Sure, Patrick Chan won with a quad and Alissa Czisny won by landing most jumps in both the short and free, but I'm going to focus this results post on the spins skated by the medalists.
Patrick Chan - kept last year's free skate music to the Phantom of the Opera. Death drop with low sit; beautiful and low right inside three entrance to a fast, low back sit, change into forward sit, then good position with free leg tucked behind his spinning leg; final spin combination a camel into a sit spin, then change foot into a back scratch variation with his free foot crossed in front on the ice. Excellent speed and centering on all spins.
Nobunari Oda - He didn't do a spin until nearly two minutes into the program. I can't explain why I find that odd, but since I've noticed it, I'll probably notice it more. The IJS has caused more skaters to front load their program and Oda's program was certainly packed with jumps and footwork in the front half. The first spin was a combination starting with a camel that seemed a bit unlevel as it rotated into a sit, change, sit, and pulled his bum up and kept his head down for a unique position. Then lots of skating around with some jumps and finally, a flying camel into a sit spin, back scratch with free leg behind the skating leg, tucked sit, few pushes out into a death drop into a cannonball sit position, scratch spin and final pose. Those last two spins were slow, much slower than Patrick's. I know there will be articles and talk on quads versus quads, but I truly think his slow spins hurt him here more than any jump misses.
Oda - bum up, head down position
Adam Rippon - through training in Toronto, Skate Canada is somewhat of a home competition for Adam. Maybe that caused some jitters in the short, but he had a great skate in the free to win the bronze medal. Adam didn't get into a spin until after the 2 minute mark either, but when he did he stroked into a death drop and held an arm up as a variation in sit spin landing then transitioned into a forward sit in a tuck position while draping his arms towards his spinning foot; right forward inside edge three into back camel, fast and low sit, scratch spin with variation of the free foot crossed in front on the ice; then he ended with stars into a flying camel and stretched back into a doughnut position, then moved into a sit with a neat arm variation - he wrapped his arms around the free leg - and final scratch and end pose. Good centered spins with nice position variations which he held.
Alissa Czisny - Wow, this program is lovely. Her dress and music reminded me a bit of Michelle Kwan's Lyra Angelica, I hope she can have a moment at Nationals like Kwan in 98 with this program. Her first spin was a flying camel into a held and extended back camel into a doughnut position and then on the same foot pulled into a gorgeous catch-foot position. What I thought was especially nice was that she spun in three different positions on the same foot with the same amount of speed throughout. Wonderful spinning technique on display at Skate Canada. Next a camel, sit, change sit into a "Y-spin" that had such extension, it was really more of an "I-spin." Finally, she ended with a classic layback and then moved into a haircutter and finally into wonderful and rather natural looking Biellmann. Again, these three positions were on one foot with good speed and centering throughout.
Ksenia Makarova - Layback to the side, haircutter, Biellmann, good speed in all positions; stars into camel, sit spin, broken leg position sit spin; finally, butterfly into good sit position and done.
Amelie Lacoste - classic layback, pretty haircutter position; back camel, illusions, change foot to forward sit and scratch spin
I'll try to catch up with the watching the archives, but here are the results of this weekend's pairs and ice dance results. Skate Canada Ice Dance Results:
The Bryant Park rink opened last night. The Haydenettes usually perform to help ring in the holiday season and outdoor skating in New York City. Did anyone see them? I've not found YouTube clips yet.
I hope the audience realized they were watching the "next big thing" in the world of sports. I'm confident in the next few years synchronized skating will make the list of what's in and out on the "in" side.
Miami synchro has their exhibitions next Saturday. That includes a mini-practice, and seeing the programs of all Miami teams, the collegiate program, and both the short and free for the junior and senior teams. In past years, I've driven up to Oxford, Ohio to see the unveiling. Next weekend my skating club is hosting a competition and I'll be helping with the awards and pictures so I won't be making the trip. If anyone is in driving distance of the picturesque college town of Oxford, I recommend making the trip. You can stop in to the IKEA that's in the Cincinnati suburbs about 20 minutes from Oxford for some shopping or just to fill up on meatballs before heading to rink. They have a gorgeous two-rink arena for their hockey and synchro teams.
With Miami and the Haydenettes debuting their programs, that means the Dr. Porter Classic in Ann Arbor, Michigan is just around the corner. Then synchro season is on!
Has anyone seen their local synchro team lately? If you haven't you should! You'll be amazed at the speed and the sound of the blades moving in unison.
Anyone buzz about the Chicago Jazz? What's going on in Canada with Nexxice or Gold Ice? Who's going to make a move to the podium in Canada? Any of my occassional blog readers from Finland have any news on the Rockettes or any other of those amazing Finnish teams?
I've had some work and vacation travel so I've missed some skating sessions and I haven't caught any of the NHK Trophy yet. Got back to the ice this week and I'm still plugging away at the junior moves. Trying to keep by schedule and my body flexible as I get further into my 30s.
Breakdown of junior moves practice:
Can I be this flexible and pretty?
Rockers - outside, left hip does not want to cooperate and causes an icky straight line coming out of the right rocker before getting back to an edge; left side better due to practicing the Rocker Foxtrot compulsory dance as a kid; insides are sweet and edgy but I could go faster, way better than the spring - overall, still enjoy practicing
Step sequence - clockwise twizzles are interesting, just trying the remember the steps sometimes - I don't practice this one enough
Power pulls - OK, for some reason these have started to freak out me out since the summer. I think I went a long time without practicing these due to the summer ice break and when I started back I did the power pull portion full out then got twisted on the quick rocker, bracket sequence and had some stumbles so now I'm too cautious overall about it - dislike practing these as the pattern is diagonal across the ice; not as good as they were in the spring.
Choctaws - can do edgy yet slow or fast but flat, there's no in between I feel like these are the same as they were in the spring; good work for abs when done correctly.
Loops - these are fun, I'm starting to connect the loops by change edges; they are another good work out for abs when done correctly. So if my abs don't feel a little squeezed I know I need to do it over.
I'm doing an adult drills class too. I usually do better in a group, my competitive streak kicks in and I want to push harder and skate faster so I was looking forward to this starting up again this season, but we've mostly been working on crossovers. I know, you can always work on the basics and all skaters need to take the time to work on power stroking. I'm hearing my old coach now saying, "The Soviets spend 40 minutes of an hour session on stroking and look how they do!" Ok, ok, I'm just realizing I'm at point in skating that I stay interested learning something new as opposed to refining the basics. I'm not competing or doing a show so learning a new footwork piece just to do it is way more exciting than crossovers. I soooo need to flex my schedule next year to do synchro again.
I need another adult skater to do power pulls with instead of super-bendy 13 year old skaters who then fly into a double jump. I was thinking today I need to help my skating club get more adult skaters. The club is very youth and parent-centric. Whenever I volunteer I'm asked, "Who's your skater?" Um, I'm the skater! People in their 30s who don't coach full time and have a job during the day can skate too. We have a masters synchro team that is mostly coaches, and we have another synchro team of beginners. There's not a place a middle. There are only 5 skaters inlcuding myself who consistently take advantage of adult drills. Since it's a small group Nutcracker show practice can creep onto the ice. Skating is a great way to keep fit in the winter instead of going to a gym and running in place on a treadmill. Those professionals who want to keep fit and challenge themselves may have extra money to contribute to the club if more adult ice time was offered. I'm not quite sure where to start, but finding ways to offer some flexibility to busy, working gals and guys to skate without Nutcracker creep or 13 year olds doing double axels in their faces has got to be a good way to grow club membership and revenue.
ABC announced recently that after this season's Dancing With The Stars ends, the network will debut Skating With the Stars. My first thought, "OK, this is cool, professional skating on TV that's not a Disson Skating Production." My second thought, "Yeah, but it's professionals skating with people who can't skate."
I painfully watched several shows of Skating With Celebrities on Fox four years ago. It came on just before the Torino games and by the opening ceremonies I gladly ditched Skating With Celebrities. The only teams that did well were those with a male pair skater as the pro who could lift the skater. The other teams basically showed how difficult it is to learn to skate. Plus, the celebrities were way below the D-list and when you've got the Olympics on, even casual fans and channel flippers are going to select the Olympics over Todd Bridges and Debbie Gibson doing swizzles in sequins. The show fizzled out with the swizzles and went to the place TV shows go to die.
However, skating with stars/celebrities and other shiny, happy people have been quite successful in other countries. Torvill and Dean have Dancing On Ice in Britain, Katarina Witt did a show in Germany, there's been one in France and Russia has had several seasons of a shiny, happy people paired with skating greats. From what I've read of the Russian show on blogs and forums, it's as big as Dancing With The Stars is on ABC in the US.
I think the coolest shiny, happy people and professional skater show is in Canada, Battle of the Blades. This show combines female figure skaters with male hockey players. I think it works by that dynamic of bringing hockey and figure skaters together with the benefit everyone can skate. Way more to watch great skaters do something new and fun instead of people trying to learn to not wobble on skates while trying to bust a move. This way, you get the lifts and get to see big, tough hockey dudes having to groove to the music. I think it would be even cooler if the Canadian show threw in some female hockey players like Manon Rheaume and Cammie Grannato with a male figure skater. That would rock and chicks can play hockey too!
So I'm curious how ABC will pull this off. If they will have pro skaters that can lift the chicks. Or if they will go more of a dancing route and not worry about overhead lifts and do more adagio pairs skating. Whatever the model I think they should try to pull from those shiny, happy people with skating backgrounds. Keanu Reeves was a hockey player, I think I've read Rachel McAdams was a figure skater. Wasn't there a Miss USA contestant recently that was a competitive skater? Oh, what about Vera Wang? How sweet would that be? Get some celebs that would be rusty with their skating skills in the mix that would make it more fun. Vera Vang and Keanu Reeves... on ice. Nice.
So this is NOT Vera Wang or Keanu Reeves skating. It's the lovely Katia Gordeeva who is as timeless, elegant and put together as any Vera Wang piece skating with Valeri Bure on this season's Battle of the Blades. You're welcome. =)
Anyone want to share their thoughts on the possible "Stars" as well as the skating pros?
The 2010 Czech Skate in Ostrava, Czech Republic marks the final event of the Junior Grand Prix this season. Here are the medalists and selected skaters: Men
Artur Dimitriev Jr. made a big leap from 6th to 2nd to skate away with a silver medal here. Keegan Messing was a solid 4th.
Alissa Czisny - Wow, this program is lovely. Her dress and music reminded me a bit of Michelle Kwan's Lyra Angelica, I hope she can have a moment at Nationals like Kwan in 98 with this program. Her first spin was a flying camel into a held and extended back camel into a doughnut position and then on the same foot pulled into a gorgeous catch-foot position. What I thought was especially nice was that she spun in three different positions on the same foot with the same amount of speed throughout. Wonderful spinning technique on display at Skate Canada. Next a camel, sit, change sit into a "Y-spin" that had such extension, it was really more of an "I-spin." Finally, she ended with a classic layback and then moved into a haircutter and finally into wonderful and rather natural looking Biellmann. Again, these three positions were on one foot with good speed and centering throughout.
