Ways to improve SC's selection of junior skaters for competitions

[redhotcoach]

Here's a novel idea! Perhaps Skate Canada should adopt the USFSA system of developmental competitions.....you know, the ones where the parents pay the way but the USFSA pays the entry fee or something small......

There certainly are enough of these competitions around, and if the parents are willing to pay - then why shouldn't Skate Canada send entries?

I agree that competing against the same skaters over and over at summer competitions is not motivating enough.. The skater either gets too comfortable knowing how they will place in advance......and fails to learn the valuable lesson of coming through when the pressure is really on ....or else they fail to push themselves to excel through their performance rather than through the often inflated scores of the judges for their favourites.....

 

[nadster]

Here's a novel idea! Perhaps Skate Canada should adopt the USFSA system of developmental competitions.....you know, the ones where the parents pay the way but the USFSA pays the entry fee or something small......

There certainly are enough of these competitions around, and if the parents are willing to pay - then why shouldn't Skate Canada send entries?

They did that a little for the juniors at NACS events in the latter years of the NACS program which was sadly shelved last year. Unfortunately Skate Canada's picks for NACS events often didn't make sense, often picking skaters who failed to make it through sectionals and didn't even make it to the challenges.

As far as handling a limited budget is concerned the first thing SC must do is merge some sections together. Far too many sections don't even have a meaningful sectional competition because they don't have at least 5 junior ladies. I know this is unlikely to happen as right now each province has a section ( even PEI ) and there would be a loss of "provincial feel" but this would save money and increase the quality of competitions that skaters in smaller sections face. It also would lower administrative costs that could be better used for skater development.

My merged sections would be as follows:

1. PEI , Nova Scotia , New Brunswick and Newfoundland become 1 big Maritime section.

2. Manitoba and Saskatchewan become 1 section as well. I might include Northern Ontario in here as well.

 

[nadster]

I agree that competing against the same skaters over and over at summer competitions is not motivating enough.. The skater either gets too comfortable knowing how they will place in advance......and fails to learn the valuable lesson of coming through when the pressure is really on ....or else they fail to push themselves to excel through their performance rather than through the often inflated scores of the judges for their favourites.....

The problem is not competing against the same skaters over and over but competing against low quality over and over. The skater gets comfortable because they know they will will likely win a summer competition with only a double axel and/or one triple jump. The one consistent thing in most summer competitions in junior ladies here is that the vast majority of skaters don't even look like they can land a double axel or any triple jump. If the same skaters over and over were your top American junior skaters you bet there would be more of a push to improve.

In other words our top junior ladies need more exposure to quality fields. Reinstating finals at summer competitions ( where the best of each flight compete against each other ) would be a start. We used to have finals in Thornhill but sadly they were removed a few years ago to save a day of ice rental.

Sending skaters to competitions like Liberty and Detroit makes the most sense. Our ice dancers pretty much all go to Lake Placid right now with excellent results so why can't the ladies follow that example?

 

[chuckm]

The problem has been that SC has entered skaters in Liberty but much of the time the skaters are Seniors, and most don't even show up to skate.

Some Canadian juniors did skate at the Silicon Valley Open last summer. Amanda Velenosi finished 5th in the Junior ladies event, which was won by Ellie Kawamura and Amanda Dobbs (who finished 8th and 5th at Nationals as Juniors). Three other Canadian juniors skated in that event, along with one junior man, one novice man and one novice lady.

A bunch of Canadian ladies skated in the Senior and Junior events at Skate Detroit last summer. Lesley Hawker was 5th, Diane Szmiett 8th and Erin Scherrer 11th in the finals in Seniors; 4 other Canadian Seniors competed but did not make the final. McKenzie Crawford was the only Canadian Junior to make the final (she was 7th). 5 other Junior ladies competed, but finished near the bottom of their preliminary rounds.

 

[nadster]

chuckm. Thanks for your US summer comp stats

That means only 2 decent Canadian junior ladies actually went to the big US competitions. When I read which Canadians went to Detroit, except for McKenzie Crawford, the other junior ladies were the much weaker ones who don't look like they are going anywhere. The 2 you mentioned were among the few junior ladies who actually scored a total of over 100 ( SP + FS ) in Canadian summer comps this year

 

[Sylvia]

Canada's Daniela-Bella Favot also made the Junior Ladies final round at 2007 Skate Detroit and placed 5th there (she was listed in the results as representing an EGL club rather than Canada because she has been coached, along with Lesley Hawker, by Richard Callaghan in Michigan for a while). McKenzie Crawford finished 10th in Junior at 2008 Canadians, while Favot was 23rd/last (Favot was 6th in Novice in year before).

ETA: At the 2007 Golden West club comp. in Los Angeles in late Aug./early Sept., Canada's Rika Inoda was 7th in the Junior Ladies final round (she went on to place 8th in her JGP debut in Croatia). Cecylia Witkowski registered for Golden West but withdrew (she was 3rd in Jr. at 2007 Canadians and 7th this year). Cambria Little was 11th in the Novice Ladies final round at Golden West and placed 4th in Novice at 2008 Canadians.

Who are the likely JGP ladies for Canada this fall?

 

[nadster]

Who are the likely JGP ladies for Canada this fall?

First of all Canada has 8 guaranteed JGP slots. So I am going to assume 6 ladies to start with a chance for 2 getting a second slot if they do well in the first one.

Also don't look at national results. This season none of the top 10 junior ladies at 2007 nationals got a spot and only one of them was listed as an alternate to any of the competitions. SC looks much more on whether a skater has landed the bigger jumps ( lutz, loop , or flip ) even once in competition. The picture isn't clear until summer competitions are finished.

This is my likely list of JGP slots ( not the one I would choose myself see my notes)

I am pretty sure Kang, Szmiett, Tisluk and McNeil will get the first 4 slots with the other 2 determined by summer comps.

Almost certain: Kang, Szmiett and Tisluk. Although personally I think SC would be better off sending young novices than these three. All of these skaters have had at least 2 JGP's with pretty bad results ( more often than not scoring a total of under 100 and sometimes getting totals in the 70's which is lower than many FP -only scores of the top junior ladies). Kang would be in her last year.

Pretty certain; Kelsey McNeill ( J1 - landed a triple loop in Thornhill , has reasonably consistent toe and salchow). Also received Merano cup last year.
Definitely deserves a chance. Also her nationals score was higher than Kang , Szmiett and Tisluk.

The following skaters may or may not be picked by SC. Also summer competition may bring new skaters into the mix.

Megan Ure: ( J9 - landed a flip in SP at Canadians. Was listed as alternate for a 2007 JGP despite failing to make it out of western challenges in junior ladies in 2007). And her summer results were all under 100 total as well even though she managed to rotate ( and fall on ) all the triples ( including the harder ones) in the summer. I think it was simply the fact that she rotated all the hard triples in the summer which put her higher on the SC totem pole. In her short program 3 of her spin and step sequences were rated level 1 hence her lower marks. Still in SC's mind probably number 5 on the JGP totem pole at the moment. Personally not my choice.

Rika Inoda : (J19) - Despite imploding at Canadians , has been reasonably consistent the rest of the year. Must come back strong in summer. Was novice champion of 2007. Was trying triple loops in programs but clearly does not have this jump.

Vanessa Grenier( J2) - Like McNeill , outscored Kang , Tisluk and Szmiett at nationals. Must add jumps to repetoire to get eye of SC selectors. I would pick her. She finished very close to Kelsey.

The ladies who placed 3 -7 in junior ladies this year all outscored Kang at nationals. However given SC's attitude unlikely to be chosen unless they add jumps to the arsenal. In Amanda Velenosi's case ( J3 ) would they want her to double up in singles and pairs on JGP like Dube? Cecylia Witkowski ( J7) was listed as an alternate for JGP this year. But the fact that she was 3rd in juniors in 2007 and now has fallen to 7th might not impress selectors. Although Kang in the past finished 4th in 2006 junior ladies and fell to 11th in 2007 and still got JGP assignments so what do I know.

Alexandra Najarro( N1) - should get an assignment - has won pre-novice and novice back to back ( showing great consistency in bigger events) and is very consistent with toe and salchow. Her novice nationals score is 103.04. If she shows added jumps during the summer her place is really locked up.

Melissa Briggs( N2 ) could also get consideration.