- Joined
- Feb 10, 2014
The 4F in the SP of US Nats is exactly the same score of 4.40 GOE as his GPF which you missed in your analysis by the way, for example.
So it is true in a general sense which oly2018 alluded to. Yes, the 4F in the FS is higher but we can account both in a national inflation but again the jump was done better than before so the GOE should be higher.
Of course their are national inflation but it isnt like those jumps were not done well. They were done very very very well and the best he has ever done.
To assume that he didn't check off boxes is your opinion. The judges both international and national says he does. When Nathan skates clean and done perfectly, the judges say he deserves +4/+5. And that is what matters.
Averaging GOEs at different events with different judges with different tech panels with different competitors at different times (later vs beginning of the season) is not accurate.
For example, Skate America had the toughest caller on any event so far while later they were lighter on the calls.
Worlds last year saw Nathan do very well at both high GOEs and PCs so it is possible for him. And continue to grow.
And what matters is he is growing and gotten a lot better and hope he continues to grow not just this current event but in the future as well. (I wish that for all skaters).
But it depends on what each skater puts out at that moment in the end. Are they clean? Is the 3A ok, good, perfect? We will see.
I dont know how Nathan will do at Worlds or Hanyu or Shoma or Jason or Matteo or Zhu or Cha. I have to see what they put out and what they do at that MOMENT if they do their jumps perfectly or they didn't.
I hope they all do well. I want them all to be clean (but that unrealistic). It is going to be a great competition and look forward to how they perform.
I hope there is more events like this where the battle is on. It makes it really exciting.
I agree that Nathan has grown a lot since last year, thought he did very well at Nats, and like you, hope he and all the guys you mentioned do well at Worlds.
Regarding the 4F at GPF versus Nats:
GPF: SP 3.77, FS 4.40
Nats: SP 4.40, FS 5.03
So it appears that both sets of judges felt his 4F was better in the FS than in the SP, but in each case, the judges at Nats scored him significantly higher.
You’re right that it’s only my opinion that Nathan doesn’t check the boxes for +4/+5 GOE. Nathan usually gets good height and distance on his jumps (1), but IMO his jumps rarely look effortless (2) and the landings aren’t always great (tilted, landed forward, lack flow out) (3). I’m not saying he never has good landings or effortless jumps, but IMO he misses those things pretty often. And unless his jumps have all three of those bullet points, under the rules he shouldn’t be getting more than +3 at the most. If you look at his FS protocol for the 2018 GPF, for example, other than the 4F, he did not get very high GOE. Again, not saying he can’t, but he didn’t there. As to PCS, while I do think Nathan has improved significantly in this area and I actually really like his programs this year, again IMO, his PCS at Nats, especially in the FS, was...absurd. There is no other way to put it. There is a huge gap between the FS PCS he got at Nats (98.50) and what he got at Worlds 2018 (91.84) and GPF 2018 (88.64). I admit I’m demanding, but I just don’t think it was an almost perfect performance, which is what 98.50 implies to me. JMO.
In any case, I do hope Nathan and all our guys do well this week!