New Kulik/Gordeeva skating center

[aliceanne]

But not Daria?

According to a recent interview with Katia in IFS Daria (now 20) is back at home and has a job. Daria does not want a sports related career.

She may change her mind later but I can see how at 20 she might want to distance herself from skating. Those are some pretty big shadows to be in when your morher, father, and stepfather were all Olympic gold medalists.

[lulu]

According to a recent interview with Katia in IFS Daria (now 20) is back at home and has a job. Daria does not want a sports related career.

She may change her mind later but I can see how at 20 she might want to distance herself from skating. Those are some pretty big shadows to be in when your morher, father, and stepfather were all Olympic gold medalists.

There was an interview with Daria a few years ago, where she spoke about the pressure of high expectations, not from Katia or Ilia, but from people in general, to achieve the same degree of success that her parents did in figure skating.

[aliceanne]

I'm not sure if I follow this reasoning, can someone kindly explain why they
purposefully make it smaller? Can hockey force its way into privately owned rinks against the owners' will?

In the IFS interview they said they chose rhat size because it was just big enough to train triple jumps. A larger ice surface would be more costly to maintain and that would mean that they would have to rent to hockey and have public sessions to pay the bills.

[rfisher]

It does. Ilia specifically wanted the rink to be a training facility for figure skaters, and as such, they don't offer hockey or public skating. In order accommodate the lack of revenue that hockey and public skating would have brought the rink, they had to adjust the size of the rink. Ilia does mention that the rink is large enough to practice quad jumps. They also mentioned in the interview that it was important to offer flexibility to skaters and their families, and to offer off-ice classes in addition to the on-ice classes. From the article, it looks like Ilia focuses on teaching jumping technique and Katia focuses on teaching skating skills and younger skaters.

Excellent combination! We will have to keep our eyes on the skaters coming out of this school (as it were). If they get a skater with talent, they've got the skills to teach and we may have some future skating stars.

[Artifice]

The explaination of why they choose a smaller rink is interesting and the reason is clear. However I wonder weither it's that a big deal to rent the rink to public sessions in order to make more incomings. Having a standard size rink is so important for skaters who practice for competitions. Practicing on a smaller rink all year may be disturbing when going to competition and having to skate on a different surface.
To the owners of the rink it was more important to have the ice full time for FS practice than to share a bigger rink with public sessions and hockey. But I know a lot of rinks that work well with high level FS training sessions and public sessions + hockey sessions.
A day can start at 6 or 7 am and end at 22pm, that makes 15 hours for various sessions. Within these hours that should be possible to leave the ice for a few hours to hockey and public sessions without disturbing FS training.
For a high level competitor the size of the rink is a concern and it is possible that such a skater doesn't chose a smaller rink, therefore limiting the potential of the rink to attract "big" names.

However I hope for the Kulik's rink that their choice will work, their expertise combined with Gordeeva is probably the best in the world.

[Sylvia]

It's my understanding that it's common for many of the high level competitors in southern California to skate/train at more than one rink.

If they get a skater with talent, they've got the skills to teach and we may have some future skating stars.

Liza Kulik demonstrates very good basics from what I've seen so far.

[Willowway]

Ilia also coaches a very talented young skater from the Philippines, Michael Christian Martinez. Ilia mentioned to a Krew member after the recent show in Phoenix that he was thrilled for Michael's recent accomplishment - a gold medal at Crystal Ice (Senior B comp in Romania) earlier in November. This was Michael's very first senior international comp and his results have qualified him for Worlds. To add to the story, he performed a clean 3A/3A (yes, I really meant that!) combo in his free program (so much for the questions about training big programs at Kulik's Skating) and won the very first gold in international figure skating for his country. What a evening for him!!

Unfortunately economics at this moment do not support Ilia traveling with Michael but hopefully things will improve - they have been together as coach and student for about 2.5 years (maybe a little longer) so far. Ilia can't say enough about what a talented, hard-working, nice young man Michael is.

[lulu]

Willowway,

That's great news, I'm super impressed by the 3A/3A combo. Congratulations to Michael and to his coach!

[Sylvia]

Willowway, the article on Michael Christian Martinez that you posted in the Crystal Skate thread in Kiss and Cry mentioned that "He is but two points shy of earning a berth in the World Championship to be held sometime in March 2013." I wish him well at Philippine Nationals this week!

[lulu]

Excellent combination!

I was thinking the exact same thing when I read the article. To have Katia teach stroking/edge quality and Ilia teaching jumping technique sounds like a dream coaching team (hmm, maybe Stephane Lambiel can stop by once in a while to teach a spinning class? ).

[Macassar88]

I was thinking the exact same thing when I read the article. To have Katia teach stroking/edge quality and Ilia teaching jumping technique sounds like a dream coaching team (hmm, maybe Stephane Lambiel can stop by once in a while to teach a spinning class? ).

Or Lucinda Ruh!

[antmanb]

Ilia also coaches a very talented young skater from the Philippines, Michael Christian Martinez. Ilia mentioned to a Krew member after the recent show in Phoenix that he was thrilled for Michael's recent accomplishment - a gold medal at Crystal Ice (Senior B comp in Romania) earlier in November. This was Michael's very first senior international comp and his results have qualified him for Worlds. To add to the story, he performed a clean 3A/3A (yes, I really meant that!) combo in his free program

Not that it isn't a very impressive feat, but I question the wisdom of doing a 3A/3A that could only ever be marked as a sequence and therefore only receive 80% of the base value of two triple axels. If you have the skill to land not one but two 3As then i'd be wanting to get the full base value for each rather than give up 20% of the points for what would be your highest scoring element.

[Willowway]

I don't question the wisdom of it and I'll tell you why.

You are absolutely correct about the potential of the sequence as opposed to a combo. And I know that Ilia has been studying CoP and debating the fine points with fellow skaters - he has talked to the Krew about it and once, really sat for a long while explaining CoP to us when it was relatively new. He along with Petrenko, Hamilton, etc. even made a formal suggestion for a revision to CoP two seasons ago that was voted on and accepted by the ISU. So I don't think that we're talking about CoP ignorance here.

If Michael came in second, well then let the arm-chair quarterbacking begin. But the kid won his very first senior international event with that sequence in his program. Hard to argue with that result. If that sequence gave him confidence at this point to skate a great program, so be it. If he's moving toward another combo and this sequence is an intermediate step, so be it. If he ad libbed and threw it in, so be it.

I agree with you that any particular program, its elements and score potential is a product for which the value needs to be maximized. I'm a marketing strategy exec. in my non-skating life so I really get your point there. That said, moving toward Olympic level performance in any discipline is a process. And all these "products" (the programs and elements) need to fit into a process that moves the skater forward over time. So I am assuming (but confident) that this is part of Michael's process - and it's working.

Michael has been coming along very well and very quickly. When he is ready to achieve the additional points you cite, I have no doubt he will, or at least give it a great try.

[Coco]

Not that it isn't a very impressive feat, but I question the wisdom of doing a 3A/3A that could only ever be marked as a sequence and therefore only receive 80% of the base value of two triple axels. If you have the skill to land not one but two 3As then i'd be wanting to get the full base value for each rather than give up 20% of the points for what would be your highest scoring element.

I would be surprised if he keeps this 3a+3a+seq for several seasons because of the 20% deduction, but an original skill or combo like this is a great way for an up and coming skater to stand out and be remembered. I think it makes sense for now. And it really bodes well for his ability to - in the future - do a 3a with a difficult entrance. It's always great to be the first to do something! Who knows, maybe we'll see 3a-1l-3flip from him soon.

[kwanfan1818]

Ilia also coaches a very talented young skater from the Philippines, Michael Christian Martinez. Ilia mentioned to a Krew member after the recent show in Phoenix that he was thrilled for Michael's recent accomplishment - a gold medal at Crystal Ice (Senior B comp in Romania) earlier in November. This was Michael's very first senior international comp and his results have qualified him for Worlds.

Willowway, the article on Michael Christian Martinez that you posted in the Crystal Skate thread in Kiss and Cry mentioned that "He is but two points shy of earning a berth in the World Championship to be held sometime in March 2013." I wish him well at Philippine Nationals this week!

He's 2.76 points shy of the SP minimum -- his highest this season was 32.24 at Crystal Skate -- but he made the Worlds TES minimum at that competition with FS TES of 67.07.

To add to the story, he performed a clean 3A/3A (yes, I really meant that!) combo in his free program (so much for the questions about training big programs at Kulik's Skating) and won the very first gold in international figure skating for his country. What a evening for him!!

Do you mean at Crystal Skate? The official protocols list his FS elements as:

1 MICHAEL CRISTIAN MARTINEZ PHI 7 125.75 67.07 58.68 0.00

1 3A
2 3A+2T
3 3Lz
4 FSSp4
5 StSq3
6 2A
7 FCCoSp4 3.50 0.50
8 3Lo+2T+2T
9 3T+2T
10 3S
11 3Lo
12 ChSq1
13 CCoSp3

According to this protocol, he's repeating the 3A and 3Lo in two separate jump boxes.

I looked it up to try to do the math to see what jump he added in lieu of the open box for moving both 3A's into the same box. A 3A+3A sequence is worth 13.60 or 14.96 after the halfway point, which is even more of a joke when you think about the difficulty. His 3A and 3A/2T sequences at the beginning of the program are worth 18.3, or a difference of 4.7. (He can't do 3A/3T without giving up the second 3Lo, which would lose him 2.3 net in base.)

The only triple he's missing is the flip, which would get him 5.3 or 5.83 in the second half of the program, or .6-1.13 more than he loses with the sequence penalty.

I can see 3A+3A sequence as an attention-getter to put him on the map, but it's a lot of risk for a relatively small potential gain.

The Zayak rule needs to be overhauled for jumps after the first in combination, and the sequence rule could be changed to de-value the second jump only, since relative to a combo, the second jump in a sequence should be less difficult (in theory and in general) than the second jump in a combo.

[skatemommy]

^^Kwanfan, you need to be our FSU COP commentator! You are miles better than the current crop on US TV! Well done

[Willowway]

Do you mean at Crystal Skate?

Thanks for the info. I repeated what I had read and believed. Going forward I think it's safer for me to leave these discussions to other people.

[victoriajh]

back to the rink and skating center- i emailed and am in process of setting up a lesson with Katia!!! i think will see about having her do some updates to an old program and some basics_ because A) thats all i can do!! and B) she has such great basics..... cant wait!!!!

[lulu]

back to the rink and skating center- i emailed and am in process of setting up a lesson with Katia!!! i think will see about having her do some updates to an old program and some basics_ because A) thats all i can do!! and B) she has such great basics..... cant wait!!!!

That sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime, how wonderful for you to get a chance to train with one of the all time best. Best of luck to you with your classes. BTW, lurve your location.

[misskarne]

back to the rink and skating center- i emailed and am in process of setting up a lesson with Katia!!! i think will see about having her do some updates to an old program and some basics_ because A) thats all i can do!! and B) she has such great basics..... cant wait!!!!

Oh, lucky, lucky you! Good luck and have fun and I hope you don't turn into a wibbling mess!