Matilda Friend & William Badaoui | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Matilda Friend & William Badaoui

GF2445

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 7, 2012
Congratulations for a new official SB/PB at Asian Open FS Trophy in China. 54.55 for the RD.
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
And new PBs for the free dance and overall score: 82.52/137.67! They've also made the Worlds TES minimum for the FD - only the RD minimum to get now.
 

WeakAnkles

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
There's something about this couple I like. But man, get rid of those RD costumes...they look like they're made from awning material. And the musical cuts are dreadful. They still need to work on basics, especially stroking. They're not digging down with their knees into the ice enough, and I think just drilling that over and over and over would probably be the smartest thing they could do.

But they are likeable. I want to see them do well.
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
There's something about this couple I like. But man, get rid of those RD costumes...they look like they're made from awning material. And the musical cuts are dreadful. They still need to work on basics, especially stroking. They're not digging down with their knees into the ice enough, and I think just drilling that over and over and over would probably be the smartest thing they could do.

But they are likeable. I want to see them do well.

...

...actually, no. I'm not going to just sit and be silent in reply to this, because I don't like seeing people who are working very hard within limited means get damned with faint praise for doing the best they can with what they have.

How exactly do you expect them to find the extra time and resources to make these so-desperately-needed changes? Unlike a lot of the higher-ranked teams out there, Matilda and William have to combine their training with full and busy lives. Both of them are university students - studying real courses that will lead to real careers, not fluff degrees created to give athletes flimsy paper qualifications as a reward for collecting high-status chunks of pot-metal in public. William's studying Architecture and Matilda Indigenous Studies, both of which take a lot of hard work and contact hours and neither of which can exactly be done online. If I'm remembering correctly, they also both have jobs, because they have to earn money to live and pay for university and health cover and all those sorts of essential things, let alone fund their skating. They still manage to train 30 hours a week on top of all that. Sorry if their knee bend still isn't good enough for you, but how exactly do you expect them to find more time to put into working on it - give up sleeping altogether?

And are they supposed to just wave their hands and produce new music and costumes out of thin air because you think they should? Those things cost money. They don't have strong enough results to get any level of dAIS funding - you have to be Olympic medal potential for that. They don't get high enough placements when they compete to access most of the ISA bonus payments, meagre as those are, even when they get personal best scores. And state-level funding for athletes in incredibly fringe sports like figure skating isn't brilliant at the best of times. When they tried putting up a GoFundMe to raise $5000 for this season they only managed to get $1000 - and before you make the obvious comment, a solid tenth of that came from me, so it's not like I haven't done what I can to help them out. Their costumes fit, are safe to skate in and aren't damaged or falling apart; even if they didn't like them - and all the evidence suggests that they do like them very much - they're not going to be replaced when the money it would take to replace them could fund a quarter of a trip to a competition (please remember that for two people to fly from Australia to almost anywhere where there's a skating competition and home again can cost as much as AU$6000 depending on when you book and what airline/s you need to fly on to get to where you need to go). A new music cut - again, if they even wanted one, which they certainly don't appear to - with associated re-choreographing of the RD to suit it, would also be a waste of money when that money could be spent on entry fees and plane tickets or coaching and ice time instead, or saved up against the need for a new RD next year.

And it's not like they can jaunt overseas in the off season and attend training camps with more experienced coaches and higher-ranked teams to improve those all-important basics either, because, you know, there's a reason I call it the off season, not summer. It's not summer here. The universities aren't out on their long breaks. While their northern hemisphere competitors get to swan around taking advantage of all the opportunities on offer, Matilda and William are studying for, sitting and recuperating from their first-semester exams. They get a three-week break and then they have to be back in the classroom. While still training as much as they can every day of the week bar Sundays.

I think that working under those circumstances, they're not just likeable: they're admirable. And accomplished. And achieving considerably more than could be expected of them in a sport the entire structure of which works against their even participating, never mind succeeding.

And I promise you, they're working on those knee bends, and those basics, and developing them all the time. If you think they're not, I recommend you look up the senior ID livestream from the NSW state championships on YouTube and see what the other team competing there looked like. Then you'll get a sense of exactly how hard they've worked, how far they've come and how much they want to improve and are working every day to improve.

And now I think I'm going to pop you on ignore for a little while, WeakAnkles. You're starting to give me the irrits.
 

gordana

On the Ice
Joined
Sep 17, 2015
Country
Russia
Harriet, thank you very much. I am impressed and astonished how deep is your knowledge of this team.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
When a team comes from a small federation, we see them at very early stages in their development, because they are the very best in their country.

This team has come such an amazingly long way, from when I first saw them, on the JGP, I think!!

I hope they will keep at it! They have some interesting moves going on in that RD :clap:
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
They've got a new FD! I didn't recognise the music - but it's got a Roaring Twenties sound, with Tilly in a gorgeous green flapperish frock and Will in shirtsleeves and braces. All was going quite well until they had a fall on the final lift (it's a new lift, so probably still had some kinks to work out under competition pressure). I liked it a lot. They've kept the same RD and it's looking very polished now. Their twizzles have really improved since last season!

RD: 52.56
FD: 70.24
Total: 122.80
 

gsk8

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Country
United-States
Hi all!

I sent a PM out a few days ago regarding the Video Project. If you are interested in doing this team (or anyone else), shoot me a PM! :)
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
Oh, this is sad news, I really enjoyed watching her and William.
What a lovely post she wrote to explain her decision and thank all those who supported them. Best of luck to them both in their future endeavors.
Will is retiring too. :( Not that I anticipated him going on with a new partner, but it's such a shame to lose them. They've always been so sparky and fun.
 
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