Surya Bonaly never became Yuka Sato, but she did improve her skating skills over time.
Thank you for this note!
Surya was used as an example of "bad" skating in the ISU videos that I linked above and I hate it when it happens without a reference of how much the skater improved later.
That's why I will post here two videos with 20 years apart. Since Surya has been used as an example, I will check the performance of young Surya for the presence of "seven serious skating sins" that were named
here as markers for PCS judges and knowledgeable spectators - and I will check the other video if the "sins" are still present.
I will also share tips what I looked at when I judged. If you have more and better tips, please, share!
This is Surya Bonaly in 1991:
It's a champion's program by its vibe and technical difficulty. But are the "sins" there?
Let's go through the list!
"Stiff knees" - Tips: watching the legs. If a leg goes straight-bent, straight-bent all the time, it’s a “soft knee”. If skater's leg does very little bending, it’s a “stiff knee”.
Surya’s legs tend to freeze in one angle when bent and then she does a big portion of the program on equally stiff straight legs. This is truly an example of "stiff knees".
Guilty.
“Bending too far forward” - Tips: watching the back. The best way to keep from bending too far forward is to comply with the “bend your ankles, not your waist” rule. To bend your ankles, you must sit into you knees with a straight back and push your shins downwards. So, a straight back when a skater sits into knees is the best indicator that everything's fine. However, sometimes the ankles just don’t bend enough and it's anatomic. It that case, there is no other choice but to bend skater's waist, which means that the back is arched upwards to keep from bending too far forward. So, if the back is arched, watch out for other indicators - like, problems to gain speed and keep balance - that suggest that it is not arched enough to ensure the gravity center over the right part of the blade.
Surya arches her back but her front is still too far forward to provide a good placement of gravity center, which causes (see the next sin)...
Guilty.
“Balancing on the wrong part of the blade” – Tips: watching the ankles. If a skater can bend an ankle a lot so that there is an acute angle between the foot and the lover leg, that skater has plenty of space to manage the weight over the necessary part of the blade (see also tips for "bending too far forward" and "stiff knees"). If the leg bend doesn't go further than a right angle between the foot and the lower leg, it's another indicator that ankles don't bend and the skater will struggle finding the balance on the right part of the blade. (Reminder about which part is the right part: back of the skate for skating forward, front of the skate for skating backwards, right edge for turning right, left edge for turning left on the inside/outside circle for each leg respectively. Hence messing up these result as visible problems with speed, directions, edges, turns, and fighting for balance or tripping over at times.)
Surya's foot and lover leg form a right angle at all times. Hence her capacity to manage the balance is limited and her gravity center stays somewhere above the rocker of her blade, which is not the right part unless you want to slide flat.
Guilty.
“Incomplete pushes” - Tips: counting the crossovers. If a skater needs too many crossovers to gain speed, the pushes must be rather incomplete.
Surya makes this tip unnecessary. Her center of gravity is not over the proper part of the blade during the crossovers, which is why she can't keep the speed that she gains from the pushes. So, after the series of crossovers, she still doesn’t have enough speed for the element and needs an extra push from the toe. Incomplete pushes can hardly get more obvious.
Guilty.
“Pushing from the toes” – Tips: this is a tip in itself. If a skater needs and extra push from the toe to keep going, then most likely all the above sins are already here.
Surya needs pushing from her toes at almost every occasion when she’s up to do something on the ice.
Guilty.
“Skating on too shallow of a curve” - Tips: watching spirals and one foot slides before elements. This is when moving on a curve or lack of such curve of is most noticeable.
Surya's one foot slides are not even a shallow curve. She slides on a straight line and even puts the other foot on the ice at times. Her spirals are straight and straight-then-turn instead of a smooth curve. She couldn't sin more on this one.
Guilty.
“Taking too many short, jerky steps” - Tips: sit back and enjoy them. If a developing skater has not enough skill to fill the program with skating, the program still must be filled with something. I'm serious. It is possible to create an exciting program at every skill level and short, jerky steps can be as entertaining as long, smooth moves if well matched with music.
Surya fills her program indeed and proves that she is a born entertainer. But talking about the character of her moves, she trots and hops around showing no glide and for a PCS judge she is, of course...
Guilty.
And here we have Surya Bonaly in 2912:
How about her former skating sins?
"Stiff knees" - have disappeared. Her knees move nicely straight-bent, straight-bent all the time just as soft knees should.
Clean.
“Bending too far forward” - no way! Surya sits into her knees with a straight back. No other indications needed.
Clean.
“Balancing on the wrong part of the blade” – Surya kindly starts her program with a demonstration of how much she can bend her ankle. Did some say that it's anatomic and sometimes ankles just don't bend? Well, after 20 years of pro skating ankles do bend quite fine as we can see. It's not a super-sharp angle between the foot and lower leg but it's plenty to manage her center of gravity all over her blade to find the right part. Should she experience any problems with speed, flow, or edge now? Of course, she doesn't. She generates speed from the knee, she glides, she maintains a running edge out of her jumps... Whatever you want!
Clean.
“Incomplete pushes” - She demonstrates rather long series of crossovers but there is a noticeable difference between long strokes that work as a transition and a series of 3-4 short strokes when she pushes to accelerate. Not a super duper stroke master but not a sinner either: her pushes completely provide her with sufficient speed.
Clean.
“Pushing from the toes” – She has kept them! There is a choreo sequence during which she pushes from the toe several times. But, as she has been cleared from all the above sins, I rate it as a choreographic choice and not as a necessity.
Clean.
“Skating on too shallow of a curve” - Surya has a one-foot section skating on small circles and her spirals, including a back outside spiral, have nice deep curves. It's funny that she has a two-foot slide at one point but the lean towards the edge is very noticeable anyway.
Clean.
“Taking too many short, jerky steps” - She doesn't need them. She can skate long steps with nice curves suitable to the music. Any PCS judge should be satisfied.
Clean.
Every video that refers to Surya Bonaly as an example of bad skating should include a link to her skating later in her career. Because her progress is truly inspiring.
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