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sashas4t · 4 years ago

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Skating Skills - What Are They?

To be a figure skating fan you really don’t have to understand things like skating skills or jump technique. They’re just bonus information available for your comprehension if you wish to dive deeper into the sport. However, because some misinformation seems to be spreading around about who has good skating skills and who has bad skating skills, I felt it necessary to give an overview of what qualities make up a skater with good skating skills.

You may have heard about a few notable singles skaters with great skating skills - Yuzuru Hanyu, Patrick Chan, Carolina Kostner, Alena Kostornaia, Rika Kihira, Marin Honda, Satoko Miyahara etc. - but what makes them good in comparison to the rest of the field?

(spoiler: just look how both these skaters gain speed while doing insanely difficult steps into their triple axels!)

Speed and Flow - look at how fast these skaters move on the ice. The best comparison would be to find fan videos shot from the stands. These videos can really capture the sheer speed skaters possess as they move across the ice. But fast speed is not synonymous with good skating skills. Example 1: Alexandra Trusova, who actually possesses good speed across the ice (not so much in step sequences). However, one really cannot say she has good skating skills. Speed is often paired with flow - aka how easily do they create speed? How easily do they maintain it? Do their movements look easy or labored and machine-like? An easy indicator of this is crossovers. Does the skater take several crossovers to get across the ice or just one or two? Positions in crossovers can also be an indicator of the quality of skating skills. Look at Sasha or Anna Shcherbakova’s way of building speed in crossovers and say, Alyona Kostornaia or Satoko Miyahara’s.

Quality of Edges - speed and flow are easy to tell, whether from fan videos or even in official videos. Watch Japanese Nationals and then Russian Nationals and you’ll be able to tell the overall level of speed and flow is on a different level. But again, those are not the only two ingredients necessary. Edge quality concerns how deep the skater’s edges are while doing anything, but especially turns and steps. The quality of a skaters edges are easiest to spot in step sequences, where skaters have to do several difficult steps and turns. Watch for how deep their edges are. In addition, watch closely when skaters attempt difficult turns such as counter or rocker. Do they “hop” their turn (aka their entire blade comes off the ice when the skater is changing directions)?

One-Foot Skating - one should not only consider the amount of one-foot skating but the quality of the one-foot skating. Often skaters will have clusters of one-foot skating combining various difficult turns in their step sequence. That is an indicator, but the amount of one foot skating across the entire program, including as transitions, is important to consider as well. Do skaters lose their speed through their difficult steps and turns or do they manage to actually gain speed?

Multi-Directional Skating - can the skater do difficult turns and steps in both directions? Is the quality of skating in both directions the same? In step sequences, skaters are required to do difficult turns and steps in both directions, so one can check if the skater has equally deep edges or speed while skating counterclockwise and clockwise.

Varied Use of Power/Speed/Acceleration - another indicator for skating skills is whether or not and how well a skater is able to vary their speed across a program. Can they speed up when the music allows for it? Can they slow down when the music calls for it? On that note, can the skater match their steps to the rhythm of the music? This doesn’t just mean matching a musical accent, but rather matching the entire tone of the musical choice. This quality ties in with musicality and it isn’t entirely a skating skills checkpoint. But of course, if you don’t have good skating skills, it is difficult to decelerate or accelerate easily within a program to try to match the music.

Many people often look for skating skills in step sequences, which makes sense given many of the difficult turns and steps or clusters of one foot skating are reserved for step sequences. However, it’s important to consider the entirety of a program when analyzing skating skills. In step sequences, do not be distracted the skater’s expression and arm movements (those are obviously important too, but not in terms of skating skills), the importance lies in the edges and the speed. Just because Alena Kostornaia falls out of a twizzle doesn’t mean she automatically has weak skating skills, her crossovers are still effortless, she can still create speed with just a few pushes, and the quality of edges are still good. Of course, in that old FS (the Nocturnal Animals FS) the amount of one foot skating was rather lacking.

And lastly - like all of figure skating - skating skills is subjective. Whether or not someone has good skating skills is subjective because “good” means different things to everyone. If your level of “good” is say Patrick Chan, very few skaters will even be able to touch the mark of “acceptable”. So thus, whether or not say Alyona deserves 9s in SS is also subjective, to an extent. Obviously no judge or fan should be using Patrick or Yuzu as the standard for a 8. Similarly, Alyona shouldn’t be getting 10s in SS, but also definitely not 8s. I think that range is reasonable, it’s only what multiple of 0.25 that might incite more arguments. With her best programs (Adios Nonino, The Departure namely) she’d be getting 9.00-9.25 in my book. Now obviously, in a perfect world, skating skills could be more objective - speed could be measured, crossovers in a program can be measured, the angles of edges and cleanliness of turns can be measured. But that would take a lot of work, a lot of waiting time, and the development of a whole new system. So, for now, it seems unlikely any big development of that level will happen.

#figure skating #figure skating analysis #skating skills #wrote these ramblings because someone really decided to abandon all logic and claim that Anna had better skating skills than alyona #like if you said something like artistry we could have a debate but why chose ss?#and then when people say Kamila has better skating skills than rika #I just wonder why I even try

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sashas4t · 4 years ago

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Flutzes: How Big an Issue are They?

There is a common belief within skating fans that flutzes (or lutz jumps taken off from a flat or inside edge) are most common among Russian ladies. I have always believed the opposite, but as I am currently taking a statistics course, I thought it would be fun to see how my beliefs, and the common belief, hold up against percentages and proportions. Because I don’t have unlimited time on my hands, I will only be looking into every ladies skater at Russian, Japanese and US Nationals and analyzing their lutz edges (I wanted to do the Korean ladies and I might mention a few just for fun but as Korean Nationals was postponed until next week I’ve decided to leave them out of this for now). Next time I might return with a junior edition (since flutzes seem to be rather common amongst the Russian juniors).

To Begin: What is a Lutz?

The lutz jump is one of the six types of figure skating jumps. The ISU defines the lutz as “a toe-pick assisted jump with an entrance from a back outside edge and landing on the back outside edge of the opposite foot”. Here are two textbook examples of what a lutz should look like:

(The landing here isn’t great - see the ice flying, but the takeoff is just perfection)

Both of these jumps, and any good lutz jump, have deep outside edges. Another qualification one may bring up is prerotation, but this post is mostly just analyzing whether or not certain skaters flutz - not whether or not their lutz is textbook overall. So there are a lot of skaters to be mentioned that have good outside edges on their lutzes, but their lutzes can’t be considered “textbook” because they prerotate far more than the acceptable amount. But that is a whole other controversial topic that really deserves a post of its own.

So what is a bad lutz then?

In this jump, the skater takes off from an inside edge, instead of the outside edge that the other two skaters use. There are some other issues with this particular jump, but the inside edge is the issue which is most glaring.

The Russian Ladies

Here are my conclusions drawn from Russian Nationals. Interestingly enough, besides Konstantinova, every other skater with an outside edge had a very clear outside edge. Out of the ladies with flat edges, some looked more inside (Samodurova’s namely but also Liza Nugumanova’s), while others looked more outside (Kostina’s), but because they all looked flat more than inside/outside, I grouped them together.

The Japanese Ladies

I only looked at the 24 ladies who qualified for the free skate, and for many of them I ended up having to use videos from the National Winter Sports because JSF doesn’t post full videos of their skates at Japanese Nationals to YouTube. I also couldn’t find any videos of Natsu Suzuki, so I could not include her in this analysis.

The American Ladies

Sadly there were a lot of American ladies that I couldn’t find videos of - so this is a rather short list (and probably not very representative).

Analysis:

In the Russian ladies - 47.1% have true lutzes.

In the Japanese ladies - 52.2% have true lutzes.

In the American ladies - 71.4% have true lutzes.

It’s really interesting that so many American ladies have good lutz edges. This is either because I could not find videos of many competitors, or because some competitors who have problematic edges did not jump the lutz (Starr is a good example). However, out of the American ladies, few have “deep” outside edges. Many of them do have “good” outside edges, as in it is very clear that they do, indeed, have outside edges, however few seem to warp the laws of physics like the most textbook examples do. Interestingly, the panel at US Nationals did call out many of the problematic lutzes with lower level skaters, while blatantly ignoring Bradie and Mariah’s clear flat edges.

Out of the Japanese ladies with outside edges, not that many have “deep” outside edges either. I would say Rika, Tomoe and Honoka have really great deep edges. A few of the ladies I wrote as outside really have iffy edges (Wakaba’s probably the best example - sometimes its outside, sometimes it looks more flat).

Out of the Russian ladies with outside edges, many have good outside edges. Except for Stanislava, all the ladies with outside edges have very clear outside edges (unlike in the other two countries oddly). I used to assume that coaches played a big part in whether or not a skater had an outside edge, but it appears this data says otherwise. The most interesting thing is that the slow motion replays almost always caught the lutzes in the best angle (the same angle as Boyang’s 4Lz in the first gif), and yet, very few lutzes were called.

For example, for the Tutberidze Girls, three have unclear edges and 1 has a good outside edge, however, Sasha Trusova used to be an Eteri girl as well, and also has an outside edge. Same goes for Mishin, who was often mistakingly thought to teach good technique based off of Liza Tuktamysheva’s textbook lutz. But as Samodurova and Guliakova are also Mishin’s student, it appears that this technique does not come from his camp. These conclusions make rational sense as Mishin and Eteri usually do not coach skaters since youth, but rather often take in already established skaters. Eteri has been known to only accept students with their triples. If we were to look into some younger juniors, or some retired (switched disciplines) skaters I think I could present one coach who has consistently presented ladies with correct edges - Panova. Besides Frolova who has a problematic lutz edges, many of her other skaters - Tsibinova, Tarakanova, Sotskova, Sinitsyna, Kanysheva, Kostyuk etc - have had correct flip and lutz edges. This would require some more analysis though.

While it looks like the US ladies clearly have a lead in this category, due to certain circumstances, it is unreasonable to say that overall, American ladies are less prone to flutzing just based off this data. I would do a 1-Prop Z Test but these statistics really do not check any of the assumptions or conditions necessary for such a computation.

Overall, it is really interesting that around 50% of the skaters at Russian Nationals and Japanese Nationals have problematic lutzes. It’s that widespread an issue. No, it’s not just Evgenia Medvedeva or Mao Asada or Anna Shcherbakova that suffer from it. Yes, they aren’t (well, Zhenya and Anya aren’t at least) being punished for it, but neither are a good percentage of the others who have problematic lutzes.

For reference, at Japanese Nationals, only two lutz calls were given in the SP (! for Yoshida and Uramatsu). The tech panel was much harsher in the FS with flip and lutz calls galore (Kaori got “e”, Rika Hongo got “e” and Uramtaus got “e”).

At Russian Nationals, in the SP only three edge calls were given - Trusova’s 3F, Guliakova’s 3Lz and Onishchenko’s 3Lz (which got “e”). In the FS, six edge calls were given (two on flips, two !’s for Guliakova’s 3Lz and one ! and one “e” for Onishchenko’s 3Lz). It is true that out of the lutzes at the competition, Onishchenko’s were the most problematic. However, Daria Usacheva’s were also taken off from an inside edge, and she not only was not called for the three lutzes attempted, but was given high positive GOE for many.

At US Nationals, Ikenishi and Murdock both received “e” calls on their lutzes. Ikenishi receiving one the free skate and Mudock receiving two - one in the SP and one FS. There were no other lutz calls for the event.

Of course, after watching so many events, assuming that flat edges will get ! calls and inside edges will get “e” calls is dreaming of the impossible. At best, really severe flutzes done by lower level skaters may be called, inside edges will be called “!” and flat edges will often be let go with no call nor deduction whatsoever. And while I looked at National protocols, it is true that these results are paralleled in international protocols as well.

So, in conclusion - Russian ladies do not flutz any more than Japanese ladies do. And flutzes are becoming quite a severe problem. Several of the skaters at the top have problematic lutz edges, and it seems like this issue will persist given how the rising generation seems to be struggling with lutz edges as well.

Many use these uncalled Russian flutzes as evidence of Russian overscoring, but in response to those comments I guide you to the PCS section of scoring. That is where the atrocities happen. Most of the top skaters won’t be punished for flutzing, however Russians are gifted extra PCS for existing, while the Japanese, with their excellent skating skills and attention to detail, seem to be getting punished with lower PCS (especially those prone to inconsistency).

#figure skating #figure skating analysis #evgenia medvedeva #Anna shcherbakova #rika kihira #Alexandra trusova #Kamila valieva #Kaori sakamoto #russian nationals 2021 #Japanese nationals 2020 #Japanese nationals 2021 #please don't treat this as an invitation to hate on anyone who flutzes #they are all amazing skaters and ISU is incompetent #or rather RusFed and JSF and USFSA are incompetent #actually USFSA looks pretty competent here but still #us nationals 2021

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sashas4t · 4 years ago

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Alena Kostornaia - Romeo and Juliet

Alena Kostornaia wins the 2018 Junior Grand Prix Final with an excellent free skate scoring 141.66 points.

#figure skating #alena kostornaia #the choreography for this program is meh but alyona is amazing #when will the 3A return??

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sashas4t · 4 years ago

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Elizaveta Nugumanova - The Bat

Elizaveta Nugumanova sets a personal short program best of 73.26 at the 2021 Russian Nationals and skates herself into her first ever top six finish at Russian Nationals.

#figure skating #Russian nationals 2021 #Elizaveta nugumanova #QUEEN!#look at those jumps #they're actually rotated!

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sashas4t · 4 years ago

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A Guide to Russian Novices: Ladies

With all the hype for the future of Russian ladies figure skating thanks to Akatieva, Zhilina, Samodelkina and co. I decided to make a guide to Russian novices for anyone who is interested.

2006-2007

Okay, technically these young ladies are already juniors but there is no JGP this season so many of their names are probably still unfamiliar to you, in addition, I really like a few of them and I need others to join the hype!

Sofia Samodelkina - Placed fourth at Junior Russian Nationals last year and won the Junior Russian Cup Final. if you watched Junior Russian Test Skates you will probably know Sofia and why I was really looking forward to her entrance at the JGP. Sofia has a pretty consistent 3A in her resume, as well as planned 4S! But jumps aside, it is her skating that I really enjoy. Her step sequences are flowing, matched to the music and she makes sure to throw in good performances and expressions in between every element.

FS - https://youtu.be/bFY9HLyPGRw (she manages to change character between the calm and elegant “Snowtorm” to the excited and dramatic “Masquerade” very fast and perform both roles well. I literally love this program so much despite the music cut).

Birthday: February 18, 2007

Coach: Sergei Davydov

Sofia Muravyeva - my second-favorite junior (behind Usacheva and just ahead of Valieva and Samodelkina). Her results aren’t as amazing as her peers but oh my god is she expressive! I actually started really liking her skating two years ago, mostly because I enjoyed her programs and appreciated her lovely skating skills and spins. Her recent move to Plushenko seems to have done much good for her though, as her program components and interpretation of the music have shot up to the top of the junior field. Also, her dresses are simply exquisite.

SP (this season) - https://youtu.be/0B90QyVDkUU (yes, choosing Ne Me Quitte Pas for a junior was probably a strange decision, but her skating! Her skating is beautiful! Her expression is beautiful! Her spins are beautiful!)

FS (this season) - https://youtu.be/QtoiWwebdVQ (ignore that one spin fail please)

“Primavera” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvXvAqDKaB0

Birthday: August 4, 2006

Coach: Evgeni Plushenko

Elizaveta Osokina - she gained a lot of attention (and deserves to gain more) because of her amazing performances at Russian Junior Test Skates. Liza’s SS are definitely some of the best in the junior ladies field, and her programs are choreographed excellently. In addition, she has great spin positions, lovely and dynamic jumps and good expressiveness. Definitely one to look out for:

Test Skates SP - https://youtu.be/XW3znd9pDyg?t=367

Test Skates FS - https://youtu.be/aKmczpiH2tI?t=341

Birthday: December 18, 2006

Coach: Elena Buyanova

Adelya Petrosyan - also a pretty well-known junior. Adelia won the third stage of the Junior Russian Cup this season, and placed sixth at Junior Russian Nationals last season. She has really great spins, amazing flexibility, fast skating, and wonderful attention to detail. I especially enjoy the fact that all her programs have been very different from one another and yet, she manages to perform them all well. Her short programs from the this season and last season are particularly enjoyable:

SP (this season) - https://youtu.be/3W9sQeDb1CA

SP (last season) - https://youtu.be/wHY6riHJMWI

Birthday: June 5, 2007

Coach: Eteri Tutberidze

2007-2008

Sofia Akatieva - most likely going to be the “star” of this generation. She recently won two stages on the Russian Cup Stage, and was the silver medalist at Junior Russian Nationals last year. Sofia will probably fight with Kamila Valieva and Sofia Samodelkina for the title of “junior champion”. She gained a lot of attention in the past few days for landing a 3A+3T in the short program and a 3A plus two ripponed 4Ts (one in combination with a +2T). Besides consistent quads and 3A, Sofia is considered to be a pretty “full package skater”.

SP (this season) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZoWpdvAFkc

FS (this season) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwKsV-BYufo (here’s the clip where she lands 2 4Ts with rippon and a 3A)

Birthday: July 7, 2007

Coach: Eteri Tutberidze

Elizaveta Berestovskaya - participated in the first season of Ice Age Kids and won first place. Liza is mostly kown for being very expressive and for having landed several 4T in practice and in competition. I enjoy her dedication to performing a program even despite any mistakes and she is definitely a very charming skater. My favorite programs from her include:

FS - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu-D65MMUU0 (she fell on the opening 4T, but the rest of the program is great!)

Ice Age Kids version of her FS: https://youtu.be/smedb7kmNjI?t=84

“Apres Toi” - https://youtu.be/MGnaJfkBaAM?t=89

Birthday: December 8, 2007

Coach: Sergei Davydov

Veronika Zhilina - recently just won silver at the fourth stage of the Russian Cup. She’s pretty well known for her wonderful jump technique, with a deep outside edge lutz and minimal peroration on all toe jumps. In addition, she has 3A, 4T and 4Lz in her arsenal. Her quad toe loop, in particular, is very impressive for the effortlessness of the entry and the height it gets.

SP (this season) - https://youtu.be/07VUrNLUpdc

Birthday: May 15, 2008

Coach: Evgeni Plushenko

Alina Gorbacheva - recently just won third place at the fourth stage of the Russian Cup. She actually just came off of an injury apparently, but from watching her skating you could not tell. I especially enjoyed her short program last season, you can see her musicality shine through her skating.

SP (last season, notice how the beginning of the program is completely structured to the music) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r18tJDCt2GM

SP (this season, lovely skating, very lyrical and mature for her age) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLd9Lldq4KQ

Birthday: July 23, 2007

Coach: Sofia Fedchenko

Elizaveta Kulikova - participated in the second season of Ice Age Kids and made it to the finals. Very mature for her age, and she has pretty good skating skills and spins. Honestly, I find some of her performances from Ice Age to be more captivating than those in competition, but I think it’s more the fault of choreography (I think her programs are ice age may have been choreographed, or at least bits of it were, by Averbukh).

Just watch her rendition of Meditation at only 11 years of age, simply beautiful - https://youtu.be/uk5KaCwx3-M?t=79

And another charming skate to “Doctor Zhivago” - https://youtu.be/gaAGAiH_jBc?t=105

Birthday: February 2, 2008

Coach: Sergei Davydov

2008-2009

Sofia Titova - won first place at the Junior Championship of Russia last season. She’s moderately well known for her powerful jumps. Her skating is very fast, but I feel like work could be done to improve flow or emotional connection. Nonetheless, a talented individual with possible quads or 3As in the future to look out for in the future.

SP - https://youtu.be/rVacchcirtQ?t=84

FS - https://youtu.be/jY-t0vtwHjg?t=4

Birthday: January 27, 2009

Coach: Evgeni Plushenko

Ksenia Melkumova - participated in the second season of Ice Age Kids and won third place. Ksenia is my favorite from the novices, because of how expressive she is and her amazing skating skills. She struggles with jumps still, but if one were to purely evaluate skating of Russian ladies, she’d be way up there. Here are some of my favorite performances from her:

“Crack of Doom” - https://youtu.be/u1xAftGyM88?t=60 (this is literally crack, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but the pure amount of joy and expression she puts into it makes it amazing).

“Fire Dance” - https://youtu.be/G-jW9pAuJAw?t=78 or the competition version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcSp_7gr3js&t=96s

“Comme Toi” - https://youtu.be/bZd5qFvTrug?t=46

To be honest, all her performances at Ice Age Kids were great, I just found these to be more interesting or captivating.

Birthday: May 1, 2009

Coach: Igor Lyutikov

Lyubov Rubtsova - participated in the second season of Ice Age Kids and won second place. She used to be coached by Sergei Davydov, but is now under Eteri Tutberidze. Also she landed 3A a couple of months ago. I’m not a huge fan of any of her programs, but here are her programs from last season.

SP - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stedggF0akc

FS - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeN7ECECj_o

This program from Ice Age Kids is pretty nice too - https://youtu.be/r2sp_kLPJz4?t=52

Birthday: February 2, 2009

Coach: Eteri Tutberidze

2009-2010

Sofia Dzepka - won third at the Junior Championship of Russia last season. I also really like Sofia’s skating and she’s probably my second favorite (behind Melkumova). Her skating skills are great and her jumps look to be pretty great too (I especially love the spread eagle - 2A - spread eagle). I really enjoyed her programs last season (though the step sequence is the same for some reason?):

SP - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7xMzFVl9N4&t=3s (she did fall on the 3F, but this is the video with best quality sorry)

FS - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6iFNR49GSQ

Birthday: August 7, 2009

Coach: Elena Buyanova

Sofia Shifrina - placed sixth at the Junior Championship of Russia last season. I haven’t be super impressed by her programs so far, looks like her basics are good though.

SP - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA6m_N91dhM

FS 1 - https://youtu.be/wcVJGVsAQCg (gorgeous costume!)

FS 2 - https://youtu.be/Czv--DKj5Qg

Birthday: August 11, 2009

Coach: Svetlana Panova

Anastasia Marasanova - won second at the Junior Championship of Russia last season. Fun fact, I didn’t even know about her before taking on this project! However, I actually really enjoy her skating, it’s very fun and expressive.

SP - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7b_yXJxuZ8

FS - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn3biVzeFPA

Birthday: October 27, 2009

Coach: Olga Efimova

2011-2012

Elena Kostyleva - a prodigy. She’s still very young, but so very talented! She has 3Lz+3Lo too. Jumps aside, I actually find just her skating very charming, though she does lose some stamina in the second half, she’s only 10, so that’s not an issue at all.

FS - https://youtu.be/A0ErWmUPUkM?t=303

These are only the skaters who have gotten some of the best results, but I had to cut out introductions for a ton of other super talented skaters. Others that I think have great potential include:

Maria Paramonova

Maria Dmitrieva

Sofia Vazhonva

Maria Zakharova

Anyways, have fun discovering new novices to care about! I hope this project shows everyone that the future of Russian figure skating won’t be just a jump fest, but a strong competition with many skaters who have superb artistry and skating skills.

#figure skating #introduction post #I was bored #sorry #eteri tutberidze #evgeni plushenko #melkumova's SS >>>>>

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