Michael Christian Martinez

[silverfoxes]

^^^ Thank you! So many injuries I can hardly keep track any more. I hope he does well, & hopefully next season everything will go much more smoothly for him.

 

[foruiz]

Thanks for the updates Maria Victoria! I barely hear news from home lately so thanks for the information.

 

[OS]

Oh no so many injuries Anna, Michael, Satoko, Kiira, Gracie, Hanyu... they are so young too!

Wish best of luck for Michael, a top 10 finish will be amazing.

 

[mei 03]

Yes, Michael is in Shanghai although his condition is not optimal (not yet fully recovered from the bruised right hip and ankle sustained in a fall during practice).

https://twitter.com/akikonbu1122/status/580005279867125760/photo/1. It was reported that the Chinese fans were delighted with his Biellmann spin.

Animo, Michael!

Yeah right, his Biellmann is more beautiful and fabulous than any other men skater in the competition, IMO.
Glad the Chinese appreciated it.

(are you a lasallian? hehe)

 

[Maria Victoria]

Michael skating 12th in the second group tomorrow: http://www.isuresults.com/results/wc2015/wc2015_Men_SP_TimeSchedule.pdf

Yeah right, his Biellmann is more beautiful and fabulous than any other men skater in the competition, IMO.
Glad the Chinese appreciated it.

(are you a lasallian? hehe)

I think Michael can challenge Jason Brown as best spinner in the business.

Re your query, I'm not, but I have much respect for DLSU. Am familiar though with the La Salle cheer and got a jolt of not an unpleasant surprise when I heard Javier Raya use it to cheer his compatriot and namesake Javier Fernandez in a video of the Spanish broadcast of 2014 Worlds. But let me add also a Fabilioh cheer and Fight! for Michael who is competing with injury.

 

[silverfoxes]

Jason is considered to be the best spinner? That's news to me. Not that there's anything wrong with his spins, but I wouldn't call them spectacular. Only Deniss Vasiljevs can give Michael a run for his money, from what I have seen...but he isn't a senior yet.

Anyway, good luck Michael!

 

[Maria Victoria]

Jason is considered to be the best spinner? That's news to me. Not that there's anything wrong with his spins, but I wouldn't call them spectacular.

Hehe, got that from this post: http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?41239-Jason-Brown&p=1118385&viewfull=1#post1118385, which used as basis the levels assessed on the spins.

But I agree with you that Michael is tops in spinning (pun intended) as to "spectacular." Now I wish he gains consistency in his jumps so he can be a contender.

 

[Maria Victoria]

Congratulations Michael for qualifying for the Free tomorrow. Despite the fall on the 3A, jumps look tighter in the air and the spins are as usual splendid in his SP. I notice that when he does the Biellmann, Yuzuru's name crops up in the commentary. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MzlLDX2dC2Y

 

[Ayana]

I think he did fine at his first worlds.

Hopefully, we'll get to see a quad next season, eh?

But I hope if Morozov choreographs for him again (or whoever choreographs), they'd choose a piece of music which isn't too overused. hwell:

 

[Maria Victoria]

I think he did fine at his first worlds.

Hopefully, we'll get to see a quad next season, eh?

But I hope if Morozov choreographs for him again (or whoever choreographs), they'd choose a piece of music which isn't too overused. hwell:

Yes, it was a good effort as he was not 100%. (Realized also that like Tatsuki Machida and Jason Brown, Michael experienced the Olympics before competing at Worlds.)

Re the quad, I hope he stabilizes his triples first just like Misha Ge did. Praying also that he'll be relatively injury-free.

 

[hidekimotozua]

As much as I'd like Michael to move on from POTO, I don't think he'll be changing his LP for next season. Wasn't this his first program that's choreographed by, for lack of a better word ''proper'' choreographer? The cleanest I've seen his LP this season was in Warsaw and it was still riddled by mistakes. Makes sense to get the most out of it first before changing IMO. I'd love to be proven wrong though, since as unique as Michael is, his music selections are anything but.

 

[valerieally]

I agree with the sentiment regarding cleaning up all his triples first. We learned from this year's worlds i.e. Misha Ge that you can place top ten by consistently delivering all season long and at the big competition itself sans quad, provided that you maximise the triple layout and skate two clean programmes with decent choreography. As much as he would like and need to up technically and get 3 quads for the long programme to beat the best, he may need to start with something more manageable to maintain and build his stamina as well, which he unfortunately doesn't have due to his physical ailments. Not everyone can come in blazing into seniors with multiple quads, but he could slowly build up to it. Got to work on getting used to senior length programmes, so perhaps not including the quad for at least the first half of the next season might be a strategic decision.

 

[Ayana]

I agree with the sentiment regarding cleaning up all his triples first. We learned from this year's worlds i.e. Misha Ge that you can place top ten by consistently delivering all season long and at the big competition itself sans quad, provided that you maximise the triple layout and skate two clean programmes with decent choreography. As much as he would like and need to up technically and get 3 quads for the long programme to beat the best, he may need to start with something more manageable to maintain and build his stamina as well, which he unfortunately doesn't have due to his physical ailments. Not everyone can come in blazing into seniors with multiple quads, but he could slowly build up to it. Got to work on getting used to senior length programmes, so perhaps not including the quad for at least the first half of the next season might be a strategic decision.

All right. Agreed.

As much as I'd like Michael to move on from POTO, I don't think he'll be changing his LP for next season. Wasn't this his first program that's choreographed by, for lack of a better word ''proper'' choreographer? The cleanest I've seen his LP this season was in Warsaw and it was still riddled by mistakes. Makes sense to get the most out of it first before changing IMO. I'd love to be proven wrong though, since as unique as Michael is, his music selections are anything but.

Okay, fair enough. I guess maximising the potential of the programme won't be bad although I would admit that my desire for another LP has a lot to do with my dislike for Morozov and how I hope MCM would consider another choreographer.

Morozov is an amazing choreographer but his behaviour enough for me to wish that people won't ever showcase his work.

 

[Maria Victoria]

Michael with Zijun Li at the 2015 Worlds banquet c/o os168. Judging from the photos I have seen so far, he and Misha Ge stood out sartorially speaking for not donning the typical black blazer.

 

[hidekimotozua]

All right. Agreed.



Okay, fair enough. I guess maximising the potential of the programme won't be bad although I would admit that my desire for another LP has a lot to do with my dislike for Morozov and how I hope MCM would consider another choreographer.

Morozov is an amazing choreographer but his behaviour enough for me to wish that people won't ever showcase his work.

Yeah, it'd be amazing for Michael to skate to something more contemporary and maybe find his own style. But man, gotta love the small changes they made to his programs. Hands on the head during the inverted camel spin especially, so dramatic . Don't know if that's Morozov's doing but I can totally dig it.

 

[valerieally]

I think his team should consider keeping the short programme, if finances are strained and they have a tight budget for professional choreography. It's actually quite complex in terms of footwork sequence, transitions and spins. If he puts the triple loop as the opening jump and nails the triple axel in place of where the triple loop is at the end, he could potentially score around low 80s. I don't think he is getting held down in his PCS, the judges in all the competitions he was in this season gave him low to mid 7s for CH and IN, which is about right, albeit somewhat generous for his level. That long programme, however, is just horrendous. Not so much the choreography, which is short of dull, but the music cuts are abhorrent. One of the reasons why Hanyu's Phantom long is remembered and will be remembered after this season, aside from him being Hanyu and putting in his usual insane technical layout, is that the music cuts flowed very nicely. Granted Mura's, Lee's and Lam's Phantom programme music were just as bad, but we are talking about Michael here. I think they will need to recut the music if he is keeping the long, because he is not getting the long programme scores he can get.

 

[Ayana]

I think his team should consider keeping the short programme, if finances are strained and they have a tight budget for professional choreography. It's actually quite complex in terms of footwork sequence, transitions and spins. If he puts the triple loop as the opening jump and nails the triple axel in place of where the triple loop is at the end, he could potentially score around low 80s. I don't think he is getting held down in his PCS, the judges in all the competitions he was in this season gave him low to mid 7s for CH and IN, which is about right, albeit somewhat generous for his level. That long programme, however, is just horrendous. Not so much the choreography, which is short of dull, but the music cuts are abhorrent. One of the reasons why Hanyu's Phantom long is remembered and will be remembered after this season, aside from him being Hanyu and putting in his usual insane technical layout, is that the music cuts flowed very nicely. Granted Mura's, Lee's and Lam's Phantom programme music were just as bad, but we are talking about Michael here. I think they will need to recut the music if he is keeping the long, because he is not getting the long programme scores he can get.

Not to be nit-picky about this but if my memory serves me right, finances aren't much of an issue now compared to the previous years given that he has a 9M PHP (around 200k in USD according to google) a year sponsorship deal until 2018 with the owner of the mall he started skating at.

Anyway, I actually find his SP a delight and I agree with your LP assessment. We all know how Morozov is: eitheir he creates really good programmes or workable ones with recycled things (not to say that there aren't others who do the same but I think he should know better). I mean, how many times has he used Swan Lake (I can name Taka, I/K, V/T at the top of my head), Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini and POTO? I find that some of bits of the music used, as well as choreography, for Michael's Phantom is similar to Taka's 2006-07 LP, which is choreographed by Morozov as well.

 

[valerieally]

I heard that he received a very generous sponsorship deal, but the details of the breakdown of how much goes to what are not revealed to the public, so I did not want to make any assumptions. On Instagram, it was uncovered that the money is used strictly for training purposes, so it cannot be used for injury rehabilitation, physical therapy, and other daily expenses incurred (everyone has to eat, pay rent, transport to and from various training locations etc). This also accumulates a big expenditure on any athlete's budget, which is what probably leads to the $160,000 or so it costs to raise an elite level abroad (estimate coming from Patrick Chan's father). Unfortunately for Michael, he seems to have a lot of physical ailments, it appears more so than an average athlete, probably due to his poor health growing up and possibly lack of proper training facilities back home. We can hope for the best, that training full time in the USA with proper care and management will go well for him to finally nail a 9 triple programme, with 2 axel combinations.

As for his LP, his personal best for the technical component was back when he was a junior and won the bronze medal in JGP Talinn in the 2013-2014 season. I fear his team will keep the LP next season to let it be more familiar with the judges, but that LP isn't working in its current state. Michael starts out strong and towards the end, his stature droops and his arms start to flail. This is a stamina issue, so he could build on that, but he needs something to really spark and command the attention of the audience, instead of grabbing it here and there, when he does his fabulous spins.

We keep comparing him to Hanyu, but they are both very similar. He has to get the SP together, Hanyu's SPs are always the better executed programmes. When he gets first place in the SP, he has more room to breathe in the LP. However, this strategy may not work for Michael, because he would have to up the technical BV in the LP to crazy levels, which given his current technical ability that he has shown, is not there. Of course, he could be secretly training and landing all these quads, but going by what we see on the ice, he needs to work on stable triple LP.

 

[hidekimotozua]

Yeah, LPs still seem to be a problem area of his, and even with his 2a + 3s seq bumped up to the first half, he still had stamina problems. Shame he went for the toe jump rather than the usual 2a after the cantilever though, he would've had broken 130 with that performance.

As for the quad, I seem to recall last season the brit eurosports guys saying that Michael opted for 2 triple axels than a quad, implying the quad was part of the planned program but did not attempt it in competition, or I maybe I just misunderstood their statement. But yeah, I'd prefer he work on his triples before going for the quad. His 3 axel is still hit/miss and I don't think he landed the a clean triple flip this season.

But gotta give Michael props though, he improved a lot in just a year, his jumps have better landings, his spins are better than ever, and his skating is much much better than last year. Hopefully he'll be done with puberty next season and just remain healthy.

 

[valerieally]

I wonder why he is doing one last competition, his ranking will more or less be where it is. I'm not sure if there was enough time for training to improve his LP between World Championships and Triglav. Anyway, all the best to him, he might want to end the season with 2 clean performances.