Who has the best skating skills?

[Sam-Skwantch]

Hahaha! I’ve never watched that program before, very beautiful! And she does have amazing SS.
I wonder where she is? Will she be competing in the Grand Prix?

Nobody knows...she may turn senior or she may stay on JGP. She was assigned a JGP event but was replaced. It’s quite the drama actually. She has excellent blade work though.

 

[4everchan]

Re. Patrick vs. Yuzu. I think what Patrick clearly displays are his deep edges, strong core, blade control, and the classic school-figures type of skating that you only see ice dancers doing nowadays. I think Yuzu's personality on the ice is a lot more...I don't want to say "impatient" but he likes to do more in terms of quick, snappy choreographic movements rather than taking the time to carve out deep edges on the ice? So I don't know if Yuzu could skate the way Patrick does if he tries really hard, but it's also not his style. In terms of classical skating skills Patrick is in his own league, but I prefer Yuzu's step sequences for a variety of reasons (hence why I'm a fan lolololol)

yuzu answered that question before : he said that Patrick deep edges requires so much power and strength, that it's extremely demanding on the body and that he couldn't do it for more than 20-30 seconds if he tried.

FWIW, I have seen both Yuzu and Patrick live a few times. Patrick's blades go deep into the ice and he flows from one end to the ice to the other at tremendous speed. His blades have been compared to a hot knife in butter. Yuzu to me was less about deep edges, in fact, he often skated on the flats. He is more as you said about packing lots of transitions in, which is very acrobatic and requires a whole different sets of skills. But of course, I prefer Patrick's style, since I find it more polished. At times, I felt Yuzu's skating "unfinished in its movements" but that is why skaters attract different fans.

ETA I see someone beat me on the butter analogy

 

[Amef]

For ladies; Marin and Alena K for me

For men; Yuzuru, Shoma, Javi and Patrick

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Other than the fact that no one actually has the best Skating Skills I think it’s really cool reading this thread and seeing the different viewpoints. It shows how diverse the athletes we have to follow are and all the tangible and intangible things that people value. Even if true objectivity on the matter is hard to achieve we can still see the feats of athleticism and projection that reaches and sticks with people in a discussion like this.

I kind of like it all. Fast and wreckless, smooth and deliberate, full of emotion, variance of speed and even the blistering fury of acrobatics. I don’t think any skater really approaches it the same and I think we as fans are the better for it......the poor judges though

 

[Ulrica]

I thought we were only taking into consideration current skaters, but if retired skaters are allowed, then;

For men

1 Yuzuru/Patrick
2 Javi
3 Jason

For women

1 Caro/Mao
2 Marin/Yulia
3 Yuna/Satoko

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

I'm going to throw another pro/retired skater into the mix here: Robin Cousins. Perfection!

 

[gizmo]

Sometimes comparing is difficult, I think both Patrick Chan and Yuzu has fine skating skills in different ways, Chan is smooth and deep edges, more controlled than Yuzu, but I do love the step sequences of Yuzu, and personally like Yuzu more.....

But that statement re Yuzu had too many crossovers just got me laughing, do you know what u are talking about? He has the least cross overs amongst the entire field.

 

[steiner]

Sometimes comparing is difficult, I think both Patrick Chan and Yuzu has fine skating skills in different ways, Chan is smooth and deep edges, more controlled than Yuzu, but I do love the step sequences of Yuzu, and personally like Yuzu more.....

But that statement re Yuzu had too many crossovers just got me laughing, do you know what u are talking about? He has the least cross overs amongst the entire field.

Crossovers are so easy to count too, it’s so silly to claim he does too many crossovers when it’s a literal fact that he does the fewest amongst the men. You don’t have to like his skating but c’mon.

 

[cruzceleste]

This thread is going as I think it will as soon as I read the title

 

[charlotte14]

FWIW, I have seen both Yuzu and Patrick live a few times. Patrick's blades go deep into the ice and he flows from one end to the ice to the other at tremendous speed. His blades have been compared to a hot knife in butter. Yuzu to me was less about deep edges, in fact, he often skated on the flats. He is more as you said about packing lots of transitions in, which is very acrobatic and requires a whole different sets of skills. But of course, I prefer Patrick's style, since I find it more polished. At times, I felt Yuzu's skating "unfinished in its movements" but that is why skaters attract different fans.

ETA I see someone beat me on the butter analogy

Just saying, you have to have edges to do those transitions.

 

[Globetrotter]

Just saying, you have to have edges to do those transitions.

But in a sense, it is also a case of being able to hang on to that edge that shows the blade mastery, isn't it? from the current ISU descriptions about what SS should comprise and what judges should be looking out for, I will certainly give more weight to PChan where deep edges, effortless glide, smooth turns and directional changes are concerned and hence the better SS. Of course Yuzu does have very good SS as well but relative to Chan, his command over the basic mastery is not quite as complete. Even Yuzu himself had acknowledged that PChan is superior when it comes to the basic bladework. Unfortunately with the way scoring is done, there is now very little incentive for skaters to develop a deep mastery over edges, gliding and changes of speed. We may have seen the last of Yuka Sato's legacy after PChan and CaroK both hang up their skates.

 

[eppen]

Might’ve been your expectations, your mood, where you sat - or maybe the rest of us are wrong! I do hope you get a chance to see Jason again and that you’re less disappointed next time - but re Lombardia - do you know something the rest of us don’t? He’s not listed even as a sub this year. He and Evgenia are rumored to be doing the same Sr B, and speculation was that it’s ACI or Finlandia. But lists aren’t up yet. He will be at TdeFrance, though.

Sorry was probably thinking of last year... All these competitions getting mixed up in my head!

E

 

[4everchan]

But in a sense, it is also a case of being able to hang on to that edge that shows the blade mastery, isn't it? from the current ISU descriptions about what SS should comprise and what judges should be looking out for, I will certainly give more weight to PChan where deep edges, effortless glide, smooth turns and directional changes are concerned and hence the better SS. Of course Yuzu does have very good SS as well but relative to Chan, his command over the basic mastery is not quite as complete. Even Yuzu himself had acknowledged that PChan is superior when it comes to the basic bladework. Unfortunately with the way scoring is done, there is now very little incentive for skaters to develop a deep mastery over edges, gliding and changes of speed. We may have seen the last of Yuka Sato's legacy after PChan and CaroK both hang up their skates.

:clapper:

 

[Henni147]

Sometimes comparing is difficult, I think both Patrick Chan and Yuzu has fine skating skills in different ways, Chan is smooth and deep edges, more controlled than Yuzu, but I do love the step sequences of Yuzu, and personally like Yuzu more.....

But that statement re Yuzu had too many crossovers just got me laughing, do you know what u are talking about? He has the least cross overs amongst the entire field.

Yes, numerically Yuzu currently has the least crossovers and longest sequences of one-foot-skating, while Patrick has the best edges.

I really love this cut of Yuzu's practice sessions in PyeongChang:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBGiShXVA44&app=desktop
You can still see single crossovers and flat edges here and there, but there are so many very long, smooth and deep-edge-movements, which are a joy to watch. I hope we can see more of that in the season(s) to come

 

[charlotte14]

But in a sense, it is also a case of being able to hang on to that edge that shows the blade mastery, isn't it? from the current ISU descriptions about what SS should comprise and what judges should be looking out for, I will certainly give more weight to PChan where deep edges, effortless glide, smooth turns and directional changes are concerned and hence the better SS. Of course Yuzu does have very good SS as well but relative to Chan, his command over the basic mastery is not quite as complete. Even Yuzu himself had acknowledged that PChan is superior when it comes to the basic bladework. Unfortunately with the way scoring is done, there is now very little incentive for skaters to develop a deep mastery over edges, gliding and changes of speed. We may have seen the last of Yuka Sato's legacy after PChan and CaroK both hang up their skates.

guy I do not compare Patrick vs Hanyu. My point is those people who say Hanyu skate on flat edges are wrong and clearly biased, even lie. Once you put on skate you know that you can not do such many skating transitions without edges. Try to skate on flate edge and tell me if you can perfom all those turns and steps in 4 minutes on flat edge.

 

[Xen]

Putting aside the more obvious names, aka Patrick Chan, Yuzu etc, who are some other skaters, especially from smaller federations, or among juniors whom you'd recommend to look out for in terms of SS?

-For example, other than Yuzu and Patrick, I also find the SS of Jason Brown quite good. Shoma's not that bad either. Deniss V too. But these I think are rather obvious? Are there any skaters whom you think have SS that should be noticed a bit more?

 

[chopinskate]

-For example, other than Yuzu and Patrick, I also find the SS of Jason Brown quite good. Shoma's not that bad either. Deniss V too. But these I think are rather obvious? Are there any skaters whom you think have SS that should be noticed a bit more?

Cha?

 

[Henni147]

Putting aside the more obvious names, aka Patrick Chan, Yuzu etc, who are some other skaters, especially from smaller federations, or among juniors whom you'd recommend to look out for in terms of SS?

I'm not an expert regarding skating skills, but I really like the style of Jorik Hendrickx from Belgium:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hIKqXiTrVY

 

[Globetrotter]

guy I do not compare Patrick vs Hanyu. My point is those people who say Hanyu skate on flat edges are wrong and clearly biased, even lie. Once you put on skate you know that you can not do such many skating transitions without edges. Try to skate on flate edge and tell me if you can perfom all those turns and steps in 4 minutes on flat edge.

Of course it is completely false that Yuzu goes on the flat. You just can’t turn on a flat period. His SS is above decent and I still say he is better than other guys with PChan gone. Still, I had not seen another guy who has PChan’s instinctive ability to skim on the edge and holding on with ease.