him for being consistent on the jumps)-- there is not a whole lot going on in between the jumps. He does have transitions --but they're actually pretty similar. I think judges know the difference, hence the 89/90+ PCS. In spite of everything, Jason's still the top scorer in PCS and that was considering some major score increases for Adam at Skate America.
It's a bit of a long-game, which is kind of hard to do when there's a sense of urgency with the Olympic year -- hence all the repeating programs! But yes maybe not being at GPF -- if he doesn't end up there -- might be a hidden blessing to master everything.
(Side note: I also think he could battle the Shibs in a twizzle-off, LOL.)
). The NHK Trophy issues was truly one of nerves, IMO. I think all the constant layout changes is probably another source of inconsistency. He likely practices at about 3 different SP and FS layouts, based on what we've seen in summer competitions and during the GP. But in the long-term this might be a good move cause basically he can kind of improvise, as we saw in NHK Trophy FS -- I mean he even threw a combo he's never done in competition before -- and prevent any Zayaking and maximize points I bet if he pops the 4T or 4S into a 3T or a 3S (or worse case scenario, both) he actually practices a layout like this:
3T
3A
3S
--
3A-1L-3F
3Z-2T
3Lo
3Z-2T
2A
Which has the same number triples as his no-quad layout
3F
3A
2A
--
3A-3T
3Z-1L-3S
3Lo
3Z-2T
2A
Or what if he pops both jumps into doubles? That's like super worst case scenario, but it could look like this:
2T
3A
2S
--
3A-3T
3Z-1L-3S
3Lo
3Z-1L-3F
2A
Because he's been working on all these 1L-3S and 1L-3F combs, he basically has way more flexibility if he has problems with quads.
And to his credit, his improvs at NHK actually helped him to be a little bit closer to qualifying...even if it didn't work out.
This is much different than 2013-2014, when basically stuck to his layouts from the second-half of last season (with a few changes due to choreography). And last season, he basically did one quad in both programs all season until he got injured and they had to build his way up again.
This is very much reminiscent of the 2012-2013 season when he was incorporating the 3A. He was off the podium at JGPF, which was a major issue given that one of his main competitors at the time (Han Yan) wasn't even in JGPF and he had beaten pretty much the rest of the field at some point (including Josh, though Josh had been victorious in recent head-to-heads). Nobody expected Maxim Kovtun to breakout when he did and all the 3A issues did him and Ryuju Hino beat him. BUt then he went to Junior Worlds and won the FS with a record score that stuck around for nearly two seasons. Also he just doesn't peak in October/November, even when he's healthy.
The programs are harder, I agree. The amount of jumping in the Hamilton choreography is tiring--I mean, there's all these photos of him in mid air, and they're not of him doing actual jumps -- it's just choreography! The FS looks "easy" but there is a ton of multi-directional skating and not a lot of crossovers. He basically uses edges to get to one side of the rink to the other. There's also a variety of different transitions -- a lot to remember. While I think Adam Rippon has strong performance ability and beautiful positions (and good for him for being consistent on the jumps)-- there is not a whole lot going on in between the jumps. He does have transitions --but they're actually pretty similar. I think judges know the difference, hence the 89/90+ PCS. In spite of everything, Jason's still the top scorer in PCS and that was considering some major score increases for Adam at Skate America.
It's a bit of a long-game, which is kind of hard to do when there's a sense of urgency with the Olympic year -- hence all the repeating programs! But yes maybe not being at GPF -- if he doesn't end up there -- might be a hidden blessing to master everything.
(Side note: I also think he could battle the Shibs in a twizzle-off, LOL.)
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Somebody had to do it ... I just got there first.
I also think Jason not making the GPF is a mixed blessing. I kind of wish he was competing so he would have another shot at a clean performance in competition before nationals. On the other hand, nationals is so early this year I'm glad he doesn't have to make the trek to and from Japan right when he's in the final preparation stage.
The phrase I keep reading in other threads about skaters who are injured is better now than at the Olympics and I think the same holds true for Jason's nerves at NHK. He and his team have had time to think about what happened and come up with coping strategies for Jason to utilize at nationals.
I came across an interview Jason did at NHK that was posted today on twitter. The interview is in Japanese so here's a rough translation:
https://translate.google.com/transl...brown.html&edit-text=&act=url&act=url&act=url
There's also a small video of Jason thanking the fans and speaking about Hanyu's injury.
If one of our Japanese speaking members could refine the translation, it would be greatly appreciated.
- Joined
- May 20, 2015
USFS YouTube: 23 Questions with Jason Brown - https://youtu.be/x_W4PiI2Uo0.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2012
I definitely did not want Jason to go into GPF that way...but cannot help to feel excited for this opportunity. I hope he'll seize this chance to polish, build more his programs and raise the bar for himself execution-wise. Besides, those programs really deserve biggest stages and most important competitions
It was already going to be an usual final without Yuzuru, Javier and Patrick and now Boyang. Hopefully the time off will give Boyang the opportunity to heal and he'll be back at full strength for the Olympics.
This is an opportunity for Jason to skate a clean performance before nationals and I wish him all the best.
This is an opportunity for Jason to skate a clean performance before nationals and I wish him all the best.
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2014
I am really, really sorry for Boyang - he has worked so hard, and he made a heroic effort at Skate America. I’m glad for Jason because I know he’ll be thrilled. Here’s hoping he’s able to take advantage of the opportunity - it would be really nice if he were able to break his string of subpar performances in Japan and use the momentum well!
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2004
Happy for Jason and I know his fans in Japan will be thrilled!
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2012
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2004
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2014
I awoke to this news... so i wonder... did Jason get told last night with the "but the press release is not coming out till 3 am your time... so go to bed and don't tell anyone" or does he get to wake up to the news... I got to freak my better half out with the news... I made a noise that made my better half think something happened to the cats! It does make you wonder what is going on behind the curtains... i am waiting for Jason's tweet of acknowledgement.
I don't like it having to happen this way, but i am happy to see Jason in the finals.
Edit: But i guess my GPF finals are borked now... the condition must continue!
I don't like it having to happen this way, but i am happy to see Jason in the finals.
Edit: But i guess my GPF finals are borked now... the condition must continue!
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2014
So sorry Boyang is injured, but thrilled for Jason. I'm sure in his mind he knew he had to be ready "just in case". I can only imagine how thrilled his Japanese fans are. So happy to have a chance to see those wonderful programs one more time before Nats!
