I rocked my rockers and choctaws this morning. That was a great way to start the day.
At work, I typically have Twitter up as I follow other online education professionals and some of my clients. It gives me some great ideas throughout the day seeing what others are doing with learning management systems, K-12 and higher education challenges and innovations.
I also follow several skaters and skating fans. It was most fun during the Olympics, like having a group of die-hard fans conversing about the events as they happened in my living room, however they were tweeting on my laptop. Not as many people were tweeting today while the men's short program took place in Torino during workday hours in the States.
I did check in on Universal Sports for the live feed and saw Ryan Bradley, Samuel Contesti, Jeremy Abbott, and Brian Joubert when I didn't have a meeting or call scheduled. I felt a little guilty streaming, but remembered how slow the network got last Friday in the thick of March Madness and left my guilt behind.
Jeremy Abbott was great and is in medal position going into the free skate. The old, dominating Brian Joubert showed up for the short program and is also in medal position. Ryan Bradley has had better skates and there was some debate on Twitter about the US men being able to earn 3 spots to Worlds next year with his placement. I lean towards Jeremy and Adam Rippon sealing the maximum spots for 2011.
I didn't see it, but I saw tweets about Nobunari Oda's skate. It must have been a splatfest, and he didn't make the cut to the free skate? Can anyone explain? Searching for Daisuke Takahashi's short program next, glad he's in first! I've always been a fan of his skating.
Showing posts with label 2010 World Figure Skating Championships Torino. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010 World Figure Skating Championships Torino. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
2010 Torino Worlds Men's Preview
The men's event kicks off today. The men are divided into two sections as all of the skaters complete their short and then the top 24 go on to compete in the free skate portion of the event. It makes for a long day. If you watch early on Universal Sports, you'll see skaters from countires and territories like Puerto Rico, Brasil, Mexico, Montenegro, Australia, etc. Not your typical skating powerhouses.
The heavier hitters in the mens event start to appear later in the day as warm-up groups 7 & 8 take the ice. With several skaters electing not to skate at worlds after the Olympics, this is an event where skaters get a chance for repeats and redemption to cap off the season.
I'm most excited to see the US skaters, Jeremy Abbott, Ryan Bradley and Adam Rippon. The worlds have not brought out the best in Jeremy, but the 3rd time may be a charm here. Ryan is skating on *gasp* a broken toe. He's planning to go after his quads anyways as he has nothing to lose here at the end of season and in what may be his last competition. Adam very much has the "next big thing" vibe going for him and comes into this event as the two-time junior champ.
The Japanese team should give the US guys some heavy competition and I'm excited to see who will come out on top. Daisuke Takahashi is the only Olympic medalist competing. Outside of Jeremy Abbott, he's probably the best skater to combine artistry, audience command and quads in the competition.
Here's further previews:
Aaron's take at Axels, Loops and Spins
Goldenskate
The heavier hitters in the mens event start to appear later in the day as warm-up groups 7 & 8 take the ice. With several skaters electing not to skate at worlds after the Olympics, this is an event where skaters get a chance for repeats and redemption to cap off the season.
I'm most excited to see the US skaters, Jeremy Abbott, Ryan Bradley and Adam Rippon. The worlds have not brought out the best in Jeremy, but the 3rd time may be a charm here. Ryan is skating on *gasp* a broken toe. He's planning to go after his quads anyways as he has nothing to lose here at the end of season and in what may be his last competition. Adam very much has the "next big thing" vibe going for him and comes into this event as the two-time junior champ.
The Japanese team should give the US guys some heavy competition and I'm excited to see who will come out on top. Daisuke Takahashi is the only Olympic medalist competing. Outside of Jeremy Abbott, he's probably the best skater to combine artistry, audience command and quads in the competition.
Here's further previews:
Aaron's take at Axels, Loops and Spins
Goldenskate
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Past 24 Hours In Skating
About this time last night, Evan Lysacek made his DWTS debut with a Viennese Waltz. Watching him, I was reminded that he's never been that artistic of a skater, and his on artistry mostly consists of arms up, arms out straight and jazz hands around the face. I thought he looked a tiny bit nervous and stiff but overall he did a good job. He's in 2nd with the judges marks, but we'll see how the audience reacts a week from today.
During the rehearsal piece prior to his performance, he mentioned he was spinning the wrong way in the dance. I don't know if viewers picked up on that. In ice skating, skaters typically spin in a counter-clockwise direction. Perimeter skating is generally done counter-clockwise as well. Skaters who spin and rotate their jumps clockwise are often referred to as "opposite skaters". I would say for Evan, it's somewhat like driving on the right side of the road and then driving on the left side in Great Britain for a few days. It's executing similar movements to what moves are done everyday, but it feels way different. So different it makes you hesitate and hyper-aware of the awkwardness.
After enjoying the rest of DWTS, I nestled into bed until my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. I stretched and found myself so at peace in dark and quiet with my dog and husband snuggled up to me. My brain hasn't felt that clear for awhile, I've been over thinking project plans at home and work so it was nice. Unfortunately, I kept too much of that quiet stillness with me at the rink. I could never really get warmed up so I ditched my plan to emulate the lovely Shae-Lynn Bourne with her ice dancer's Axel.
I got frustrated with the outside rockers in my junior moves instead. After checking the rocker, the hips are supposed to rotate underneath the shoulders to deepen the edge and cross in front. I've created an exercise of simply gliding on a back outside edge and rotating my hips. It's a good exercise for double loops too. I always feel a little stuck after the check - that my check isn't a true check, just a person stuck! I'm either good at rotating the hips or good at maintaining speed, I can't seem to combine both.
Much better skaters than I took to the ice in Torino, Italy today. I didn't get to watch any of the skaters who can properly check and skate with outside rockers. I followed the event via Twitter. (Most of the tweets related to the compulsory dance were "Woohoo! I skated my last compulsory!" I'll be so sad if the ISU votes compulsories out. That's another post.)
The ice dance event followed the Olympic results pretty closely. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are leading Meryl Davis and Charlie White. The Italians are in 3rd.
The US skaters did great in the short program, earning season's best scores. The leaders are Pang & Tong, Kavaguti & Smirnov and Savchenko & Szolkowy.
During the rehearsal piece prior to his performance, he mentioned he was spinning the wrong way in the dance. I don't know if viewers picked up on that. In ice skating, skaters typically spin in a counter-clockwise direction. Perimeter skating is generally done counter-clockwise as well. Skaters who spin and rotate their jumps clockwise are often referred to as "opposite skaters". I would say for Evan, it's somewhat like driving on the right side of the road and then driving on the left side in Great Britain for a few days. It's executing similar movements to what moves are done everyday, but it feels way different. So different it makes you hesitate and hyper-aware of the awkwardness.
After enjoying the rest of DWTS, I nestled into bed until my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. I stretched and found myself so at peace in dark and quiet with my dog and husband snuggled up to me. My brain hasn't felt that clear for awhile, I've been over thinking project plans at home and work so it was nice. Unfortunately, I kept too much of that quiet stillness with me at the rink. I could never really get warmed up so I ditched my plan to emulate the lovely Shae-Lynn Bourne with her ice dancer's Axel.
I got frustrated with the outside rockers in my junior moves instead. After checking the rocker, the hips are supposed to rotate underneath the shoulders to deepen the edge and cross in front. I've created an exercise of simply gliding on a back outside edge and rotating my hips. It's a good exercise for double loops too. I always feel a little stuck after the check - that my check isn't a true check, just a person stuck! I'm either good at rotating the hips or good at maintaining speed, I can't seem to combine both.
Much better skaters than I took to the ice in Torino, Italy today. I didn't get to watch any of the skaters who can properly check and skate with outside rockers. I followed the event via Twitter. (Most of the tweets related to the compulsory dance were "Woohoo! I skated my last compulsory!" I'll be so sad if the ISU votes compulsories out. That's another post.)
The ice dance event followed the Olympic results pretty closely. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are leading Meryl Davis and Charlie White. The Italians are in 3rd.
The US skaters did great in the short program, earning season's best scores. The leaders are Pang & Tong, Kavaguti & Smirnov and Savchenko & Szolkowy.
World Championship Pairs Preview
I'm not as excited about the pairs event as I am the ice dancing event. My interest in the event is the US teams doing well at their first championships and possibly earning three spots for next year.
The podium is hard for me to predict as the reigning champions have had such an up and down season. I think they'll come out swinging, but they been lacking spark and spunk this season. There is another Chinese pair in the wings, Pang & Tong who have never fully capitalized on their talent and seem to always be 2nd or 3rd to the pair of the moment. Finally, the Russians may want to lick their Olympic wounds and skate away with a championship.
Here are more detailed previews:
Aaron's Axels, Loops & Spins
GoldenSkate
Required Elements
The podium is hard for me to predict as the reigning champions have had such an up and down season. I think they'll come out swinging, but they been lacking spark and spunk this season. There is another Chinese pair in the wings, Pang & Tong who have never fully capitalized on their talent and seem to always be 2nd or 3rd to the pair of the moment. Finally, the Russians may want to lick their Olympic wounds and skate away with a championship.
Here are more detailed previews:
Aaron's Axels, Loops & Spins
GoldenSkate
Required Elements
World Championship Ice Dance Preview
The compulsory dance gets started tomorrow in Torino, Italy. I'll try to catch some of it after my skating practice as a live stream starts on Universal Sports at 7 a.m. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto are commentating; they've got to have some unique insight into the skaters and the event.
This season has been a game changer in the ice dancing world with the dominating teams coming from North America. I hope Meryl and Charlie can pull off a victory over their training mates and newly crowned Olympic champions, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. I also excited to see who will skate away with the bronze. The Kerrs are bringing back the kilt with a Scottish themed original dance. The Italians will have homefield advantage on top of their lovely free dance called, "The Immigrants" to Nino Rota's Godfather music.
Here are further previews:
Ice-Dance.com
Aaron's Axels, Loops and Spins
Golden Skate
This season has been a game changer in the ice dancing world with the dominating teams coming from North America. I hope Meryl and Charlie can pull off a victory over their training mates and newly crowned Olympic champions, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. I also excited to see who will skate away with the bronze. The Kerrs are bringing back the kilt with a Scottish themed original dance. The Italians will have homefield advantage on top of their lovely free dance called, "The Immigrants" to Nino Rota's Godfather music.
Here are further previews:
Ice-Dance.com
Aaron's Axels, Loops and Spins
Golden Skate
Monday, March 22, 2010
Last Week of March, Last Week of Skating
Ah, March, my favorite month! The month where the grass turns green and bulbs bloom. The weekends are filled with exciting basketball games and bracket analyzing during the work day. It's also a month that features the climax of the skating season with the world championships.
This year's worlds are probably a bit anticlimatic as the Olympics occured in February. Two of the Olympic gold medalists are competing at worlds this year, Virtue & Moir and the Queen, Yu-Na Kim. Since the mid-90's the Olympic medalists, particularly the golden winners have been ducking out of worlds. It will be a treat in Torino to have two of the Olympic champions competing.
While some skating fans are bemoaning the lack of TV coverage of the event, I'm excited that the ENTIRE event will be streamed on Universal Sports' site. Generally when it's on TV, they only show the top 6 skaters and the Americans. This way skate fans will get to enjoy all the performances, observe up and coming skaters, and see how the penultimate group impacts the final standings. I love seeing Chris Anderson's long tail theory working in accessing figure skating online! I'll be going to work early and hitting the Java Brewing Co. on the corner to watch before work.
This week got started with bonus skating on TV. The finale of Thin Ice rocked on Sunday. I totally want this to become a series in the fall. It was dorky but fun. It was a great show skating talent outside of a serious competition. Shae-Lynn Bourne skated to Lady Gaga with John Zimmerman and did an Axel! She's an ice dancer and she did an Axel! I'm so getting my 30-something behind to do an Axel this week. Screw the Junior Moves, it's all about Axels.
Tonight has skating related TV too, with Dancing With The Stars premiering with Evan Lysacek. I'm sure there will be plenty of goofy skating references and "pressure" hyped up with Kristi Yamaguchi's win. As long as Evan can balance DWTS and touring with Stars On Ice so he doesn't suffer a career-blowing injury more power to him. I just want to Buzz Aldrin do his version of a moonwalk and the original Octo-Mom, Kate Gosselin gone.
This year's worlds are probably a bit anticlimatic as the Olympics occured in February. Two of the Olympic gold medalists are competing at worlds this year, Virtue & Moir and the Queen, Yu-Na Kim. Since the mid-90's the Olympic medalists, particularly the golden winners have been ducking out of worlds. It will be a treat in Torino to have two of the Olympic champions competing.
While some skating fans are bemoaning the lack of TV coverage of the event, I'm excited that the ENTIRE event will be streamed on Universal Sports' site. Generally when it's on TV, they only show the top 6 skaters and the Americans. This way skate fans will get to enjoy all the performances, observe up and coming skaters, and see how the penultimate group impacts the final standings. I love seeing Chris Anderson's long tail theory working in accessing figure skating online! I'll be going to work early and hitting the Java Brewing Co. on the corner to watch before work.
This week got started with bonus skating on TV. The finale of Thin Ice rocked on Sunday. I totally want this to become a series in the fall. It was dorky but fun. It was a great show skating talent outside of a serious competition. Shae-Lynn Bourne skated to Lady Gaga with John Zimmerman and did an Axel! She's an ice dancer and she did an Axel! I'm so getting my 30-something behind to do an Axel this week. Screw the Junior Moves, it's all about Axels.
Tonight has skating related TV too, with Dancing With The Stars premiering with Evan Lysacek. I'm sure there will be plenty of goofy skating references and "pressure" hyped up with Kristi Yamaguchi's win. As long as Evan can balance DWTS and touring with Stars On Ice so he doesn't suffer a career-blowing injury more power to him. I just want to Buzz Aldrin do his version of a moonwalk and the original Octo-Mom, Kate Gosselin gone.
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