Skate Canada winner Kaetlyn Osmond a cool customer in debut

[clarie]

What I love about Osmond is how she is able to skate in the moment. Her choreography, though detailed, has a fresh and spontaneous quality (as if she is responding to the music for the first time). So many other skaters look like they are constantly thinking through their programs, losing that immediate connection to the choreography and with the audience.

Great point you have just made essence_of_soy. I thought she skated with total joy and attention to the music, but you've taken it several steps further and I emphatically agree.

[rvi5]

I'll have to review my recording of Kaetlyns SP again to verify, but I thought Tracy Wilson commented "she had won all her practices, it was no surprise she won Nebelhorn". Does anyone know what she meant by "winning practices"?

ETA: Just checked, Tracy's exact words were... "She won every practice. That was not by accident, her win at the Nebelhorn"

[googooeyes]

I'll have to review my recording of Kaetlyns SP again to verify, but I thought Tracy Wilson commented "she had won all her practices, it was no surprise she won Nebelhorn". Does anyone know what she meant by "winning practices"?

Practices at a competition are officially scheduled with a certain number of skaters from the skating order ( ie. skaters 1-5). Each skater's music is announced and played in that order. The skaters know when their music will be played. There are a few minutes a the beginning of the practice where background music is played so the first skaters can warm up. During each skater's program the others try and stay out of their way while they warm up and practice. The skaters can choose to do their program or not, or do only parts, whatever they have planned with their coach. There is a practice for the short program and a separate practice for the long program.
The judges can and do attend the practices so they have a better idea of what the range is.
If Kaetlyn 'won' her practices (which is just an expression) she likely outskated everyone with consistant jumps and well done complete programs, and made herself stand out.
Tracy must have seen her practices and noticed her too. If she was skating that well in her practises, then it would be no surprise to her that she skated that well in the competition.

[kwanfan1818]

Also after all of the skaters' music is played, there's still time left for free-form practice, and that's where singles skaters generally try their jumps. A skater who is hitting jumps consistently will get the attention of the judges, as will a skater who is struggling.

[Jammers]

What I love about Osmond is how she is able to skate in the moment. Her choreography, though detailed, has a fresh and spontaneous quality (as if she is responding to the music for the first time). So many other skaters look like they are constantly thinking through their programs, losing that immediate connection to the choreography and with the audience.

That is one of the problems that Mirai has had over the last few years. There has been nothing spontaneous about her skating all you see on her face is her thinking about her next jump or spins but no connection to the audience. The one time she did skate like that was at 4CC where she skated with a freedom we haven't seen since.