Mikhail Kolyada

[Tutto]

Aside from Nathan, who seems to have become really consistent with his jumps, none of the other guys is, although not as inconsistent as Misha. We just don't know until the competition comes around. And we don't know what kind of level these guys can be in the coming seasons anyway.

I just can't see Yuzuru & Shoma off the podium in Saitama and Nathan seems to be better than ever (maybe Mika should consider FS as a hobby and not as main occupation! )

 

[rachno2]

At this point, I just hope he can get a SB for his free skate at Worlds or WTT. I’m not anticipating a clean Carmen, but it would be a shame if his highest-scoring version of it was at his very first competition of the season.

Ranking-wise, I think top 5 is the very best we can hope for. That alone will require better skates than he has been producing all season. Tbh I would be happy if he places anywhere in the top 10.

 

[coldblueeyes]

I don’t think it’s as simple as consistency or lack thereof — if Misha were falling on one jump per free skate (but not the same one each time), I think people would be much more optimistic and consider that “within the acceptable level of messiness expected for the men.” The problem is that he regularly pops even relatively easy jumps, which is more indicative of a mental issue than a technique/random bad luck one. And there’s also the standard fall. Misha is basically Russia’s Keiji Tanaka.

Yeah, I agree, but even then I wouldn't rule out anything in competition, that was what I wanted to say. Of course the most likely outcome is Misha staying within the top 10, maybe top 5 on a good day, but it's hard to gauge what's going to happen. Especially when he's not having the best luck with his skates and his health.

 

[Metis]

Yeah, I agree, but even then I wouldn't rule out anything in competition, that was what I wanted to say. Of course the most likely outcome is Misha staying within the top 10, maybe top 5 on a good day, but it's hard to gauge what's going to happen. Especially when he's not having the best luck with his skates and his health.

Oh, anything can and likely will happen. I just thought it was worth differentiating between someone who has an unusual pop on an element in competition versus Keiji and Kolyada, who routinely pop triples. Rotating and falling is still superior to popping (except for cases in which you’re better off taking the -1T/-1Lo over the +REP), in terms of scoring potential. But if Misha goes relatively clean (since “clean” is always relative to how much of a disaster the men are on a given day), he could podium. It’s just extremely hard to predict, though you know I’m hoping for the best.

 

[Imov]

I wish for him to have a clean skate so he can clear off his mind and get his groove back.

 

[vorravorra]

We need to remember that popping triples at the end of the free skate which he didn't use to do last season is also due to problems with health and form. Doubling the loop (that's a technique issue not just a mental one, he has a bad loop) and popping one of the 3As (this is more complicated) is not new, but doubling lutzes and salchows is not usual for him. I don't think everything that happens to Misha should be ascribed to mental issues without looking deeper.

Consistently falling on one jump per competition is not inconsistency, inconsistency is a different number and variety of errors in each competition.

 

[vorravorra]

It all depends on which state he'll be to compete. Worlds is still more than a month away, and if he wants to peak with his three quads, he'll have to get them out and compete, which is why I think he's going with the same layout from Euros.

In 2016-2017 he had exactly two good competitions and neither was Worlds (although it wasn't a failure either, none of his Worlds have been). I wonder if he may end up repeating the pattern and peak at WTT instead of Worlds if he goes there. Hard to predict.

 

[vorravorra]

May i say i will never understand fans and particularly Russian fans? Some really believe that Mika is first touring all skaters instagrams to see if anyone has posted a 4-turned jump and after that decided to post his music video? Or that he should not post his video when someone else posts a video of 4f?

Also i am not enjoying the amount of critics he gets from his fans (compared to Aliev or Kovtun) and as such i haven't read to often threads about him lately. I prefer to enjoy his skating as it is from now on, flawed jumps and all and be happy as long he keeps competing. These over-the-top critics (for Mika, for Alina, for Jenia etc) destroy my love for skating in general, so i have to choose .

Fans are frustrated (including by certain decisions made by Misha and his team) and tired. I personally can't enjoy every kind of skating produced by Misha, including the kind he himself clearly hates. And I can't unquestioningly support everything either (not a unicorns and rainbows type of person anyway). Aliev does get criticised (including for certain decisions made by his team), and Kovtun's fans that are still standing I have the greatest admiration for, I don't know how they keep going. A lot of the criticism comes from people who believe that the criticised skater can clearly do better rather than wish them ill. Of course at a certain point this devolves into unadulterated doom and gloom and then one is better off devoting their time and emotional energy to someone else, or into attacking everything about the skater and their situation at which point one is also better off devoting their attention to something else. Naturally, in addition to well-wishing criticism there are "concerned fans" of a skater who are in reality fans of someone altogether different. And just regular trolls.

 

[coldblueeyes]

I don't see a problem with frustration, we are always a bit frustrated in here too, but it's not like losing patience is going to change anything, and also, it's not like Misha and the team aren't trying to resolve the problems, especially this season. I think they're trying to do it right after what happened. In the end, we're all human, so it's understandable that we have to express some of our emotions.

 

[vorravorra]

I don't see a problem with frustration, we are always a bit frustrated in here too, but it's not like losing patience is going to change anything, and also, it's not like Misha and the team aren't trying to resolve the problems, especially this season. I think they're trying to do it right after what happened. In the end, we're all human, so it's understandable that we have to express some of our emotions.

It's a perfectly reasonable question why they keep going for a free skate layout he couldn't manage too many times last season in a better physical shape than now (and never without falls). Doing the same thing expecting a different result can't fail to come to mind. It's not about any one jump and it's not about what he can land separately in practices, it's about putting together three quads and two 3A (and the rest of the program). Unless they have declared this season a net loss and are working with the future in mind it would really be more effective to simplify. If you look at Aliev who had health problems last season, he also produced his best skate with a simplified layout, it's not exactly a novel and original idea.

 

[coldblueeyes]

It's a perfectly reasonable question why they keep going for a free skate layout he couldn't manage too many times last season in a better physical shape than now (and never without falls). Doing the same thing expecting a different result can't fail to come to mind. It's not about any one jump and it's not about what he can land separately in practices, it's about putting together three quads and two 3A (and the rest of the program). Unless they have declared this season a net loss and are working with the future in mind it would really be more effective to simplify. If you look at Aliev who had health problems last season, he also produced his best skate with a simplified layout, it's not exactly a novel and original idea.

One thing I wonder is why they abhorr watering down his layouts. It's been a theme, and only when he skated right out of the hospital did they do that - or after the Olympics.

 

[vorravorra]

By the way, why I said the 3A is complicated. It did not go from a great 3A to an accidental pop that got stuck. He had been having some trouble with landings on a regular basis that season before he popped it. Something was going on with the jump that was not perfectly straightforward. I suspect that if he did both of his 3As in the first half of the free skate like at last Nationals (or in 2015-2016) pops would be much less of a problem (and the fact that they went for it at Nationals suggests that they have the same idea). It's just that there are only so many jumps you can fit into the first half.

 

[coldblueeyes]

By the way, why I said the 3A is complicated. It did not go from a great 3A to an accidental pop that got stuck. He had been having some trouble with landings on a regular basis that season before he popped it. Something was going on with the jump that was not perfectly straightforward. I suspect that if he did both of his 3As in the first half of the free skate like at last Nationals (or in 2015-2016) pops would be much less of a problem (and the fact that they went for it at Nationals suggests that they have the same idea). It's just that there are only so many jumps you can fit into the first half.

Especially if they aim for 3 quads. He already pushed one of them to the second half because of the loop. Would he do two, one in combination, in the second half because of the 3As?

 

[Tutto]

One thing I wonder is why they abhorr watering down his layouts. It's been a theme, and only when he skated right out of the hospital did they do that - or after the Olympics.

I don't understand that either, especially with the rules change it is clear the last season's strategy simply won't work, points are not earned anymore for rotating you got to land those quads.
They started at Nepela with the layout which was to maximise everything he could do consistently and do well, the judges approved, and then everything started to fall apart... sigh...
Yeah, frustration is probably the best word to describe what most of us feel. I just hope that he is not too frustrated himself and has enough motivation to keep going. One day the stars might align for him, after all Caro e.g. was/is rather inconsistent skater but is the World Champion and Oly medallist.
I wonder if it might make sense for him to train a harder FS layout and then switch to a simpler one right before the skate (as they could have done in Minsk between the warm-up and his turn) to settle the nerves?

 

[illusionspin]

I do think he will easily be in the Top 10 at Worlds. Top 5 won’t be impossible at all, but the competition is fierce so he will have to skate very clean programs.

 

[rachno2]

Even with the rule change, he is going to need two stable quads in his arsenal to challenge for the very top over the next four years. At this point in his career, I don’t think he would be satisfied with anything less. The chance for a World medal is so low this year that I don’t have a problem with he and his team turning their eyes to the future and trying this layout, unreliable as it is.

I don’t agree with a lot of the decisions Mikhail and his team have made, especially this season, but I can at least try to understand them. It’s frustrating when these decisions cost him medals, and the strategy might never pay off in the way he desires, but wringing one’s hands isn’t going to change things (and I know I have done my fair share of that).

 

[Tutto]

I do think he will easily be in the Top 10 at Worlds. Top 5 won’t be impossible at all, but the competition is fierce so he will have to skate very clean programs.

We could have said same about the Euro podium but ...

I don’t know.....even with the rule change, he is going to need two stable quads in his arsenal to challenge for the very top over the next four years. The chance for a World medal is so low this year that I don’t have a problem with he and his team turning their eyes to the future and trying this layout, unreliable as it is.

At this point, I’ve accepted that I don’t agree with a lot of the decisions Mikhail and his team make, but I can at least try to understand them. It hurts when these decisions cost him medals, and the strategy might never pay off in the way he desires, but wringing one’s hands isn’t going to change things (and I know I have done my fair share of that).

I think the problem is precisely in that they go for a layout he NEEDS and not the one he CAN do in competition.
It is a vicious cycle the longer that goes on the worse his confidence is which in turn produces more disasters and so on.
Tallink will tell us more about his form. Maybe going into Worlds being not a clear No 1 will help him mentally

 

[coldblueeyes]

I don’t agree with a lot of the decisions Mikhail and his team have made, especially this season, but I can at least try to understand them. It’s frustrating when these decisions cost him medals, and the strategy might never pay off in the way he desires, but wringing one’s hands isn’t going to change things (and I know I have done my fair share of that).

That's the way I see it, and it was what I kind of predicted before the season got underway. Misha needs more than one quad to challenge the podium, and he wants that, he won't be staying behind with just one quad. But something's gotta give, and at the moment it's his health and medals, though maybe in the future he'll be able to grow into this layout and improve. At least that's what I hope.

 

[Tutto]

That's the way I see it, and it was what I kind of predicted before the season got underway. Misha needs more than one quad to challenge the podium, and he wants that, he won't be staying behind with just one quad. But something's gotta give, and at the moment it's his health and medals, though maybe in the future he'll be able to grow into this layout and improve. At least that's what I hope.

I will probably contradict myself but I suspect that layout is not an issue as such but mental preparation for competitions, we've seen this season and before that he seems to make mistakes with any layout (though this season his sinusitis was of course a lot to blame for) but when he manages to get into a fighting mode he is able to do practically anything - e.g. at RusNats considering his physical state there it was like skating a 3 quad LP! The trouble is to get into that mode and not to be consumed by doubts ...

 

[vorravorra]

I will probably contradict myself but I suspect that layout is not an issue as such but mental preparation for competitions, we've seen this season and before that he seems to make mistakes with any layout (though this season his sinusitis was of course a lot to blame for) but when he manages to get into a fighting mode he is able to do practically anything - e.g. at RusNats considering his physical state there it was like skating a 3 quad LP! The trouble is to get into that mode and not to be consumed by doubts ...

Nationals are not a realistic model to reproduce, he can't nearly drop unconscious on the ice at every competition and then be out of commission for 10 days. It's like a mother lifting a car to get her child from under it, and then being expected to keep doing it.

After Zagreb but even before the news of Misha's hospitalisation I thought he might die on the ice but make the team, because that's what he does, that's how he's managed to stay afloat despite his incosistency. But I also thought that it wouldn't make a difference in the longer term because that's not a sustainable approach.