UPDATED: Jason Brown to Brian Orser (official)

[VGThuy]

I think it is impressive Jason has had the success he has had without quads. It is a rare skater who can skate the way he can.

Yeah, it would be amazing if he had quads; but it's not like he's a complete failure. He's still adding to the collection of hardware.

I think it's because he really is a unique talent with qualities most of his competitors (maybe none) have that they want to reward.

 

[aftershocks]

Jason seems to be doing OK, he won a medal in Russia.

While it was not my favorite long program for Jason, I have to say I love his short. If he skates both of them clean, he will score very well and win some more medals. I hope he gets two programs that suit him next year.

People complain if a skater or team keeps the same style of program every year and then complain if they branch out. Make up your mind people!

Personally, if someone skates a perfect program - and does all their jumps and gets positive GOE and shows good skating skills - what's not to love??? Even if the program or music is not my favorite.

I bet Jason is really encouraged about this result and will go home and work harder than ever.

I agree with you generally, except I don't consider this fp as necessarily branching out for Jason. Apparently, they came up with the program randomly because he needed a fp. They didn't have a lot of advance time working with Jason this season, so someone suggested music they thought might work without apparently asking Jason first. And they are not that familiar with Jason's personality either, so hopefully more thought will be put into new programs next season. The sp Rohene created this season is boffo, so I'm a bit disappointed that Jason didn't already have a new boffo fp by Rohene in his pocket, so he could just concentrate on the technical adjustments he's making under Orser/Wilson.

In the beginning, the S&G music did not appeal to Jason, but he gave it a chance and they created the choreo to it. Jason said he liked the choreo, plus I don't think he wanted to make waves after joining a new training camp. He wanted to be open and trusting. In the end, by Jason trusting his team and applying his talent and belief in himself, things are evening out. There's still a lot that he's having to rework and put together, but it's nice to see him regaining his confidence and making some additional strides competitively.

At least after AC, Jason's team recognized that the fp was not working and they made a few changes with choreo layout and music cuts. At Skate Canada, I could sense more of a connection or a bridge between the first half and the last half of the program. Plus Tracy Wilson mentioned in the broadcast booth at SC that they were trying to channel the fact that Jason had left an old friend. As I said earlier, I doubt that was a good idea for a program concept (Kori is a former coach, mentor and a second mother to Jason, not strictly an old friend). Plus why have him be in that mindset for an entire season? Jason is surely thinking of something else to motivate him rather than the concept of leaving an old friend! I find the opening tune very sad and melancholy, and that's what I don't think is Jason's vibe. The reason why I don't think the S&G opening tune suits Jason has nothing to do with it being slow music. Anyway, they've stuck with it, and at least Jason is getting into it more. That doesn't mean the program really works. It's just coming together better and he seems more committed to it.

FWIW, I don't see the fp having much to do with trying something different. Switching coaches was trying something different, and working with new choreographers is trying something different. But this particular fp selection has nothing to do with branching out! The choreo doesn't even match the music that well, but with the changes they've made it's okay now largely because Jason is putting more of himself into it and they bridged the music cuts in a way that gives a better sense of the melancholy and poignant reflection of the lyrical theme and then the idea of moving on into a new phase of life. When the upbeat music starts, we feel the sense of taking off into a new groove. Fine. I still don't like the music for Jason, and I don't think it's a strong program.

At the same time, the S&G music is far from being something that's out of Jason's wheelhouse. It's just a fairly bland music selection that doesn't enhance who he is as a person and a skater. So, it's taken him awhile to get into it at the same time he's been learning new technique. As far as genres of music, Jason can skate to practically anything. It should preferably be something that motivates him and has resonance. Anyway, hello, Jason has skated to slow music before! And people forget that Jason has landed boffo triple axels before too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxtt1O6S3Zo A great farewell program for Jason's partnership with Kori
Look at the above program and see the emotion and the music ooze out of Jason's every move. That's skating par excellence!
Here's another example of slow, but deeply resonant and emotional music that Jason has skated to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcHN1BWBvEQ I link this performance because Jason exhibits great rotation and height on a quad, but he didn't have the confidence to believe he could land it without putting his free foot down a split second after he landed. This is the same season (2016-2017) where weeks earlier Jason had landed a perfect quad so easily at SA that the judges refused to believe it! Even though they did not have a good view of the landing, the judges decided to give Jason a UR, whereas conversely they had given him full credit for quad rotations on a fall in the sp at the same event (Skate America 2016)

I hope Orser & Co have at least looked back at some of Jason's best performances of the past few years, because in 2016 Jason was not far away from perfecting the quad in competition. He was just slammed back hard and given no quarter by the judges. And then he experienced injury setbacks which further eroded his confidence. Plus, let's not forget the constant badgering by US figure skating authorities for Jason to leave Kori. Okay, so he did finally move on, but it doesn't mean he wasn't close to aceing the quad. He'd landed it plenty in training and practices. Now, perhaps adjusting his technique under Orser will allow him to break through to consistency, but it's a harder process to completely rework everything technically.

So for now, I would imagine that they are working on the quad behind-the-scenes and will maybe reintroduce it slowly in competition. Part of landing the quad consistently has to do with one's mental approach and confidence level.

 

[skatingguy]

The extreme punishment applies equally to all jumps. One of the ladies in France, popped a jump so had a base value of 0 with a negative GOE. Can't remember who it was. Or maybe base value was @ 1.0 with - GOE of .40. If she had had a bad fall what could they have deducted? Up to -5? So that would be 1.0 - 5.0.(hopefully not!)

Rika Kihira - axel jump in the short program was a single and so she received no value for that element. Skaters can't receive a negative score for an element that is worth zero - the GOE doesn't count. If a jump was worth 1.0, and the GOE was -5.0 then the final element score would be 0.50.

 

[SmallFairy]

Rika Kihira - axel jump in the short program was a single and so she received no value for that element. Skaters can't receive a negative score for an element that is worth zero - the GOE doesn't count. If a jump was worth 1.0, and the GOE was -5.0 then the final element score would be 0.50.

Correct. Zero is zero. No GOE. The protocol will also have an asterix at the bottom saying: *invalid element - for single axel in the SP, an extra spin etc, anything that's not allowed.

 

[LilJen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxtt1O6S3Zo A great farewell program for Jason's partnership with Kori

 

[DreamSkates]

That triple axle-triple toe loop was beautiful.