2012 Japan Open, Oct. 6th, 2012

[spikydurian]

Jeff... oh Jeff ... Like vintage wine.. better with increasing years!
Plushenko .. unbelievable. He still can jump.

[aftershocks]

Re Chan's performance, what was his excuse: rushing, nerves, skates, ice, early season? Oh well, he has worked hard on the musicality and artistic aspects of his skating, which weren't terribly bad anyway. Apparently, his skating skills minimize all disasters and/ or deficiencies. His skating is definitely an example of "out of this world" flow, per ISU terminology in their skating skills vids.

Re Ashley's performance, very strong! And the color of her dress is not so intense bright yellow in the video clip, as it was in the original photo link. It seems to be more of a deep rich yellow.

ETA:

Jeffrey was very good. He shows great passion. I've never been a huge fan of his, but I generally have enjoyed his performances, especially some of his extraordinary exhibitions. I could do without the exaggerated closing of eyes at the beginning, which Patrick has taken to doing also. I think they caught it from Johnny. But while Johnny's former closing of eyes seemed more spur of the moment and natural, theirs seems more studied. But whatever gets them in the mood. I don't think Johnny has particularly made a practice of doing it. I recall he did it once during the opening of his Yunona y Avos program. And on a few other occasions.

Re Plushenko. Still in great shape, but not as dead solid on his jumps, but that doesn't mean he won't be competitive. More Rondo Capriccioso, along with Johnny-flavored costume.

[VarBar]

Ashley's freeskate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJMDk...hannel&list=UL

I like it for the most part but the dress is gross and she has way too many spots where she's stopping to pull faces and pose for the judges.

Disaster skate for Patrick but that LP could be absolutely gorgeous!!

Never cared much for Ashley Wagner in the past but she's been growing on me since last season and I liked the drive and fire in her skate at Japan Open, she has a lovely presence on the ice.

Quite painful to see Chan falling on almost every jump but everything he's doing between the falls is a thing of beauty, from how he is using his edges to his body and arm movement. Awesome choreography, this La Boheme might be the most emotional program he's ever done.

[Macassar88]

Jeffrey Buttle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HRcile3Pr8&feature=plcp
I just absolutely love this guys pro work. Arguably skating better now than before he retired!

Yeah I wasn't a fan of his amateur work - but he's an amazing skater with much grace and elegance

[ali_dorate]

The color of Ashley's dress was bright yellow. In the video clip it looks more like orange but it' not.
And it was shining brightly and I love it.

What really shone was her performance.
After the beautiful and almost perfect performance of Mao, crowds went literally crazy with joy. Most of them including me expected Mao to win.

Going into the ice seeing this excitement of the crowds and delivering this level of performance is just incredible. I was so excited to see her last jump (though it was UR). She was attacking until the end of the program. That's the spirit!

Golden performance from Ashley. She changed the mood of Team NA from dark to bright!

[johndockley92]

What is the link to the detailed protocol? Thanks

[Jeschke]

deleted

[Sylvia]

What is the link to the detailed protocol

Post #165.

ETA thanks to this user who has uploaded 9 of the 12 FS videos so far: http://www.youtube.com/user/icechannel2011

[gkelly]

Are the ladies not required to do a layback spin now?

Required in the short program since 1989 -- still the case.

Never required in long programs.

[olympic]

Comment on Ashley - She seems to have more height on her jumps than she used to, and the way she saved that crooked 3F, wow! A couple of years ago, she would've landed on her butt

[luckiest1]

Quite painful to see Chan falling on almost every jump but everything he's doing between the falls is a thing of beauty, from how he is using his edges to his body and arm movement. Awesome choreography, this La Boheme might be the most emotional program he's ever done.

Absolutely! Love the costume as well, a bit reminiscent of Elvis' 1492 costume from 1995.

[ice9]

Quite painful to see Chan falling on almost every jump but everything he's doing between the falls is a thing of beauty, from how he is using his edges to his body and arm movement. Awesome choreography, this La Boheme might be the most emotional program he's ever done.

Ditto.

[orbitz]

Plush has a haircut His jumping ability is still amazing, but the rest of his skating just isn't going to cut it anymore under IJS. And what with the grabbing of his left leg into the Y-position at the end of the SLF? That made no sense whatsoever.

[jettasian]

Finally! It was a disaster, but wow! I really love this program!
It's already my favorite program from him. Love his new costume, too!


Great skate, but it reminds me of Joannie's program. Like her costume, though.

Yup, despite the falls, Chan's LP is great, love the music and the costume and the choreo. It's just his off day. Once he has his jumps together, he will be unbeatable. I'm not worried about him.

[jettasian]

Re Chan's performance, what was his excuse: rushing, nerves, skates, ice, early season? Oh well, he has worked hard on the musicality and artistic aspects of his skating, which weren't terribly bad anyway. Apparently, his skating skills minimize all disasters and/ or deficiencies. His skating is definitely an example of "out of this world" flow, per ISU terminology in their skating skills vids.

No excuse. It's just his off day. A lot of skaters have encountered that once awhile. It's better early than late in the season.

[arakwafan2006]

For me, Dai, Mao and Jeff were just in a class all by themselves. Ashley was fantastic as well.

Jeff though was just brilliant. His performance is what the ISU should consider when setting rules. Yeah, he could have used a quad but he did all the jumps but the performance was by FAR the most important part. There's the choreography that tries to address the music and there is the performance that Jeff gave where the music and the skater seemed to have been lost forever and reunited.

Mao has work to do but Tatiana Tarasova gave her a gift in the program.

Dai made the right decision to go back to Morosov BUT not have Morosov do the programs. Morosov can be more objective to what the other choreographers have done while helping dia be more consistent.

[kylet3]

Wow, Jeff was just absolutely stunning today Anyway we can convince him to come back for Sochi? I didn't realize he had still kept up with the axel, that was one of the best performances I've seen from him. Amazing.

As for Patrick, I was worried when he left Krall and my suspicions have been confirmed. Kathy Johnson has done wonders for his artistic side, but the technique is not her strong suit, Patrick was rushing through everything, there was no sense of timing or attack to his jumps, it seems like it's all gone down hill since he had his coaching change. When we are already seeing stunning performances from all Kozuka, Hanyu, Takahashi, and Dornbrush, they're up to snuff and ready to go. Patrick isn't. I'm hoping this was just a case of an off day for Patrick but he's only got a couple weeks now to Skate Canada, if we see a repeat of this, he won't find himself anywhere near the podium. I really hope he can turn it around in time.

[reese]

Ashley's program... did Mills do this one? There's too much crap arm choreography going on... very reminiscent of when Sasha Cohen would just make up her own choreography in the middle of her programs. I can't imagine all the accenting-the-music-with-arm-punches was planned by Mills.

[bek]

Patrick tends to make big mistakes early in the season... Nice to see he didn't get first with that

[ratatouille]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=6LsivBWXIC0#!

Don't know if anyone has posted Dai's TANGO ! it's gorgeous!