mzheng:
The leaner, the smaller @, the biger Cos@ and the smaller Sin@ if you maintain the same speed (v) and same curve (r) then you would fall towards the center. To avoid the fall you need either increase your speed(v) or increase the curve degree (reduce the r).
OK, since I have the most difficulty with the r from this equation, what is r, is it the radius from the center point of the centripetal force to the skater's blade, i.e. edge that forms the @ on the ice?
Mathman:
About the 180 degree split..... seems to me that this shortens your base and makes it more difficult to keep your skates under your center of gravity back to front -- think of a pencil skating on its point.
What do you mean by shortening the
base
I can see that multi factors contribute to the
technical difficulties of a spiral. So one has to integrate all these factors to determine who are the skaters with the overall best. I think actually Sarah Hughes our reigning champ has one of the overall best in the world. I know, a lot of people find fault because her knee is a bit bent, that is her anatomy, she can't do much about it. But if you look at her
powerful deep forward inside edge, the
speed , the
ice coverage and the amplitude. I think she has an amazing spiral.
IMHO
NO ONE manages a complete 180 degree split, and Sarah's split is very close to 180 degrees.
Mathman:
..... with your head up (the better to smile at the judges, while simultaneously treating the photographers behind you)
This is the non technical part of the spiral, I guess the smile is important, that is why I think Nicole's spiral is the mother of all spirals. Her smile lights up the entire arena. Some skaters like Sarah really
draws the audience into her performance with the spiral Although 4DKnight pointed out in another thread that Sarah's hands and fingers are not exactly the most expressive, "thumbs hanging down"
Oh well no one is perfect, but Sarah comes very close. Talking about the fingers, I have to agree with Joesitz that Yukina Ota is tops. If you have time watch her Turandot program from junior worlds 03 again.
On the topic of treating the photographers behind, no comment, I don't want our reigning Olys champ to treat the photographers in that way at all. I hope no one will equate this photographers' treat as part of good skating. IMO, any skater who has a speciality in "photographers treat" loses major style points, at least with me.
Pixie:
As for the edge vs flex debate, plenty of skaters have had edges as good as and better than MK. No one, with the exception of Nicole on the spiral, comes close to Sasha's flex..."
Pixie, I think many factors contribute to a good spiral, not just flexibility, not just edge. I have to disagree that only Sasha and Nicole have the best flex, Lucindh, Ota, Oksana, just to name a few. There is no way you can convince me that good flex alone makes the best spiral.
I think it will be fun to do a little experiment.
Take the different spiral factors and put numeric value of the importance (these values must add up to 10), then rank skaters from 1 - 10, on how well they perform these factors, and sum it up. Of course my numeric value of what is important, and my ranking of the skaters will be different from yours.
edge - I assign the importance value of 3.5
speed - I assign a value of 3
ice coverage - I assign a value of 2
extension - value of 1
amplitude - value of 0.5
I will rank Sarah
edge - I score her as 9.5 (with 10 as the best)
speed - I score her as 9
ice coverage - 9.5
extension - 6
amplitude - 9
Sum of her score 3.5 x 9.5 + 3 x 9 + 2 x 9.5 + 1 x 6 + 0.5 x 9 = 89.75 (out of a possible max of 100)
So, I have done my math homework, Pixie, let us see yours.
