thank you. i will try that...
That sums it up, WA. The growth spurts also made it tough for them to get anywhere as far as lifts. And I personally liked the new version of Memoirs of a Geisha also. (which, to correct you WA, was a novice program.)
But the thing I'd credit them for is that they never gave up. And they aren't giving up now. And even though they never replicated their results, I still feel like they grew in other ways. They learned to compete in pain, growth spurts, even not-great material. And considering all those struggles, they still have medaled at all but one regular GP event (i.e. non-GPF events), made the GPF twice, never get off the Nationals podium and remain solidly in the top 6-9 in the world (and probably could sneak into the top 5 or higher this year).
snip
I agree with tulosai though, who said last night that they deserve more in terms of interpretation. I don't think they are lacking in that aspect.
Well, speaking of Nelly&Alex, apparently they will retire after the worlds in Shanghai.
http://www.sport1.de/wintersport/20...ganshina-und-alexander-gazsi-vor-karriereende
Sad to see them retire, but they are perfect for shows and will have a bright future. Besides, they can do well in the future as choreographers, or something similar in that sector. They do have a very creative mind.
Nelly, for example, be a consultant for team Ruslena.
Interesting thoughts on the Shibs' career, Mrs. P. Out of curiosity, do you think they should change coaches after this season or stick with Marina?
Yes, my biggest complaint about the current judging system is that judges do not really mark the different PCS categories separately. They seem to just decide what they want a team to get overall, and then mark that for each of the components, within a .25 or .5 range, marking slightly lower the weakest categories, and slightly higher the strongest categories. I think it is really a travesty in some cases- in both directions (by which I mean some skaters get marked much higher in one component than deserved and some get marked much lower than deserved.
A team like Z/G, in my humble opinion, deserves in the 9's for IN, every time. They deserve probably in the high 8's for choreo. Some programs for choreo would deserve a 9. and Performance/Execution should usually be in the 8's (theirs is held back some by their lack of technical ability). Their SS should be in the 6's really, and their TR should be somewhere solidly in the 6's as well- perhaps even low 6's or high 5's.
Instead of just acknowledging that YES, a team can preform really really well in terms of interpretation and also have really extremely mediocre transitions, the judges give them all their component marks in the 7.5 range. It is just stupid.
Elena Ilinykh & Ruslan Zhiganshin: Lena and Ruslan are skating together for 10 months. They are criticized for many things in both Russian and English Forums….which looks like a joke noticing for how short time they skate together and noticing what they already achieved – results which other couple are working on many seasons (Silver Grand Prix medal at second competition, Grand Prix Final participation, title of Russian Champions, small Siver medal with huge score at European Championships)… But like Maxim Staviski noticed that couples must be judged looking at skating, not for how long they skate together. Overall they improved their FD, execution of Transition (with exception of that one stumble) and elements got better (with exception of Straight Line lift). The work done in those three weeks was noticeable. Rotations by Ruslan in Rotational lift are more clean and fluent, execution of Curved lift at the end of the program was the best we saw from them during the season. Step Sequences the best like usual, they are even faster in it than last time. You can notice that thanks to a stumble they started Diagonal Step Sequence with much lower speed than usual…but in first three turns they were able to accelerate speed a lot to get into their usual speed mode – they are the only couple who can do this at today’s Dance field. Twizzles had great ice coverage but two Sets were out of the synchro so judges put the GOE down to +0.27 points. (Just for fun – at Grand Prix Final FD Papadakis & Cizeron executed all three Sets out of the synchro with much smaller ice coverage and they got GOE +1.11 points.) The dance suffered with missed lift and stumble. Skating Skills in SD should be around 9.50 points because there is no other couple with better skills – the couple got 8.39 points only. In FD Skating Skills should be lower because of stumble in Transitions, so something between 8.50 – 8.75 would be appropriate. Also judge‘s displeasure after missed lift was visible - they started to put them lower GOE in every next element. And judges also put down all Components as much as possible. So the mistake in one element caused lost points also in next 4 elements plus stumble caused lost points in all 5 Components. In Straight Line Lift Lena put her skate on wrong place, in slow motion there is visible how the heel of her blade leaned and then slid on Ruslan’s leg. Journalists asked Ruslan and he admitted that he has bleeding scratch on his leg but in the same moment he told that he is not in pain and that it is nothing serious (http://rsport.ru/figure_skating/20150129/803037868.html). I think that Ruslan didn’t want to frighten Lena who was staying next to him in front of journalists…but if you look at slow motion – thanks to a fact that Ruslan is not using some protectors on the thigh – I think that the scratch was deeper and very painfull. Blades of skaters have to be sharp, just realise how many ladies have slight bleeding from fingers after skate just because they catched the blade carelessly in lift or Twizzles...and Lena stood on Ruslan’s leg with all her weight. Some people point out that this lift situation was very similar to what happened to Vika and Nikita at NHK Trophy. New team, difficult elements, too short period of practises, too short time to get used to each other etc. After some hesitancy from my side, I must admit that the situation was really very similar. But what happened next was almost the opposite. Both men were in crouching position, both men lost balance (Ruslan thanks to Lena’s blade which slid from his thigh) and their right leg went out of crouching position, but while Nikita wasn‘t able to control situation and dropped Vika, Ruslan was able to keep control and put Lena down on her legs. While it was Vika who tried to comfort Nikita after his own mistake, here it was Ruslan who tried to comfort Lena. While Nikita was not able to overcome the mistake and lost another lift because of it, Ruslan and Lena executed next lift without hesitation (Ruslan had to put Lena on the same place on leg where she cut him). Not to forget that spin without change of foot was done on injured left leg as well, especially Sit Position had to be very painfull for Ruslan. While Vika and Nikita were loosing Levels and making many mistakes during whole FD, Lena and Ruslan kept fighting to the end not loosing any Level in next element, keeping high speed and presentation until the end of program. I must say that since Domnina & Shabalin’s Aboriginal dance hysteria in 2010, it is another situation when journalists and some people from skating world try to hunt and completely destroy some couple. Starting with an article about Lena and Nikita coming back to each other…the article was published in the day of SD. Did anybody expected that the couple will read it and show a disaster during SD because of it? Continuing with dirty words by Margaglio during broadcast. Uhh noticed that also Scali put some not nice words unofficially. For whole season Tatiana Tarasova is not able to find even one good word about the couple. Maxim Staviski criticised the couple so much during broadcast at Cup of China. All Russian commentators were saying poor words about them during Grand Prix Series. Irina Zhuk, Alexander Svinin and their student S&B are constantly complaining that they are not number 1 having the same chances. While I can understand that Zhuk and Svinin and Tarasova are fighting for their team Sasha & Ivan…and Tarasova always had tender feelings towards Ivan Bukin, because she trained his father…I am disappointed from Margaglio and Scali’s approach. They both were top skaters in past, they know very well how the life of top athletes looks like - how many sacrifices and hours of suffering it takes. And especially Margaglio is able to say such dirty words about I&Z trying to create an idea of substandard couple. I don’t remember Margaglio or Scali to be like this with their previous training groups. Is it really Zueva’s influence that they changed so much? But Zueva herself admit in interview that she would take both couples if also Lena and Ruslan wanted to come to her…so in reality she can hardly think so low about them if she would like to train them. I slowly come to an opinion that low GOE and terribly low Skating Skills for I&Z are the result of “off ice work“ of Margaglio and other Zueva’s specialists who spend time between practises coming to judges and specialists persuading them that I&Z are the worst couple ever. Thankfully at least Technical panel didn’t believe this and judged what they saw. 4th place at their first European Championships is the same placement like both I&K and S&Z got at their first European Championships.
Spot on analysis Sisinka! I will say I am very surprised to hear all the negativity aimed at I/Z.
Alexandra Stepanova & Ivan Bukin:
http://rsport.ru/figure_skating/20150130/803045644.html
Svinin: “The advantage of the French is that they compete in seniors for two seasons. And they really have made great progress. But you can fight with them, and we will try to do it. In juniors we not only fight with them, but beaten them.“
“But it is pleasent to understand that they are already fearing us, trying to make things not easy. Therefore result in the tournament is twice as pleasant.“
http://rsport.ru/figure_skating/20150130/803053317.html
Alexandra Stepanova: “Marks are given from various reasons. Papadakis & Cizeron are first French couple while there is not very clear situation in Russia. There are changements in teams, Katya and Dima are injured. Because of it, it is not clear, who is first Russian couple, who to support. There is clear situation (in France) while here is a work. In our case every couple must prove that exactly they are the best.“
Anna Cappellini & Luca Lanotte:
What is BIG MINUS – it is Anna’s upper body posture – she is hunching and putting her head forward and it is so inelegant. This should be corrected fast.