U.S. Ladies [#23]: Triple Axels? What a Novice Idea!

[Tinami Amori]

Your 'objections' don't amount to a hill of beans, but carry on, as you will.

Probably a controversial opinion here, but as far as quality of skating I think Mariah is better than at least Loena and Alina.

Unless "your favored skater" comes to competitions with the most difficult TSS and PCS, skates clean and performs well, does not land on his/her "fifth pillar", and is found to be "the best skater" by the judges, the idea that he/she is "a better skater than the current medal winners" is a figment of your imagination.....

 

[cbd1235]

Just wanted to say that I'm so impressed with Mariah Bell's SP this year, and see lots of potential for her FS. This is the strongest she's looked in a while, and there's a major improvement in components/presentation. I can see a lot of Ashley Wagner influence, I wonder if she worked with her this summer when she was coaching in Raf's group? You can see quite a few nods in movement style, and also in packaging, it seems Mariah has maybe used her as a mentor/idol.

 

[Loves_Shizuka]

Gracie Gold interview

It's over an hour long; some good updates from Gracie.

 

[Theoreticalgirl]

Holy smokes this interview. My heart broke into a million pieces for Gracie. So glad she's here and still with us.

 

[GullyGirl84]

I found it so shocking that it apparently took Gracie talking to another member of team USA at Champs Camp, and then that person "springing in to action", for the fed to realize that Gracie needed help. Is the fed blind?

 

[Sylvia]

I think it would be a good idea to move the Gracie Gold interview discussion to her own thread? I've re-posted the interview link here: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/threads/gracie-gold-set-to-return.104100/page-7#post-5428356

ETA that I've also bumped up Gracie's Cheer/Fan thread and posted the link there.

 

[Stephanie]

3 girls have been assigned to Golden Bear in Croatia at the end of this month according to the USFS international assignments page: Alena Bunko and Kate(?) Wang in Novice and Emilia Murdock in junior.

 

[Sylvia]

At the U.S. Challenge Skate in SLC in September, the top 2 Novice ladies were Kate Wang (136.77) and Alena Budko (129.62) - videos are available to watch for free in USFS' Fan Zone and I've posted direct links in my blog: https://unseenskaters.wordpress.com...or-challenge-skate-sept-13-16-salt-lake-city/

I also posted about Budko in the earlier U.S. Ladies thread in August:

Alena Budko is one of the top Novices so far this season - here's her Glacier Falls SP to "Look what you made me do" by Taylor Swift: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSlC8srCCA0

ETA:

Kate Wang opened her Challenge Skate Novice FS with 3Lz+3Lo< (-1.18 GOE) and 3S+1Eu+3S combos. She was credited with cleanly landing both 3Lz+3T and 3F in her SP.

 

[Maximillian]

Have to admit, I was a bit underwhelmed with Pooja at Finlandia. She skated noticeably slower than the top ladies (ironically, with the exception of Tuk) and her triples weren't exactly swoon-worthy.

Angela Wang, on the other hand, has two of the best choreographed/performed programs I've seen this season...of course, her jumps are another story. But in Angela's case, I almost don't care if the jumps are on* because she's just such a lovely skater to watch.

*I only care about the jumps in relation to her success and her getting opportunities to continue to compete.

 

[Sylvia]

Pooja Kalyan got a new free skate after her JGP debut in Bratislava -- Music from Porgy and Bess (including "Summertime") by George Gershwin, choreographed by Marina Zoueva -- I saw that it's listed in her Team USA bio but not her ISU bio: https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=98
Kalyan's 5th place in the SP at Finlandia was encouraging, considering it was her senior international debut. She and Angela Wang reversed their placements in the SP & FS segments to finish 8th & 9th overall, respectively, in Finland (only Wang gets ISU World Standings ranking points, however, since the cutoff is 8th place/144 points):
8 Angela WANG USA 160.99 13 6
9 Pooja KALYAN USA 156.05 5 13

This was Angela's first competition since she switched coaches to Ravi Walia in Edmonton (he was not with her in Finland because he accompanied Aurora Cotop to her JGP in Slovenia instead).

 

[Sylvia]

Hanna Harrell finally gets to have her international season debut at the 7th & final JGP in Yerevan, Armenia this week. It was a long travel day -- according to her IG story she departed Dallas late last night, connected through Doha, Qatar, and finally arrived at 12:45 am in Yerevan (3:45 pm Central time today).

 

[Frida80]

Hanna Harrell finally gets to have her international season debut at the 7th & final JGP in Yerevan, Armenia this week. It was a long travel day -- according to her IG story she departed Dallas late last night, connected through Doha, Qatar, and finally arrived at 12:45 am in Yerevan (3:45 pm Central time today).

I think this is the first JGP in Asia Minor! Time the set the clocks! Good luck Hanna!

 

[Sylvia]

I think this is the first JGP in Asia Minor!

Istanbul, Turkey has hosted a JGP twice -- in 2009 and 2012.

Hopefully Hanna has recovered well from her injury (her right foot was in a boot in early September).

 

[Frida80]

Istanbul, Turkey has hosted a JGP twice -- in 2009 and 2012.

Hopefully Hanna has recovered well from her injury (her right foot was in a boot in early September).

Really? Istanbul is super historic. I hope Hanna has recovered from her injury as well. I'm less interested in results and just am happy that she's back on her feet.

 

[Marco]

Have to admit, I was a bit underwhelmed with Pooja at Finlandia. She skated noticeably slower than the top ladies (ironically, with the exception of Tuk) and her triples weren't exactly swoon-worthy.

She really is THAT slow that her low PCS is warranted. They (justifiably) dinged Tuk the same way. But to me, speed is really the only visible weakness in her. Once she ups her speed, she can be very competitive. Hopefully Ravi can bring out more projection in her (her distant second weakness IMO).

 

[Sylvia]

Hopefully Ravi can bring out more projection in her (her distant second weakness IMO).

Ravi Walia coaches Angela Wang. Pooja Kalyan is coached by Alex Ouriashev (Molly Oberstar was with her in Finland because Ouriashev was coaching at Upper Great Lakes Regionals).

 

[Marco]

Thanks Sylvia. I read your other post wrong.

In that case, hopefully Alex can train her to have more powerful strokes and cleaner edges.

 

[Jarrett]

Gracie Gold interview

It's over an hour long; some good updates from Gracie.

Gracie is a the best interview out of any of the U.S women. Very candid.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Gracie is a the best interview out of any of the U.S women. Very candid.

it is a very good interview, good analysis of her situation. interesting what she said about "post olympics depression" as it is almost the same as "end of performance depression" many leading stage performers experience after the curtain is down.

 

[Sylvia]

Bradie is on the cover of the October issue of SKATING magazine - excerpt from the story by Lynn Rutherford: https://usfigureskatingfanzone.com/...e-tennell-enters-season-with-a-bold-goal.aspx

Direct link to the minute-long video of her cover photo shoot with Hans Rosemond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eus1OTGC0gs

 

[Willin]

it is a very good interview, good analysis of her situation. interesting what she said about "post olympics depression" as it is almost the same as "end of performance depression" many leading stage performers experience after the curtain is down.

It was interesting how it lined up with Ashley's description of what she felt after winning world silver - how she felt she'd reached her peak and didn't know how to motivate herself to keep going.

I'd be interested to know who were the ones that helped Gracie at Champs Camp - what great friends! Kudos to them.

 

[dinakt]

it is a very good interview, good analysis of her situation. interesting what she said about "post olympics depression" as it is almost the same as "end of performance depression" many leading stage performers experience after the curtain is down.

Yes, except even the most important performance is unlikely to be once in a lifetime (once in four years if one is lucky)... The amount of adrenaline spent at Olympics, especially for medal prospects, must be truly enormous and quite devastating for body's chemical composition.

 

[mgobluegirl]

@Sylvia (or anyone else): do you know what’s happened with Cristina Lin? I don’t see her on the Scoretracker or on the entry list for CP regionals. She’s been one of my favorite up and coming skaters.

 

[Sylvia]

@mgobluegirl, Christina Lin (7th in Novice at 2018 Nationals) has not competed this season but I don't know if she has actually quit skating or is taking some time off. She usually had quirky programs and I enjoyed her skating as well.

 

[concorde]

If she is who I think she is, she announced after Nationals she was quitting.

 

[concorde]

She really is THAT slow that her low PCS is warranted. They (justifiably) dinged Tuk the same way. But to me, speed is really the only visible weakness in her. Once she ups her speed, she can be very competitive. Hopefully Ravi can bring out more projection in her (her distant second weakness IMO).

Slow skating is next to impossible to fix.

 

[Willin]

@concorde Definitely not true. With some improvement in skating skills technique and good conditioning you can improve it. Tom Z has a whole training regiment designed to increase speed. I've improved my speed simply through skating with faster skaters and working to keep up with them. Yes, it's hard, but it can happen.

I think the reason many skaters don't work to improve their speed is because there's a lot more reason to focus on jumps and spins. Yes, slowness takes a point or two from PCS, but that's nothing compared to not being able to do a 3Lz or missing a couple spin levels. There have also been skaters like Ashley and Alina that show that if you have enough favor with the federation, can perform well enough, and/or you're consistent enough you'll get the PCS regardless of your actual PCS weaknesses.

 

[VGThuy]

I think a lot of it is what was being rewarded as skaters were developing through competitions from novice-intermediate-etc. So long as you had certain jumps and spin levels, you would get PCS that would encourage you to keep doing what you're doing even if there were major issues with basic fundamentals. I found most U.S. ladies for some reason seem to have fallen behind other top countries when it came to speed and real edge quality for the past ten years or so. It seems to be getting better though.

 

[gkelly]

I think the reason many skaters don't work to improve their speed is because there's a lot more reason to focus on jumps and spins. Yes, slowness takes a point or two from PCS,

More than that if there's a difference of 1-2 points in Skating Skills (which is doubled in the freeskate) and then the other components are also influenced by the Skating Skills score.

There have also been skaters like Ashley and Alina that show that if you have enough favor with the federation, can perform well enough, and/or you're consistent enough you'll get the PCS regardless of your actual PCS weaknesses.

Some of that favor can also be affected by speed.

I think a lot of it is what was being rewarded as skaters were developing through competitions from novice-intermediate-etc. So long as you had certain jumps and spin levels, you would get PCS that would encourage you to keep doing what you're doing even if there were major issues with basic fundamentals. I found most U.S. ladies for some reason seem to have fallen behind other top countries when it came to speed and real edge quality for the past ten years or so. It seems to be getting better though.

In recent years USFS has changed the way PCS are judged at lower levels:


http://usfigureskating.org/content/PC Development Charts Singles Pairs.pdf

Note that Juvenile and below now only use 3 components, Intermediate only 4, and that for all levels Novice and below the percentage of total PCS that each component represents is weighted at these levels, with Skating Skills weighted the most strongly. Note also the bolded additions to the domestic SS criteria for these levels.

It seems these changes are designed to encourage developing skaters to build up the skills they will need to hold their own internationally when/if they reach the higher levels and receive international assignments. Similar to the recent addition of bonuses for double axels and triples at these levels to encourage skaters to start attempting these jumps in competition sooner.

 

[concorde]

@Willin. While I agree you can gain some speed, gaining elite level speed is an awesome task.

USFS has said that the primary reason they removed some of the component marks at the lower IJS levels was they recognized our JGP skaters were slow. By removing those marks, they believed that young skaters could then focus more on speed than on PCS. They said that speed has to be developed early in a skater's career.