If you could have a rule created, what would it be.

[Aceon6]

I'd love to see the step sequences timed. You get 10 seconds for the straight line, 20 for the circular and you MUST cover the entire length of the sheet. Failure to cover is an automatic -3 GOE. The sequences would be less fussy, skaters with great edges would eat it up, and the ones who crawl would get the scores they deserve.

I'm all for the gkelly "single jumps as transitions don't count in the jump list." I'd love to see a falling leaf used that way.

[gkelly]

Well, falling leaf is a half-revolution jump, so already it doesn't count in the jump list.

[briancoogaert]

No frantic arm movements to get bonus !
I want a pure style with economy of moves. Give me Michelle Kwan, Dorothy Hamill or John Curry over Lysacek, Plushenko or Flatt !

A rule I really would like to change would be the combo rule.
I would give a bonus for 3/3 combos, because doing a solo 3Flip and a 3Toe/2Toe is not the same as a 3Flip/3Toe and a 2Toe ! But actually, the points are the same !

[gkelly]

A rule I really would like to change would be the combo rule.
I would give a bonus for 3/3 combos, because doing a solo 3Flip and a 3Toe/2Toe is not the same as a 3Flip/3Toe and a 2Toe ! But actually, the points are the same !

True.

So how could the rules be written to reward this difference appropriately?

Will just giving a multiplier to the second jump in the combination take care of it?

[AndyWarhol]

i wish there was more emphasis on positions. Just because you can hold an ugly position for three seconds shouldn't give more points over a beautiful perfectly sustained position.

[DORISPULASKI]

What I was thinking of was that I never want to see a skater do what Joshua Farris did at US Nationals: skate what appeared to be a whole program on a broken ankle. I don't think a skater is brave to do something like that, falling or nearly falling on every jump. What they are doing is injure themselves.

If they don't stop, then the officials should stop it. If equipment is broken and the skater doesn't stop, AFAIR, the ref can stop the skate. The same should be true of a broken leg, although granted the leg is not as immediately obvious as a skatelace.

I don't think skaters hurting themselves should be encouraged. If a 3 fall rule catches the occasional 3 fall elite skater, that would not bother me either.

[skfan]

At least in the US, I want a rule about selecting world team members. The selection committee should more heavily factor in performance that year. As it is, the skaters most likely to make worlds are holding back their best performances so they can peak a month later, which means that they're sometimes not as good as the skaters going lights out just to make a wild shot at the world team. The current system doesn't favor our best skaters.[/I]

this has been discussed a lot here and at GS. i feel if you are to go to worlds you ought to be able to put down a good performance at nationals. i don't like anything 'by committee' because with anonymous judging skating is already plenty murky and political.

if you can't put it together at nationals, why should i believe you will 'peak' at worlds? what happened to knocking it out of the ballpark on your first try, like MK used to do at skate america, like YN Kim did with her Bond Girl and Gershwin program the 2010 Oly season?

i want fairness and transparency. those aspects are far more important to me than having more worlds spots next year, or more worlds medals. i want everybody eligible to go to US nationals to have a *chance* at a worlds spot. i don't want to base going to worlds 'partially' on international assignments/ outcomes because not everybody who's earned a chance to skate at nationals will have had a reasonable shot at one of those international assignments, especially with the recent GP cutbacks.

if you are injured and can prove yourself fit before worlds, that's a different question. but that wasn't the case with abbott, rippon, nagasu, the popular 'should have gones' last season.

i respect your opinion. i understand that mine is only one opinion on the subject, but forgive me, i cannot resist getting on the soap box once every 15 times i encounter this argument

[RobinA]

My rule is that skaters get a 50 point bonus for actually skating to the music instead of over it.

I second this one!

[gkelly]

I don't think skaters hurting themselves should be encouraged. If a 3 fall rule catches the occasional 3 fall elite skater, that would not bother me either.

The problem is ...

The vast majority of the time skaters fall three times in a program, they are not injured or injuring themselves.

If a skater is injured in a fall during a program (or never should have started the program in the first place because of preexisting injury), damage may be done well before the third fall

Disqualification based on X number of falls, especially in early-season competitions, will arbitrarily dash the dreams of far more skaters who are trying to work their way up to completing more difficult content, having a slightly off day for one reason or another, in some cases combined with the bad luck to have an equipment malfunction or hit a bad piece of ice, then it will save from serious damage.

The one advantage of a specific number cutoff is that it's objective.

The disadvantage is that setting the cutoff at three is overly punitive for skaters who are actually having an otherwise decent skate. A higher number would miss too many of the rare occasions when the skater really should be stopped.

On the other hand, leaving it up to the referee to use judgment to determine from facial expression and body language when a skater should be stopped for his or her own good is too subjective and potentially subject to abuse by referees, or perceptions and accusations thereof.

[DORISPULASKI]

Yes, that's why I was using number of falls as an objective criterion. If you like 4 falls better, all good.

Or at 3 falls, stop the program and have the ref determine whether the skater is injured.

Charge a penalty for it.

[stevlin]

I would like to see certain skaters stop their arm flailings. It is ugly to watch. Also ladies layback spins where the leg off the ice droops instead of extending it outward. Also sit spins should be close to the ice [butt close].

[misskarne]

What I was thinking of was that I never want to see a skater do what Joshua Farris did at US Nationals: skate what appeared to be a whole program on a broken ankle. I don't think a skater is brave to do something like that, falling or nearly falling on every jump. What they are doing is injure themselves.

If they don't stop, then the officials should stop it. If equipment is broken and the skater doesn't stop, AFAIR, the ref can stop the skate. The same should be true of a broken leg, although granted the leg is not as immediately obvious as a skatelace.

I don't think skaters hurting themselves should be encouraged. If a 3 fall rule catches the occasional 3 fall elite skater, that would not bother me either.

To fix that, remove Tom Z's coaching credentials. That poor kid should never have got on the ice for the short program, let alone the long. He didn't want to get off because Tom Z was glaring at him to continue and when he finally did get off Z was acting all disappointed in him because he didn't skate better. Disgraceful IMO.

[briancoogaert]

True.

So how could the rules be written to reward this difference appropriately?

Will just giving a multiplier to the second jump in the combination take care of it?

Yes, for example, giving a multiplier on the second jump. And doing this even if the attempt is underrotated on the second jump. In order to encourage skaters to take some risk !

[RockTheTassel]

-3 falls in any program, and you are assumed to be too injured to continue to skate; leave the ice.

Having watched several skaters fall many times in the LP, I would really have appreciated it if the ref had escorted them off after the 3rd fall. In hindsight, I bet they would appreciate it too.

I think it would be much more embarrassing to be escorted off the ice in the middle of a bad program than it would be to just finish it. I'll bet there are plenty of skaters who are glad they finished bad programs, even if they hated being out there at the time.

In the case of injured skaters, no one is forcing them to finish the program. They're allowed to withdraw at any time. There's no way to know how many falls they can take before they're too injured to skate, either. Some skaters could get hurt after one fall, while others might take numerous falls and be fine.

A "so many falls and you're out" rule might also lead to more skaters developing a habit of popping jumps since they know falls could lead to disqualification.

[Seerek]

required jump combinations with a loop jump

required all six jump types in a program - regardless if you can/can't do the triples properly

competitors' nation's flag on the costume for at least the short program/dance

serpentine step sequences option for singles

[Screenie]

someone may have already said this, but I would just want to take away rules. There's thousands of them. The fewer the better.

[triple_toe]

serpentine step sequences option for singles

This is already possible, just not popular since they take up so much time.

[SmallFairy]

This is already possible, just not popular since they take up so much time.

once, there was a time, when a man name Alexei Yagudin did the serpentine steps in his short programs.....

[misskarne]

once, there was a time, when a man name Alexei Yagudin did the serpentine steps in his short programs.....

...back in the days when footwork was fast, and awesome, and involved the music, not every turn and movement ever invented.

Sorry, your comparison is flawed. I loved Yags' footwork - but the scoring systems are completely different and led to two different styles of footwork. Yagudin's was superb, but it would barely make level 1 under CoP. That's the point everyone's trying to make.

(Kulik was also a serpentine fan in the SP.)

[Rex]

Keeping skaters from using the same music over and over. I would not allow them to use the previous season's programs.