new skating commentary youtube channel

jersey1302 said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMYn6UJWntY&t=15s

Just figured we would start a new fresh channel. We will be up loading videos every so often. For sure after every event and sometimes in between covering interesting skating topics! Subscribe and laugh with us, talk with us and have fun with us. Cheers to a great skating season to all!!
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Great! Look forward to watching!! Though I had to laugh at Medvedeva as "cream of the crop." That made me laugh a lot. :lol:
 
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jersey1302 said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMYn6UJWntY&t=15s

Just figured we would start a new fresh channel. We will be up loading videos every so often. For sure after every event and sometimes in between covering interesting skating topics! Subscribe and laugh with us, talk with us and have fun with us. Cheers to a great skating season to all!!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the contribution! The more the merrier. :D However, it's not as if there's no Canadian figure skating commentary and perspectives. You are joining many great efforts, no? By P.J. Kwong, The Blade Boys (including Ted Flett), and on the historical front: @N_Halifax.

Good luck guys!

BTW, I have to take issue with you re Medvedeva. She's built up this 'unbeatable' reputation because she can rotate fast and she's a fierce competitor (and also she's seen as 'stellar Russian phenom,' which is an asset for all the baby Russian ladies, and this rep precedes them before they even come on the scene).

Med is helped by being over-scored on PCS and by back-loading her programs with tech content. No one really takes the time to accurately judge some of these young skaters for their lack of performance authenticity on the ladies side. Everyone generally seems on-board with the Lolita-syndrome.

I will admit that some of the more artistically skilled, a bit more mature and well-rounded ladies with great technical abilities, need to step up to the plate. But it's difficult competing with over-hyped Lolitas who rotate, backload, and Tano-Rippon their way into the judges' hearts, receiving PCS gifts galore.
 
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Well, there is such a term. Sure, I may be slightly over-using it to describe the trend of over-rewarding prepubescent female teens in figure skating. But the term does exist.

And there's no doubt that the figure skating community has a tendency to over-reward technically precocious prepubescent teenagers: Oksana Baiul (precocious artistically, but tech issues that were overlooked), Tara Lipinski, Yulia Lipnitskaya, Elena Radionova, Adelina Sotnikova, Liza Tuktamysheva as a junior and a young senior, Caroline Zhang as a young skater (although well-rounded artistically, Zhang had technical issues that needed resolving as a young teen, and later tripped her up). As a young teen, Mao Asada was not as lucky, because she could not go to the Olympics at her youthful peak when she could have mowed everyone down with her delightful talents that were not necessarily over-sexualized in her case; her programs played up her youthfulness and her delightful personality when she first came on the scene. (Of course, Mao had tech issues that she eventually had to resolve, and she was courageous in doing so later in her career).

Michelle Kwan came up at a time when she was seen as a baby jumping phenom but not a mature lady, and so she wasn't over-rewarded out the wazoo. MK actually gained some artistic growth to go along with her tech skills before she began dominating on merit as a slightly older teenager. In any case, Michelle's, Sasha Cohen's and Tara's success at young ages ironically continued the trend that Oksana more or less started.

But I have to say that it's the 'Russian baby ballerina' fad that made this tendency to over-reward prepubescent teenagers the going thing and all the rage. Some say the young teenage girls have the advantage of being able to rotate faster prior to puberty and more womanly weight gain setting in. I don't have a problem with young girls doing well in the sport. I just think that they should not be over-rewarded on PCS because of their technical abilities. There have been a few cases such as Oksana and Caroline where young girls are artistically precocious. In her later teens, MK became well-rounded technically and aesthetically. And I also feel that Mirai Nagasu as a young teen was fairly well-rounded technically and aesthetically, but she also needed to further develop mentally and to be guided in her growth technically and artistically, which really did not happen before a huge load of pressure was placed on her to become the next Michelle Kwan. Kudos to Mirai for surviving and now thriving under Tom Z, as a mature ladies skater, who knows more about who she is as a person.

So you can dismiss and belittle my commentary, and pooh-pooh my views all you want. But I stand by my viewpoints. And here's a pertinent example:
Alexandra Trusova age 13 skating to 'Hey, Big Spender' with lyrics for her sp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnc3UwCiIBU
The exploitation of young prepubescent girls in figure skating (and of ladies in general in terms of adhering to a certain physical model) is enough already without some of the over-sexualizing that clearly exists.

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/03/03/style/lolita-syndrome-is-denounced.html
''Everywhere you turn, you see these eroticized images of little girls... What worries us is that people are starting to regard these images as normal.''

Time passes but some things never change. Personally, I'd like to see a trend in figure skating toward less putting ladies skaters into some kind of idealized and/or over-sexualized or ice-princessy box, and allowing for more individual growth, as well as not over-scoring them on PCS until some of these young ladies actually develop more authentically in terms of well-rounded technical and artistic abilities. There are some who have great potential technically and artistically. But I decry the way they are rushed and run-through and burnt out physically, emotionally and psychologically before they can fully develop aspects of their personalities. I realize that the rule on not allowing some girls to compete in seniors before a certain date of reaching 15-years-old was instituted to address some of these issues, but individuals grow in different ways, so this rule has actually solved nothing.

I am not saying there should be no 'sexy' in figure skating. That's impossible and it would be boring, but we don't need to see 'sex' played up in programs created for 13-year-old female figure skaters. And again, just because they can rotate fast, wrap their arms overhead, and make anguished OTT facial expressions does not make them fully rounded skaters deserving of humongous PCS scores.
 
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You do have something there. It's a continuation of the Olga Korbut-Nadia Comeneci thing where spectators are wowed by young girls showing amazing athletic skill. I think Julia Lipnitskaya's appeal in 2014 was also rooted in that. I'm also seeing it with the Korean v. Russian junior wars right now and it happened with the American juniors in the 90s and 2000s as well. This is not meant to undermine the incredible athleticism of the athletes, hard work, and what they themselves put into their programs. It's just this sort of stuff also plays into it somewhat. That in itself is not enough however as the skaters need to follow through with providing something for the audience to like.
 
There's nothing wrong with precocity in athleticism. But as I said, there's too much tendency to over-reward and in some cases over-sexualize some of the young female skaters. I don't really think that happened with Michelle Kwan as much, because the judges refused to reward her straight-away for her superior technical skills. Thus Michelle came back at age fifteen going on sixteen having matured a bit more and having added some artistic sensibilities to her repertoire. Perhaps the makeup was a bit much and the story behind Salome was a very mature and violent theme, but at least how MK skated was soulful, authentic and artistically well worth rewarding. And the violence of the back-story was not front and center in the way the program was choreographed to the music.

Unfortunately however, with Michelle's success and rare domination at a relatively young age, and in the tendency that kind of began with Oksana a couple of years earlier, and with the rise of Sasha Cohen, a trend toward over-rewarding younger skaters began to flourish. IMO it has gone overboard with the advent of the Russian 'baby ballerinas.'
 
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Feeling bad for OP, who was here to talk about their new channel and from the very first response people used it as a bash-Medvedeva opportunity (though I have to say @aftershocks really outdid herself in the "what the actual fcuk" department with the creepy Lolita post).

OP, feel free to like our fabulous little queen with her beautiful programs and lovely jumps.
 
To each your own @misskarne, as usual. I find Trusova skating to Hey, Big Spender with lyrics at the age of 13, creepier. But whatever. And I think Evgenia Medvedeva is going to be fine, at least for the coming season, as she seemingly possesses a tough mentality. Commenting on the fact the judges over-reward Med on PCS and many in the skating community are over-awed by her tech skills, yet refuse to acknowledge where she needs to improve, is not a bash. But again, whatever.

Sorry to hi-jack your thread @jersey1302, and Ryan. As I said earlier, welcome with your new skating commentary channel. The more opinions, debate and commentary about figure skating, the better. BTW, I love Ryan's little dog at the end of the video: he looks like a cross between a chihuahua and a miniature Rottweiler. :lol:
 
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@jersey1302 A small technical suggestion - the reflections and views in the windows behind where you are seated are kind of distracting. Can you pull the window shades down all the way, or block the window panes some other way?

Really enjoyed the commentary in this episode - looking forward to the next ones!
 
aftershocks said:
Unfortunately however, with Michelle's success and rare domination at a relatively young age, and in the tendency that kind of began with Oksana a couple of years earlier, and with the rise of Sasha Cohen, a trend toward over-rewarding younger skaters began to flourish. IMO it has gone overboard with the advent of the Russian 'baby ballerinas.'
Click to expand...

Baby ballerinas remain the standard throughout the world, not only in Russia. When they get older, they become ice princesses. It makes it harder for athletic skaters like Gabbie Daleman and Mae Berenice Mate to succeed - although both have had strong careers and provided girls with a model for a non-traditional 'feminine' style of skating.

Also, female skaters remain locked into the baby ballerina/ice princess mentality. Although they are no allowed to wear pants, so few do, even though being able to do so opens up a whole new range of program dimensions. For example, Perkova skated to a rousing 'Pirates of the Caribbean' routine in a costume that included baggy shorts - the program would not have worked with a traditional dress costume.

I would really like to see more innovative and mature skaters rewarded better in comparison to the baby ballerinas and teen phenoms, but FS is a conservative sport in some ways and slow to change.
 
^^ Yes, I generally agree with you, except that Russia is more associated with 'baby ballerinas,' partly due to their balletic tradition, cemented by excellence in pairs and ice dance. It took them longer to become competitive in singles. First they gained competitively in mens singles and then they began heavily concentrating on improving their womens singles. Now they are superior in womens singles and lagging a bit in mens. But they have some very talented young junior men coming up. However, it's hard to know how juniors will develop overall.

You are right of course that the problems in ladies figure skating are not isolated to Russia. That is definitely true, especially since Russia has not been prominent in ladies singles until very recently. And if you read through my earlier post, I did outline the historic trajectory of this over-rewarding young skaters phenomenon that has taken over the 'ladies' division.

I totally agree that we need to see, as I said earlier, more encouragement of individual development and expression among the ladies, rather than forcing them all into 'pretty boxes.' That's one big reason why 'ladies skating' is no longer my favorite discipline to watch.
 
I watched your video, and I have a few comments.

First, thank you for contributing to the fandom with videos. I know it's a lot of work and it's always great to share one's passion and enthusiasm for the sport with others. It's nice to be able to find others who also share your passion for the sport.

Second, I find that the person on the left tends to dominate or speak over the person on the right, even when the person on the right is still speaking. The person on the right even made a passive comment about it at the end asking him how much he spoke in the video. I think you guys are still finding the rhythm, and you're both obviously very excited to speak about skating, but you should allow each other space to speak and not interrupt the other. There were times where I felt the person on the right looked a bit irritated.

Third, I think you need a bit of organization (not too much for it to look too formal as I'm sure that's not what you're going for). When it comes to video commentary, a bit of form and organization and order makes a big difference in presentation and how much you can cover in a video without having the videos be overly long.

Fourth, since you're making videos about skating, you have to do a bit more, IMO, than just cover skaters you like. One person said he had no time to pay attention to skaters who placed 10th, but I think since you're venturing into skating commentary, you need to start paying attention to a lot more skaters. For example, I'm sure the majority of the contenders at Nebelhorn are people you've never paid attention to, but it's a shame if you don't know the skaters who were contending for an Olympic spot as that competition provided a lot of emotion and drama. For next season if you want to keep this program running, you need to learn who these skaters are because many fans and potential subscribers would like to hear your thoughts on many competitions. It will also help you be aware of the potential spoilers and competitors who have the potential to break through in a big way.

Fifth, related to point Four, the person on the left doesn't know much about pairs. I think that's fine as a fan because not everybody is going to like everything, but if you're doing a skating commentary program, I think you should really learn all the disciplines, the contenders, how it's scored, and what to value. One person heavily relying on another for "expertise" in a discipline makes the commentary of that discipline (because you have to cover it) uneven and uninteresting.

Sixth, you can say you're "honest", etc. in order to try to prevent haters from saying how biased you are, etc. But you don't need to remind the viewers of that. People will post positive and negative and at times trolling comments no matter what you do. Just say your piece and they'll just take it or leave it. I don't think you need to start off on the defensive here.

Seventh, I agree with @overedge that the window background and the reflection was distracting. I think you need to set up an area to do the videos that way it'll be a dedicated (even shared for real life use) space for the video that will give you the best profile and look for your program.

Eighth, I know you said you loved it, but I would stay away from imitating Yuzuru's broken English. I know there was no malice or anything behind it and you meant to be a fan at that moment, but it looks patronizing at best. No matter how you feel about it, you don't want to start out your video doing something like that as it will rub people the wrong way. I admit it rubbed me the wrong way.

I wish you luck with your endeavors.
 
overedge said:
@jersey1302 A small technical suggestion - the reflections and views in the windows behind where you are seated are kind of distracting. Can you pull the window shades down all the way, or block the window panes some other way?

Really enjoyed the commentary in this episode - looking forward to the next ones!
Click to expand...

Yeah that will not be our regular shooting video place..that was honestly put together pretty last minute, we had no clue what we were going to say hahaha. Our second video will be in a different spot. Thanks for watching!! appreciate the support.
 
VIETgrlTerifa said:
I watched your video, and I have a few comments.

First, thank you for contributing to the fandom with videos. I know it's a lot of work and it's always great to share one's passion and enthusiasm for the sport with others. It's nice to be able to find others who also share your passion for the sport.

Second, I find that the person on the left tends to dominate or speak over the person on the right, even when the person on the right is still speaking. The person on the right even made a passive comment about it at the end asking him how much he spoke in the video. I think you guys are still finding the rhythm, and you're both obviously very excited to speak about skating, but you should allow each other space to speak and not interrupt the other. There were times where I felt the person on the right looked a bit irritated.

Third, I think you need a bit of organization (not too much for it to look too formal as I'm sure that's not what you're going for). When it comes to video commentary, a bit of form and organization and order makes a big difference in presentation and how much you can cover in a video without having the videos be overly long.

Fourth, since you're making videos about skating, you have to do a bit more, IMO, than just cover skaters you like. One person said he had no time to pay attention to skaters who placed 10th, but I think since you're venturing into skating commentary, you need to start paying attention to a lot more skaters. For example, I'm sure the majority of the contenders at Nebelhorn are people you've never paid attention to, but it's a shame if you don't know the skaters who were contending for an Olympic spot as that competition provided a lot of emotion and drama. For next season if you want to keep this program running, you need to learn who these skaters are because many fans and potential subscribers would like to hear your thoughts on many competitions. It will also help you be aware of the potential spoilers and competitors who have the potential to break through in a big way.

Fifth, related to point Four, the person on the left doesn't know much about pairs. I think that's fine as a fan because not everybody is going to like everything, but if you're doing a skating commentary program, I think you should really learn all the disciplines, the contenders, how it's scored, and what to value. One person heavily relying on another for "expertise" in a discipline makes the commentary of that discipline (because you have to cover it) uneven and uninteresting.

Sixth, you can say you're "honest", etc. in order to try to prevent haters from saying how biased you are, etc. But you don't need to remind the viewers of that. People will post positive and negative and at times trolling comments no matter what you do. Just say your piece and they'll just take it or leave it. I don't think you need to start off on the defensive here.

Seventh, I agree with @overedge that the window background and the reflection was distracting. I think you need to set up an area to do the videos that way it'll be a dedicated (even shared for real life use) space for the video that will give you the best profile and look for your program.

Eighth, I know you said you loved it, but I would stay away from imitating Yuzuru's broken English. I know there was no malice or anything behind it and you meant to be a fan at that moment, but it looks patronizing at best. No matter how you feel about it, you don't want to start out your video doing something like that as it will rub people the wrong way. I admit it rubbed me the wrong way.

I wish you luck with your endeavors.
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got it 100%.. ya you are right with most of it.. that first video had no prep or anything, we honestly just kind of went with it. our second video will be a bit different. Have some more structure with it. Regarding the Yuzuru part of it with the immitation of him.. yeah nothing was meant by it, he was just saying how he does interviews, which is actually quite accurate.. he just thinks Yuzuru is so darn cute haha so nothing was meant with it to be taken hatefully. I really appreciate everyone giving us advice and watching! Thank you so much!!
 
Whoever was offended by or thinks he was mocking Yuzu is way to sensitive and I don't see who a person like that makes it through the day without getting jumped up about something...
 
MAXSwagg said:
Whoever was offended by or thinks he was mocking Yuzu is way to sensitive and I don't see who a person like that makes it through the day without getting jumped up about something...
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Or just someone with life experience of having people do that to them or their family members. What’s more sensitive? That or getting sensitive about people being “sensitive”? Such a typical response and has to go into the personal. Obviously people function in real life every day.
 
Episode 3 is up! ..a while ago actually haha.. We will be re capping Rostelecom this weekend and Skate Canada next weekend. In fact we will be AT skate canada!
 
Episode 4 Skate Canada will be up shortly . Check soon! The Free Skate on youtube! <3 . Ugh had so many technical glitches posting and doing these. so are not tech savy haha.
 
My elementary school choir sang "Hey Big Spender" for our Spring concert when I was in 4th grade. I think I just turned 9 when we did that song.
Does that mean our choir was also exploited as well?

aftershocks said:
So you can dismiss and belittle my commentary, and pooh-pooh my views all you want. But I stand by my viewpoints. And here's a pertinent example:
Alexandra Trusova age 13 skating to 'Hey, Big Spender' with lyrics for her sp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnc3UwCiIBU
The exploitation of young prepubescent girls in figure skating (and of ladies in general in terms of adhering to a certain physical model) is enough already without some of the over-sexualizing that clearly exists.
Click to expand...
 
MIsty Blades/Skate Mom said:
My elementary school choir sang "Hey Big Spender" for our Spring concert when I was in 4th grade. I think I just turned 9 when we did that song.
Does that mean our choir was also exploited as well?
Click to expand...

Cool. Singing is one thing I suppose, and acting out the lyrics as a young prepubescent female on the ice, under various gazes is another. I mean whatever floats people's boats in the sport goes apparently, as long as the young ladies aren't actually being physically exploited. :rolleyes: :COP:

Maybe your elementary teachers should have had their knuckles rapped, unless they took the opportunity to explain what the lyrics meant in one of those awful 'birds and the bees' health classes. :lol:
 
jersey1302 said:
A new video we posted.. video response to another video about medvedeva..definately our largest and most controversial video to date! Take a look! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j_TTzaqCZs
Click to expand...

Please tell me you didn't waste your breath responding to a Koola King video...

Koola King is one of the true psycho Yunabots and is not worth anybody's time. Let alone 18 minutes of anybody's time.
 
LOL The school principal was the emcee. She told the audience, that she sang "Big Spender" as a child as well and how the song brought back memories of her youth.

aftershocks said:
Cool. Singing is one thing I suppose, and acting out the lyrics as a young prepubescent female on the ice, under various gazes is another. I mean whatever floats people's boats in the sport goes apparently, as long as the young ladies aren't actually being physically exploited. :rolleyes: :COP:

Maybe your elementary teachers should have had their knuckles rapped, unless they took the opportunity to explain what the lyrics meant in one of those awful 'birds and the bees' health classes. :lol:
Click to expand...
 
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