Jenny Kirk is blogging again!

[leafygreens]

From a non-expert's perspective, I thought that she was not undermarked. To me she had a juniorish quality and very little height on her jumps (similar to Lipinski). Here is a program where Peter Caruthers thought she was undermarked (he complains about a judge giving her 4.9 for RE, and the US judges gives her a 5.0):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhT9uQT6j90

If Jenny lost because she had juniorish jumps, then why did Tara win for having juniorish jumps?

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

If Jenny lost because she had juniorish jumps, then why did Tara win for having juniorish jumps?

You tell me...

 

[Olympia]

I was in the elevator at work one day and some woman I don't know started talking about her daughter and how she was in competitive sports. Apparently the daughter isn't great at it and the mother said that she keeps telling her every time, you just have to be more aggressive! Be aggressive! Be aggressive! Obviously, I don't know exactly how it is at her house but it raised some bells for me. I thought, ugh, that poor girl. She probably isn't naturally athletic and does the best she can.

I remember growing up studying ballet and feeling the way Jenni did all the time, although I never had anorexia or anything (I knew I would never be a professional bdancer and even though it was a bummer at least I kept my head screwed on) but at least my mom never cared whether I was no. 1. She just encouraged me to have fun and reminded me that I was getting a lot of out of it even if I wasn't perfet. I do remember one thing with my Dad: I came home one day after my very first audition and I was so pleased that I was cast as an understudy. That was really good for me. I didn't expect to get anything and it was a good first step. And my dad said oh, you should tell Mrs. so and so to give you the lead. It was just my dad being clueless but it stuck with me because of course, I was so happy at the prospect of getting to go to rehearsals for this beautiful ballet and everything and he deflated me. So I can sort of begin to relate to Jenni even though it's not really on the same scale. I had a similar personality growing up, wanting to please my parents, teachers, ballet instructors, etc.

I completely understand. Your father probably didn't even realize that he was hitting you where it hurt. Did you get to do all the rehearsals and so forth? That must have been such a delight. What was the ballet?

My mom was like yours, wonderful about whatever I managed to do, and she never made me feel bad. (And believe me, she had plenty of chances in terms of sports! I combined klutziness and cowardice in the worst possible proportions. She had been on her college fencing team.) But my oldest aunt (sort of the head of the family) once said to me that there was no point in my wanting to be an artist unless I could be the best there was. I know she loved me, and I loved her, but thank God she was childless. No clue at all! I don't think that adult family members always realize the way kids are treated by coaches, ballet teachers, and so on. That show Dance Moms really gives me hives. And it's worst with girls, I think, because so many of us seem to be wired to finish the job on ourselves that these people start.

 

[gkelly]

I really would like an expert skater or long time watcher/expert tolook at Jenny and see if she was undermarked at any performances. It seemed to me she was.

It's really impossible to answer that question because it's so subjective.

Expert A might think Jenny was great at X, X is a very important skill, so Jenny should have been rewarded for her great X with higher scores.

Expert B might agree that yes, Jenny was great at X, but she was pretty weak at Y, and in Expert B's opinion Y is much more important than X, so low scores were appropriate.

From a non-expert's perspective, I thought that she was not undermarked. To me she had a juniorish quality and very little height on her jumps (similar to Lipinski). Here is a program where Peter Caruthers thought she was undermarked (he complains about a judge giving her 4.9 for RE, and the US judges gives her a 5.0):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhT9uQT6j90

If Jenny lost because she had juniorish jumps, then why did Tara win for having juniorish jumps?

In my personal opinion, the size of the jumps is less significant than the run of the blade and the quality of the edges, both into and out of the jumps and throughout the whole program. I think there was a big difference in that area between those two skaters in that area, especially comparing them each at age 15.

Kirk continued to compete and mature into her early 20s, so the basic skating wasn't always as much of a weakness for her as it was at the beginning of her career, and she also developed her performance skills significantly -- the Chicago SP was a masterpiece.