State of Russian ice dance

fleeting said:

I think it's going to get interesting to watch. In the mix we have:

-Bobrova/Soloviev, loved by judges, usually consistent when other teams are not, but prone to injuries
-Stepanova/Bukin, innovating twizzles and showing creativity, solid podium finish at second GP event, loved by Tarasova
-Yanovskaya/Mozgov, everything but a lock for winning Junior Worlds, consistantly fairly good, well matched on the ice, they're dating - will it be a chemistry increase or lead to ruin should they split?
-Monko/Khalavin, very good short dance, good debut at GPs, mainly lost a medal from careless mistakes in the FD
-Pushkash/Guerreiro, will they improve under the tutelage of Krylova and Camerlengo?

and lastly:

-Ilinykh/Zhiganshin, great emoters, good actors, clicked fast and apparently look quite good together
-Sinitsina/Katsalapov, look good together, powerful coach in the form of Zueva

I think there's not a lack of talent, but a lack of us having one team that looks poised to dominate - it's not 'Russian ice dance is failing' it's 'Russian ice dance is unpredictable,' which isn't as big of a problem.

Click to expand...

hanca said:

There is no more Pushkash/Guerreiro! Pushkash retired. Guerreiro skates with Zahorski, but she needs to be released from France.

Click to expand...

gmyers said:

I believe it is in the same position that ladies was after slutskaya retired and now you have ice dance historic low. Can karponosov fix it?

Click to expand...

Mattieu said:

I can't see how Elena training with such weak technical coaches as Kustorova is going to be a big success.
I am expecting them to be beaten easy by Papadakis/Cizeron next week
All hopes for Russia now lie with Sinitsina/Katsalapov in my opinion.

Click to expand...

Snow63 said:

Yanovskaya/Mozgov are future of russian Ice dancing. Future world champions. And I think I/Z and/or S/K will make some damage too. They're young and talented. And B/S are not done yet. IMO, russian Ice dancing is now at least in no worse position than at the start of the previous Olympic cycle.

Click to expand...

Alchamei said:

I'd wait for S/K and I/Z to compete. After that we can finally say if the Russians are competetive in ice dance.

Click to expand...

bekalc said:

Just because they have not had stars in recent years does not make them weak coaches.

Click to expand...

anyanka said:

Let's wait awhile before gnashing our teeth and getting Old Testament-styles.
Stepanova / Bukin proved they have the goods, but they're young and they can fix those twizzles to maximize the scoring.
Bobrova / Soloviev are out on injury but they may not be done quite yet, let's wait until Euros.
And Iliynkh / Zhigansin and Sinitsina / Katsalapov are both debuting their new partnerships in the coming weeks.
If we're going to declare a moratorium, let's wait until the season is over before making our conclusions.
Four years ago, B/S and I/K weren't considered factors. At the end of the quad, both had team OGM and I/K had the bronze.

Click to expand...

Sandpiper said:

I think a series of events/bad luck may force a "lull" in Russian ice dance this year. The musical chairs of the top young teams, plus Bobrova/Soloviev's injury... But I expect them to come back strong in the second half of the season or next year.

...Why is Stepanova/Bukin a bust? They just had their first GP (EDIT: okay, not first GP, but pretty close to it), and they won bronze as everyone expected. Surely they can't be considered failures just 'cause they didn't beat Chock/Bates and the Shibutanis?

Click to expand...

volk said:

It would be more appropriate to make a similar thread about Russian men.

Click to expand...

bekalc said:

He gave a really insightul interview. I think he can. The idea that a coach who has coached an Olympic champion team, multiple world champions, world and Olympic medalists, somehow does not know anything is ridiculous.

Click to expand...

Snow63 said:

Any ID preformances from both events you did not feel 'ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz' about?

Click to expand...

gmyers said:

No team should ever make their debut with level one elements. That's supposed to be taken care of by coaches and federation specialists before they even compete. I/K debuted with level one elements in 2013 GP season debut and even though they won Olympic bronze they broke up because they didn't work well enough together and didn't have the support and experts to say they would debut with low level elements.

Click to expand...

Sandpiper said:

I'd rather they debuted with Level 1 elements due to carelessness, than if they debuted with Level 1 elements 'cause they can do no better. Since we've pretty much concluded that they just need to change the edge, I wouldn't say this is a huge issue. (Btw, later on, in the CBC podcast, Browning too implied that the edges were the problem, perhaps acknowledging that the "slowness" and "large circles" described by Lane wasn't the problem).

They do have some sloppy skating at times, but it's too early to call them a bust. I'm not saying this just 'cause I enjoyed their lifts/twizzles. I'm saying this because I'd never write off any team that only competed in two GPs, and medalled in the second to boot.

Click to expand...

bekalc said:

He gave a really insightul interview. I think he can. The idea that a coach who has coached an Olympic champion team, multiple world champions, world and Olympic medalists, somehow does not know anything is ridiculous.

Click to expand...

gmyers said:

Free dance protocol from cup of Russia. For russia tech its so ugly. Silver medal but level 1 all over! Then more level 1 and twos. So bad. Need lessons from Detroit people.

http://www.isuresults.com/results/gprus2014/gprus2014_IceDance_FD_Scores.pdf

Click to expand...

dorispulaski said:

I don't have huge hopes for their spin. Elena did a similar spin with Nikita, and it was downgraded then too, from time to time.

It is neither safe enough or striking enough for them to be wasting their time on.

Click to expand...

elif said:

What? No! It is very different than what other teams doing and when in high speed crowd loves very much. Please, I hate spins in ice dance, at least we see other than sit spins and laybacks, just once..:disapp:

Click to expand...

tulosai said:

This is sort of an exaggeration. They had 2 level 1 elements. Of those, the spin they already knew was a problem due to CoC but probably didn't have time to change it in less than a week of training (they said in an interview they were only able to train for 2 days between). I have no doubt they will fix it by Nationals.

The other was that lift that gives them trouble. I've said elsewhere they need to either drill and drill and drill this lift until they could do it eyes closed, or else abandon it for this year and bring it for next year. When they hit it it's amazing but so far it's only a 1 in 4 success rate.

The other thing marked as level 1 is a choreographic lift/spin. This is always level 1. so it's not accurate to 'count this' since the best any team can do is level 1... and the worst any team can do is also level 1.

Other than the 2 elements everyone already knew were a problem, they had all level 3's and 4's.

Also, it's not like the teams underneath them did much better. On one level that's not an excuse, but on another, in terms of placements, it's very relevant. It's not like all the teams underneath them got all level 4's and their insane PCS held them up. S/K got only one level 1 (not counting choreographic spin/lift) but got 2 level 2's while I/K got none. S/B got a level 1 and a level 2. Beyond that the other teams had lower PCS which were deserved (and also not the best levels ever).

Click to expand...