2019 Four Continents Men's Free Skate

[WeakAnkles]

Me too. I think Keegan should've been in bronze, and Vincent in 4th. It was good to see all the clean skates, the guys should be proud of what they've done today.

I think this should be the event's biggest Take Away. After how many Splatfests, these men were just SO determined and entertaining and just plain good. Judging is judging is judging, and as long as the ISU refuses to address the obvious issues of bias and inconsistent standards, well we'll all certainly has PLENTY to kvetch -- I mean talk about here. Won't we? LOL!

 

[Mathman]

Idk, he just said to the press that he doesn't need anyone to tell him what to improve because he already knows. Vincent is going to do what he wants, ...

Vincent would be better served by dialing back the teenaged truculence. When asked a question about his skating, he should say, "I just want to skate my best and have fun." (Or better yet, hire a PR guy to say it for him. )

Anyway, the goal should be clear. Improve your jump technique to the point that you are not at the mercy of the tech panel as to whether they feel like giving you 160 points or 190 that day. Land so squarely that there can be no question.

I know -- easier said than done.

 

[Mathman]

Aside from my wild conspiracy theories involving the illuminati and holograms, does anyone have a straightforward guess why the SAME tech panel can be completely blind to URs in the SP and then suddenly lay it on with a shovel in the LP?

It all comes down to how we manipulate the hologram that we call the universe. :yes:

But I will offer a straightforward guess. Isn't there a referee's confab for the judges and tech panel after the segment to rehash the scores? Maybe they said to themselves, oops, we should try to do better tomorrow.

 

[Sabrina]

Judging for this competition was atrocious. I wonder what can be done to prevent this type of weird judging. Anyway congratulation to all skaters. They are not at all guilty for all the mess that happens in FS. Shoma was amazing and deserves to win this. I am happy for Boyang and the fact that he is doing fine. Vincent needs to correct his jumping technique, and improve skating skills. He was over scored in the SP, and there is no way for him to be third. Keegan should have been ahead by a land slide. Scoring was bit better in ladies.

 

[TontoK]

Vincent would be better served by dialing back the teenaged truculence. When asked a question about his skating, he should say, "I just want to skate my best and have fun." (Or better yet, hire a PR guy to say it for him. )

Anyway, the goal should be clear. Improve your jump technique to the point that you are not at the mercy of the tech panel as to whether they feel like giving you 160 points or 190 that day. Land so squarely that there can be no question.

I know -- easier said than done.

This is fair. And I admit this can be said about more skaters than just Vincent.

Additionally, Vincent needs to work on his spins. The looked very slow in revolution, and I really had not noticed that before.

That said, there are things he can be proud of in this competition, notably that he withstood the pressure of a high SP placement and improved his performance from World's last year, when he was not able to do that.

 

[oatmella]

I noticed when Nam pulled his shirt open in the opening of his routine, it came open by an extra button. I don't believe that was supposed to happen. I went back and looked at Canadians and it didn't open up that far down. I think this may have thrown him off a bit...his concentration. Just an observation.

Johnny was talking about that on the broadcast.

He meant to unbutton only one button.

 

[Colonel Green]

Someone who understands the scoring better than I...when Jason does land the quad well, how much of a bump in score will that give him? With one, for ex, could he have been on the podium at this event?

Jason's TES for this event minus his UR'd, badly landed quad was 78.72 points, or 82.46 points with it.

If you look at Keiji Tanaka's solo quad Salchow, which received mostly +3s from the judges, so a nice baseline for a well-landed quad, it was worth 12.47 points. If you add that to Jason's score here, he'd have received 91.19 TES instead of 82.46, an increase of 8.73 points. That would have given him 181.05, if you assume his PCS would have been unaffected, enough for third in the free skate ahead of Keegan, though not enough for the overall podium.

However, without the opening error and with the reputation bonus of landing a quad, Jason would likely have received higher PCS as well.

 

[viennaskater]

I really don't get why the program couldn't start with a male cover of Hopelessly Devoted To You or something. Preferably one that didn't sound like a completely different (awful) song.

Or 'Sandy'. That's a good 'un.

 

[Mathman]

Someone who understands the scoring better than I...when Jason does land the quad well, how much of a bump in score will that give him? With one, for ex, could he have been on the podium at this event?

Counting GOE Jason lost about 7 points for the quad. (I thin k it is 6.93 assuming, say, +1 GOE for a satisfactory 4S). This would still put him quite a bit behind Keegan overall, and still in fifth place. He would, however, gain some extra PCS just for the ta-da value.

Jason also lost four and a half points or so on the under-rotated triple Axel.

 

[Skater Boy]

I noticed when Nam pulled his shirt open in the opening of his routine, it came open by an extra button. I don't believe that was supposed to happen. I went back and looked at Canadians and it didn't open up that far down. I think this may have thrown him off a bit...his concentration. Just an observation.

At the end he was hold it shut but as a skater like Gabby showed us at the olympics ,the show must go on. I think thie injury was a bigger issue.

 

[Skater Boy]

Counting GOE Jason lost about 7 points for the quad. (I thin k it is 6.93 assuming, say, +1 GOE for a satisfactory 4S). This would still put him quite a bit behind Keegan overall, and still in fifth place. He would, however, gain some extra PCS just for the ta-da value.

Jason also lost four and a half points or so on the under-rotated triple Axel.

i asssume if Jason landed his current content including the quad sal cleanly we should see up to around 16 to 18 more points Depending how high they will give him for pcs.

 

[elektra blue]

Julian Zhi Jie YEE: a real entertainer this one, i hope he can upgrade his tech and nails his jumps. Kudos to him for a proper rock program (maybe I would have left 30 second to mars at home ), anyway you can’t skate to acdc in plain shirt and pants, you just can’t.

Andrew DODDS: I didn’t know adam rippon had a son!

Donovan CARRILLO: oh no! :sad21:

Nicolas NADEAU: that’s how you make music cuts! I loved every single moment of it, shame on those mistakes though. I just can’t get enough

Shoma UNO: finally a gold and after such a fight. Congratulations!

Keegan MESSING: congratulations on the new sb, he was my favourite of the event

Junhwan CHA: don’t worry, junliet, you’re still great and better here than worlds

Boyang JIN: congratulations! worlds will be a lot o fun

 

[NoNameFace]

I mulled over this FS event, once long post got itself deleted, twice smth happened to my phone... But to kill my nerves before FD few things:

- Andrew Dodds, Donovan Carrillo and Tomoki Hiwatashi CAME THRU!!! I enjoyed their performances so much, they might not take the highest places, but boy - the level of committment, engagement into the music, giving their all was top shelf. What I liked the most was kind of distinctive uniqueness about each three of them, but the same high level of performance. Donovan's smile lights up the entire arena, Andrew's charming carriage makes me smile instantly & Tomoki's emotions wore on his sleeve make me feel hus skating stronger.

- I feel that Boyang made quite a progress since last season in terms of musical interpretation, making his mivement/carriage more complex & intricate. FS in particular shows it very effectively: it is for me his most 'grown-up' program yet, with demanding music in terms of expression/interpretation (in sense of Boyang never doing such type of program before) and Boyang gives good effort to add some flavour, meaning to the performance. And I am glad to see him focused, ready, prepared after disappointment at IdF.

- I am immensely glad Shoma pulled off such performance bearing news about his ankle - what I respect the most about it is perseverance shown, fight and making the most out of difficult/non-optimal situation. He should be proud of coming above himself first & foremost, to overcome challenge and proving his competitive capability.

- Keegan was my favourite today - utterly charming, giving out that welcoming familiarity & warmth to his performance yet strong, focused, effective. Entertainment value, engagement, swiftness in movement, character portrayal are his major fortes and they shone so brightly today while executing the program well. What I like about this Chaplin program is fact that Keegan while using Chaplin-esque style/references, nuances performance with his own big persona as showman, his enthusiasm and passion for making people smile. Coach Burghart remains the coolest FS coach & Keegan's gat remains the coolest accessory!

- sad for Junhwan being quite hammered, but he did seem a bit laggy/tired. Still, this is my absolute 'COME TRUU' program this season, the level of cognitive dissonance in it, the freaky level of genius in music cuts are phenoms and Jun pulls it off so well.

- finally Jason... My general thought is that his move, the change decided was the best thing possible to happen - and moving to TCC proves to be a long-time work, but already giving some valuable effects. I command him & his team for sticking with 4S attempts, for consequence and patience - I feel that Jason now is in an environment that nurtures such approach better and supports his own tempo of progress the best, assuring him on every step in this route. I think that apart from physical challenges of quad for Jason, there are some mental things to work out too about it and seeing him going for that quad in competition, this time not popping it makes me think that he comes more at ease with this idea in his head which eases his body more to push it more courageously. Good thing is that Jason either popping or botching the quad does not give up on the performance as a whole act - he has more self-cosciousness about 'bigger picture' and control over it I feel and the way FS is chosen/constructed provides another type of challenge alongside quad which - paradoxally - could be a good thing, to have taking care/control over more than one challenging/new aspect added to his repetoire (i.e. not to be 'over-consummated' about this one big goal, to divide attention and nerves/pressure). The other challenge imo being the first part of that FS - to re-define/mould that kind of aesthetic to Jason's level of performance quality & energy, to make it effective in action; he already showed that he can do lyrical in more artistic sense and here he has more 'folk'/vintage and less 'artsy' type of lyrical piece to work on - it is a challenge to amp it more and mesh it more coherently with 'Hazy Shade of Winter' which is upbeat, catchy and mirrors Jason's natural energetic self so well. Saying that - I do think it is more about adding more nuance/polish over his presence there, to finesse more this connection between him & music, its nostalgic feel that is more low-key and languid comparing to more high-energy, vibrant nostalgia in HSoW part; I am personally a dań of that low/high contrast designed musically there, a bit of vintage feel to it which counts on Jason's performer's capabilities to bring this forward to more 'current' perception, he just have to fully come to owning both content and aesthetic in his own skating sense, now re-shaped after the TCC move.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Not going to stay up for it, so this is just a wee reminder that British Eurosport 2 will be showing an hour of highlights of the Men's Free in 1 hour from now.

Here is the link for the archived British Eurosport 2 highlights of the Men's FS on the Player (starts at 5m 11s. Women's Downhill highlights at start. Free Dance highlights at 1h 06m 54s):
https://gb.eurosportplayer.com/even...ionships/2342ff7e-90c3-4335-b0de-04fa3d5f4c3c

Starting with #19 Shoma Uno.

This will be followed by an hour of the Free Dance in 2 hours from now. Whether this is LIVE or highlights, it is hard to tell.

Here is the link for the British Eurosport 2 coverage for the Free Dance on the Player (starts at 6m 54s. Men's Free highlights at start. Barry Hawkins interview at 1h 11m 40s. Eurosport News bulletin at 1h 14m 24s):
https://gb.eurosportplayer.com/even...ionships/100163ef-53ae-4b7f-a755-b16d08c0dfe9

Starting with #7 Kaitlin Hawayek / Jean-Luc Baker

I assume Simon Reed and Louise Walden (ISU Bio) will still be on commentary.

Hope this helps.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[viennaskater]

You all need to watch his 4 minute long Bohemian Rhapsody gala

I've had my eye on June ever since I first saw him at Nebelhorn Trophy 2017, when he performed that for his LP. It might have been a good strategic move to have done it here, especially with the movie and all. It's fantastic! Take a look if interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDN10NVpv1Q

If he'd performed it like that here, it would have brought the house down! Not, however, to take anything away from his LP here, which was good. But this was even better!

 

[snowflake]

Vincent would be better served by dialing back the teenaged truculence. When asked a question about his skating, he should say, "I just want to skate my best and have fun." (Or better yet, hire a PR guy to say it for him. )
(

A tame answer that should be bashed in social media

 

[Skater Boy]

I think this was a a very positive event. All Americans had hope. Jason trying the quad and scoring well despite a few errors. VIncent winning a medal in spite of URs. Tomoki placing in the top ten as a junior - very good. Shoma, Kefji should be proud of themselves. Wow those knees of Shoma - just amazing. He really fought for that gold in the fs. Cha should be proud of himself too; he is a proven contender. And Boyang reminded the world he is still a contender.

I think the Canadian men also had a good 4CC's. Okay Nic is young and forget about Golden Skaters who seem enamoured with his looks he did have issues but he is building and shows some performance style. Nam had issues with pops and errors in the freeskate but he really looks like he has improved his speed and style and he will qualify for the freeskate this world championship. I think he must feel pressure that he does well after having issues qualfiying in the past. Nam is a former junior champion and 5th in the world. He needs to find his way again and overcome the growth issues. Then there was a Messing who really to me should be considered the real entertainer of all the skaters. He had the most entertaining program of everyone.

The Aussie boys really impressed here too.

Overall a win win competition.