^^ Yes, I think that a greater focus on skaters being trained to develop better blade skills/ skating skills should be a high priority. I can't understand why TPTB don't seem to recognize that Patrick Chan is a walking advertisement for bringing figures practice to the fore. The sport is hung up on placing too much importance on acrobatic jumping. As if it's not a sport unless they cram mucho multiple revolutions and OTT tech content into already tech heavy competitive programs.
Some more skater assessments triggered by
@gkelly's poll and
@Weve3's comments:
In the case of Jeremy Abbott, he's one of the finest artists on ice the sport has ever seen. Jeremy is a very well-rounded skater who could do it all on competition ice, despite being a relatively late bloomer. He had to work harder on fully developing his technical side, but there's no question he excelled at both technical and artistic skills. One of Jeremy's biggest problems, was the stumbling blocks he faced in overcoming competitive weaknesses on some crucial occasions, which IMO he struggled with mostly due to his thought processes. Seemingly, Jeremy may have been thinking too much at times, instead of allowing muscle memory to take over and fully believing in his abilities. In some cases, he perhaps suffered from strategic miscues involving jump layout, and also physical setbacks that weakened his competitive belief.
Jason Brown is another amazingly well-rounded skater with good technical ability and phenomenal artistic and interpretive skills. Yet, Jason is also a consistent and fiercely strong competitor. The 'tough competitor' side of his skating is sometimes overlooked because of his loosey-goosey personality off-the-ice. Jason is a gamer on the ice, make no mistake. When he's healthy and at full-strength, he's exceedingly consistent and enormously competitive. Suffice to say that his artistic strengths are huge, but he's also technically and athletically strong. It's just that his physicality and body structure appear to make it more difficult for him to achieve the spring, height, and quick rotations needed to master the multiple revolutions demanded these days to reach the major international podiums. However, Jason is nothing if not determined. He will give it his all and he will do his absolute best to try and master quads, just as he did the 3-axel.
Nathan Chen is above all, mentally strong and technically brilliant (backed-up by an accomplished coach who knows how to teach technical skills, as well as mental and strategic skills). Nathan doesn't really need to be taught the mental part though. He's as tough as they come mentally. Nathan is also underestimated in terms of his artistic sensibilities and performance quality, which are still maturing. But he's got both. He definitely has areas of his skating which need further developing and fine-tuning, but he's one of the more well-rounded skaters on the rise today. If Nathan had ever been seriously trained in compulsory figures, whoa, watch out!
Which brings to mind once again, the singular skating skills maestro: Patrick Chan. Bar none, the best ever in terms of combining skating skills with technical/athletic strengths. Patrick is a good performer too, but he has had to work harder on fully developing his artistic sensibilities, and interpretive movement qualities. I give Patrick huge credit for focusing intensively on the artistic aspects of his skating. He is a good competitor when he's on and in the zone. He has a full measure of self-belief and confidence, but in the heat of the most difficult competitive moments of his career, he has faltered. After taking time off post 2014-Olympics, he has needed to shore up and further hone his technical strengths in light of the increasing importance of multiple quads (which ironically he spearheaded in 2011). However, his heart doesn't seem to be into making the necessary sacrifices to go gung-ho on the technical side at this stage of his career. Patrick's dilemma highlights the difficulty of fully mastering both artistic and technical bravura skills in this era of overemphasis on quad revolutions.
