aftershocks
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First of all thanks for your post If you refer to the instagram video I posted, that was a sbs triple flip. No pair in roller skating has ever landed clean sbs triple jumps other than these two, let alone a 3flip! And yes their unison is stunning... even more so if you consider they are not training in pair full time, living in different cities and having to train for their own single career as well. They are just a natural match.
I agree with what you're saying here... One of their aim was to push the boundaries in pair roller skating adding elements noone has ever performed before like sbs triples... to perform such elements on rollers requires MUCH more power and strenght than doing those on the ice... What they do have which makes them outstanding is the effortless speed in their performances which is very rare to see in this sport. Their late coach, who died last march in a car accident, was very much into ice figure skating and took lots of inspiration to create their programs, they used to travel to international fs competitions like gpfinals and worlds. So figure skating has definitely an influence on them. But I also like to think that figure skating got smth from roller skating as well....difficult entrances and dismounts has always been typical in roller pairs, the reverse lift has been a "compulsory" lift for ages while only in recent years figure skaters added that lift (considered among the most difficult) to their programs. I remember how British Eurosport commentators where at Marika Zanforlin & Federico Degli Esposti's 'no hands' reverse lift at their European debut back in 2008... and for them it was just a 'basic' lift!
I've been knowing Matteo since he was a kid and followed him throughout his career in roller and figure skating... so I can tell I'm one of his biggest fan . I've always thought he had the best back and posture ever in roller skating and she was good too but to me she has never been at his level. Matteo's talent is immense, if you think he managed to reach a very high level in figure skating switching sport in his 20s... exceptional! All this said I believe that for the relatively short time they have been skating together (less than 5 yrs), not even full time, Rebecca and Luca are a better match than Sara & Matteo who have been paired as very little kids like 6yrs old so basically they have skated together a lifetime. To me R&L are a natural wonderful match. They have proved to be able to skate incredibly difficult and intricate programs to different types of music and adapt to different styles despite being very young (she's only 19). I guess it's a matter of taste but in the roller world they are considered probably one of the best pair ever not just for the technical side: seeing all 10s for the second mark from all judges at Worlds, I don't think it has ever happen in the history of the sport!
Matteo and Sara have been competing in singles as well (it's pretty common in roller skating to do more than one discipline) but neither of them has ever reached world level. Luca and Rebecca are Senior Men and Junior ladies multi-World Champions so their talent is immense.
I would love that too!
Thanks I really appreciate you sharing your knowledge. I thought it might be flip jumps in the video you posted rather than lutz jumps but I wasn't sure, and I couldn't detect for certain the number of revolutions. Wow, seriously amazing since roller skates don't provide as much speed as figure skates to launch high enough in the air to make the revolutions. They are serious athletes. Is Rebecca the same Rebecca in the video of the younger skaters? I don't know much about competitive roller skating, but I have roller skated as a youngster so I have some idea of the difficulty of maneuvering on bulkier rollers, altough the roller skates they use today must be more streamlined and perhaps less heavy.
I particularly appreciate learning about the fact that some of the lifts and lift entries used in roller skating have been picked up for use in pairs figure skating, so apparently there is very much a cross-fertilization in terms of inspirational exploration of movement, jump and lift entries, and developing and enhancing basic elements in keeping with each sport's equipment and surface requirements/restrictions.
I didn't know that Matteo never medaled at a roller skating World championship. So then I suppose Matteo and his former partner, Venerucci, at least reached the level of Italian champions in singles and pairs, but did not make it to championship success at the World level? That's interesting Matteo was not successful on the World stage in roller skating because Matteo is so exciting to watch on roller blades. What would have been the drawback to him reaching the top in roller skating? His interest in other pursuits such as modeling? Was he recruited by the Italian skating federation to switch to figure skating? I totally agree with your assessment of Sara's talent in comparison to Matteo's. Sara is technically perhaps not as strong, but she has lovely lines, connection and artistry.
What a fascinating niche sport with an interesting but unknown history, not unlike figure skating (aside from figure skating becoming popularized after catching on at the Olympics in a big way starting in 1968). It might be helpful if figure skating and roller skating cognoscenti cooperated more on finding ways to collaborate as well as to better promote their respective sports to wider audiences.
The pair spin...........I'd hate to get whacked with a skate in the face (did you see the part where his skate went over her as she laid back?!).
My Lord, it would be cool to see this or something similar in pairs figure skating, but much more risky and dangerous with skate blades involved. So perhaps there's a variation that could be performed without the skate blade coming so close to the female partner.
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