Men's FS...

[Joesitz (RIP)]

I agree, Evgeny is a big jumper and deserves his grades, but other elements of figure skating, he is certainly not the best unless, of course, you believe that the bielman spin is the greatest trick in skating. I hope he is not doing that dumb toe-rake footwork which is so easy to do. Sonia Henie used it much for her Latin American numbers (congas and sambas).

Johnny's footwork which is fast and flowing and with full blades, includes rockers, counters as well as three turns and brackets. Not since Kurt Browning have I seen any skater do the basics better because they are extremely difficult to do in such sequences.

I still think Evgney will win Worlds because aside from his great jumping prowess, he is a showman and that will get the crowd, the judges and the scores. Brian and Johnny do not have that crowd appeal. I would add, YET for Johnny.

Joe

 

[curious]

I agree, Evgeny is a big jumper and deserves his grades, but other elements of figure skating, he is certainly not the best unless, of course, you believe that the bielman spin is the greatest trick in skating. I hope he is not doing that dumb toe-rake footwork which is so easy to do. Sonia Henie used it much for her Latin American numbers (congas and sambas).

Johnny's footwork which is fast and flowing and with full blades, includes rockers, counters as well as three turns and brackets. Not since Kurt Browning have I seen any skater do the basics better because they are extremely difficult to do in such sequences.

I still think Evgney will win Worlds because aside from his great jumping prowess, he is a showman and that will get the crowd, the judges and the scores. Brian and Johnny do not have that crowd appeal. I would add, YET for Johnny.

Joe

johnny has crowd appeal not like plushy's but his programs are very good especially his short. he just needs more experience and consistent jumps QUADS to challenge Plush,but he can definitely take care of a sloppy joubert

 

[Linny]

Joubert the Artist

Joubert is surely an artist. The goal of his program is to look like a wooden ship. He does.
Linny
P.S. Barbara Walters needs to ask him what kind of tree the wood came from...

 

[Mathman]

P.S. Barbara Walters needs to ask him what kind of tree the wood came from...

 

[PrincessLeppard]

I highly disagree that Evgeny is a more powerful skater. He certainly has more powerful jumps, but, in the past, I've always found his footwork to lack enthusiasm, and to be rather simple.

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Evgeni has always had incredibly difficult footwork, so I'm a bit puzzled by this remark. I have only seen the long program, however, and the footwork, particularly the circular footwork, is amazing. And then one of his spins comes right out of the straightline footwork. It's fabulous. (Does the program need work? Yes.)

His only mistake in the free skate was a step out on the salchow, so it's not as if he had "major" problems on jumps in the long program. There is no Biellman spin in the free skate.

I think jumps are important, but clearly, Johnny can beat Brian because Brian doesn't yet have really great presentation. Brian has decent presentation, but not enough to outscore Johnny. I think Johnny can beat Plush without a quad, but J. would have to rely on Plush making mistakes, and I don't think he wants to do that.

I think Johnny, this year, has shown that CoP can have a nice balance between jumps and other elements. It's not a perfect system, but it's not terrible, either.

 

[curious]

johnny is doing a good job so far without a quad in his program but how long can johnny keep winning without quads? we won't know how much his programs are going to suffer untill he lands a quad in a major comp.

 

[Kasey]

johnny is doing a good job so far without a quad in his program but how long can johnny keep winning without quads? we won't know how much his programs are going to suffer untill he lands a quad in a major comp.

It seems the more common thing is that skaters get the jumps first, and then develop the artistry (i.e. Plush, Yags, Goebel-who is still working on it I think). Johnny already has the artistry. Why on earth would his programs suffer? I have read or heard skaters themselves say that a good, strong, well-centered spin with speed can take as much energy or more than a triple combo. Johnny already has those. He could afford to lose some of the speed on his spins once he gets the quad and still have superior artistry to most other skaters. Plush has never had great spin speed, and it hasn't seemed to hold him back. I just don't see how someone who already has everything else in their program is going to "suffer" so much from adding one jump???

Kasey

 

[BittyBug]

I just don't see how someone who already has everything else in their program is going to "suffer" so much from adding one jump???

Well, we won't know until he actually includes the quad in his program, but they are rather exhausting (and yes, spins are too, but everyone already has spins in their programs). As well, we don't know how he'll respond if he tries the quad but misses. Will he fall apart on the rest of the program? Or will it just be a small blip? It's all speculation at this point.

 

[gkelly]

I just don't see how someone who already has everything else in their program is going to "suffer" so much from adding one jump???

Maybe ask Jeff Buttle how much easier it is for him to skate well when he doesn't try a quad in his programs compared to when he does.

 

[curious]

exactly,not to mention the injuries just ask tim and plushy. they both are dealing with injuries timothy's back problems plushy's knees. the quads have taken its toll on their body. I hope that does not happen to johnny.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Maybe ask Jeff Buttle how much easier it is for him to skate well when he doesn't try a quad in his programs compared to when he does.

Absolutely. He skates his best without the quads. I think the very thought of the quads make skaters' so nervous until after they go for it in their routines. Some go downhill if they don't make it and, unfortunately, they have so much more great skating but can not handle it. However, those same skaters who happen to land their quad go on skate with a fiery ego.

I guess the old adage about the separation of the boys from the men holds the answers.

Anyway, I like Jeff and hope he is absolutely sure that that quad is going to happen or else forget it and just show the fans (and Judges) what a good skater he is
.
Joe

 

[JonnyCoop]

I agree with something Dick Button has said on a couple of occasions -- he'd rather see an interesting program, well-presented, with clean doubles then something with a bunch of flawed triples in it and not much else. Now that the novelty has MORE than worn off the quad in men's skating, let's just get past it and see more interesting programs. Too many sloppy landings are putting dampers on otherwise pretty good routines. And eventually it's going to be a matter of time before someone attempts the quint, and once they do, the amount of broken legs we're going to be seeing is going to be beyond belief.

 

[Hikaru]

Well, I don't know if Evgeny's footwork has always been extremely difficult. I compare it to Alexei's and I find his more exciting, but just MHO.

I think Evgeny's Footwork pretty much has the same basic structure, with slight modifications each year (I haven't yet seen his new free skate, so I'm talking about the last 2 seasons). When I saw his short program in 2003, to Adagio, he did a very spirited footwork, very fast and a lot of toe-pick action going on, but it just didn't go well with the music because it was very soft, so it looked weird. On the other hand, with his Edvin Marton's mix that he had last season, the footwork did work, because it went with the music and the beats it had. Both of them had the same basic structure, but the difference for me was that it worked much more better with Marton's music than with Adagio. IMO a good footwork is one that flows with the music in a way that it seems really easy to it.


I want to see Plushy's new free skate, to another Edvin Marton's piece **goes to fetch her Strings 'n' Beats CD**