U.S. Men 2012-13 news, updates & general discussion

[Sylvia]

This is sad. I am a casual fan and I realised that it was illegal upon my first viewing when he did the short program at one of those shows leading up to Nationals. I pointed it out in one of the threads here and was given to understand that the upright change upright was just for the show.

Props to you, Marco! It was my assumption only in that thread that Team Abbott knew which spins were required for the SP, so I turned out to be wrong.

After trial runs of the fp on the GP circuit, it's obvious that Adam and his coach got together with his choreographer, Michael Seibert, to tweak and fine-tune his fp. The changes they made work, and most importantly Adam skated it at Nationals with more conviction and enthusiasm.

"Obvious" is an assumption on your part. Though I agree with the "skated ... with more conviction and enthusiasm," I won't be surprised if Rippon returns to his classical roots next season.

[Jayar]

That's pretty poor, to not even bother checking the rules.



It's not just the coach's responsibility. Abbott should have known the rules or at least checked himself.

One of the risks when you self choreograph.

[gkelly]

I've certainly seen coaches make that kind of mistake before. Often they have a lot of skaters at various levels and may not have had anyone at the same level and discipline recently, with the possibility of a rule change during the interim.

Early-season competitions are good opportunities to discover these kinds of mistakes. Making a change to program content in the middle of a season is risky, especially without looking up the actual rules.

Yes, there is a lot for coaches to keep track of, including rule changes at various levels each spring/summer and occasional clarifications during the year. IJS does tend to make things more complicated.

Skaters each have only one level and discipline to worry about. Not all skaters are ready to take that kind of responsibility for their own program content, but an experienced senior competitor probably should be.

[Skittl1321]

I didn't think the mistake was such a big deal (but was surprised a message board poster would catch what a coach didn't) until it was explained the rule had been in place since 1995! Keeping up with the year to year rule changes can be tough, and I know coaches don't catch everything (which is why they have tech specialists review programs.)

[aftershocks]

...

"Obvious" is an assumption on your part. Though I agree with the "skated ... with more conviction and enthusiasm," I won't be surprised if Rippon returns to his classical roots next season.

Actually, on the NBC broadcast (as I recall) Scott H referred to the fact that Michael Siebert had fine-tuned the Incredibles program with Adam shortly after his last GP event. I heard it, but I don't have it on tape, and I don't remember Scott's exact words.

In any case, the below vids make it obvious that the program was tweaked, which actually is not an unusual occurrence for most skaters, their coaches and choreographers to do over the course of a season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcAOJsCQ3_E Cup of China Incredibles


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guzEfgtvd2w Nationals Incredibles

[Sylvia]

^^^ It was obvious that the program was tweaked for Nationals but not obvious who tweaked it - sorry for not being clearer earlier.

Rippon mentioned before Nationals that his "free program is filled with many new steps and changes in layout" and the hearsay info I received was that Seibert wasn't involved in re-working the choreography. I've also seen a copy of USFS' media guide for 2013 Nationals, and it listed Rafael Arutunian and Nadia Kanaeva as additional choreographers to Seibert. I have no recollection of what Scott Hamilton said on NBC - I tune him out most of the time.

[sk9tingfan]

^^^ It was obvious that the program was tweaked for Nationals but not obvious who tweaked it - sorry for not being clearer earlier.

Rippon mentioned before Nationals that his "free program is filled with many new steps and changes in layout" and the hearsay info I received was that Seibert wasn't involved in re-working the choreography. I've also seen a copy of USFS' media guide for 2013 Nationals, and it listed Rafael Arutunian and Nadia Kanaeva as additional choreographers to Seibert. I have no recollection of what Scott Hamilton said on NBC - I tune him out most of the time.

Re Hamilton: So wise to do that. I was listening to NBC's beginning of the countdown to Sochi who was using Hamilton as their commentator. Of course he only focused on the Men and the Women's chances for medals (Evan skated an exhibition number afterwards). I immediately tweeted to him, asking him why he did not mention our best chance for a gold medal there was Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

[SkateFan66]

Re Hamilton: So wise to do that. I was listening to NBC's beginning of the countdown to Sochi who was using Hamilton as their commentator. Of course he only focused on the Men and the Women's chances for medals (Evan skated an exhibition number afterwards). I immediately tweeted to him, asking him why he did not mention our best chance for a gold medal there was Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

Earlier in the Today Show broadcast, they did a preview and mentioned that Davis and White were best hope for FS gold. In Scott's segment, they probably focused on the FS events that garner the best ratings. Last Olympics, the ice dance was the least watched FS event.

[sk9tingfan]

Earlier in the Today Show broadcast, they did a preview and mentioned that Davis and White were best hope for FS gold. In Scott's segment, they probably focused on the FS events that garner the best ratings. Last Olympics, the ice dance was the least watched FS event.

Thanks for the clarification and sorry that I missed that.

[aftershocks]

^^^ It was obvious that the program was tweaked for Nationals but not obvious who tweaked it - sorry for not being clearer earlier.

Rippon mentioned before Nationals that his "free program is filled with many new steps and changes in layout" and the hearsay info I received was that Seibert wasn't involved in re-working the choreography. I've also seen a copy of USFS' media guide for 2013 Nationals, and it listed Rafael Arutunian and Nadia Kanaeva as additional choreographers to Seibert. I have no recollection of what Scott Hamilton said on NBC - I tune him out most of the time.

Okay, wow, re Scott's comments. That's a perfect example of how erroneous info gets bandied about, purposely or otherwise. Sorry to ignominiously albeit innocently have been a party to that happening in this instance.

And, as usual Sylvia, thanks for the heads up! I guess it would be nice to be able to develop your faculty in regard to most of what SH blathers during broadcasts. But, Scott and Sandra seem to be fixtures on NBC -- sort of like the statues on Mount Rushmore. They are probably really nice people most of the time, and on occasion I have found them to say a few things worthwhile, but it's too often few and far between. In any case, they've both made exemplary contributions to the sport in other respects.

[Iceman]

Evan skated a modified version of the short program he had planned for this season. I guess he will carry it over to next year unless he becomes bored with it.

[apatinar]

Earlier in the Today Show broadcast, they did a preview and mentioned that Davis and White were best hope for FS gold. In Scott's segment, they probably focused on the FS events that garner the best ratings. Last Olympics, the ice dance was the least watched FS event.

Well, imagine the regular non-skating fan watching figure skating during the Olympics having trouble figuring out the scoring with singles and pairs where there are actual jumps and spins.. Ask them how they think ice dancing is judged with people just hopping around on the ice and they would be totally clueless..For that reason Ice Dancing will always be the least viewed during the Olympics no matter how strong the team is..

[SkateFan66]

Well, imagine the regular non-skating fan watching figure skating during the Olympics having trouble figuring out the scoring with singles and pairs where there are actual jumps and spins.. Ask them how they think ice dancing is judged with people just hopping around on the ice and they would be totally clueless..For that reason Ice Dancing will always be the least viewed during the Olympics no matter how strong the team is..

Most of my friends that only watch figure skating during the Olympics do not watch ice dance because they find it boring, and question how "dancing" qualifies as an Olympic sport.

[YukiNieve]

One of the top articles on MSN website this morning has the picture of Ross and the link to the article featuring him.


http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/st...r-2010-020613?

Today marks one year until Sochi Olympic Games begins.

[zaphyre14]

I heard that Ross Miner was invited to be the guest skater at the Bay State Games gala exhibition of champions in Williamstown, MA on Feb. 16.

[apatinar]

Most of my friends that only watch figure skating during the Olympics do not watch ice dance because they find it boring, and question how "dancing" qualifies as an Olympic sport.

Honestly , I don't even know how it qualifies as an Olympic sport and I am a huge figure skating fan... I stopped watching dance a long time ago because out of all the disciplines, the results seem to be the most rigged.. There were other threads recently about how people who are not necessarily the best dancers but had the most money were winning medals because they happened to buy the best partners... I don't understand that at all....
And they want to bring ballroom dancing to the summer Olympics??? I don't know....

[vesperholly]

Alexander Johnson (7th at Nationals) and Brandon Mroz (9th) are on the entry list for the Challenge Cup in The Hague, Netherlands (Feb. 21-24) - see event thread started in the Kiss and Cry forum. This was be Johnson's first senior international since 2009 Finlandia Trophy!

Yay for Johnson!! I hope he can get some fall internationals next season.

[luenatic]

One of the top articles on MSN website this morning has the picture of Ross and the link to the article featuring him.


http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/st...r-2010-020613?

Best of luck to Ross. I hope Ross and Alexander can both make it to the Olympics.

[Sylvia]

One of the top articles on MSN website this morning has the picture of Ross and the link to the article featuring him.

Thanks! I've started a new Ross Miner thread in GSD with your article link: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/show...hard-work-quot

Before he departed for 4CC in Japan, Richard Dornbush spoke about how he has dealt with injury this season: http://blog.pe.com/jim-alexander/201...ded-for-japan/

It has been an interesting and sometimes agonizing season for Dornbush, who has dealt with a nagging injury to his right ankle (his landing foot) and also worked through the flu at the national championships in Omaha.

“I was feeling really, really strong coming into this season, and just this sort of string of … I don’t want to say bad luck, but string of incidents has sort of held me back a lot,” Dornbush said last week. “I got a cortisone injection a couple of weeks before nationals. (The injury) held me back a little bit mentally.”

But he didn’t feel he had the luxury of taking three or four weeks off to heal. He first hurt himself, he said, “literally a week” before leaving for a competition in Moscow in early November. Two weeks after that, he had a competition in Japan.

“I had no time to rest it,” he said. “I had to merely do pain management. That definitely aggravated it and made it difficult to heal. After that, I was able to take two weeks off just because I had to. I need to take more time off for it to heal, but that’s how much I could afford to take off before the national championships so I could be in reasonable fighting shape.”

[Fudove]

It makes sense that a physical injury could compromise your confidence. Last minute entry was the best senario for Ricky so not to get stressed over expectations. Thanks for the link, I never put the two together.