Live Reports for 2015 ISU WTT

[Interspectator]

I just got home. I'll post my live report in a few hours.
If anyone else has been there in person, please feel free to add your experiences in this thread.

 

[Interspectator]

I was lucky enough to go to the WTT on April 16th, so I’ll be sharing my personal experience and thoughts about performances and people that stood out to me. I was seated on first level of the stadium in row 15, so this is reasonably close to the ice, on the wide side of the rink, facing the judges. I was able to see the skaters pretty close up and it IS WONDERFUL!
These comments and thoughts were mostly generated while talking to my sister who also went with me, so the format may be conversational at times.
DISCLAIMER: I’m only going to be posting from my view point, so if you disagree with something I have written, or an opinion I have put forth, please do comment. I’m all for positive discussion and debate about all things related to figure skating. I will post things I liked, things I didn’t like, and things that I have NO IDEA ABOUT. –It’s all part of the experience. I hope you enjoy my report.
Part 1:Totally Clueless about Ice Dance, but still having an opinion.
Me: Sis, did you enjoy the Short Dance?
Sis: I wanted to see Elena and Ruslan skate (this is our first time to see them together)
Me: Well? Who did you like best?
Sis: Gabriella and Guillaume!
Me: Me too! They are really, really sexy, in a totally not nasty way. I loved their music, their program, and their connection to each other. Who else?
Sis: Kaitlyn and Andrew were good to watch too.
Me: I liked the Chinese couple Shiue and Xinyu. Their program was great.
Conclusion: We obviously have no idea about what makes up the scoring of Ice Dance other than unison and twizzles, but we enjoyed some performances a lot.

 

[sabinfire]

What was the reaction to Liza's fall on the 3A?

How did the audience respond to Gracie's performance? She seems to be a favorite there.

 

[Interspectator]

What was the reaction to Liza's fall on the 3A?

How did the audience respond to Gracie's performance? She seems to be a favorite there.

I'm getting to that, soon.

 

[karne]

Can't wait to hear what you thought of the program that nobody but the spectators saw for nearly 24 hours

 

[Interspectator]

Part2: The Ladies First Group
I actually follow the ladies and I actively cheer for Satoko, Kanako, Mae, Elizaveta and Elena and Li. Here are some things that stood out to me and some things I discussed with Sis, and a change of opinion in regards to Gracie and Ashley.
First Group
When the first group was warming up, my impression was that they were all about the same speed, no one was visibly slower than the others; I didn’t see Gabby try any jumps and Alaine’s jumps looked iffy, Mae’s jumps were HUGE but rotated slowly.
The stand-out performance from the first group was Zijun Li. Her lyrical style, the way she uses her arms. It’s all very peaceful and smooth. She doesn’t lose speed when doing footwork and this was the difference very visible amongst the singles skaters when I was watching at the stadium. Those with good skating skills can do their choreography and step sequences without it looking like they are running out of gas half way through.
It’s unfortunate that her jumps weren’t quite right today, but it seems that her jumps are hit and miss quite often.
On the other side of the skating spectrum, poor Mae, who I also cheer for, had a very bad day at the office. It started off promisingly with a 3t-3t which I thought looked great, but her fall on the 3F took the wind out of her sails and she was much, much slower than I thought she’d be in her steps and the skating was visibly labored. I understand why judges can’t give her higher PCS even when she does relatively clean programs.
I can’t remember much about the Canadian ladies. (I’m sorry Canada!)
Me: I liked Alaine, but I can’t remember what she did, except that Gabby did better.
Sis: My mind is full of what the guys did, I can’t remember either.
I liked the music Laurine Lecavelier chose for her short program and I liked her style.
Ziquan Zhao looked so thin that it distracted me from remembering much about her performance. (I'm sorry Zhao!)
To Be Continued…
P.S. I haven’t re-watched any of the programs yet, so I may have missed or forgotten things.

 

[el henry]

Thanks NewbieSpectator (and your sister) for your work in giving us the onsite report.

Can't wait for sis's reaction to the second group of men

 

[lady_bee]

Thanks for your report, newbieskaterI am so envious you for watching men's competiton, and you are so lucky to witness Gracie's one of the best performances ever.
I am looking forward to read rest of it. (You don't have to be hurry, as you must be tired.)

Sorry for kind of personal question; how cold was the arena? did you need heavy coat or something like that?
I suppose you are somewhere from Tohoku-region, so I can trust your sensitivity to temperature, because I am also from Tohoku.
I am going to be there tomorrow, but I don't trust what Tokyo people says about temperature.

 

[Interspectator]

Thanks for your report, newbieskaterI am so envious you for watching men's competiton, and you are so lucky to witness Gracie's one of the best performances ever.
I am looking forward to read rest of it. (You don't have to be hurry, as you must be tired.)

Sorry for kind of personal question; how cold was the arena? did you need heavy coat or something like that?
I suppose you are somewhere from Tohoku-region, so I can trust your sensitivity to temperature, because I am also from Tohoku.
I am going to be there tomorrow, but I don't trust what Tokyo people says about temperature.

It was HOT in Tokyo yesterday so the arena was quite warm. I wore a thin zip sweater and was fine. I think it depends on the outside weather a bit. So you should check the forecast.
And send us a report of your experience too!

 

[Interspectator]

And a warning about the Toilets. There AREN'T ENOUGH. You'd better do all bathroom business in the station or park bathroom before you go to the stadium.

 

[Interspectator]

The Ladies Second Group
The 6 minute warm up was exciting! Elizaveta did a 3A right in the middle of the rink and the whole stadium was very impressed. I whooped loudly. But, with some of her other axel attempts, something seemed ‘off’ so I was worried about it.
As with the first group, all the ladies were skating at roughly the same speed most of the time during the warm up. (Of course, they were much faster than the first group)
If Elizaveta’s jumps are amazing for their height and distance, Satoko’s are amazing for the opposite reason. I know some people can’t stand it, but she seems to defy the laws of nature with her jumps and I find it so fascinating. She jumps and there is a blur and she’s landed, and somehow she’s facing the right way. Even to the naked eye she almost blurs when she jumps.
Everyone looked confident in the 6 minute warm up.
This particular line-up of ladies showed up some strengths and weaknesses in each other that I hadn’t noticed, or hadn’t paid attention to before.

Kanako had speed and flow all throughout her program. She has difficult footwork and transitions and quite good blade control. What I liked about her was her performance ability with this program. Yes, it’s POTO, but she was moving to the music with her whole body, in big and small movements. Her mule kick going in to the flip was jarring and it was visibly UR without the Slow-mo. She got a standing ovation, because we love her, even when she is a disaster.

Ashley. Hmmm. Now, this is where I made a discovery of a not-so-good sort. Yes, you can throw cyber vegetables at me if you like, but I found the program terribly empty when I watched it live. On TV, you can see her face, and she’s giving lots of expression, but from my point of view she’s facing the judges a lot of the time, and when she faced my side of the stands, her face was pretty small, so I could concentrate on what her feet and her body was doing and it was not very much. She went fast, but it’s easy to go fast when you are doing lots and lots of cross overs. I did like the dramatic spread eagle to the musical crescendo though. That was very effective. Her jumps were much better here than at World Championships, but I was just disappointed in this particular program from her.

Gracie Gold. I was NOT a fan of Gracie when I saw her on TV. Her facial expression leaves one with the impression that she’s going to an execution. But, as I mentioned earlier, I didn’t see much of their faces from my seat, so suddenly I’m not letting that affect what I’m seeing her do with her feet. She’s probably the best skater competing right now. Really effortless speed and edges, and unlike Ashley, she has some quite difficult content within her choreography and footwork. Her jumps were excellent and she avoided the boards. As one of the few clean programs of the night, it was a breath of fresh air. She may have a ways to go before she is as musically in-tune as Yuna or Mao or Carolina, but she can get there. I now see what it is the judges see when they give her high PCS. It was an ‘Ah-Hah!’ moment. Gracie got a partial standing ovation from the crowd. People were impressed.

I love Radionova. She’s exciting to watch and so in-tune with her music and this time was no exception. What this line-up of ladies skating did, however, was to show quite clearly that Elena needs to work on her skating skills. Sandwiched between Gracie and Satoko, it became clear to me that her shallow edges and maybe lack of deep knee action made her lose speed during her steps and she had very little flow out of her jumps. But on the other hand, sandwiched between Gracie and Satoko made her star-quality and megawatt performance ability shine very brightly.

Satokoooo It was not a great day for her and she’s probably quite displeased with herself. When she makes a mistake though, she doesn’t let the rest of the program go to pot. What was clear when watching from the stadium is the much debated speed and ice-coverage. Yes she is quite speedy, and yes she covers the ice well. Her brand of musicality and performance is understated but it drew me in.
Sis: She’s so clean and neat in everything she does. I love her!
Me: Satoko is the perfect skater for OCD fans.

Elizaveta. I wanted her to land that 3A sooo much! And going by her expression afterward, she probably did too. There was a gasp all around when she didn’t land it. Japan respects ladies who take the chance to do the 3A so she was well received by the crowd. Her skating is powerful and fast, but I feel that the selling point of the program has been her iron-clad consistency that makes her program greater than the sum of its parts. She stalked the 3A for a while and if she had landed it, the stalking wouldn’t have mattered. But since she didn’t , it stood out. Everything else was good though and I hope she keeps putting the 3A in to her programs and pushes the ladies forward technically. Her jumps go 'whoosh!' and that's my favorite kind of jump. But I’d also like to see her progress in all aspects of figure skating so that she can be a true all-rounder. When watching live her skating and spins looked ‘good’ but I want them to match her jumps and be EXCELLENT.
This concludes the ladies event. Next up, THE GUYS!

 

[Interspectator]

The Men’s Event: First Group
Though my sister and I are fans of the guys and the girls in figure skating there was one person in particular that we traveled to see. Yuzuru Hanyu.
But this year, somehow, the Men in general take up more of my attention than the Ladies. It’s probably the high-risk, excitement of the Men’s event when you never know who will put together the skate of their lives or if everyone will crash and burn.
It was very unfortunate that between the Ladies and Men’s event, I got stuck in an extremely long bathroom line and missed the 6 minute warm up! It was a loss because, truth be told, 6 minute warm ups are sometimes better than watching the programs.
I ran back just in time to see Ponsart’s program. Unfortunately…
Me: Who was the other French guy?
Sis: Ponsart…?
Me: Ah! Same music as Max Aaron,
Sis: …and they both stumbled on the same bit of their footwork, it seemed to me.
Nessum Dorma is the theme music chosen by TV Asahi for the intro to the Grand Prix of figure skating series every year, so it took a bit of getting used to.
Me: Let’s look back on the first group of guys. What stood out to you?
Sis: I wasn’t expecting Nan Song to be so slow. Why wasn’t I expecting that?
Me: Dunno. It’s kind of sad to watch. Nice skating from Jeremy and Amodio though.
Sis: Surprisingly NOT a Disaster for Amodio.
Me: But it was! The 2A and the botched spin…happier subject; what do you think of Nam Nguyen? I like him!
Sis: I don’t like his style so much.
Me: everything is done to the beat of the music, maybe it’s just that he’s not using his whole body yet. It’s just his arms and hands so far. He’s fast…
Sis: What??! He’s not fast. He’s pretty slow. And he telegraphs his jumps like crazy.
I have concluded that in the first group of guys, Nam didn’t stand out as being slow, but if he had been in the second group, he’d have stuck out more. What we did see was that he slowed right down for the foot work sequence so that’s something for him to work on. He’s so young though; I’m sure it will be something Brian’s going to drill him on for the next season.
Me: Who’s up next?
Both together: Han YAAAAAANN!!
We like him. A LOT. This was one of his better performances and boy is he FAST! It looked to me like his jumps were the biggest, longest jumps we’d ever seen; certainly the biggest that night. The bad thing is, though his music sounds merely bad on my TV speakers, it is actually painful when echoing around a stadium. I had my hands over my ears for the vocal and survived it.
Me: His skating is really good, why doesn’t he get more points?
Sis: His two jumping passes are in the first half, and I don’t think he’s getting the most out of his spin.
Me: His first spin was a bit wonky wasn’t it? The way he does the choreography is very…
Sis: Unique? But I like it!
Me: I like it too, but are the judges impressed?
Note: Of the first group, the crowd liked Yan, Amodio and Nam in that order.
To be Continued…

 

[Sheriw]

Thanks ladies. Wonderful to get an in person review of the skate. Things look alot different on my 8 inch kindle.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

"Cyber vegetables"

THIS is for Ashley!!

And this is from me for your reports

Thank you for taking the time to share.

 

[Interspectator]

"Cyber vegetables"

THIS is for Ashley!!

And this is from me for your reports

Thank you for taking the time to share.

No, thank you. Free food and applause accepted.

 

[dorispulaski]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write these reports up! I love the interaction with your sister.

Bravo!

 

[Interspectator]

Men’s Event: Second Group
Rewind to before the opening ceremony. The skaters are starting to group in together on the far side of rink and I’m wishing I had binoculars so that I could see if Yuzu is there. It was easier to pick out Yuzu than I thought. Even on the far side of the rink, there was one figure a little ways from the rest jumping up and down and flinging his arms around and pulling them in non-stop till the opening ceremony started. When Yuzu says skating is his life and that he loves to jump, he’s not exaggerating.

The 6 minute warm-up was glorious. To see the top 6 warming up and putting jump after jump out there is so thrilling.
Yuzu started with a loop, then his Lutz-Toe (it was perfect here! Whyyyyy…) then a triple axel, then a Quad toe that was landed a bit forward, so he circled around and did it perfect. The whole time, as you can imagine, the crowd (and us) are going nuts for each jump.
Another skater whose jumps were looking good was Max Aaron. His 4S and his 3A looked great.
Mura landed a 4T but stepped out. His jumps looked big but sometimes tilted. Vornov worried me. He kept popping his quad and his legs seemed stiff. Kovtun seemed in good shape. He popped some jumps but also did a good 4S3T, a good 3A etc. And all this time they are going around at top speed. Jason wasn’t any slower than the others in the 6 minute warm up, and seemed to be concentrating but not tense. Remembering Cup of China, some of the people around me got jumpy when skaters passed each other backwards, but there weren’t any close calls.

The arena was now completely full and everyone was leaning forward and the atmosphere was intense.
I was looking forward to Max Aaron’s new short program and had no idea what to expect from him.
A plus is that the program did not seem long. When it was done I looked over at my sis and we nodded and said, ‘Not Bad.’ Since this is the first time he’s skated it, I can see that it will probably be much better in the up-coming season. I liked the beginning, when he is embracing the ‘bigness’ of the music and is skating on one foot. In the middle it gets a bit too businesslike with the crossovers and over-all quality needs to be raised on the spins. I think he can get a hold of this music much easier than Footloose so this is a step in the right direction.

The crowd was behind Jason the whole way through his program. His speed was great and his jumps, though not spectacular, were solid. It went smoothly from beginning to end and he got a partial standing ovation too! I love Jason’s spins and his split jump should be in text books as ‘the way it should be done’. Unfortunately, like Han Yan, I had my hands over my ears for most of the program due to the music being painful to listen to in the stadium. It amazes me that Jason can be so consistent and keep the quality of his skating high.

Mura.
Sis: he can bomb at any moment, at any time in a program.
Me: Yes. He can do a perfect Quad and then forget how to do a 3A.
With these words full of faith, we watched Mura skate to the center of the rink.
Mura put us to shame for our doubt. He managed to tack a 3T at the end of his 4T to my utter shock landed a 3A afterward. Sure, these weren’t his pretty jumps, but he didn’t lose his head afterwards and landed his lutz too. There were quite a few Mura banners up around the stadium so I think he gave his fans something to cheer about. He seemed to be in the right place, in the right state of mind yesterday. I hope he can do it again today.

Kovtun
Sis: I don’t hate Kovtun
Me: Neither do I!
That we actually have to say this to each other means that we are probably not his biggest fans.
What we did discover at the arena is that Kovtun has speed throughout his whole program and makes good use of a plan B if plan A is not working out. His skating and edges look better live than on TV

Voronov
Me: gooooo Uncle Voronov! (I’m so worried for him)
Sis: Yes goooo Voronov! (me too)
As we suspected in the warm-up his 4T did not work out, but he hung on to everything else. It’s just that without the 4T the program loses quite a bit of its wow-factor and I’m not sure why the Judges put him over Nam in components as it is not a very difficult program otherwise.

Yuzuru HANYUUUUUU (Warning: Fan ranting begins here)
The moment we’ve been waiting for all day has arrived! It’s white-knuckle time.
A slightly annoying thing for me is the excessive screaming by Hanyu fans. Yes, I am a Hanyu fan myself, and I yell ‘Go Hanyu!’ before his program begins. But there are a few who keep screaming and don’t stop till just before the music starts. –That is just bad manners.
Yuzu did his usual loop to warm up and then a triple axel while waiting for Vornov to get his scores. Everything looked in great condition.
If you think his skating looks smooth and fast on TV it’s even better live. His 4T was just a dream. It seemed he was floating over the ice and his spins were fast and sharp. Each time he skates this SP he changes something about the choreography and that keeps it fresh. The 3A is also wonderful, I later saw that his blade hit a grove or something when he changed the edge of the spread eagle after the landing, but I didn’t notice it at the time. And now, it’s just the Lutz-toe and he FELL! The whole stadium gasped. But he went to the step-sequence and he was excellent there again and in the final spin. But it wasn’t the perfect program that he wanted all year. His face said it all.
Yuzu himself said he was surprised with his score…and so was I. The fall was quite disruptive, and so even though everything else was top-quality, it seems strange to get a season’s best score for something that isn’t your season’s best performance. I totally agree with his TES but his PCS is higher than seems appropriate.
Anyway, I was still overjoyed to see such a good performance from Yuzu but at the same time I feel his disappointment because he knows and I know he is very capable of doing a clean SP.
All in all, I had a great time, and I hope you all have enjoyed this report.

 

[Caustica]

Thank you very much for your detailed report NewbieSpectator! I hope there won't be any more ott screams for Yuzuru (or anyone else) in the FS.

 

[lady_bee]

Thank you Newbiespectater for excellent report and useful advice for me

I’ll check the forecast before I leave home. And for the ladies room, I've been avoiding water to dry me up for tomorrow, because I had same experience as you when I went there in Jan for “Stars on Ice”.
I hope I will be able survive four hours in the stadium tomorrow, and send some report for you; however, please don’t expect me too much, because my English and knowledge are not as good as yours, and also my memory is getting shorter these days. Anyway I will try my best!

 

[silverfoxes]

Thank you for the reports. I probably should have waited to read it until after the men's FS...now I'm worried about Voronov's knee again. :hopelessness: