2015 Skate Canada Ladies Free Skate

[Warwick360]

Ashely shouldn't get overconfident because of this victory. Ur's remain a significant problem for her, and in the future she probably won't get the benefit of her challengers having an off competition,
especially at worlds, where it would take a meltdown from more than one of them. She certainly did deserve to win here and I'm glad for her, but the high scores, too high imo, could be misleading for her too.

I get the fact that she shouldn't get too confident especially when someone as secure as Porgorilaya and Radionova lost momentum last season. But I don't see how she was overscored? I mean we're not in the days of late 2000s where PCS were kept very minimal and in check. (Cue the skate canada 2006 score I saw for Yuna's SP) Her score relative to her contemporaries seems very much justified. And as much as I love Elizaveta, I think score attention should divert more towards her.

And more than the UR problem (which I feel she's managed to tackle significantly), I'm more worried about the Lutz's edge calls. With Ashley it seems so precarious like I've seen in the past with Medvedeva.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Not funny.

It's funny because ice is cold but in this scenario the ice was greeting Kaetlyn with warmth and compassion

 

[andromache]

I get the fact that she shouldn't get too confident especially when someone as secure as Porgorilaya and Radionova lost momentum last season. But I don't see how she was overscored? I mean we're not in the days of late 2000s where PCS were kept very minimal and in check. (Cue the skate canada 2006 score I saw for Yuna's SP) Her score relative to her contemporaries seems very much justified. And as much as I love Elizaveta, I think score attention should divert more towards her.

And more than the UR problem (which I feel she's managed to tackle significantly), I'm more worried about the Lutz's edge calls. With Ashley it seems so precarious like I've seen in the past with Medvedeva.

Re: Ashley's lutz, I'm glad to see she's stopped doing it in the short and stopped attempting the 3Lutz-3T in the long. She's sticking with her better jumps (Gracie might want to take a page from her book and cut that 3flip from her SP honestly).

Reducing the lutzes may also have helped Ashley to skate clean MENTALLY since she didn't have to psyche herself out so much over the lutz edge.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Ashely shouldn't get overconfident because of this victory. Ur's remain a significant problem for her, and in the future she probably won't get the benefit of her challengers having an off competition,
especially at worlds, where it would take a meltdown from more than one of them. She certainly did deserve to win here and I'm glad for her, but the high scores, too high imo, could be misleading for her too.

I don't think she'll be over-confident because of this. But it'll be a huge boost of confidence knowing she can clear 70 points with a clean SP, and defeat the current World champion. Yet again, people keep counting her out and she delivers. I would love to see the looks on the faces of her haters who said she'll never win a GP ever again, and some even said she won't even medal.

 

[viennaskater]

It's funny because ice is cold but in this scenario the ice was greeting Kaetlyn with warmth and compassion

Are you being ironic here?

 

[silverlake22]

Oh, no wonder I got confused yuk with kana.

Huge 3lz3t then huge pop on 3r. I would remove vocal part, but her program is very handsome! Refreshing!

Her back has details of violin! Just like her beautiful string music, perhaps?

Kanako wishes she could do a 3lz-3t like Yuka . I actually think if Yuka can develop some more consistency she can move ahead of both Kanako and Rika in the Japan standings. I mean, I know the juniors are amazing, but most of them still have another season of juniors they need to do before moving up. Yuka's technique seems good, the 3lz-3t is very high quality and the rest of her jumps seem pretty good too, plus she's already gotten through the awkward puberty transition phase. Idk, I am a fan. She does need to stop popping jumps but overall I thought she did well here. Sometimes she URs but oddly not on the big combos? She had 2 URs in her FS but the 3lz-3t and 2a-3t were both rotated. Packaging seems a bit dated, the dress looked too big in the FS but like the colors. I think if she keeps performing well her PCS will go up. Something about her skating reminds me of Aarakawa, kind of calm and regal presence out there.

Anyways, happy for Ashley and Gabby too. So sad for Polina and Alena though

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Are you being ironic here?

Just trying to keep the mood light. But yes...I was searching to remove the poison from the arrow in the form of irony. I'm quite ironic by nature.

 

[Tutto]

Kanako wishes she could do a 3lz-3t like Yuka . I actually think if Yuka can develop some more consistency she can move ahead of both Kanako and Rika in the Japan standings. I mean, I know the juniors are amazing, but most of them still have another season of juniors they need to do before moving up. Yuka's technique seems good, the 3lz-3t is very high quality and the rest of her jumps seem pretty good too, plus she's already gotten through the awkward puberty transition phase. Idk, I am a fan. She does need to stop popping jumps but overall I thought she did well here. Sometimes she URs but oddly not on the big combos? She had 2 URs in her FS but the 3lz-3t and 2a-3t were both rotated. Packaging seems a bit dated, the dress looked too big in the FS but like the colors. I think if she keeps performing well her PCS will go up. Something about her skating reminds me of Aarakawa, kind of calm and regal presence out there.

I like her bended knee on the landings - you kinda trust she would land them but yes the packaging could be improved

 

[jajoana]

There are so many complaints about Liza’s lack of choreo. I just want to ask. Are you, guys, serious?
There were no choreo, and the performance started in the third part. So what was that? It was an athlete pushed nearer to her limits. She barely stood on her feet after the Free programme. I actually expected her to faint after the music had stopped. Pretty sure, that after SP shipwreck mr Mishin and Liza just did the maths and decided to play va banque: jumps,jumps, jumps. It was her only way to get to the podium. And she delivered! OMG
Liza’s FP was a pure declaration: I can be among top figure skaters even being completely out of my best condition, I’m not gonna give up. That’s what a sport is about.
What a character! I’m so proud and happy for that girl. Her silver seems far more precious than a gold medal without any drama.
By the way I’m very happy for Ashley and her coach Rafael Vladimirovich Arutyunyan. It was a really deserved gold medal.

 

[koatcue]

There are so many complaints about Liza’s lack of choreo. I just want to ask. Are you, guys, serious?
There were no choreo, and the performance started in the third part. So what was that? It was an athlete pushed nearer to her limits. She barely stood on her feet after the Free programme. I actually expected her to faint after the music had stopped. Pretty sure, that after SP shipwreck mr Mishin and Liza just did the maths and decided to play va banque: jumps,jumps, jumps. It was her only way to get to the podium. And she delivered! OMG
Liza’s FP was a pure declaration: I can be among top figure skaters even being completely out of my best condition, I’m not gonna give up. That’s what a sport is about.
What a character! I’m so proud and happy for that girl. Her silver seems far more precious than a gold medal without any drama.
By the way I’m very happy for Ashley and her coach Rafael Vladimirovich Arutyunyan. It was a really deserved gold medal.

Absolutely agree! It was about jumps and not falling...her step sequence even looked rough, which isn't typical for her. Of course many people are happy about Ashley's win over Liza, but let's be real: Liza was far from her best performance wise. Plus her technical score could be better, her 3a can be better, and so on. It's not like that it was Liza's best program and just Ashley has room for growth...

 

[silverlake22]

I thought Tuk was pretty good, she became alive in the 2nd half of the program. The jumps were great. Not as much fire as last season but I still thought it was a good effort whereas so many others seem to be underwhelmed. Remember, at this time last season she had competed several times already, so I think we can expect for things to get better as the season goes on.

 

[zschultz1986]

Absolutely agree! It was about jumps and not falling...her step sequence even looked rough, which isn't typical for her. Of course many people are happy about Ashley's win over Liza, but let's be real: Liza was far from her best performance wise. Plus her technical score could be better, her 3a can be better, and so on. It's not like that it was Liza's best program and just Ashley has room for growth...

That's great, but I'm not gonna bother to care about her programs if she doesn't even bother to care about them.

I went back and rewatched it, since i had been so critical of it at first glance. I like it even less now.

The program, for the first minute and a half, is literally "Opening pose, crossovers, 3A (which wasn't clean), crossovers, 3Z combo, crossovers, 3F, crossovers, meh sit spin, another meh layback spin, pose. There is NO interpretation in the first half of anything, there was ONE rocker (I believe that's what it was) going into the 3Z combo, and that's it for transitions. The second half is not much better: little interpretation after the pose, front crossovers into a one leg pose, turn to back crossovers for 3T-3T, one leg pose into back crossovers, one rocker going into the 3Z (shaky), Step Sequence, then crossovers into a 3S/2A sequence, crossovers into a 2A (apparently chest beating while gliding on one leg is a transiton?), very pumpy crossovers into the last Step Sequence, which was a hot mess and was nothing but strong arms and fierce face making, into her okay last spin.

Basically: The Program is all crossovers into elements. It's a nothing program.

There were TWO, count them TWO rockers, and that was it in transitions. The spins were blah to bad. There was no performance quality. It's a bad effing program, and if there isn't more transitions, and more performance and interpretation, she doesn't deserve ANYTHING above a 6 for at least 2 of the PCS categories.

 

[jenaj]

Ashely shouldn't get overconfident because of this victory. Ur's remain a significant problem for her, and in the future she probably won't get the benefit of her challengers having an off competition,
especially at worlds, where it would take a meltdown from more than one of them. She certainly did deserve to win here and I'm glad for her, but the high scores, too high imo, could be misleading for her too.


I wonder if a coaching change is in the offing for Polina by next season.

I don't think a coaching change will help if her mother is still in the picture as co-coach. They need to either put their trust in her current coach, or if they can't, in someone they can. She needs a more neutral eye to help her with her technical problems and her presentation. There is still a juniorish aspect to her skating, even with the more sophisticated styling for her short program (the long program styling is another story). Or maybe it's just the sense that she is holding back. Is she skating for her mother or herself? How much does she love skating? If she does love what she is doing and doing it for herself, she needs to show it more.

 

[jenaj]

That's great, but I'm not gonna bother to care about her programs if she doesn't even bother to care about them.

I went back and rewatched it, since i had been so critical of it at first glance. I like it even less now.

The program, for the first minute and a half, is literally "Opening pose, crossovers, 3A (which wasn't clean), crossovers, 3Z combo, crossovers, 3F, crossovers, meh sit spin, another meh layback spin, pose. There is NO interpretation in the first half of anything, there was ONE rocker (I believe that's what it was) going into the 3Z combo, and that's it for transitions. The second half is not much better: little interpretation after the pose, front crossovers into a one leg pose, turn to back crossovers for 3T-3T, one leg pose into back crossovers, one rocker going into the 3Z (shaky), Step Sequence, then crossovers into a 3S/2A sequence, crossovers into a 2A (apparently chest beating while gliding on one leg is a transiton?), very pumpy crossovers into the last Step Sequence, which was a hot mess and was nothing but strong arms and fierce face making, into her okay last spin.

Basically: The Program is all crossovers into elements. It's a nothing program.

There were TWO, count them TWO rockers, and that was it in transitions. The spins were blah to bad. There was no performance quality. It's a bad effing program, and if there isn't more transitions, and more performance and interpretation, she doesn't deserve ANYTHING above a 6 for at least 2 of the PCS categories.

If she manages to do the triple axel in that "nothing" program, she will likely repeat as World Champion.

 

[satine]

If she manages to do the triple axel in that "nothing" program, she will likely repeat as World Champion.

I really hate to even type this, but if she performs the program like she did here & still becomes WC for the second time, then that's a real shame in my eyes. Also let's not forget Mao- she can match Liza's 3A & I bet she'll get higher PCS if both are on par technically.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

I really hate to even type this, but if she performs the program like she did here & still becomes WC for the second time, then that's a real shame in my eyes. Also let's not forget Mao- she can match Liza's 3A & I bet she'll get higher PCS if both are on par technically.

Well, it's the Mishin way of doing things - skate clean with the hardest difficulty and the PCS/artistic scores will come, regardless of how average/uncomplex the rest of your program is.

 

[MaxSwagg]

Liza's components need to be on the level of Satoko's...actually lower. People gripe SO much about her small jumps, but Liza's skating - or certainly her programs - are a complete MESS. Skating skills = maybe low 8s. Transitions = 5s. Performance = upper 7s. Choreography = 6s. Interpretation = 7.

 

[Snow63]

Well, it's the Mishin way of doing things - skate clean with the hardest difficulty and the PCS/artistic scores will come, regardless of how average/uncomplex the rest of your program is.

Not only Mishin is doing it. There's a lot of others, including Americans and Canadians: Duhamel/Radford come to mind with their high 9s and 10s at Worlds, for example. It's just the way this sport is, not Mishin's fault :confused2:
Is this fair? Probably not. Will this ever chagne? Probably not. So we have to either deal with it, or just stop caring.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Not only Mishin is doing it. There's a lot of others, including Americans and Canadians: Duhamel/Radford come to mind with their high 9s and 10s at Worlds, for example. It's just the way this sport is, not Mishin's fault :confused2:
Is this fair? Probably not. Will this ever chagne? Probably not. So we have to either deal with it, or just stop caring.

Duhamel and Radford have made an effort to improve on their artistry and continue to incorporate more difficulty and intricacy and transitions into their programs. Seems like Liza's resting on her World Champion status and this should be a wake up call - the judges aren't just going to give her victories.

 

[Snow63]

Duhamel and Radford have made an effort to improve on their artistry and continue to incorporate more difficulty and intricacy and transitions into their programs.

In your opinion. Doesn't mean they deserved such PCS Same for Liza, and Wagner, for that matter. Next time she'll skate clean judges will give her what? 9s for skating skills? Really?