I personally am not of the belief that you seemingly absolutely cant hope to win a major championships, or perhaps even medal in a major championships, without all the most demanding and important jumps-quad, triple axel, triple-triple combo, is a reflection of too much emphasis being placed on one element, or on the jumps in general. I just think the mens field is much too deep now to hope to rise to the top missing one of the most important jumps from your arsenal/program. The mens field is currently one of the deepest ever arguably. I dont remember the last time there were this many worthy contenders of this high a quality, even without Plushenko present. So it is understandable you cant realisticaly hope perhaps even for a top 3 finish spotting the field that major advantage/disadvantage for yourself.
Skaters the quality of Buttle and Weir in other aspects, sure they could beat alot of skaters with all the most important jumps based on these other aspects. They wont win, and probably wont medal though, missing the quad for example, not because too much emphasis is placed on one element, but because the field is just too strong not to put everything out there when you are trying to come out on top of such an incredible field. It is not like there are not guys at the top now who have the complete package and have all the most important jumps as well.
In Weirs case imparticular, he absolutely needs to throw the kitchen sink out there this season I think. He imparticular cant even think of not going with a full arsenal of all the jumps, including the quad, preferably 1 in the short and 2 in the free skate, and fully COP-maxed out programs. I dont mean to paint a bleak picture, but view him from the angle an international judge probably views him now. He is now a middle aged skater who has dropped gradualy in the World standings, now only 8th, when he was 4th two years ago, and with Plushenko possibly returning to boot. He has regularly lost to all of Plushenko (although I am doubting his return now but we will see), Buttle, Lambiel, Lysacek for a couple of years or more now. He had just been clearly surpassed by the two young Japanese Oda and Takahashi over the last season. Verner and others are on the move up. He has never won a World medal, and we are now at a point younger and newer people are on the rise, and the field is only getting tougher.
He has seemingly lost alot of status, and with the incredible depth in the mens field, and the amount of time that has already passed without truly making it, he is in danger of being lost in the shuffle for good, atleast on the international level. His scores from the judges are in some cases quite telling. Whereas last year at the Olympics an inspired short program cracked the 80 point barrier, and at U.S Nationals an exquisite short program topped 83; yet this year at U.S Nationals with a wonderful short program skate he could not even match his Olympics score under the lax inflated U.S Nationals scoring and barely topped 78, even losing the short program to Lysacek. He could only manage in the mid 70s range for his multiple clean shorts during the season internationaly, while others like Oda, Takahashi, Joubert, were generaly upping their short program scores from past seasons. Lambiel had two nightmarish short programs at Worlds and Skate Canada, yet Weir with a clean (Skate Canada) and semi-clean (Worlds) was still beaten by Lambiels personal short program nightmare on the PCS both times. The judges at U.S Nationals were willing to dish out a virtual 170 before Weir even set foot on the ice, that was after a clean Weir had already lost the short program to Lysacek doing the same jumps.
I think Weir imparticular is in no position to think he could even think of leaving out anything and aspiring to any major goal this year. He literaly has to fight like he has never fought before in his career perhaps. He needs to come out armed with everything he possibly can, quads, triple axels, the kitchen sink if neccessary like I said. He needs to do COP-maxed programs and skate them almost perfectly from the get go. If he wants to even entertain thoughts of a medal of any color at Worlds it will take absolutely everything. He is a big time underdog going into this season, there is no way around that fact, and he is in absolutely no position to roll the dice on what he can or cant do. I am almost certain this is a make-or-break year for him, if he hasnt already been lost in the shuffle already, and if I was his new coach I would be frank with him about it and tell him that he has to try and go for everything, since he has a long road to climb.
, with 1 quad and 2 triple Axels planned, but he fell on one of them and finished 11th.(drown our sorrows...that is.)
