Add me for a big THANK YOU to Mathman and Doggygirl for their analyses of the scoresheets, comparisons of scores among skaters, and comparisons among competitions.
Now ain't this more fun than 6.0? Okay, no tomato throwing.
The comments on Sasha are based on her performance of "R&J" at Campbell's as well as her "Dark Eyes" SP and "Nutcracker" LP at Nationals and Worlds in '05.
Obviously the following, except for stated facts, is all JMO. When Sasha did Tarasova's B&W "Swan Lake" I thought she was finally turning the corner at least in terms of depth of choreography and sophisticated use of music. Tarasova took cuts from "Swan Lake" I felt as if I'd never heard before. I almost didn't think that was possible. It was very tight choreography, meaning everything had a purpose. An element was where it was in terms of both the music and the arc of the program for a reason. I felt then that if Sasha could also work with a good technical coach on her jumps, edging, stroking, etc. that she could indeed be a force in figure skating, and I hadn't felt that until then. But since leaving Tarasova, even though her jump technique improved while she was with Robin Wagner, the improvements left Sasha as soon as she left RW.
Since being back with Nicks, I feel Sasha has become the very thing I initially criticized Mao Asada for: too light. I actually think Sasha was stronger in general in '02 when she had more muscle mass. I looked at my '02 tape and maybe I'm just seeing what I expected to see, but it seems like her stroking had more power and she was able to get down into her knees more. She had a lot of technical problems then, which she has winnowed down over the years, but she hasn't made the changeover from "contender" to "threat" the way Kristi Yamaguchi did when she won Worlds in '01, or Nancy Kerrigan when she overhauled her entire strategy after dropping from 1st after the SP to 5th overall at the '03 Worlds, to cite just two examples. Over the last two years, I think Sasha's gone back to looking as if she's skating on top of the ice instead of down into it.
The more I watch Asada (her COC performances on tape) the more I see that she has everything Christie Ness, Kristi Yamaguchi's competitive coach, has said a skater needs anatomically in order to be a great skater: She's short and doesn't look as if she's going to have a 5-inch growth spurt. She's naturally thin. (Sorry to sound like a broken record, but I hate the way Sasha has dieted down to an unnecessarily low body weight. I think it's hurting rather than helping her.) Asada has good muscle mass. And she has a slight bow in her lower legs.
When I first heard Ness say that slightly bowed legs are an asset for a figure skater, I thought it was fascinating but wondered why. To make a long investigation short, it's basically why old-fashioned egg beaters rotate so well. The beaters bow out for a reason. Irina has bowed legs too, though on her it's more pronounced. On Asada, you have to really look. Focus especially on the shape of her tibias. It's very far from the whole ball of wax, but having slightly bowed legs can make a good jumper a great jumper, with proper training, natch.
Of course having the right anatomical cards is only part of what's needed. Except for her flutz, which Sasha also has, and which I think Asada could fix quite easily, her jump technique is rock solid. Right now I'm not concerned about Asada's choreography; she's sort of like the debutante whose main purpose is to make a good impression. But I do think Gezando's suggestion of going to "Lori Nichol training camp" is a great one. I also think Leeann Miller is excellent at working with the heart of a skater to bring depth to the skater's presentation and choreographing programs that bring out the skater's strengths, both technically and emotionally.
As for Sasha, with last season's "Nutcracker" (snore) and this season's Rota, as opposed to Prokofiev, "Romeo and Juliet"; the uninspired and uninteresting choreography; moving towards lighter rather than deeper skating; and perhaps even regressing on her jump technique, I feel as if Sasha "mediocre'd" herself down rather than using her experiences with Tarasova and Wagner to pull herself up from good to possibly great.
Now don't anybody kill me just yet, but I think a lot of the problem is what I call the SSS: the SoCal Superficiality Syndrome. Not that Sasha or Michelle or any other SoCal skater are superficial people; it's just that they've lived all their lives in a cultural vacuum and unless they have what I call the "Warhol gene" ie, the gene that makes iconoclastic artists, musicians, politicians, scientists, or whatever, out of people born into places where the greatest cultural influence on them is the local mall or even less. Sasha lived most of her teenage years as a mall rat. Whatever is pretty is good. Whatever challenges one's aesthetics is bad. I think it's even affected Michelle, who pretty much went to warhorse music after all those years of glorious music chosen by Lori Nichol.
Tarasova made warhorse "Swan Lake" into something fresh and dynamic, but Sasha didn't get how enormous the difference was between TAT's "SL" and Robin Wagner's "SL." Of course, Robin Wagner didn't get it either.
But then, Long Island is the SoCal of the East Coast.
I've always liked Sasha's line and used to love her attack, but the latter seems to have wimped out over the last two years as well. I had hoped to see her solve her technical problems and up the ante in the sophistication of her music and choreography, but that hasn't happened. Don't get me wrong. Sasha, in general, is 10 times the skater she was in '02. The problem, IMO, is that she's still an uncompleted jigsaw puzzle. Too many essential pieces are scattered about. She hasn't pulled it all together to make herself a complete picture or, sorry to mix metaphors, a complete force.
OTOH, maybe Sasha needs to be kicked in the butt by a 15-year-old. Maybe the silver medals at the last two Worlds and her early success with the COP made her feel she was doing all the right things, or at least most of them. Of course I'm curious to see TEB on TV--the downloads drive me nuts and the quality of the picture isn't worth the trouble--but I'm especially curious to see Sasha's spiral sequence next to Asada's. I completely understand why a spiral sequence that uses the full Beillman position, especially with the speed and depth of edges Irina has, along with a front extended spiral and an arabesque spiral, would get a Level 4. As I've said previously, with both hands on the blade, going full speed, on a deep edge, there is virtually no room for error. Without perfect centering or by catching the blade on a small rut in the ice, the skater either has to let go of the blade so she can balance with her arms and leg or, more likely, she will have to go down and she will be going down hard.
However, the cross Beillman position Asada uses, ie, right hand catching blade of left leg or vice versa, doesn't seem to me to require anywhere near the skill or flexibility that the full Beillman does, nor does it have anywhere near the splat danger that the full Beillman spiral does. So I'm curious to see the comparison between Asada's Level 4 spiral sequence and Sasha's Level 3, which I'm assuming is the same one she used at Campbell's.
I'm not happy seeing programs turn into Beillman exhibitions, but I'm optimistic, or perhaps just stupid, that those who work on the COP will work this out. Maybe the ladies need a "Zayak" rule for Beillmans, such as a skater can only repeat the full Beillman position or Beillman variations so many times in a program. I don't know. Something, or Beillman me out!
I'm not dissing Asada because I haven't seen TEB yet. I know the spiral sequence Sasha used at Campbell's got a Level 4 from the "cheese" panel of judges. Someone remind me who actually assigns the levels on non-jump elements. Is it the technical specialist, the caller, or the judges?
From the way I've seen Sasha skate over the past two years and at this year's Campbell's, I don't think she is anywhere near good enough to win the OGM. She may not even be good enough to medal. Right now, either she needs to recover fully from the injury, get in better shape, or make some serious changes to her stategy to have a good chance at the bronze. IMO, if she gets a "real" choreographer, someone to whom she is willing to hand her heart over to, one that she will trust to choose the music, and work with a coach who is skilled in teaching the technical demands of today's figure skating, she might have a "late blooming" career like Irina and Arakawa. If she is sorely disappointed at this season's Olympics and Worlds, we'll have to see how she reacts to the prospect of another four years of intensive training and competing.
I meant to talk more about Shizuka, but I'm just so thrilled with her right now, even though she's come in 3rd at her GP events, her LP is absolutely the best I've seen this season. It fits her like a glove, she skates it magnificently, even with doubling the flip (I think) midway through the program and getting dinged for under rotations on the 3/3s. These things I have no doubt she will fix.
But the main thing I wanted to say about Arakawa is that she, even more so than Irina, is such an incredible model of quiet endurance and determination. IIRC, she spent five years in the "twilight zone" of both Japanese and World skating. Not even going to Worlds for I forget how many years. Even right before she left Richard Callahagn for Tarasova, her spin positions were weak, she didn't hold her positions long enough, she seemed to have a poor sense of how her body looked in space relative to how it felt. That was only about 18 months ago and my god, look at the difference! She always had great flow, speed, and edging, but now her jumps, spins, and positions either are or are close to being the best in the biz. I don't know if she can surpass Irina, but I find her whole journey both thrilling and inspiring.
Okay, is there a point to all this? I guess they are just ruminations on things that have been brewing about Shizza and Sasha, who I liked equally about two years ago, but who have traveled such different paths. I've been so excited with Shizza's progress, despite her poor showing at '05 Worlds, and disappointed with Sasha's lack of progress. Irina I've loved since minute one and that's all she wrote. Despite getting off on the wrong blade with Asada's SP, I'm getting that feeling in my tummy that something great is likely to happen with her, which would be so wonderful for Japan since the country, from everything I've heard and seen, really,
really loves its figure skaters. And since Midori Ito, they've had a long run of good or even great, but ultimately inconsistant skaters that I would love to see Shizuka show the whole world how truly beautiful she is, followed up by Asada. who seems to have the very real potential to be a once in a generation skater.
Irina or Shizza, I'll be thrilled. Sasha (sigh) although I hope this is a slump, I think the truth is that although she has made excellent progress in certain areas of her skating, she still hasn't solved the problem of what I call the "rats on her ship." They are the little or big mistakes that scurry in and scurry out of her programs but are always there, just like rats on a ship. Even the couple of times NYMKfan pointed out when she skated clean, it's like you know they're still there, but just down below deck for that program.
Penultimate thing: Kimmie. I saw her live last winter with COI when she skated a very curvy "round" program--big, open, curved armes; long, stretched lines. I found her to be a surprisingly commanding skater, yet still with a calm about her that I really liked a lot. I think this "walk like an Egyptian" program is the worst thing her choreographers could have done for her. It completely diminishes her on the ice. JMO, but am glad I was able to see her live, even though it was show skating. I'm not counting Kimmie out. I think with the right choreography, she has real depth.
Final thing: I know Gezando will know this and I'm hoping she'll answer if not for me for all the GSers who I'm sure are also confused about Shizuka's music. ESPN, that bastion of classical music expertise
, lists Arawkawa's LP music as "Chopin Concerto #1." But the other day Gezando noted how glad she was Tarasova chose to use variation #18, IIRC, instead of several other ones, plus something about "the rhaphsody." I'm reading and writing a lot of different things right now and can't keep anything straight, so apologies in advance if I have this all wrong. All I want to know is, what is the exact title of Shizuka's LP music? And if Gezando knows the artist and conductor, I'm sure many people would appreciate that information too.
POEM: TEB I'm dying to see!
Rgirl
Whoops. WAY too long. Sorry.
But as fans, that's our right!! I just try to bring sanity to the seeming disparity between the score sheet facts and the fan subjectivity sometimes. And I'm sure to an irritating degree. 
