I've really enjoyed Scott Dyer's skating. I appreciate hearing his commentary. Since he was never a star competitor, we never got to hear him talk a lot, aside from in the kiss 'n cry. Maybe DL connected with Dyer through Doug Razzano, or back when Jenny and DL were visiting training sites.
Anyway, the U.S. Nats review episode was worth watching purely for Dyer's interesting responses. I love how Dyer allowed Jonathan and DL to talk and shoot themselves in the foot with their excess. And then Dyer honed in on his points in a no-nonsense, yet laid back way. It was interesting how Dyer characterized watching the pairs as anxiety-inducing because "they were all so intense." And he felt that's why some of the mistakes happened. However, the discussion didn't focus much on the fact that C/L were calmer and they did take each moment and each element one at a time, which is the key to how they won.
I don't disagree that Haven/Brandon have to fix problems with their jumps, but in other areas they are strong and their programs by Charlie White I feel are good this year. Plus, H&B have some of the best lifts in the world, and a very good 3-twist. So I think being too down on them is unfair. But some of the criticisms in this instance seem to boil down to which teams everyone personally favors over others.
There were some good points made about the technical issues on the throws that Deanna & Nate need to improve. It was interesting hearing about some of the thinking going into making changes to help push forward the U.S. pairs discipline.
The discussion about Tarah's crying was simply perception and opinion. It was a big moment and she felt devastated after the fluke of missing that lift. We don't know what else might have been going on there. Jonathan was wrong about suggesting they try the lift again. They were not going to get points for it. They had no choice but to move forward and try to catch up with the music for the last moves. Unfortunately, that was the money dramatic piece de resistance to cap off the building climax, and they missed it and so the entire impact of the program was lost in that moment. That kind of thing can be extremely emotional. Different personalities will react differently.
I thought it was worrisome hearing about the judges' tendency toward 'group think,' and changing opinons on skaters from year-to-year based on things other than their skating.
Quotes by Dyer that were on point:
"You see with the Japanese skaters a real understanding of where they are on the blade, a real understanding of their transfer of body weight when they're doing crossovers and going from one direction to the next. I think that's ever so slightly been forgotten [in the U.S.] right now... It's awesome having the jumps down, but I think [more time should be spent with skaters] doing really basic exercises... On the backward crossovers, is your body weight going toward the inside of the circle as you push the outside leg away? Instead of that kinda reach away [with] the inside leg reaching and the body weight having to come afterward... That [reaching movement] takes so much time to get around the rink instead of really getting into it."
"I came to Frank after 10 years of working with Nathan Burge on posture, on understanding music... on learning skating... So when I got to Frank [and began getting choreography from Lori] it was just accentuating the attributes that I'd already been working on since I was 11."
At 1 hour 20 minutes into the broadcast when DL was just bringing up Tarah/Danny, Dyer said:
"Okay, this is the last thing I can talk about, and then I have to go teach two classes..."
During the K/O discussion, Dyer observed:
"That transfer of weight [is off for Tarah]. She reaches the leg and then tries to get the rest of her body to go with it afterward. The upper body and the lower body are not working in a unit to get her to accelerate across the ice like Danny does. Hers looks like a lot of effort. If she became more efficient with her edges and the power that she's trying to create, they would really accelerate. Because they do have really nice qualities. So again try to understand that transfer of weight, the center of gravity, where you are on the blade. We're looking at trying to do really difficult things, but if we don't understand how we stand on these blades, we can only go so far."
Just before departing, Dyer made sure to say:
"Everyone works really, really hard. Nationals is it's own beast. Stuff happens, but I love them all. I skated with so many of them for years and years. I have respect for anyone who goes out there like 100 percent, because I get it. I get it."
Unfortunately, DL seems fixated on dissing Starr Andrews. She landed in 8th place in both programs, and that was a fair, middling effort. She's had ups-and-downs this season and she seemed somewhat subdued. She's 17-years-old and she's still a promising, up-and-coming skater who has a lot of work to do. What is the point of DL claiming in a negative tone of voice, "She likes the limelight." ?? I'd say Starr has a passion for skating or she wouldn't have gotten this far in the first place. DL needs to chill. Dyer looked uncomfortable and said nothing about Starr. He allowed DL to ramble on awkwardly.
There could be some truth to the criticisms of H/D's program selection this year. However, it could also just be that they had run out of ideas and were slightly burnt out but needed to come up with something since they were continuing and not taking a break. So they went with something they'd thought about previously. I am impressed at how H/D have improved their FD over the course of the season. Probably they are still working on it. Likely H/D's power and amazing skills will see them through the rest of the season, and they can reboot for next year. I think the criticisms of H/D's FD is a bit overdone. Sure, Manta/Johnson are very creative and work a lot with CrhistopherDean, so they are always fun to watch. And their program has a lot of edge and sass that we have come to expect of H/D. So we'll see what happens and what future choices H/D will make for program selection.