I have always wanted to determine the maximum base value for a ladies long program without a quad or triple axel. If such a number existed, skaters and coaches could use this as a benchmark to help determine how good their choices for their program are. Of course, this isn't the only benchmark for this but it is one that never gets talked about. However, I start to do the math and my head explodes. Can anyone help me answer this question from a shear math point of view?
To simplify things I am going to use what most of the ladies are doing today. Not the superstars of the sport but most ladies. Thus, I assume for this question that only loops and toes can be the second or third jump of a combination. And again I'm going to assume for this calculation that a triple axel or quads are not allowed.
The ladies do 12 elements in their free skate which consist of 7 jumping passes, 3 spins and 2 sequences. The spins and sequences part of this seems easy. As I can't find in the scale of values table a spin higher than 3.5 base value or sequence higher than 3.9 base value that means the maximum base value of these five elements is (3 * 3.5) + (2 * 3.9) = 10.5 + 7.8 = 18.3
Now where I get stuck is finding the max base value that results from arranging the six types of jumps (axel, toe, loop, salchow, flip, lutz) into seven jumping passes under Zayak. Zayak says that you can only attempt a triple or quad jump twice and AT LEAST one of these attempts must be in combination. Both can be in combination if you want. I could just play with combinations in a trial and error way and see what comes up. However, it seems like a mathematician would have a better way to determine a max than trial and error.
I suspect that coaches and skaters just do trial and error with the math along with what they know they can do consistently to determine the content of their jumping passes. However, if they knew what the max was, they could get a feel for how well they have chosen this content. To use an example, let's make up a number for the max base value of the jumping. I am randomly going to choose 52. I made this up since single jumps are around 6, two jump combinations with a double are around 8 and three jump combinations are around 10 base value. Then with 18.3 for the spins and sequences the max base value of most of the skaters today would be 52 + 18.3 = 70.3. Then a skater like Medeveda who doesn't have a triple axel or quad could see that her base value of 62.33 was pretty good but could garner 8 more points of base value if she changed what she did. Does anyone else see the "value" (pun intended) in knowing what the max base value could be?
Now, my favorite question for you...Does more than one mix of jumps give you this highest base value?
To simplify things I am going to use what most of the ladies are doing today. Not the superstars of the sport but most ladies. Thus, I assume for this question that only loops and toes can be the second or third jump of a combination. And again I'm going to assume for this calculation that a triple axel or quads are not allowed.
The ladies do 12 elements in their free skate which consist of 7 jumping passes, 3 spins and 2 sequences. The spins and sequences part of this seems easy. As I can't find in the scale of values table a spin higher than 3.5 base value or sequence higher than 3.9 base value that means the maximum base value of these five elements is (3 * 3.5) + (2 * 3.9) = 10.5 + 7.8 = 18.3
Now where I get stuck is finding the max base value that results from arranging the six types of jumps (axel, toe, loop, salchow, flip, lutz) into seven jumping passes under Zayak. Zayak says that you can only attempt a triple or quad jump twice and AT LEAST one of these attempts must be in combination. Both can be in combination if you want. I could just play with combinations in a trial and error way and see what comes up. However, it seems like a mathematician would have a better way to determine a max than trial and error.
I suspect that coaches and skaters just do trial and error with the math along with what they know they can do consistently to determine the content of their jumping passes. However, if they knew what the max was, they could get a feel for how well they have chosen this content. To use an example, let's make up a number for the max base value of the jumping. I am randomly going to choose 52. I made this up since single jumps are around 6, two jump combinations with a double are around 8 and three jump combinations are around 10 base value. Then with 18.3 for the spins and sequences the max base value of most of the skaters today would be 52 + 18.3 = 70.3. Then a skater like Medeveda who doesn't have a triple axel or quad could see that her base value of 62.33 was pretty good but could garner 8 more points of base value if she changed what she did. Does anyone else see the "value" (pun intended) in knowing what the max base value could be?
Now, my favorite question for you...Does more than one mix of jumps give you this highest base value?
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