Plush and his protege

[skateluvr]

I watched the skates from Euros and was very pleased to see Plush do what he did with age/injury, etc. Amazing. I wish KVDP did not have to withdraw. I think he's amazing, too. I enjoyed Artur and while it is easy to see his skating as so influenced by Evgeni/Mishin, I felt Artur outskated Plushenko. The pure command and charisma of Evgeni is overpowering on video, it must be amazing in the arena when he skates with much emotion. Was the result fair? I thought these two were in a league of their own, far way from the bronze medal performance. Should we expect to see Artur placed behind Evgeni until Sochi?

If Artur really is number two, and why so? Thanks for opinions.

 

[koatcue]

Artur lacks personality.He is ot interesting to watch,imho...As for Plush, I respect him.He is very talented and has a huuuge charisma on the ice - that makes a good combination.So bad that he won't be competing in the WC2012(( But next year will be a bomb^^ Evan,Patrick,Plush...The field will be very deep

 

[Nadine]

Well during the live broadcast of Russian Nationals I felt that Artur should have won the SP, no mistakes, he did a quad/double, and skated with verve & command & has a well-choreographed program (in fact I would like Zhenya to skate Artur's programs); however Evgeni outskated him in the FS (including a quad; Artur fell on his). So the outcome was right & just imho. Also, always remember that when skating against a LEGEND (a true legend) one must go above & beyond, make absolutely no mistakes (no bobbles, stepouts, pops, UR, et al), totally outjump him (just matching him jump for him will not do, one must go above & beyond), and bring the audience to its feet. Therefore, though Artur surpassed Evgeni in terms of jumps at Euros, he still didn't outjump him, even having problems on his last triple jump, the 3R (huge stepout), and as a result rightfully finished a resepctable 2nd behind the once & only reigning King, Evgeni Plushenko. No complaints from me.

Final note to all those pretenders to the throne, one should never underestimate a legend of Evgeni's caliber, his longevity in the sport is acknowledged by those higher ups (as it should be), but most importantly to *maintain* such a high technical standard for a decade & a half, combined with his absolute total command/verver/charisma is unmatched. Nobody skating today has his mindset, his record of consistency, it is not ignored nor does it go unnoticed by those whom decide who is second, and who is first.

BRING IT ON!

 

[seniorita]

Final note to all those pretenders to the throne, one should never underestimate a legend of Evgeni's caliber...

hmm :think: there is an interview of Evgeni post Euros, too big to transfer here translated (links 1, 2) where he says

...Before the championship, I was in a not bad shape, but ... The qualification round was incredibly tough. I had troubles with the spine and neck, so I had to have five injections per a day. These drugs affected my physical form, so the second half of the long program in qualification I could barely skate. I realize that if the situation won't change, it would be very hard to keep competing. Then before the SP the knee started hurting, I couldn't do quads at practice. And when I tried to land them, I couldn't go further. I needed a pause of 2-3- minutes to recover. But how could I do that at competitions? It was a disaster and some people in my team advised me to withdraw.
I didn't have the confidence in myself that I was supposed to have. And yet I should make myself do it. You know, people twittered me a wonderful message: "Zhenya, don't give your throne to anyone!" And for all this week I was thinking about it...

Nadine did you write the twit?

About being trained with Arthur

- But is it really good for you that your competitor is in the same training group?

-E: Well, I think it's some kind fo necessity. I myself once had two mentors in my training group- Urmanov and Yagudin. Now Artur has things that I want to learn from him. That's really good and a great plus for me.

 

[sky_fly20]

Zhenya is a living Legend
while Artur has the jumps, he still lacks musicality and his skating looks dead to me other than his jump contents,
the element transitions are improving but still not up there.
his LP "Dracula" could have been amazing but it lacked something maybe he was really playing like " A Living Dead ", LOL

 

[ciocio]

Artur´s skating is not always dead, but at Euros he didn´t perform as he should have done to outskate Evgeni, even if, IMHO, his LP is better. That´s because he is young and he lacks experience. Maybe the program was too demanding for him, as Mishin said, which made him focus a lot on jumps and forget the performance part. :scratch:

Nadine, Artur landed all his jumps he didn´t fall.:thumbsup:

 

[antmanb]

I think it was perfectly fair for Gachinski to be in 2nd after Plush - he isn't quite there yet in his presentation. I think in the SP Gachinksi really performed the programme but he does still appear the young pretender to the throne to Plush. I think he still has to find his comfort zone in performance, and it will come with time, he managed to "switch it on" in the SP but not quite in the LP. In practices Gachinski has beautiful posture, good speed, jaw dropping jumps (though not much success with the quads), he can do triple axels in his sleep, but he doesn't really perform, and I think probably uses the competition adrenaline to perform.

On the other hand Plush in practice when he was doing his SP run-throughs was perfoming the heck out of the programme. He'd mark the jumps and everything from his body right through to his finger tips performed, it was relaxed and also fun. In the competition, not so much, after his combo, the transitions and chorepgraphy that lead in the triple axel were barely there, in practicehe really played on that part so i guewss he was just nervous. The LP was different story though.

As to their similarity - it is uncanny - the jump technique, posture everything is identical. I took a video of Gachinksi doing 3Lz/3T in practice and wehn i looked back on it the other day I thought it was Plush, until i realised that i hadn't filmed Plush at all in practice. I actually giggled to myself in the warm up for the LP because they have more or less the same routine for the warm up and they both shot out of th gate and on to the ice and were only metres apart doing the same things for the first minute!

 

[seniorita]

The mullet Ant the mullet, I ve told you how to distinguish them!!

Truth is that in one lp practice I was watching them together and I mixed who was jumping what, until I saw the vid I had their combos mixed! I m amazed with arthur hitting two quad cause indeed practice didn't go well!but he did it when it counted!

 

[Olympia]

That sounds very amusing, Ant. I wonder if anyone filmed footage of it.

 

[antmanb]

The mullet Ant the mullet, I ve told you how to distinguish them!!

But they both have them!! Though plush's is shinier.

 

[seniorita]

I think Arthur has little bushy hair and rough, Plu has very straight hair, every single hair on his head jumps the quad with him!

Olympia if you don't mind screaming whistles etc I think there us warm up footage, I ll look and post if so

 

[Blades of Passion]

Also, always remember that when skating against a LEGEND (a true legend) one must go above & beyond.

This statement doesn't make any sense. What you've done in the past shouldn't matter at all. It's all about what you do on the ice that day.

 

[claphappy]

I've never really kept track of Gachinski; has he ever said if he likes performing?

 

[Serious Business]

I've never really kept track of Gachinski; has he ever said if he likes performing?

I have yet to see him actually perform.

 

[Nadine]

hmm there is an interview of Evgeni post Euros, too big to transfer here translated (links 1, 2) where he says


Nadine did you write the twit?

Nope, not I, lol I've heard of twitter but as God is my witness I don't even know how to use it. Many thanks to the fan that did tweet it though, as it obviously lit a fire inside Zhenya's belly! :thumbsup:

Nadine, Artur landed all his jumps he didn´t fall.

No, he fell on his opening quad during the FS at Russian Nationals (went clean though for the SP), as I stated in my original post, but at Euros he didn't fall in either segment, only mistake being the huge stepout on his last triple jump during the FS (the 3R).

This statement doesn't make any sense. What you've done in the past shouldn't matter at all. It's all about what you do on the ice that day.

Au contraire, but it does matter, BOP, it does matter. And I for one am glad to see that it does. In any sport, such as Boxing, the challenger must not simply just spar with The King, he must TKO him, so there is nothing left on the table for doubt, which is why he must do so in convincing fashion.