2014 JGP Ostrava Czech Skate Ladies Free Skate

I dont think Mirai's spins suffered much after she become chubbier. still great speed,center and difficult position. the only thing suffered is that her lines created in her spin is thicker, well that is pretty obvious, since she put on some weight. Stocky skaters sometimes can do some really centered and fast spins, and if they has flexibility, they also can hit difficult positions.
but we live in a world where skinny is considered beautiful....

I've just come back from the ladies and men's free and I have to say Wakaba Higuchi left me absolutely speechless!
I have never really taken it all that seriously when people said they could watch certain skater do just crossovers all day long, but I totally came to undersand that today watching Wakaba. And she certainly wasn’t just skating around but her jumps were breathtaking as well.
Her skating is so smooth, effortless and powerful, she is simply flying over the ice! Her jumps are big, clean, with great height and distance, fully rotated with nice technique and absolutely secure. So solid in every aspect, she made everything look so easy.
Hard to believe she is only thirteen!
She is definitely not the ballerina type with long beautiful lines that I usually prefer, but I was so impressed by all her other qualities, I didn’t even have time to think about that.
Maybe just a little bit more personality and interpretation of the music would be nice but that’s about it.

Evgenia Medvedeva had a solid skate and her jumps were definitely not small, as I’ve sometimes read here, but more than adequate for her size(Higuchi’s were a different league though). I had some issues with her costume. At the moment she looks scarily thin and the black pants only drew attention to that, not flattering at all. Overall everything ok, but she didn’t make me go wow like Higuchi or Chen did and I wasn’t particularly taken by her artistry or musical interpretation either. Not saying it’s bad, but there were several better artists at this event.

Karen Chen was very impressive despite the mistakes. Nice jumps, very elegant with great lines, flexibility, excellent spinner and her artistry really stood out. She is so musical and such a wonderful performer, yet not over the top in her interpretation.
At this age she may be about as close to perfection as it gets when clean.

I don’t have enough time to go into more details about the other girls but it wouldn’t be fair to finish without mentioning Mariko Kihara and Angelina Kuchvalska who is an amazing complete skater and definitely had one of the best skates of the day.

enzet, thank you for your report!

BRASILwmr said:

I totally agree. Wakaba's 3 Lz was divine. I can to remember the Yuna's Lz . I think Medvedeva is ok, not a gorgeous program. The excess of tano positions in jumps, wrong edge in Lz (for almost all Russian junior girls) are bothering me. I'm not seeing anything beyond robotic programs for russian girls. But Evgenia have higher jumps, different of Sakhanovich.
I wish to see more dedication of the japanese girls in this season well as Higuchi.

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Obviously you can have some creativity in cop but I blame cop overall for the "robotic".

Wakaba Higuchi is definitely the one to watch for the next few years.

I don't think Evgenia was robotic at all tbh. I thought her execution was very graceful, much more so than Wakaba. I wouldn't call her program "robotic" (yes, even with the "excessive" tano jumps).

Wakaba has big, powerful jumps but I think she needs to take some ballet lessons. She tends to swing her arms around a little too wildly. But I do agree that Wakaba is definitely the skater to watch in the coming quad.

I don't buy that a good skater should be "ballerina on ice" standards, but I think skaters should take dance lessons. Radionova, Evgenia, Proklova definitely are well trained in other types of dances in addition to ballet.

In any case bravo Evgenia. If there had not been an unnecessary fall during SP she would have had a solid point advantage yet another time. As for robotic, I was quite perplexed when some benevolent critics here labeled Yulia with this word - the skater with the greatest presence I have ever seen. But here it is another story - "the robotic movements" is the part of the program's image.

[email protected] said:

In any case bravo Evgenia. If there had not been an unnecessary fall during SP she would have had a solid point advantage yet another time. As for robotic, I was quite perplexed when some benevolent critics here labeled Yulia with this word - the skater with the greatest presence I have ever seen. But here it is another story - "the robotic movements" is the part of the program's image.

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I totally agree with you. Evgenia earned her victory by coming back from a difficult SP to skate almost perfectly in the LP. The middle of Evgenia's freeskate includes a robotic movement interlude which I find to be quite charming and humanized, and her overall performance is full of elegance and emotional connection for me. I already said on several occasions that I find her to be a highly expressive skater, and honestly, I think this is her greatest strength, and why many people feel a connection to her that is more than her scores would indicate. I for one will be sad if she can't make it to Worlds next year.

gotoschool said:

I totally agree with you. Evgenia earned her victory by coming back from a difficult SP to skate almost perfectly. The middle of Evgenia's freeskate includes a robotic movement interlude which I find to be quite charming and humanized, and her overall performance is full of elegance and emotional connection for me. I already said on several occasions that I find her to a highly expressive skater, and honestly, I think this is her greatest strength, and why many people feel a connection to her that is more than her scores would indicate. I for one will be sad if she can't make it to Worlds next year.

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Next year might be depressing for those of us who love these Russian Junior stars. What is it going to be like 8 incredible skaters for Russia battling for 3 spots at the major competitions? I'm already getting sad thinking about it.

I guess, that unless a significant number of seniors get injured, next season all of them will stay junior. Only when Gubanova, Nugumanova and co. are ready to roll internationally in 2016, will they move forward.

But I already said multiple times that in this specific case 3 spot rule is hurting the sport with some dubious "little country" benefit.

[email protected] said:

In any case bravo Evgenia. If there had not been an unnecessary fall during SP she would have had a solid point advantage yet another time.

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On the other hand, had Wakaba not doubled both parts of her combination in the SP, she might have won the competition I really like Evgenia though, and am looking forward to seeing her more this season! Wishing her luck in the final (and hoping Wakaba gets in too) :yay:

Yes, we will not fight about imaginary events. I stated my case based on Evgenia's clean skate of the same SP 2 weeks ago and very confident jumps during FS. As for Wakaba, I wish her luck although I think that outside jumps she is still quite far from the level of both Evgenia and Serafima. Then those in another thread who claim that Wakaba is "the most exciting young skater in a decade" demonstrate sort of "wishful thinking". Too bad she is not skating in Japan. Competing against Serafima, arguably the strongest junior skater so far, would clarify a lot. But I am sure she has good chances to get into the finals. Even if she comes after Proklova in Germany 26 points should be hopefully enough.

Wakaba has clearer edge. personally I don't like her style, she is a bit labour on ice. But she is just 13 and has already a true lutz. It's an advantage over the Russian babies, you have to admit.

Higuchi's biggest advantage over the Russians is that she's virtually guaranteed spots for international competitions until 2017. She doesn't need to beg for points so desperately like tano-tano waifs. It also means that she can expect consistent supports from the federation. Just concentrate on technical improvements. No Russian can afford to "challenge" at the cost of immediate results.

NMURA said:

Higuchi's biggest advantage over the Russians is that she's virtually guranteed spots for international competitions until 2017. She doesn't need to beg for points so desperately like tano-tano waifs. Just concentrate on technical improvements.

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I have asked you once (but you never replied) and now I couldn't resist asking you again, NMURA. You seem to be more interest in politics and conspiracy than in FS.

Meoima said:

Wakaba has clearer edge. personally I don't like her style, she is a bit labour on ice. But she is just 13 and has already a true lutz. It's an advantage over the Russian babies, you have to admit.

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She has a trick - about half a second before the take-off she clearly moves to the outer edge. But then she moves back and at the take-off she looks almost flat - that I could see at the snapshot I made. Then I would not argue that her lutz technique is superior to that of most of the Russians. But FS is not only about the lutz' edge and even not about jumps only. Boiang jumps better than any youngster. However, unless he develops multiple other skills, I hope he will never get to the top among the seniors.

Meoima said:

I have asked you once (but you never replied) and now I couldn't resist asking you again, NMURA. You seem to be more interest in politics and conspiracy than in FS.

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I studied political science and political economy (rational choice and institutionalist theories) at university. I have interests on such subjects. FS is a unique "sport". Very opaque (dubious) in its nature but ruled by rational choices and strategies. If FS was an objectively measurable sport (like running or swimming), it wouldn't be much "interesting" for me.

[email protected] said:

She has a trick - about half a second before the take-off she clearly moves to the outer edge. But then she moves back and at the take-off she looks almost flat - that I could see at the snapshot I made. Then I would not argue that her lutz technique is superior to that of most of the Russians. But FS is not only about the lutz' edge and even not about jumps only. Boiang jumps better than any youngster. However, unless he develops multiple other skills, I hope he will never get to the top among the seniors.

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Totally agree. But I think Wakaba is not a head case in term of presentation, unlike Boyang. Frankly I have given up on his presentation. Of course Wakaba could never a "princess" on ice like Mao. I can see her heading toward Midori Ito'a style, though.

NMURA said:

I studied political science and political economy (rational choice and institutionalist theories) at university. I have interests on such subjects. FS is a unique "sport". Very opaque (dubious) in its nature but ruled by rational choices and strategies. If FS was an objectively measurable sport (like running or swimming), it wouldn't be much "interesting" for me.

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Thank you for the explanation. hwell: no wonder...