On the other hand, ballet positions en pointe do not look beautiful without the turnout, and trying to do turnout while ice skating is just asking to go splat.
Finally got around to watching Blades of Glory, and I must say, the choreographers deeply understood how the physics of human body centers of gravity dictate an enormous amount of crotch-in-face as an unavoidable component of pairs #figureskating
Excellent cinema, all around. Well done. Good job.
Johnson & Ettlinger (2010) did a very nice study that showed people are better at distinguishing an unfamiliar vowel from a familiar one, even if the contrast is one that doesn't exist in their language, than they are at distinguishing two unfamiliar vowels from each other even if the contrast between the two vowels is familiar.
I learned to do 3-turns and brackets in my figure-skating days, but I never learned counters or rockers.
Now, I cannot for the life of me tell a counter from a rocker.
I can distinguish both of them from a bracket and a 3-turn, no problem. I can see a turn and think, 'oh, that's the familiar one, which is a bracket' or 'oh, that's the unfamiliar one'. Sure. Easy.
But which of the two unfamiliar ones it is remains impossible.
In my time skating, I definitely noticed that I just stopped getting dizzy after spins. Actually I never really got dizzy at all. My dizziness-vulnerability improved at about the same rate as my spin speed.
The comment about how Michelle Kwan was amazing for changing direction in her spins is a bit dated, though. Just like jumps, spins in #FigureSkating have really progressed in the last few decades. Change direction spins are common in ice dancing, and Luc Economides does an incredible change-dierction camel that is better than Michelle Kwan's.
(On the forward spin he's got a change of edge, too; this is also newer thing in fs, and it looks SO COOL when done well.)
See, here's the problem with choreographing a move where you rip your shirt open in a moment of wild abandon:
If you're disappointed and dejected after a mess of a first half, then it looks more like you're getting ready for bed after a lousy day at work than losing yourself in passionate intensity when the velcro comes loose.
I'm talking about Nika Egadze here, who, to be honest, has been struggling to convince me about that shirt-rip all season.
'Look,' he's saying, 'sure, if you're a Malinin or an Uno you might do stuff that earns you points. But it takes a real king to include elements that LOSE points ON PURPOSE because you know you can spare them. I'm no mere Malinin or Uno. I'm a Bonaly.'
Proposal: a delightful geek should skate to a medley of Star Trek music.
Especially Voyager. Voyager had the best theme music. Remember that moment in the opening credits when the camera crosses the planet's rings right at the swell of the music? Gorgeous. I'd like to see an extended layback Ina Bauer there.
Nikita Starostin needs a new choreographer. All of those huge cymbal beats and musical transitions n the final step sequence and spins are completely ignored, while the big choreographic movements are entirely unsupported by any element of the music.
THANK YOU, Deniss Vasiljevs, for not trying to do a quad. Doesn't it feel nice to do a sp full of triples that are flawless? Be like Jason Brown, yeah?
Good job, Nika Egadze, but I gotta say that when commentators throw off gems about a Tutberidze skater like, 'he was 29th last season, but has made a seismic leap in the standings this year,' I do start wondering whether they've been explicitly forbidden to mention Valieva and are trying to send us signals about what they believe.
Because no way do I believe Egadze is not being given 'vitamin supplements'.
Dang, the pairs competition at the World #FigureSkating championship this year was terrific! So many pairs competitions this year were so lackluster--failed lifts, falls on all the side-by-side jumps, falls on all the throws. But not at #Worlds2024 ! Largely very clean, and some FABULOUS skating by a lot of new teams.
I'm in love with this year's dark horses Fabienne-Hase/Volodin. I don't love Metelkina/Berulava's aesthetic, but they're a team to watch. And Hocke/Kunkel make me happy.
Today is the second time in my life that I've seen Chinese pairs skaters have an unfortunate time when the woman gets thrown into the boards. This one (Peng/Wang) wasn't as catastrophic as the last (Zhang/Zhang, 2006 Olympics) but it still looked painful.
I have no idea how to tag this but it's about #ISU#FigureSkating#Worlds2024 (I tried searching all the tags I could think of but nothing came up so I have done my own :sad_dog: )