Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

Post-olympic skating roundup

Posted by Sari

I am feeling really good about these olympics, which is a nice change from SLC, where there was a huge judging controversy involving pairs and dance where I really liked the winners, and the gold in other two disciplines went to skaters whose skating I actively disliked. There is some dramatic irony in that I don't think either Sarah Hughes or Sale/Pelletier would have been gold medallists if the 6.0 system had wanted the same things from the skaters than Code of Points...

Anyhow, this time around: much better from the emotional point of view. Some general observations.

1. For all the three skating disciplines COP is working better than the old system. There are problems aplenty, but nothing that could not be fixed by tweaking and honing the system.
a) forest from the trees -problem. As COP's technical portion marks individual movements and the level of difficulty in spirals and spins is achieved by having as many positions as possible, there have been lots of "disjointed" and hurried programs where the elements have been crammed in without really giving room of the choreography to grow. It is however possible to create a beautiful, organic performance while complying with the new rules, just ask Matt Savoie.
b) Component mark problem. There are five component marks, all of equal value. Skating Skills, Transitions, Performance/Execution, Interpretation/Timing and Choreography. Judges very rarely if ever give marks that are more than .75 apart in any of these categories. If a skater has gorgeous skating skills, zero transitions, great lines and pedestrian coreography that should be reflected on the scores. This is a problem which will not go away without constant re-education of judges: it is wrong, wrong, wrong to use component marks for protocol judging and you should be slapped on the fingers for doing it.
c) The splat or not problem. COP is a system which really dings underrotated jumps. This has meand that men are less likely to try quads. An underrotated and fallen quad is just a risk not worth taking when the amount of jumping passes is limited. Similarily, women are less likely to try triple-triple combinations. They are riskier and if your second triple in the combo is more often than not downgraded to double anyway, why even try for the riskier element when - again - the number of your jumping passes is limited. This is a problem which either stays or goes away. The next generation of skaters may be better at doing these tricks cleanly and thus have no problem including them. Or they may think that the risk/reward ratio will continue to be iffy and keep it safe. In that case, the rewards for doing riskier elements should be upped.
d) The Technical Specialist problem and the secrecy problem COP is asystem where there sometimes is ten points separating first and second, sometimes 0.01 points. Thus the person(s) who are punching in the sekrit komputer the levels and rotations are in key positions. It is theoretically quite possible for two people in cahoots give a little extra or chip a way from the elements scores of any given skater. Also even if block judging is pretty much impossible, biased judging is easier than ever. There are two answers to this problem. Either change the system, or make it transparent. Now fans are left with the rulebook in one hand and the protocols in other and in many cases really not making sense.

I do think COP can and should evolve all the time, making a rule, seeing what effects it has, modifying it... There should be a hefty bonus for completing all triple jumps in a program, there should be other positions considered difficult than Bielmann, Skating skills and transitions should be worth more than choreography (which, after all, is actually not something the skater has done)... But even with all this, singles and pairs are so much more interesting to watch than under 6.0 system. I see steps, and spins, and difficult entries to the jumps... you know skating.

Unfortunately, quite the opposite is true in Dance. The trend was there before COP, but the new system  has given the final blow to my favourite discipline.  Spins, lifts, twizzles, side-by-side steps with break neck speed - why not just call it adagio pairs and have done with it. I am past caring.

As for the results the fangirl in me says:
Petrova and Tikhonov did it for them selves.
If only Zhao had nailed that toeloop...
Zagorska/Siudek were a joy.
Jay for Plushenko and Buttle.
Savoie rules.
Arakawa was phenomenal.
Awww for Slutskaja.
I am not so sekritly elated that Sasha splatted (her skating personifies everything I dislike in women's skating).
Pocket and Beanie were shafted, I tell you, shafted.
Love Ben Agosto's skating but boy, that flamenco? Ew.
Feeling begins with white pasties? What were Grushina and Goncharov thinking? And that won bronze?

olympiasukka nro 1

  olympiasukka nro 1 
  Originally uploaded by ssssari.

Tai oikeastaan jo kaksi, ekan kanssa testattiin vähän kokoa ja käsialaa niin että siitä tuli sukka minulle. Tässä kuitenkin virallinen sukka numero yksi. Ei kun eteenpäin.

And as far as skating goes, I am just saying that the new system makes it a whole new ball game, the priorities are totally different. In men's competition it seemed like skaters with gorgeous basic skating and good choreography get benefits even though they fall, while in pairs sloppy basics and bad unison was rewarded with silver. Maybe it is a question of degrees.

Also, can I just say that I so would want not to love Sandhu's skating. Life would be so much easier...

Pair's Short

Posted by Sari

I’ll say this for the new judging system – it gives a lot to analyse! Olympics opened with pairs short, and a very high standard one at that. Tatiana and Max were just the class of the field today, no question. Elements were crisp, clean and gorgeous, the program was a skating clinic in pair skating - someting I thought I would never say about them.

The rest of the field is really close. There is about the same difference between 1 and 2 (3.92 points) as there is between 2 and 8 (4.47 points). Thus the placements are really not that important. Still, I do think that judges use the component marks for protocol judging. As far as the judging is concerned we could still have just one “presentation” mark,  all the five components are usually within one point of each other, and I don’t think they necessarily reflect what was going on on the ice.

Props for Inoue and Baldwin landing a throw-triple-axel, a first in international competition (they did one in US nats this year). It is difficult to see how the throw could have been cleaner and even so one judge gave it -1 GOE. They had the second highest element mark but were (unfairly, IMO) dinged in the components which kept them down.

Props for Shen and Zhao for showing up and skating as well as they did as Hongbo is just coming back from a serious achilles tendon injury. They do have the “it” –factor, but they were given a some world champions extra in the components.

Props for Petrova and Tihonov for the best coreographed and performed program of their careers. The souped up Händel’s Sarabande Smalun first introduced to skating works like a charm and they were fast, crisp and had the lift of the competition. I know I am biased but even so, I think it is a crying shame that the sloppy chinese are ahead of them.

And finally props to Savchenko and Szolkowy for overcoming the media storm around Ingo and skating their perfectly COP-designed programme with flair. They should have been rewarde better in the skating skills and transition mark.

Men's Short Programme

Here we go: Experimentation in pseudo-live blogging. Polvinen sisters are sitting in Mekku’s living room with a broad-band connection and watching men’s short programme.

Warm-up group 3:
Welcome to Studio 54.. (or some such..) Gheorge boogies to 70’s cool. Nice development with step sequences and spins, but mistakes on jumps. Urbas seemed like a 70’s throwback skating to 80’s music (Phantom) – what is this retro-virus going around? Again, problems with jumps but spins better than before, steps not so much so. Lukas Rakowski: Again, excellent spins and clean jumps this time, but boy does the boy need more presence. But I doubt his performance score will be much lower than his technical as the judges still won’t differentiate properly between the points they give for skating skill and artistic expression. (Hah! Interpretation was his highest mark…) Danilchenko: what we noticed most was dear old Zagorodniuk in a Zorro-beard… Ahem. Too much content packed in the beginning of the programme, and the problem with Zorbas as a music to skate to is that you are very likely to look slow, as the music is SO fast. As did Vitaly.

Warm-up group 4:
Young italian guy, Paolo Bacchini, skating to Pink Floyd: waxel,  OMG He did a Midori! And he is all bloody, hurt his hand the poor thing. Props for guts though. I think he has good basic jumping technique, his spins are centered but a bit slow… Viktor Pfiefer from austria in gold-net shirt skating to Cirque du Soleil very clean jumps, nice triple toe to lutz, high and clean. Speed dies a bit towards the end. And that shirt, Carson would think that is too gay… Trifun Zivanovic! Good old Trifun, Yank turned Serbian. And Carmen. I was waiting for Carmen. Ther must always be Carmen. It is a rule. And saved the axel after botching the combo. Lutz was from steps… They must have hired the same Luigi guy who made such a mess of Ice Hockey in Lugano in 1994. Show us feet or show us the whole body but why show us empty ice with an occasional elbow… And we continue with a rent-a-russian, Roman Serov of Israel. Some romantic music with beat in the backround. That must explain the puffy sleaves with glowy stripes. Nice entry to the combospin in the end… Little Stephane the spinmaister: a waxel! awwww. Yes, the first quad of the evening and in combo too. And this is defenitely in a different class from everybody we have seen so far. Gorgeus spins! And the change of foot in that spin! How does he do it? I am going to forget the waxel and just drool over the rest of the program… Next up, the little hobbit, Lindemann of Germany. Last year’s program. He even looks a bit like Dom with those sideburns. Fell out of quad, otherwise clean but not that special. We think his transitions should be much lower than Stephane’s.

Warm-up 5:
Kristoffer – boy-next-door: Fought for a triple axel, well-done, but double-footed his lutz. Again hung on like grim death on his flip. Nice entry into sit spin, but otherwise unremarkable coreography. Plushy.. Plushy! Turn in the combo but otherwise clean – a bit of a battle with the landing of the axel as well. No bielman but spins quicker than before – plus the haircut: a definite improvement! And Mishin almost smiled… Dobrokhodov. Get a new tailor. Oh dear. Nyah is a bit of a corageous choice for music after Kurt and Plushy – and by God he does a Bielmann too!  So a Plushy-wannabe, down to the costume. OK he is very tall, so jumps are particularly tricky. Fell on lutz and had a rather embarrasingly bum-up sit spin. Juan from Spain: fell on all the jumps and speed dies totally towards the end. Hm. Zzzzzzz. Only seventeen, though. Babu is the devil, we think. Dresses like one, at least. Only a double tl in combo. OK axel and great flip but still has to work on spins and linking steps, and still has trouble developing speed in steps without running on toes. Straight-line finished with good one-foot turns and the final combo spin begun neatly backwards. Leads, but shouldn’t. John Hamer: nice jump technique and Michael Weiss blades on his skates. Combo double lutz triple toe. Does the heel-spread-eagle during the step sequence and comes down nice and low in the sit spin but camels are shapeless.

Warm-up group 6:
Kevin VDP scates techno.  Stadion techno. He has exit in his back. Don’ ask me why. Not enough energy for the music but cleaner than usual. Apparently he hurt his back in rehearsal and skates with painkillers… Sergei Davidov scates to Bolero, oh no. Isn’t it enough that the Kween skates to it. At least this is fun-ky version it has “you really got me” mixed in it.  Weird, very weird. So weird that I did not much concentrate on skating… EEEE! Murvy! And Is Zhulin his coregrapher or coach, even? He is very bluesy, Murvy, not Sasha. Great axel from almost standstill. Salchow combo, I wonder if he has been rehearsing quad? Because his solo was supposed to be Lutz not quad-toe he has been doing (or trying). Dang, he is nice towatch but his jumps let him down again. Maciej Kus from Poland skating to Cirque du Soleil. He is all snakey and oriental. Actually pretty good music choice for him, very juniorish but not bad, maybe next year. AP goes Tango. problems with the toe after lutz, fought for the flip, nice tangoey steps, slow spins, and did he jump axel somewhere? Yay, he got into the long program, well done. And the show closes with ponytail-wearing turkish skater! He is my new favourite, does not matter how he skates - go him and Tugba! Okay, he is not that great. But come on, a skater from Turkey, with a pony-tail. He should get points for just that. But he is last, poor Alper.

Well, that is it. Not very high quality, no clean skates at the top. And Gwendal is being really Bitchy in the interview.

Skateblogging!

It's that time of year again. Skating widowers close your ears. European championships are this year in Turin as a sort of rehearsal for olympics. Most noteworthy thing this year, is of course the new judging system. No more numbers-as-placeholders, no more OBO or factored placements. The new system is basebal fan's wet dream: statistics, decimals and averages as far as eye can see. summary of the details can be seen here

Basically there are good and bad things about the new system. It is still vunerable to manipulation, beacuse the component scores can be fiddled with quite as easily as in the old 6.0 system. It focuses on elements instead of the whole program and might well discourage innovation as new moves won't necessarily get enough credit. The sekrit judging still stinks, and as judges are still uder the control of their federations, the pressure to vote certain way is still there.

Also, one person, the technical specialist wields enrmous power. It is he who decides what grade often difficulty a certain move is. There are guidelines, but even so, one technical specialists level three spin is another's level two spin. And the specialists are not judges but other skating pros which usually means ex skaters and/or coaches. Which means conflicts of interest galore.

On the plus side, the new system has defenitely made skaters focus on other elements beside jumps. For exemple, the amount of thought and difficulty in the spiral sequences in yesterdays pairs' short was staggering compared to your usual boring pair spirals. The component score also gives judges a chance to reward skaters in those particular areas they might be better than others. There is a different score for skating skills, choreography, performance etc. So if your skating skills ar magnificent, but coreography crap, that can be reflected in the scores. Unfortunately, judges haven't so far utilised this very well.

As for the competition yesterday, nothing much to complain about the results. I would have given Obertas/Slavnov higher scores than judges, and was really taken with Germany's new pair. It was like watching Woetzel/Steuer reincarnated. Not that surprising as Ingo is their coach. As for Ice Dance, Golden Waltz is an excelent compulsary which really separates the wheat from chaff. Again, I don't think Navkamarovs were that much better, they had flow and speed and edges but I thought unison could have been better.

Like Watching a Train Wreck, part two

Posted by Sari

I don't suppose one should really see Scott of the Antarctic and Emmanuel Sandhu in analoguous terms, but there defenitely was a similar feeling of dread while watching him implode on ice and as I had finishing the Scott bio.

Why, yes, skating is back on the menu.

Pairs' Short was very high standard, lots of good clean performances. Again, I thought Petrova/Tikhonov could have edged into first place before Totmianina/Marinin but judges saw it differently. The margins were so small however, that there is no basis for crying foul. The reigning champions did IMO get a gift by being fourth.  The fall was in a major element (side by side triple toeloops), it was very disruptive and they do not have superior basic scating or other elements to counter the fall. So when Zagorska/Siudek, Obertas/Slavnov, Zhang/Zhang and Langlois/Archetto all scated good programs with no or only minor faults, I can't see why they are as high as they are. There is, of course speed, which is impossible to evaluate on the telly, but are the really that much faster? My favourites of this batch were Zagorska/Siudek who had one of the greatest skates of their lives and Langlois/Acrchetto, though I can see how the fact that they have a throw triple salchow when others are doing loop or even flip might count against them. All Chinese teams have big throws and twists, but there the performances feel sloppy and their spinning is still rather bad. And can I just say that Pang is scarily skinny?

And because there was no Australian Open, Eurosport showed all compulsary dances. Yay! Midnight Blues looks like a very interesting dance, not that many steps but lots of changes of hold and neat details which us less knowledgeable about intricacies of dance can access. I especially liked the Ina Bauers and that layback-layover dip at the end of the sequence. And I think Beanie and Pocket rocked, this is definitely a dance for them.

Men's Short

At this point my flu was getting the better of me, and was not paying as much attention as I should have, but let me just say that Plushy is king, Joubert was electric, Lindemann kicked ass,  Johnny Weir's skating looks as good on the television as he does live, I'd pike for Mike and Stephane spins like a top. And yes, my heart bleeds for Sandhu, who left Dr. Sandhu to the qualifier and showed up as Emmanuel Hyde as well as for Ilia who did not do much better. Actually, as my bete noir Tim Goebel had boot problems and did not qualify to worlds, there are no skaters I actually dislike here and can cheer everybody (almost) equally :-)

Ice Dance

It was so close! Does not look like it looking at the results but it really was. And there were really interesting up and coming teams. I really enjoyed Ice Dance this year much better than last year, so much so that I have not even wanted to do my analyses on the twissels and dance holds and amount of progressives, because I am still at the point where I just want to enjoy the programs as whole.

Okay, I am disapointed for my babies, Denkova/Stavinski, who are my all-time second favourite Ice Dance team ever. They lost the free dance with the absolutely smallest possible margin, and the third place in the OD was due to being royally screwed by the sekrit computer. (Have I mentioned that this secret judging sucks?) But I am trying to think positively: if they get a non-waltz compulsory in Dortmund, they might be closer to Navkamorovs, if the computer picks an actually representative selection of judges they will - if all other things are equal - be second. And Navkamorovs have a defenitely beatable free. So they just might still win the worlds. So go Beanie & Pocket.

As you might infer, I am not a great fan of Navka/Kostomarov. Beautiful people with beautiful edges and lines, but they just seem so detached from everything they do. The pink panther - Austin Powers FD is very dancey but still empty, and I just think that Den/Sta are just so much more interesting and have the sort of pairness Naakka and Kostomarenki (as Jukka calls them) lack. They do, of course, have the nostalgia factor. Every time I see Tatiana, I remember the wonderful days in the early nineties, when Ice Dance was real soap opera with fights at restaurants and strange goings-on in Zhulin's famous Moskow apartment ;-)

Grushina/Goncharov deserve their medal for the hard work, and they have the best material ever this year. The OD is actually rather nice though sing sing sing is just a bit trite choice of music. I suppose the FD was meant to be somehow thematically serious as she was dressed as a dove of peace and he was dressed in some sort of representation of armour (or crocodile, you never can be quite sure about these things), but it never really grabbed the audiences. Grushgons still lack that magic that can pull audiences in.

Delobel/Schoenfelder have a great OD this year, shame about the fall. I don't like them as a pair because Oliver is so much taller than Isa that they never really look compatible on ice. It allows them to do great tricks, though, and the FD had plenty of really innovative lifts.

Poor Scary Sergei and Gallopin Galit. They are so not going anywhere. There was some improvemet last year when they were with Dubova, but now that they are back with Tarasova they have relapsed. Frantic movement, running steps and not a clean edge anywhere to be seen. Galit still pushes from the toepick and sort of hops over the skate every time she is supposed to do a turn.

But Faiella and Scali are going places. If you want to do an old school ballroomy dance, this is the way it should be done. Pizzazz and dazzle and fun. Torino here we come.

Outside the six best teams, there were few positive suprises. Finns Huot/Valkama had their best result ever (18th), it is nice to see them improve even though they are full time students at MIT and have other priorities in their lives. The Brits Kerr/Kerr were really entertaining, great result for them and for the first time in a long time a British Ice Dance team which has potential to get better. And I did also like Gudina/Beletski's humorous free dance to Largo al Factotum. The idea could have fallen totally flat, but they carried it of with panache.

Men's Free Program

Posted by Sari

Eugh. This was really dificult to judge. Joubert won fair and square. He is the kind of skater I don't like, but he has two strong concept programs, was very concistent with his jumping and though his spins are nothing to write home about they were OK. He did leave the door open by having only one combination (4t+3t), but nobody walked through or even crept to the treshold.

Poor Zhenya was held up, just a bit. Not so much in the first mark, his technical content even with two fallen jumps was impressive, but by having to go three times for the axel really should have affected the second mark more. Now the first two minutes of the program was jump, pose to the judges, jump, pose to the judges, jump...

Klimkin deserved his third place. I'd probably have him even second. He fell on his second 4t, and stepped out from both of his 3f attempts, but he had two solid combinations (3a+3t, 4t+3t), really cool camel variations and back-outside spins, neat entries to jumps, nice linking moves and the kind of avant-garde coreo that usually is more the french style.

Apparently, the federation have been making noises about Dambier's fourth place. Please! Good jump content though easer combos than Klimkin, mediocre spinning, and the linking movements: stroking forward and spread eagles. It still ain't called ice jumping you know. Personally, If Lambiel would have gotten that 3a, I would have put him ahead of Dambier in the free.

Pairs' Long

Posted by Sari

1) the technical demands seem to have gone up a level. All in the top four were doing or trying for two side-by-side triple jumps.

2) Petrova/Tihonov wusrobbed. This is pairskating, and they were clearly better at all pair elements (twist, lifts, pair spin) than Totmianinova/Marinin, and I do think T/M's lack of second sbs triple cancels out Maria doublefooting the throw sal. Besides thought P/T have reputation of being the ultimate competent bores, I find T/M much more yawnworthy, especially this year. Circus Princess is great material for P/T but why have they taken out their trademark carry lift where Alexei is in spread eagle and Maria sort of slowly falls out of the lift :-(

3) Great that Zagorska/Siudek got the bronze, they were clearly more together and had the flow from element to element compared to Obertas/Slavnov who were still going from trick A to trick B. (And I suppose there is no Zayak rule for pairs, as these two went for three triple toes.) I am, however really interested to see O/S next year, when Moskvina has had them in hand. She can turn almost anything into solid gold, and these two already have enormous potential.

All in all, technically good skating but I have to say - and I say this as a fan of P/T - that when Petrova/Tihonov deliver the most exciting program of the evening, something is sorely lacking. And people who grumble that there is no movement in dance results should take a look at this.

Men's Short

Posted by Sari

Can I again say that sekrit judging sucks? If ordinals fluctuate sometimes over ten placements it means that judges are either incompetent or pulling heavily for or against some skaters.

Also lipping. I really and honestly can't be certain with some of the guys if they were trying to do flips or lutzes. Lots of guys had as the triple out of steps a jump that could be called flip if you look at the entry (a three-turn) or a lutz if you look at the take-off edge (back outside), so don't take my word for what they were trying to do...

Anyway, an excellent competition from the top four guys who all skated excellent world-class programs. Hurray for Kristoffer Berntsson for making history for Sweden. And aww for Lindemann and Lambiel, the two skaters who have the talent to challenge the French and the Russians but did not deliver.

As for results, it was very, very close. Dambier's fourth place was IMO least contestable. He had 4s+2t combination, a low but clean 3A and a nice 3f(?). His flying sitspin was good, the rest of the spins OK, and the steps nice but his upper body was so busy that it detracted from the whole. The program was nice enough, but Händel's suite in D minor nro 4 is getting a bit too popular with skaters, and Dambier's interpretation did not have the drama or intensity of Smalun or Denkova/Stavinsky.

If I was Klimkin, I might grumble a bit. Easy 3A+3t, 4t and 2A, excellent spins and his camel to camel spin was a thing of beauty even if it travelled a little. Steps were good and used edges instead of yagudinesque staccato running with toepicks. I also always like skaters who do things a bit differently and Klimkin skated to a selection from Swan lake, but had chosen a theme associated by the swan and not the prince. Good job. In the end his jump content was just that tiny bit easier than the top two so I can live with his being third.

It gets even more difficult with Joubert. He defenitely had the best jumps of the evening. 4t+3t clean and beautiful running edges out of both jumps, a bit tight but OK 3A and 3l straight out of steps. Where he might be criticised is spins, his change of foot sitspin was merely adequate, I think his free-leg might have brushed the ice on the flying spin and his combination spin did not have as many positions as Kimkin's or Plushys. As for his steps, I am biased. The annoying toe-pick running without actually doing any steps popularized by Morozov's steps for Yags annoys me, and though Joubert's steps excite the audience I just gritted my teeth. The program concept is a thing of beauty and Joubert does his Yags-clone thing well enough. So yes, I can see a case for him being anywhere from first to third.

Plushenko is Plushenko even when skating with a busted knee. Not one of his most commanding performances and the fact that others stole ordinals from him was justified. The landing on 4t was really wonky and I still marvel that he could put the 2t at the end of it. 3A was really beautiful and 3l was fine. His circular steps are best in the business and even the stopmping in the straight-line sequence had real steps in it. His change of foot sit spin was OK though not very low, flying camel was slow but had the doughnut variation and his combospin had more positions than anyone else and it included the Bielmann.

So I think the judges did fine with four performances that had very little to separate them. I can live with the result and don't really think anyone can say they were robbed, but if I had had to decide I would have them in order of Klimkin, Plush and then Joubert. Now lets just hope long program delivers skating of this quality and I am a happy camper. Except for the sekrit judging thing...