I meant to say 5 triples. (Corrected above)
So how many skaters can we name who had landed 5 different triples in competition (not necessarily the same competition) as of the end of the 1992 season?
The number started growing significantly in 1993 and 94 and even moreso in 1995 and beyond, as figures-era skaters retired and juniors who had focused more on jumps than on figures moved up to seniors, and the short program started to allow and reward more triples.
But it also means a lot of skaters having great success as Juniors and then losing it all when they are older and their body changes. How is that the way to go?
It does, but that has always been the case. Almost all the skaters who were considered strong jumpers for their era had all or most of their jumps before they were 15 1/2 (i.e., old enough for seniors under current rules).
There were always some skaters who lost jumps later in their careers that they were landing earlier, or struggling more with jumps later in their teens than they had in early teens.
If they were at or near elite levels, we may know who they were. Those who never made it to senior or even junior competition, or never made it to national or international competition at those levels, would be even less well known.
The skaters who won senior medals and have remained well known to skating fans are a much smaller sample size. Those are the ones who succeeded. And most of those were doing multiple triples in their early teens.
Did they succeed while others dropped by the wayside because of better genetics or better training methods or better luck? Probably all of the above. But waiting for later teens to learn the jumps was generally not a successful strategy.
From the point of view of a federation developing a deep field of many skaters who will be able to keep up with the top jumpers in the rest of the world, encouraging mastering the triples early is probably the way to go. Many skaters who jump many triples as preteens and young teens will lose those jumps and maybe their careers to injury and natural body changes.
Federation officials as human beings might (should) care about the long-term physical and emotional cost to those individuals, but the federation in its team-building function would mainly be interested in how many skaters survive the process to become competitive seniors.
From the point of view of individual skaters, is it better for a skater to try to get the jumps early and risk serious injury in childhood but have a better chance of mastering them at all, with the knowledge that even without injury the jumps may no longer work for her after physical maturation? Or wait to push her jump content with the recognition that waiting makes it less likely to master the jumps and have hope for an international career at all, but with a wiser understanding of the physical risks when she does try them?
From the point of view of heartbreak, is it better to have tripled (or, these days, triple-tripled) and lost than never to have tripled at all?
Is that a decision we want to leave to 12-year-olds and their parents, or should coaches or officials and rule-makers with a more comprehensive understanding of the risks and rewards set policies for all?
I think that getting your 3T and 3S by 12, maybe the 3F or 3L as well and then the rest by 14-15 is reasonable. Maybe these kids won't be tearing up the JGP but they should be fine for Seniors.
Yes, probably. In a competitive field where they need to get their federation's attention by 13 to get junior international experience at all, it may be a strategic mistake to wait if they want to aim for the top. If they can develop all their non-jump skills beyond what the junior jumpers are doing, they'd be better positioned to hold their own with moderately high jump content as some of the junior jumpers of their cohort lose some of their jumping prowess or leave the sport entirely.
In smaller federations, they could bide their time with moderate results in juniors and outlast the flashes in the pan from larger countries.
Show me how they only put one US Ladies skater in the Team Envelops and only sent one US Ladies skater to international events.
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Coaching and mentoring are not the same thing at all.