Mira Leung article - she is ready for the new season!

[Mathman]

Whew. You guys are a tough audience.

Mira is the 24th best figure skater in the world. In the whole world, out of 6 billion people (OK, out of 3 billion ladies). So she's not better than the 23rd best skater in the world. As for who should represent Canada, as Slutskayafan points out, if not Mira, who?

 

[jesslily]

Mira has improved quite a bit. The up and down stroking and jumping as Dick Button said are almost got rid of completely. She has a lot of strenth. Mira's steady jumps look like Miki Ando's.

 

[chuckm]

Mira has improved quite a bit. The up and down stroking and jumping as Dick Button said are almost got rid of completely. She has a lot of strenth. Mira's steady jumps look like Miki Ando's.

NOT. Mira underrotated the 2A in the SP and the 3Z and 3F in the FS.

Miki does not drop her arms and shoulders down and crane her head up and back before she jumps. This habit the worst thing about Mira's skating---it looks ugly and graceless and ruins all the transitions into the jumps.

Miki's speed is far superior to Mira's. Mira is S-L-O-W, and that makes her weird jump technique even more noticeable.

The only thing similar about Miki's and Mira's skating is that neither one shows any real musicality in their skating.

I think it's rather funny that people take Mira's upgraded personal appearance as a sign that her skating is just as improved. But it's not, folks. There is still PLENTY that Mira needs to do to move up in the World Standings, and none of it has anything to do with good looks.

 

[gio]

She was cute and she seemed very happy and comfortable with her new look. She even did her hair-do by herself. :thumbsup:

Well done Mira!!! This was the first step in the right direction!!!

 

[i love to skate]

NOT. Mira underrotated the 2A in the SP and the 3Z and 3F in the FS.

Miki does not drop her arms and shoulders down and crane her head up and back before she jumps. This habit the worst thing about Mira's skating---it looks ugly and graceless and ruins all the transitions into the jumps.

Miki's speed is far superior to Mira's. Mira is S-L-O-W, and that makes her weird jump technique even more noticeable.

The only thing similar about Miki's and Mira's skating is that neither one shows any real musicality in their skating.

I think it's rather funny that people take Mira's upgraded personal appearance as a sign that her skating is just as improved. But it's not, folks. There is still PLENTY that Mira needs to do to move up in the World Standings, and none of it has anything to do with good looks.

Why are you being so hard on her? She has obviously made strides with her presentation and style compared to previous seasons. She still has to make improvements, such as her speed, but it is a step in the right direction!

 

[chuckm]

I didn't see any great improvements in her presentation, and apparently the judges didn't either. Her PCS scores are all in the 5s.

It's great that she's taken an interest in her appearance, but looks don't win competitions. She has to make a MUCH bigger effort with her basic skating and her presentation if she wants to move up in the rankings.

 

[Mathman]

I didn't see any great improvements in her presentation, and apparently the judges didn't either. Her PCS scores are all in the 5s.

But that still doesn't explain the vitriol.

Mira got higher PCSs than the beautiful Elene Gedevanishvili, better than the promising Alezandra Ievlova, better than the exquisite Mai Asada, better than the ever-popular Tugba Karademir, better than the improving Valentina Marchai, better than the lovely Binshu Xu.

Why no threads raking these skaters over the coals?

 

[hockeyfan228]

I thought she was pretty musical in both her Skate America programs. She was very patient in her phrasing.

 

[krenseby]

But that still doesn't explain the vitriol.

Mira got higher PCSs than the beautiful Elene Gedevanishvili, better than the promising Alezandra Ievlova, better than the exquisite Mai Asada, better than the ever-popular Tugba Karademir, better than the improving Valentina Marchai, better than the lovely Binshu Xu.

Why no threads raking these skaters over the coals?

I'll tell you why've got all this vitriol directed against Mira. People perceive that Mira's being overpraised and they want to make sure that this praise gets counteracted by harsh criticism.

Problem is, whatever praise Mira gets is directed not at her skills per se, but at her recent IMPROVEMENT. People aren't really saying, oh look at Mira's, her skating is absolutely amazing. But many forum readers mistake comments about improvement for praise and feel the need to ridicule this "praise."

 

[passion]

I have to disagree with the above. Mira's skating is slow, and her performance of the Rachmaninoff showed very little relation to the music. She may be a talented pianist, but she is not able to translate that to musicality in her skating. Her PCS scores remained low as a result.

Unfortunately, the Rach has been a signature piece for some legendary skaters, and Mira's effort shrivels in comparison. I think it was a bad, bad choice for her.

I actually disagree with you. I think this was an excellent choice for her. I have not seen her connect to the music as well as any other piece of music that she has skated to so far. She should continue to use classical music. I think what is true is that artistic movement is not natural for her and related to that, she does not have the "x" factor. You either have it or you don't. The improvements I see has to do with how she appears to be "learning" how to carry herself well and move her arms. Do you remember Jennifer Robinson? She also did not have the gift of movement, yet she was able to learn how to use her arms and move to the music. Of course, you can tell she didn't have it naturally as others did such as Lu Chen, Yu Na Kim.

 

[gio]

Mira got higher PCSs than the beautiful Elene Gedevanishvili, better than the promising Alezandra Ievlova, better than the exquisite Mai Asada, better than the ever-popular Tugba Karademir, better than the improving Valentina Marchai, better than the lovely Binshu Xu.

Because she did it better than those other skaters IMO. Binshu, Aleksandra, Valentina, Tugba and Mai were all b.o.r.i.n.g.!
If I have to be really honest, all were b.o.r.i.n.g. to me with the exception of Emily and Mira.

 

[emma]

I actually disagree with you. I think this was an excellent choice for her. I have not seen her connect to the music as well as any other piece of music that she has skated to so far. She should continue to use classical music. I think what is true is that artistic movement is not natural for her and related to that, she does not have the "x" factor. You either have it or you don't. The improvements I see has to do with how she appears to be "learning" how to carry herself well and move her arms. Do you remember Jennifer Robinson? She also did not have the gift of movement, yet she was able to learn how to use her arms and move to the music. Of course, you can tell she didn't have it naturally as others did such as Lu Chen, Yu Na Kim.

I agree with all of this - I noticed that her arms and upper back were carried very nicely, and yes she need to improve lot's of things in her technique to add to the technical, but I thought - compared especially to last year - that it looked to me like she was trying to address some of it in her stroking and jumping - doesn't mean she was perfect but imo for me, noticably working on these things and I love to see someone working hard and improving, that's exciting and wonderful (again, to me).

 

[chuckm]

Yes, Mira's carriage is better and she uses her arms better---right up to the time she prepares for a jump. Then the arms and shoulders droop forward, the head arches up and back, and the illusion of refinement is lost. And this is the preparation for every jump in her repertoire.

Caroline Zhang loses some of her grace and mars her transitions when she mule-kicks her lutz and flip, but the rest of her jumps are smoothly executed.

The difference between Leung and Zhang is that Leung is 18 and Zhang, only 14. There's time for Zhang to fix her awkward technique. I'm afraid time is running out for Leung. The longer a bad habit is allowed to remain in place, the more difficult it is to fix it.

 

[sillylionlove]

Am I the only one that is not a fan of Leung. I saw her at Skate America in 2005 and again this year. While there was a big improvement in her skating, I still don't like it.

 

[childfreegirl]

But that still doesn't explain the vitriol.

Mira got higher PCSs than the beautiful Elene Gedevanishvili, better than the promising Alezandra Ievlova, better than the exquisite Mai Asada, better than the ever-popular Tugba Karademir, better than the improving Valentina Marchai, better than the lovely Binshu Xu.

Why no threads raking these skaters over the coals?

While I haven't seen the video of SA yet, I have one possible explaination for your question. From what I have seen (and my internet time in the last couple of weeks has been limited and sporadic), there seems to be more press/hype for Mira than Elene, Alezandra, Mai, Tugba, Valentina and Binshu. More press/hype usually means more attention and can mean more criticism.

At least that seems logical to me. BTW, if anyone has links to articles about the other skaters in the pre-SA or during SA press, I would love to read them.

 

[chuckm]

Ievleva has only 2A, 3Loop, 3Sal and 3Toe, and Karademir has only 2A, 3S and 3T, and neither was proficient with the jumps they did have. Marchei was AWFUL in both SP and FS. Gedevanishvili landed only the 2A in her SP, and she still had jump problems in the FS, singling her lutz and flip. Binshu Xu hardly landed any triples in her FS and she got -GOE on most of the jumps she did land. Mai Asada had a decent SP but her FS was zzzzzz and she got dinged heavily for underrotations and flutzes.

When skaters have iffy jumps, they tend to concentrate on the technical aspects of their skating. They don't relate much to their music, their flow is choppy, and they look tentative and uncomfortable. All of that gets reflected in their PCS scores.

Mira actually landed more of her jumps cleanly than Hughes did, and she got a lot less underrotation deductions than Zhang. But her speed wasn't anywhere near as good as Emily's or Caroline's, she didn't relate to her music as well, and her basic skating technique is far more flawed than theirs.

So while Mira outscored the poor jumpers on the PCS side, she lost ground to skaters who had lower TES but outscored her in PCS.

At TEB, Mira faces Wagner, Sawada, Meier, Meissner and MAO Asada. This is a tougher bunch than she faced at Skate America, and in another month, they should all be in good competitive shape.

 

[Gwendolyn]

Am I the only one that is not a fan of Leung. I saw her at Skate America in 2005 and again this year. While there was a big improvement in her skating, I still don't like it.

I don't think anyone HAS to be her fan or like her skating, but they could just give credit where credit is due (which you did, so I'm not pointing fingers at you or anything). Her skating DOES need improvement, but at the same time, she has also improved quite a bit and no one can that away from her.

 

[blue dog]

I think, even though I'm not a fan of Mira, that 19 is plenty of time to improve her musicality and her jumping. Case in point, Lesley Hawker improved her jumping at 25 (many people consider that Alzheimer's age in figure skating), and Angela Nikodinov improved her musicality and carriage at 20--when Dick Button called her the refrigerator break of figure skating. She went from that, to the next year, having Dick Button call her movement graceful, and "moving like liquid gold."

Again, I'm not a fan, but I'm not counting her out--but I do agree with chuckm. Mira has chosen music that is signature music of some of the best (Kwan, Michkoutienok/Dmitriev, Chen, Cohen, Abt, and Suguri) in the sport. She needs to make her mark in it and not just use it as background music to her skating.

 

[chuckm]

Angela Nikodinov's skating improved markedly when she got a new Russian coach (the one who later died). But Angela's basic skating was fine, what improved was her flow across the ice and her connection with her music .

Mira's had the same coach, Joanne McLeod, for years, except for a short period after McLeod "fired" her for not being cooperative. There's been a slight improvement in her basic skating, but much, much more improvement is needed for Mira to move up in the standings. Maybe a coaching change would help, but I doubt that any other top coach would take Mira on because of the constant interference of her mother.

 

[blue dog]

Angela Nikodinov's skating improved markedly when she got a new Russian coach (the one who later died). But Angela's basic skating was fine, what improved was her flow across the ice and her connection with her music .

Mira's had the same coach, Joanne McLeod, for years, except for a short period after McLeod "fired" her for not being cooperative. There's been a slight improvement in her basic skating, but much, much more improvement is needed for Mira to move up in the standings. Maybe a coaching change would help, but I doubt that any other top coach would take Mira on because of the constant interference of her mother.

I maintain that the best coach for Mira is Callaghan. He is no-nonsense, and will whip her into shape. If he could handle Nicole Bobek, he can handle her. If he managed to tame Mrs. Lipinski (who wasn't to the calibre of Mrs. Chin, but right up there with the biggest skating moms), he can tame Mama Leung.

If that doesn't work, Skate Canada should withdraw support. Then Mama Leung will shut her trap.