- Joined
- Nov 19, 2010
Katarina Witt wonders where the emotion has gone
Perfect for the favorite debate of figure skating fans.
Perfect for the favorite debate of figure skating fans.
I don't think I'm dead, and I didn't like either of D/W's Olympic programs, the FD especially. Manic running around with difficult but unattractive lifts - neither emotional nor artistic, from my couch. The OD was nice, but I'd have liked it better for some other team. I have some ideas which ones... I did, however, find both of V/M's programs exceptional, and remain a big fan of F/S's programs from that season as well.I can see KW's point and she is not the first to say this. Who wouldnt like to see a great spiral held a bit longer? Yes, something was lost but much was gained under the new system. Not knowing anything, I would hope the system could be tweaked to reflect more emotional, artistic programs. Maybe even a third mark, although the judges are overloaded already. I think ice dance has lost the least in the new scoring system....look at D/W's two Olympic programs...if they werent artistic and/or emotional then you are dead. On the other hand, I dont want to see a mens skater go out there at Sochi, skate from quad jump to Quad jump to evavator music, and win the gold.
I agree with Russell's first paragraph, but not the second. It isnt all about the long program....In fact, while I dont want to ever see figures again, I would be very interested in seeing two shorts and one long for seniors.
Maybe one of those shorts could have an emphasis on artisty. Just a thought.
Exactly-busyness for the sake of busyness to get the points is not good. There can be good dramatic pauses that go with music and non -skating can be good choreo. I don't want to hear all good choreo involves movement and skating because with Witt some of her best choreo involved her lying on the ice!!! Movemenet is not all good and not all non-skating is bad.
I don't disagree with what she said but I don't know how seriously we can take her argument if the last event she actually watched was the Olympics. It seems Ms. Witt is one of the skating fans who only watches every 4 years.
The only thing that still bothers me under the COP is that in singles and pairs skaters winning a title with an error filled free program (with the short holding them up!!) Doesn't make sense if the silver medalist had a blinder LP and even though won the LP still get the silver, I can see why audiences have dropped because people that don't know the sport would not understand why the silver medalist didn't win??
The emotion/performance problem is very easy to fix, actually. Right now, we have this mindset in judges of linking together the different scores in the program components. And skating skills seem to be the score that decides the rest in PCS. Judges need to be educated/reminded/beaten with regards to delinking those scores. It is perfectly possible for a skater to have mediocre skating skills but still be a master at interpretation and performance. And vice versa. Once skaters see that performance, emoting and musicality will actually affect their scores, they and their teams will scramble to up their artistry. Skaters are in it to win. Dangle points over the area you want skaters to improve in, and they'll come running.
Well, you will see this happens often if you watch lots of soccer games: a team dominates the game most of the time but fails to score, while the other team strikes back only once and goooooooal! Hey, that's the beauty of sports! Playing by the rules, even the underdogs have a chance to win.
It happened under the 6.0 system. Now that the rules are more explicit, the audience can understand better why the winner is a winner. Don't you agree?
Witt said, "Skaters are so busy each second of the program trying to chalk up technical points". Indeed, I have seen many programs skated at the same, albeit difficult, level without good phrasing to reflect the highs and lows of the music. "The entire program is a difficult footwork section" should not be a praise when the music does not call for it.
As a point of example, Plushenko's long programs are jammed-packed with jumping passes....but WHERE is the artistry??? How can a program that has little, if any, connection to the music receive high presentation marks? Just doesn't make any sense to me.
Plushenko's long programs have the same amount of jumping passes as everyone else's long programs.....
But I agree with your fundamental point. It always amused me when certain skaters would skate virtually the same programs set to different pieces of music (with oh, I don't know, different opening and ending poses and a few new flourishes here and there) every year and yet rack up those CH and IN points.