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.

Skating Pairs on Valentine's Day

The pairs' short program kicks off this evening. This event has been dominated by Russia & the former Soviet Union. Since Torino, there has not been a dominating Russian team. The World Championship podium has included a Russian pair here and there, but the winners have come from China and Germany.

European Championship Pairs Podium

AP

Russian Outlook:
Kavaguti & Smirnoff skated into the European Championship and left with a golden ticket to Vancouver. They represent the artistic, circus-artist side of Russian skating which generally stems from training in St. Petersburg. Mukhortova & Trankov represent the more powerful, athletic Moscow school of skating. This team has had its ups and downs in their relationship, let's hope they can come together competing on a Valentines's Day.

Chinese Outlook:
China has been the most serious threat to Russia's pairs dominance since the turn of the century. They have never claimed gold, but Shen & Zhao have taken the bronze in the past two Olympics. They retired in 2007, but came back for one more try. They also have two other pairs to watch: Pang & Tong and the Zhangs.

German Outlook:
Savchenko & Szolkowy are the two time defending world champions. They've had a wacky season. After a poor showing at Trophee Eric Bompard they changed their free skate to music from Out of Africa which was well received the rest of the season. They bobbled at Europeans however.

Honorable Mentions:
Canada has the home crowd advantage and Dube & Davison have a sweet freeskate to The Way We Were. It will send memories of Sale & Pelletier's Love Story through the crowd. They've medaled at worlds and you can never count out a team with home field advantage.

The US is sending two pairs, Denney & Barrett and Evora & Ladwig. NBC has been trumping the relationship between the two competitive teams, Jeremy Barrett is dating Amanda Evora. I'm sure it's hard to compete on the Olympics against your significant other of Valentine's Day.

Great Posts on Pairs:
Aaron's thoughts: Axels, Loops, and Spins - Pairs Preview
Kelli's thoughts: State of the Skate - Every Four Year Fan's Guide
Susan's thoughts: Lifeskate - Predictions and Start Order
NBC Olympics: Shen/Zhao Search For Pairs Gold