Jason Brown

[Bookseller]

I have a slightly different take. Jason can be a great competitor when it counts, but although he gave a brilliant performance of Riverdance, I don’t think he was expecting to win or make the team; in fact, as I recall, he was quite shocked at his score and placement. The only time I’ve ever seen him look pissed that he didn’t win - and he hid it quite quickly- was at JWC in 2013, when he won the FS but lost to Josh overall.

I think for a long time he just lived in a beautiful bubble where he skated because he loved it; when he started succeeding at the senior level, the bubble burst, he was compared with others, and of course, the quad is part of it. But I don’t think it’s quite everything. When you win, someone else loses. As one of three close knit siblings - the middle child, no less - that may be hard for him to negotiate, and it may be one thing holding him back with the quad. Totally speculation on my part, and very possibly totally wrong.

It's an interesting view of him and you may be right. Brian hit the nail on the head when he said he's too nice. He needs more of a warrior mentality, which his friend Zhenya has in large quantity. Not sure Javi had it either, but Brian got him focused. I don't think the warrior mentality ever fit Javi as well as Yuzu, but he got enough of it to win competitions on a regular basis. Hopefully Jason will be able to make that leap. His career has been pretty amazing so far, but I agree that he needs to go that extra step. And I think Brian and Tracy are good at showing skaters how to fight on the ice, and still be nice in the rest of their lives. As long as he doesn't fight himself on the ice, which is what I think has been happening with the quad, he may be able to negotiate that.

I did see him become more of a fighter after the 2014 Olympics, but that injury in 2016 stopped the trajectory. I think he changed after that. He's a different skater now, and hopefully will master the competitive mentality that he needs to move forward from here. He certainly doesn't live in the bubble anymore. Not making the 2018 Olympic team was a major wake up call. It was really his first major failure and he learned from it. But he has to get over whatever is blocking him from landing his quad in competition. That is why this is a very important year for Jason. It's Leap Year!

 

[Bookseller]

Jason fans can channel their fav, and be open to talking about everyone in the men's GP with love and respect Although not as much as we love our boy

I'm liking the Jason at CoC narrative. I do think Jason will do SA, since Nathan and Vincent cannot be at the same event. I would naturally have thought Nathan at NHK, but quite right to point out that Yuzu is a lock, so no Nathan there. Maybe Nathan and/or Jason would want to do SA and SC, a la Hubbell/Donoghue, just get it over with .... just a thought? :think:

And there are way too many skaters at TCC for Brian and Tracy to line them all up, Jason may just end up as a solo with Tracy somewhere.

I'm cool with that

And back to just Jason, can the water in Slovenia really be that green? It is gorgeous

I have a friend who lived in Slovenia for a few years. it is exactly that beautiful. But ultimately, it was too different for her to remain there and she came back to the US. But the country is gorgeous!

Nathan could choose to request a back to back with SCI. It makes sense for him in a lot of ways. Nathan has a break anyway for SA. But October 25th is on the Yale calendar as Midterm. So it would depend on whether that means a study break or exams. If it's exams he won't do SCI. If exams are over, that would be a perfect comp for him. As for Jason, they will probably push for at least one later GP, based on his performance last year. I don't know if GPF is a goal for Jason this year, but World's will be and Nationals, of course. So he'll want to medal in at least one GP if he can and he'll be trying for two, even if they are both bronze. I don't think those early back to back GPs worked well for H&D last year. I felt like they lost their winning trajectory. But I don't think it would be a problem for Nathan. As World's showed, a few days with Rafa gets him back into top competitive form and he's very self motivated at school. Ultimately, I don't know how much input coaches get, or federations, but I would think that some coaches do get a lot and some Feds also get a lot. I think Nathan can get whatever comps he prefers, and he will definitely be doing SA.

 

[Bookseller]

For what it's worth the past initial SKAM picks (TBD)
2018: Nathan, Vincent (3rd) (Jimmy Ma)
2017: Nathan, Adam (1st in 2016) (Ross Miner)
2016: Adam, Jason (1st in 2015) (Tim Dolensky)
2015: Jason, Max (4th) (Ross Miner)
2014: Jeremy, Jason (2nd) ( Douglas Razzano)
2013: Max, Adam (5th; 2nd in 2012) (Jason -- who ended up being a last minute sub for Evan Lysacek, who WD)
2012: Jeremy, Armin (4th) (sub for Evan Lysacek), (Douglas Razzano)
2011: Richard (2nd), Armin (6th) , (Douglas Razzano)

National champ has pretty much gone to SKAM since forever. 2011 was the notable exception because Ryan Bradley retried, so Richard, the 2011 nationals silver medalist )was the defacto pick. The second pick is generally someone who was within the top 4 within the last two but it's not a hard core pick strategy.

So I'd said the SKAM No. 2 pick would be a tossup between Jason and Tomoki. Generally the TBD pick is someone that is within the bottom half of the top 10.

Jason was surprised not to get SA in 2017, but he's now been at SCI for two years. There is a high probability that he'll get one or the other, but Nathan is enough of a draw at SA and I wouldn't be surprised to see Shoma there. He's been doing SCI for the past two years also, but like Jason, he did SA before that. If Jason does either SA or SCI, I do see a strong possibility of his being sent to China. I need to look at who is in the pool and make some predictions, most of which will probably be wrong!

 

[Arriba627]

I feel tremendously fortunate that I saw Jason at the last 2 Sk Can, and the previous 3 Sk Amer. I really hope he'll get one of those events again this year! I NEED to see that Schindler's List arabesque spiral that was in that video clip in person! Wow, just Wow!

 

[MGstyle]

Jason fans can channel their fav, and be open to talking about everyone in the men's GP with love and respect Although not as much as we love our boy

I'm liking the Jason at CoC narrative. I do think Jason will do SA, since Nathan and Vincent cannot be at the same event. I would naturally have thought Nathan at NHK, but quite right to point out that Yuzu is a lock, so no Nathan there. Maybe Nathan and/or Jason would want to do SA and SC, a la Hubbell/Donoghue, just get it over with .... just a thought? :think:

And there are way too many skaters at TCC for Brian and Tracy to line them all up, Jason may just end up as a solo with Tracy somewhere.

I'm cool with that

And back to just Jason, can the water in Slovenia really be that green? It is gorgeous

I am also getting the feeling that he is likely to get CoC... praying I am wrong!!! And YES about the water of Slovenian Alps. Seen it in person! It's gorgeous and making me seriously want to go back there for another holiday!


And well... there is always gambling on GPF in Turin!!! We as fans must think positive! Aside from Yuzu and Nathan, others do fall victim to inconsistency occasionally, so IMO it's more open than it seems. Heck I might take a chance on it, in case of a worst scenario I am sure it won't be hard to resell the ticket

 

[Tavi...]

For what it's worth the past initial SKAM picks (TBD)
2018: Nathan, Vincent (3rd) (Jimmy Ma)
2017: Nathan, Adam (1st in 2016) (Ross Miner)
2016: Adam, Jason (1st in 2015) (Tim Dolensky)
2015: Jason, Max (4th) (Ross Miner)
2014: Jeremy, Jason (2nd) ( Douglas Razzano)
2013: Max, Adam (5th; 2nd in 2012) (Jason -- who ended up being a last minute sub for Evan Lysacek, who WD)
2012: Jeremy, Armin (4th) (sub for Evan Lysacek), (Douglas Razzano)
2011: Richard (2nd), Armin (6th) , (Douglas Razzano)

National champ has pretty much gone to SKAM since forever. 2011 was the notable exception because Ryan Bradley retried, so Richard, the 2011 nationals silver medalist )was the defacto pick. The second pick is generally someone who was within the top 4 within the last two but it's not a hard core pick strategy.

So I'd said the SKAM No. 2 pick would be a tossup between Jason and Tomoki. Generally the TBD pick is someone that is within the bottom half of the top 10.

There are two kind of interesting things about that list: (1) several times, they reserved places for guys who hadn’t competed at the prior Nats (Evan twice, Jason and Adam once); and (2) how many of the names repeat. There are an awful lot of guys who placed in the top 10 at Nats between 2011 and 2018 who’ve never gone to SA.

Frankly, I think a lot of it is down to who they want to promote. Adam went to SA 5 times over the course of his career. Jason has been 4 times so far, and Nathan 3 times. But Armin and Doug went 3 times and Jeremy and Max only went twice. Josh never went, nor did Alex Johnson. I’m sure some of that is down to people getting two assignments on their own. Some of it’s also likely strategy - giving certain guys the opportunity to make a run at the GPF and not bunching too many of their top skaters together. In other cases, it’s not really clear what the reasoning was behind their choices.

 

[Zaki]

If Nathan goes to SA I hope Jason won't end up to skate there. Instead I'd prefer him to compete at the same GPs as Yuzu.

 

[Tavi...]

If Nathan goes to SA I hope Jason won't end up to skate there. Instead I'd prefer him to compete at the same GPs as Yuzu.

Unfortunately if Yuzuru is assigned to a competition, it’s usually quite difficult to get tickets. It will be doubly difficult if he’s assigned to NHK or Skate Canada because there is a lot of demand for tickets in those places regardless of who skates.

 

[Zaki]

Unfortunately if Yuzuru is assigned to a competition, it’s usually quite difficult to get tickets. It will be doubly difficult if he’s assigned to NHK or Skate Canada because there is a lot of demand for tickets in those places regardless of who skates.

Thinking ticket-wise it would be better to have him competing at the same GP as Vince even if I'm still a bit annoyed from US Nats scores. For my personal interest I would be more than happy to see him assigned to the GP of France so that I'll be able to go see him if he won't make it for the Final in Italy but I'm quite sure I'll buy the tickets in any case.

 

[Tavi...]

Thinking ticket-wise it would be better to have him competing at the same GP as Vince even if I'm still a bit annoyed from US Nats scores. For my personal interest I would be more than happy to see him assigned to the GP of France so that I'll be able to go see him if he won't make it for the Final in Italy but I'm quite sure I'll buy the tickets in any case.

Well we should know the GP assignments sometime in June. I think I heard GPF tickets go on sale this month.

I’d love to go to Grenoble or Torino, but not sure about this year.

 

[Bookseller]

Unfortunately if Yuzuru is assigned to a competition, it’s usually quite difficult to get tickets. It will be doubly difficult if he’s assigned to NHK or Skate Canada because there is a lot of demand for tickets in those places regardless of who skates.

Last year everyone assumed that Yuzu would be at SCI and the good tickets sold out immediately. Then when he was assigned to Finland, a whole lot of really good SCI seats became available on the secondary market. The same thing might happen this year, but this year he is certain to get NHK. There were empty seats for many of the disciplines at SCI last year. If Yuzu is skating SCI, there will be no empty seats for Men.

 

[el henry]

Ok, so now I'll go from the GP to the trivial

One year's time: From sitting on a rock in the desert looking pensive to standing on a rock in the mountains looking happy.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxiRbK9HSPl/

Coincidence?

 

[Bookseller]

Ok, so now I'll go from the GP to the trivial

One year's time: From sitting on a rock in the desert looking pensive to standing on a rock in the mountains looking happy.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxiRbK9HSPl/

Coincidence?

Nope. Not coincidence. Jason likes rocks and mountains and I think he recharges himself in that environment. Last year he had to make a huge decision and actually make it happen. This year, he is celebrating the success of that. Next year I hope we see him radiating confidence and determination! The goal is before him.

 

[Ross74]

No posts for a week? :shocked:

Since it appears Jason has left Italy from his latest Story, let's hope his next post shows him working with Rohene!

Another sarcastic Twitter quip from Grant regarding Jason's Rome photos. https://twitter.com/Grant_Hochstein/status/1131311384837349376

Living the Catholic life. I’m so proud of you. #blessed

 

[Bookseller]

So far no dance videos! I expect that he's headed back to work on his training and choreo before he heads back to China with Brian and Tracy. That certainly looked like a really wonderful trip.

 

[Mrs. P]

I really am glad he got some time to relax and spend time with his siblings and Emily! I am eager for news on the SP and his gp assignments, which should come next month!

 

[Ross74]

So far no dance videos! I expect that he's headed back to work on his training and choreo before he heads back to China with Brian and Tracy. That certainly looked like a really wonderful trip.

I may have posted too soon. Emily's latest story is still from Positano, the same as yesterday. I definitely know not to trust Jason's timelines, but I thought this one be might accurate. I'm just anxious to see him back at TCC.

 

[Bookseller]

I may have posted too soon. Emily's latest story is still from Positano, the same as yesterday. I definitely know not to trust Jason's timelines, but I thought this one be might accurate. I'm just anxious to see him back at TCC.

He initially said 3 days in Rome. His first post was two days ago. Today might be his last day in Italy.

 

[el henry]

Holy cow, hasn't Jason been to Rome before? He's definitely doing the "every tourist attraction I can hit in the shortest amount of time" tour.

And I sure hope Emily at least is staying longer than 72 hours if she took the time to head to Positano (close to spousal unit's boyhood stomping grounds. Imagine having an apartment in Naples *on* the Gulf of Naples. Like with a beach. Seeing Capri from your bedroom window. Quite the life )

Back to TCC, Jason, and hopefully to some quality time with Rohene

 

[el henry]

And Jason is in greater Napoli as well, with the latest photos from Pompeii.

TCC, Jason, TCC