2016 JGP St Gervais Ladies FS

[yyyskate]

I love Simone a lot but her artistry (extensions, toe point etc) is something that still needs improving. I would love her more if she would do an easier line on floor but add some graceful dance elements or show a beautiful extension. I bet she will win everything even with an "easier" exercise, but more artistic

I dont know anything about gymnastics. Even less than a 4 year casual viewer. but I did watch rio2016. I like her floor exercise as well as Aly's gutsy performances at the team event and individual event.
My point is that Simone Biles' tech difficulty is kinda different from figure skating point **** though backloading everything or tano/rippon everything.
I doubt that in the near future any new comers can do the tech difficulty that Simone Biles is doing now. but I would expect more girls backloading and tano/rippon everything.

EDIT: another thing I kinda like US gymnastics floor routine is that their choreo is really connected to the music. they may has less extension or lines. but they got the music connection which is much more trivia in gymnastics than in figure skating. But I personally really appreciate their effort on that.

 

[sneakers]

Luckily Eteri's skaters generally have terrible 2A tecnique...
What I find sad is the fact that there is not place for mistakes/weakness in Eteri's group: I mean... if you don't perform everything perfectly you will be set aside since a more perfect skater will take your place...
THere must be a terrible mood in Eteri's group... I start getting how Lip used to feel :sad21:

there was Lipnitskaya
then there's Zhenya Medvedeva
then Polina T came
and now the hybrid of Medvedeva + Polina T, welcome the new Zagitova

to be fair, Polina T has very good axel jumps and technique unlike the other Eteri students.

 

[noidont]

To be honest, a 0-7 layout compared to a 2-5 layout (which I suppose is reasonable and widely applied in the junior circuit), the most you get is 2+ points of base value advantage, and that's assuming the 2-5 skater frontloads two difficult combos. It's not that significant all things considered. Eteri's skaters rule the junior circuit not entirely because of backloading, but because they are super confident, land everything, and get level 4 on almost all non-jump elements. That being said, Zagitova's PCS was a bit inflated, especially the last two components.

 

[berry8]

there was Lipnitskaya
then there's Zhenya Medvedeva
then Polina T came
and now the hybrid of Medvedeva + Polina T, welcome the new Zagitova

to be fair, Polina T has very good axel jumps and technique unlike the other Eteri students.

I still prefer Polina over her!! Hope she won't be shelved

 

[sneakers]

I still prefer Polina over her!! Hope she won't be shelved

same, I really hope she recovers from her injury and does well this season.
Polina T has bigger jumps, she is much more impressive not just technically.

 

[berry8]

To be honest, a 0-7 layout compared to a 2-5 layout (which I suppose is reasonable and widely applied in the junior circuit), the most you get is 2+ points of base value advantage, and that's assuming the 2-5 skater frontloads two difficult combos. It's not that significant all things considered. Eteri's skaters rule the junior circuit not entirely because of backloading, but because they are super confident, land everything, and get level 4 on almost all non-jump elements. That being said, Zagitova's PCS was a bit inflated, especially the last two components.

Yep... Eteri's ladies seem to have an edge over everybody else. Someone has to disclose her secrets:sarcasm:

 

[yyyskate]

Yep... Eteri's ladies seem to have an edge over everybody else. Someone has to disclose her secrets:sarcasm:

what about her boys?

 

[berry8]

what about her boys?

Well, the only remarkable male skaters she has coached so far are Pitkeev and Voronov...
Both of them have changed coach this year though...

 

[sneakers]

what about her boys?

her boys have a latter in development improvement, they seem to struggle with the harder jumps like axels and quads.
Eteri is much better with girls, they are flexible but with boys; I doesn't always mean great, Ilya Skirda is good prospect but he needs a 3Axel soon.

 

[chuckm]

I agree that Zagitova was overscored in PCS. Her posture is horrid---piked over with every jump and never seeming to stand upright. People complain about Rika Hongo's posture, but Rika doesn't look nearly as bad as that.

 

[yyyskate]

her boys have a latter in development improvement, they seem to struggle with the harder jumps like axels and quads.
Eteri is much better with girls, they are flexible but with boys; I doesn't always mean great, Ilya Skirda is good prospect but he needs a 3Axel soon.

Indeed. Every Eteri's girl has a pull-leg-up move somewhere

 

[Greta]

Wow, seems like a lot of negativity for Zagitova. I really enjoyed it. Of course she has areas to work on, but she is 14 and it was her first JGP ever. She handled the pressure very well.

 

[[email protected]]

Mixed feelings after watching FP. First of all, I am glad that my earlier forecast that Russia this year will bring the most powerful junior line-up ever seems to come true. And Zagitova is just the begining. She crushed the competition here no matter what they say. And her scoring potential is frightening.

But here comes the problem. And it's similar to doping. No one denies that top athletes eat something but regular food and they use some machines for muscle relaxation. As long as you don't mess with WADA list no one will dare to blame you for that. I believe it's unfair but that's my personal problem. Here it is similar. There are certain rewards for backloading and rippons/tanos. Zagitova showed she can use them all. That's the ultimate utilization of the system - you cannot put an extra jump in the second half as she has them all there already.

It is dificult and risky. If it were easy everybody would do it. Korean girl tried it yesterday and two-footed. Gracie never tries and, I bet, won't. For the last several years she starts all her programs with 3Lz-3T at the same place of the rink. Even then she failed it during the worlds. Now imagine someone says - Gracy, why don't you place this combo in the second half - you'd get +10%? So we won't see backloading much and not because of choreo considerations - very few will dare even to think about that.

And both Evgenya and Alina do this backloading nicely in SPs not disrupting anything. In fact I enjoyed Zagitova yesterday. But it did not work for me in FP. First it looked like an SP replica but with more empty skating in the first half and more jumps in the second. The SSs were similar same as spins. And she was too concentrated on landing everything.

I guess, they won't back-up. And she can make her performance better as the season progresses. But fundamentally her SP is brilliant and FP is weird. But anyway, she already made a statement that this season she will compete for the top at any competition she enters. And the most interesting of them is going to be the nationals.

Saying all that she was still way above the competition here. Again, may be 57 pcs is too generous for a debutant but she was better than the Japanese with another couple of generic programs and generic skating. If Alina stays clean her only competition among the Japanese so far is Marin (may be others show something later on). I would give Marin combined pcs advantage of 10. But I think Alina can nulify it with higher TES.

One last thing. Someone was not sure but it has been announced. Alina will compete next in Ljublyana against Polina Tsurskaya and Marin Honda. Well, in a sense it may be a trial before the junior worlds?

 

[gmyers]

I would call it reward for attempting (and succeding) difficulty. Nobody calls Simone Biles a "code *****" because she goes for the most difficult elements and connections. Call me silly but I think, I think that if every figure skater would be capable of putting all the jumps at the end of the program, he/she would do it. You need amazing stamina/ strength both physically and mentally for that. Alina clearly needs to improve skating skills and I'm not 100% sure that she will be able to do this kind of program 2 years from now. Let's congratulate her for what she did today. Is nothing less than impressive!

The point of the rule is highlight distribution. There was no distribution. She shouldnt get a bonus. ISU adopted the "tired legs" bonus to make skaters jump on tired legs in the second half. That assumed jumps in the first half. Unless I'm wrong and one step sequence and one step are harder than any jumps. But why are jumps worth the most then? And why aren't spins and steps "highlights" worthy of a bonus?

 

[chuckm]

The Russian girls are under pressure day in and day out on their home turf. They compete against one another constantly just to get the privilege of being assigned to an international event. And when they do get there, most of the time the competition is a whole lot less stiff than what they face at home. At the St. Gervais event, there were no JGPF finalists or JW top 6 placers, and the other Russian lady was injured in a bus accident and could not compete.

Zagitova skated last, and the highest score was less than 115, which she knew she could easily beat. How much 'pressure' was she really under?

 

[stryke]

THere must be a terrible mood in Eteri's group... I start getting how Lip used to feel :sad21:

So you're in a self-created state of sadness because of what you think goes on in Eteri's group? If you put any effort to see what goes on in Eteri's group you'll find out it's probably opposite of what you're thinking. Many of her skaters have an ask.fm and are very active on it. Go ask your questions straight to the skaters themselves.

 

[hanca]

I still prefer Polina over her!! Hope she won't be shelved

I prefer Zagitova. But we will have them face-to-face at 5th event.

 

[hanca]

her boys have a latter in development improvement, they seem to struggle with the harder jumps like axels and quads.
Eteri is much better with girls, they are flexible but with boys; I doesn't always mean great, Ilya Skirda is good prospect but he needs a 3Axel soon.

Well, she doesn't seem to do that great with boys. All her ladies usually medalled at their JGP events, gold if possible, although silver is also ok. Boys- Pitkeev has done well to some extend, but he was never as succesful as Lipnitskaya,Medvedeva or Tsurskaya. And now Skirda has his debut and it is not that great either. Not bad, but doesn't have the consistency of Tutberidze's ladies. I don't know why thirteen year old girl can come and beat everyone, and thirteen year old boy can't do the same.

 

[hanca]

The Russian girls are under pressure day in and day out on their home turf. They compete against one another constantly just to get the privilege of being assigned to an international event. And when they do get there, most of the time the competition is a whole lot less stiff than what they face at home. At the St. Gervais event, there were no JGPF finalists or JW top 6 placers, and the other Russian lady was injured in a bus accident and could not compete.

Zagitova skated last, and the highest score was less than 115, which she knew she could easily beat. How much 'pressure' was she really under?

How much pressure? A lot! Because if she didn't deliver, she wouldn't get second event. Russians have only 13 spots left and 9 girls to share the spots.

 

[oleada]

The Russian girls are under pressure day in and day out on their home turf. They compete against one another constantly just to get the privilege of being assigned to an international event. And when they do get there, most of the time the competition is a whole lot less stiff than what they face at home. At the St. Gervais event, there were no JGPF finalists or JW top 6 placers, and the other Russian lady was injured in a bus accident and could not compete.

Zagitova skated last, and the highest score was less than 115, which she knew she could easily beat. How much 'pressure' was she really under?

It's her first international competition, and she's the favorite to win, and winning means she gets another JGP event. Of course that's a lot of pressure! It's definitely nerve wracking for a 14 year old.

Zagitova wasn't my favorite, but she's pretty damn good. She seemed tight in this program, but I liked it more than her SP. I wish she'd be a bit de-Eteri-fied. Definitely needs to work on her basics, too. But her jumps are great, and her footwork is pretty damn good too. I don't think there's any doubt she was the best.

I preferred Kaori's SP. The LP was a bit generic. But I absolutely love her basics!

Rin was probably my favorite to watch. Very smooth; great presentation, really mature! I thought landing a 2A+3T and 2A+3T+2T after her waxel showed great mental strength. I probably would have given her the highest PCS to be honest.

Kim is way overhyped at this point. By the things i've heard, I was expecting a lot more. Her basics are not great, and she seemed under powered. Plus, the 3+3 were both UR. There's not a lot beyond the jumps. Both her music choices were awful (I blame the coach for that) and she didn't relate to them at all - but how could she, they're terrible.

I enjoyed Alexia, too bad about the falls. Still way below the top 3 here - seemed a bit slow. Emme continues to be lovely, but a headcase like most the Finnish skaters. I loved how happy Julie Forescher was after her skate.