Who was it that said he/she hates seeing the same spirals put into a program for the sake of garnering points? Would I be the only one glad to see the spiral sequence go as a requirement in the SP? It's one of my least favorite elements in many skaters' programs, at times forced into the routine and ruining flow. I don't, however, like that it will be considered just a "transition element." Would any skater include it, once without any clear benefits?
The benefits will be in the transitions score . . . which we hope will be judged more consistently according to the guidelines, although they'll never be as clearly spelled out as the element scoring.
However, since spirals would no longer be required in short programs, many skaters will choose to do other kinds of transitions instead.
Since it doesn't appear that the short program time limit will be reduced, skaters will have time to do more non-element moves between the elements with only 7 instead of 8 elements in the same time period. We hope that they won't spend the extra time just stroking around or posing. Since the SP time limit is only a maximum with no minimum, what we might see is some skaters cutting their music shorter again.
What if one required element was left open for a spin or spiral?
So which of the existing short program spins would be deleted?
If this did happen, I'm sure it would not be free choice of the skater whether to include a spiral sequence or a third spin. (In long programs yes, but not in the short.)
I could imagine a rotation such as spiral sequence one year, flying spin the next year, layback the year after that.
But what would be the parallel rotation for the men? Some years they do three spins and one step sequence, and other years two spins and two step sequences?
Anyway, that possibility is not currently on the radar.
In the 1970s and 80s, the short program consisted of three jump elements, three spin elements, and a step sequence. The spiral sequence and men's second step sequence were added in 1989. So this change would be going back to the original 7-element SP structure.
Could the rule change concerning spirals in the FS be a blessing in disguise, and in fact encourage greater creativity on the part of skaters? People were complaining about how the levels don't encourage much. Or is that my hopeless little wish
I'm sure it will inspire greater creativity.
Look at the spiral sequences from the 1990s and early 2000s. There was a lot more variety then because skaters could do whatever spiral-related skills they thought would impress the judges without worrying whether it officially counted as a "difficult variation" or whether they could hold the edges for 3 seconds.
The current skaters have spent the last few years working on their edge changes and catch-foot positions and whatever you want to call the position with the free leg in front and the upper body slightly leaning back, because those were the easiest ways to assure higher levels. Now that they have developed those skills, I'm sure we'll still see them plenty often.
But anyone who can do something else that looks just as impressive but wouldn't have counted as a feature in the current rules, or not consistently, will now be free to put their own personal wow moves into the LP spiral sequence and stand out from the crowd that way.
E.g., I expect we'll see more slide spirals (hard to hold for 3 seconds) coupled with a 6-second spiral on the other foot.
My concern is whether judges will have enough room in the GOEs to distinguish between a skater with great edges, positions, creativity,
and difficulty vs. someone who excels at only one or two of the above.
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