- Joined
- Jan 5, 2019
Nice article on Ted's latest Russian Nationals adventure and plans for the future: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports...g/new-milestone-ted-barton-broadcasts-russia/
“After six years on the Junior Grand Prix, my assessment is this: the world is full of negativity, lashing out, meanness. Social media has created trolls, who can just lash out and say things,” Barton said.
“It’s so negative, that it is just stressful in life. I’ve decided to look at what is good in the athlete, a person trying to do their best. Be supportive in the effort, be honest in the analysis. I think some people have gravitated to that because at times the world is so damn (pardon me) negative. That’s one of the positives that has come out of this. It’s not about me, it is about the approach.”
I don't watch the junior Grand Prix, so I can't attest to his commentating skills there, but I was underwhelmed for his commentating during Russian Nationals. He is completely silent during a skater's performance, which is an odd choice. I do prefer that to Tara and Johnny talking through 80% of a skater's performance.
- Ted's "positive" remarks seemed generic, like he has a list of "positive qualities" and he simply rotates through them for each skater
- He would point out why a skater fell, too tilted, too much into the circle. That was useful.
- 33% of the time, he wouldn't even get the skater's program music right. I remember for one skater, he said, "She's going to skate to Swan Lake." Why would he even say that? She's wearing a fiery red dress and she skated to Carmen. This happened several times. If he can't even bother to do basic research, then he should stop pretending to have the right information.
My rankings are: Eurosport guys >>>>> no commentary > Ted >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Tara and Johnny
However, the media powers-that-be are in a power struggle over distribution rights, and sometimes our choices are Ted or nothing at all.
Ted sometimes gets the music wrong because the skater and the coach did not update the music in their bio. That's it.
In the case of Nationals, where some of the skaters have no international competitions (and hence no ISU bios), and whose feds either have no bios at all for lower ranked skaters, or whose bios do not list program music, music determination ranges from difficult to impossible. For me, it involves finding a video, often with poor quality sound, and using Soundhound, Shazam, lyric searches, or waiting for skater's instagram posts about their choreographers.
As someone who has spent an innordinate amount of time trying to document what skaters are using for program music prior to events, I cannot overstate my annoyance with skaters who do not update their bios. At this year's Euros, there are skaters who have not updated their bios since they were juniors, some since 2016.
May I remind those who think costume is an inerrant predicter of musical content, of all the questionable costumes we see from time to time. There have been Carmens in blue. There have been skaters skating to Beethoven in tie-dye.
Ted is one of the forces behind inducing JPG competitors to update their bios, which is why we generally know what music is coming there nowadays, when we did not before.
Feds that run ISU Challengers and other ISU competitions should insist that skaters who don't update their bios do not get to skate.
And that would not fix the lack of program info at the various Nationals.
I like Ted, but sometimes he could just be just a bit more critical. At Russian Nationals he questioned whether a turn out was even an error. Yes it is Ted! Always a negative GOE.Thank you for posting this, Edwin. Ted Barton is quite wonderful.
TB rocks!Nice article on Ted's latest Russian Nationals adventure and plans for the future: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports...g/new-milestone-ted-barton-broadcasts-russia/
As a poster said above, Ted never says anything negative about skaters or coaching teams personally. Some believe this makes him "too positive" but I honestly think we're just too used to the toxicity of certain commentators. He does point out mistakes, but he does it with each element individually, regardless of skater, reputation, titles, etc. He calls URs, lack of height and distance in jumps, and lack of speed across the ice. He also gives his opinion on the artistic side as well: he has commented on the lack of expression and tension in certain parts of a program. His critiques have included very popular and controversial skaters like Alysa, Kamila, the 3A, Alina, Rika, Liza, etc. But what's important is that it's always about the current skate; his comments are about specific elements and movements that are being replayed. Ted never uses blanket terms to describe a skater, coach, or choreographer. He never says "this skater is prone to small jumps, under rotations, having slow spins, bad SS, and rushed choreography". Rather, he says, "this specific jump was off and underrotated, this one spin was not centred, the skater was slow during this part of the sequence, or the skater was off the music here and there wasn't much expression in their face/body". It is constructive and translates as authentic because he only speaks about what he sees right now and does not ramble about a general idea he has formed; everything is referenced to a moment in replay.
I believe this is why even extreme fans of the skaters he criticizes can appreciate Ted; it's all constructive and never personal. Of course, he does miss mistakes but so do the "not too positive" commentators who spend the majority of their time talking about the skaters or coaches personally.