Happy Halloween!

The guilty pleasures of autumn: pumpkins and figure skating.

Welcome, dear Friends, to this blog on this particular day. Whether you are sitting on masses of candy already, or are still putting on your zombie makeup or brushing your fangs, whatever it is, you have come to the right place. Enter at your own risk and to your own delight...

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From the Desk of Mr. Y. Speed: TV coverage - A new audio-visual Agenda

Dear Members, Fans, Skaters, and Officials,

a long time ago, I concluded to myself that the key to success is information and in logical conclusion the conveyance of it. I have since tried to excogitate ideas on how this can find application in our broadcasts.

It is with much pleasure that I now announce the termination of this thought process regarding new technology and its benevolent use with concern to the TV coverage of our sports events.

The blue pill, if you please!

Last Night, I dreamt of the most wonderful figure skating performance you could imagine! It was quite the program and one of my first thoughts was: What a shame that I can't convey the beauty of it to other people and let them share the experience.

But then it dawned upon me that I was worried quite without reason because, fortunately, in this age we have a means of transcribing a program and, in due course, make it available for others sharing all of the beauty and enjoyment!

Thank you IJS! You and my dream world are a perfect match!

Life, IJS and the protocols: A plea in favour of the beauty of numbers

There is an ongoing debate about the sport of figure skating as we perceive it and the sport of figure skating in perhaps its purest incarnation: Namely, as it is presented to us in the condensed and revisioned form of the protocols.

While some people may think it doesn't make sense to use the protocols to re-evaluate what they have just seen in real life or that it is detrimental and counter intuitive to justify a result they have previously disagreed with, I, for one, am totally at peace with them and it continues to puzzle me that a lot of people just think of the protocols as a bunch of arbitrary and ultimately meaningless numbers.

Top 10 Performances of all time

With the only skating event left this season being the World Team Trophy, it's the time again to direct our attentions inwards and/or backwards. So, find here, assembled for you enjoyment, the ten best performances of all time.

New Programs News: Florent Amodio

According to a recent interview, Florent Amodio has already decided on his programs for next season.

While he did not divulge his new SP music yet, he enthusiastically revealed that his new free skate will be an extended version of this year's short program. As he had felt that his SP showed a lot of promise and he hadn't been able to skate it to its full potential, he and his coach decided to do the material justice and use it as a long program in the Olympic year.

Potential long program material.

"Of course, there will be some changes and a lot of additional choreography," elaborated Amodio, "so that it will essentially almost feel like a whole new program!" Being very excited about the upcoming season, he is fully aware of the fierce competition he will face in Sochi and considers himself very fortunate to have a coach who "always has a creative ace up his sleeve!"

Find the full interview here.

The Scoring of Tomáš Verner: The Epitome of The Failings of IJS

First, let me clarify something. I love

Worlds 2013: 3rd Day, Men LP

Did I say in a previous post that the SP was an emotional rollercoaster? Well, that was just a figure of speech then, I didn't really think it was, but I really mean it now when I say: That LP was an emotional rollercoaster and tunnel of horror ghost train combined into one nightmarish experience.

It started off pleasantly enough. Over time one has come to accept certain things, most importantly that some skaters can't escape their destiny, or their prospective scoring. There are good days, bad days. Favourites win, favourites lose, favourites get the short end of the stick, programme-choreography and performance don't necessarily matter etc. etc. You probably know what I mean, all those minuscule vanities. There comes a time, when you realise that is simply the circle of skating as an artform doing nothing more than imitating life. So far so good.

Should I bother you with the early groups? Maybe a wee bit:

Justus Strid put really some effort into his performance. The music made me immediately think of P/B's Circus but, to draw upon T.S. Eliot, it's all a great body of skating. There were 4 broken glass sound effects which was a bit too much in that regard but still, despite the falls, enjoyable, good to end on a choreo step. I encourage that. Well done I say, even if he was less than happy after the programme.

Meneer Hendrickx. He has really improved his skills and shows a certain feel for his material. Also landed his stuff throughout, which always helps. Also, well done.

Tomas Verner: I had hoped, and was pretty sure, it could only go upwards for him after his performances at the Europeans. He has the skills and can also still do it in the presentation department as he proves time and again in every Gala he participates. May the bittersweet Saffron comment further on that.

Misha Ge, natural performer, youthful refreshing attitude, blog favourite of ours, and it's always a pleasure to watch a skater put all his personality into his performances. If anything underscored in that department or others overscored?, probably both.

Peter Liebers, straight up landed everything in a very good skate. I suggest a non-brown and more flattering sp-trouser, but he ended up only one place shy of getting two spots, which is very very good considering the dense and very competitive field.

Rapidly are we approaching the top.

Takahito Mura pleasantly surprised me with a technically strong skate that also was very enjoyable in choreography and he performed it well. The music is partly difficult to skate to fittingly, and I appreciate how they put this together. Also, well done.

Fast forward to Brian Joubert. The Maximus of our hearts, the champion of The Quad! statistics. I wasn't expecting much, I was expecting a decent skate. My favourites never seem to win, anyway. Then suddenly, there he was: not having fallen on his ass even once in the whole competition, doing three Quads! over the whole event, and even doing 3 combos in the LP. Unfortunately, the system states that he should have rather fallen on a 4S than doing a clean 3S in the beginning, and, thusly, he invalidated his last combo.

Luckily, he need not feel bad about that little mishap, as the following option would have barely elevated him into 7th, at the most: Falling on a fully rotated 4S and having the Flip(E) count gives him roughly 6.5 points more at the most.

For a moment I thought he had done it. I knew he hadn't though. He doesn't pick up GOE easily normally, like he did here in the SP, much to my surprise, and a great Joubert skate does score around 160 at the maximus [sic!], which would have him in 5th now. Deep down I felt that was more than possible, more than deserved. But alas... the downgrades, the GOEs, the combo-rules... Blessings of the new system, here they shine bright like a diamond.

Ah, lest if forget, the podium skaters:

Did I say in that other post I was fine with overscoring of the clear winner as it happened in 6.0 as well? Luckily, not quite. I said the event was already decided and in 6.0 you could, no matter how much 6.0s not be further ahead than in 1st. after the SP. So, for the future, dear judges: Only overscore during the LP as that is the last segment and you have seen everything of a skater once he has finished, you can still somehow let the SP margins seep into your LP considerations. Who are we kidding. That happens anyway, subconsciously and through skating order.

Instead of commenting on the podium skaters, I'm offering you a poll, in which you can participate to make the vox populi heard. If not for me, do it for Maximus. And feel free to engage via the comment function.

Take your pick:

Worlds 2013: 1st Day

That Mens competition was really an emotional roller coaster. I had put myself into my reclining chair and was in the most chillaxing of moods. I had already followed the Pairs SP and had just returned from an evening session where I indulged into my own humble skating efforts. (To be honest, I was rather great today :D, but that's for a different column.)

Unfortunately, I can't make a case for the programmes of S/S this season, but as much as I don't fancy their stuff, they are not worse than what V/T are putting out there. What we are witnessing is the ever more gradually growing gap between V/T and the rest of the field, most importantly S/S. K/S delivered, and I was pleasantly surprised, I fancied them ever since they toned themselves down a little. Much appreciated K/S, all in all, lots of the lower pairs had better programmes and performances than the upper pairs. B/H and J/C for instance. Anyhow, on to the Men. These days, Canada is on daylight saving time, even before it hits Europe, so watching is rather convenient.

Now, there were a few "huh?"-moments during our watching of the competition. One of the first ones was after the programme of Brian Joubert. We like Brian. He can always count on a soft spot in our hearts, so he did somehow deliver, and with Quad+Double I suspected his scores to be in the high 70s, maybe 80. He got 84! At Euros he got 83 something with a 4+3. That made me say: What's going on here?

My old skating love Tomas Verner messed up all of his jump elements and managed to score 68 something, in the vein of an almost but not quite clean Misha Ge who once again put all his Panache on display. I am above reproach when it comes to bias against Tomas Verner, but I wondered, he had scored worse with better performances in the past.

Denis Ten, a skater with very good skating skills, and a previous record of 78 something in the SP, scored a whopping 91!!! While he really put it down, it made us wonder.

Then it dawned upon us. It was the love of the Canadians for huge scores. And, presumably, the setting up of a clean Chan for a record breaking international score. (Granted, it's Worlds but it's also Canada) Note that I'm not saying a messy Chan would have been propped up. But Skate Canada and the crowd just love huge scores. I remember Debbie Wilkes at Canadian Nationals a year ago or two talking up the nationals records to please the crowd, it's just the longing for new records and higher scores. Nothing wrong with that, if it keeps you interested in the sport.

Chan, thankfully, delivered and was awarded with a whopping 98. He is in 1st place, and deservedly, just for the record. (His programmes this year are better than ever, and I don't question him having a modern dance coach or whatever, it's doing him good as far as I am concerned) Everyone who has the potential to score similarly high PCS faltered today: Takahashi had too many URs, Hanyu messed up his quad and combo, etc. etc. We all know that the PCS factor for the LP is 2, which makes it harder to catch up on the tech side only. The Mens segment is, thusly,  already decided.

I wonder if that is the competition format to further embrace. Even if we set aside the problems of the IJS for a moment, we are still left with a Men's event that's virtually decided after the short programme. Under 6.0 we had the factor of the favoured skater delivering and being given 6.0s, but he could never be further ahead than his 1st place ordinal allowed him to be. Be it as it may. There is still the Ladies event. Traditionally not as over scored as the Men or Dance. As the Pairs are catching up, maybe the Ladies will too at these Worlds.

Tot later, guys :D

From the Desk of Mr. Y. Speed: Shape the future!

Dear Members,

as the season is approaching its climax and at the same time its end, I want to conduct an investigation into your satisfaction with my outstanding work. Although I am quite sure you all have only the most noteworthy praise to convey with regard to my efforts, I still like to have some valiant statistical feedback and impressive numbers to show off to other sports administers or even random people I meet on the street. There is nothing like a good promotion really.

I highly encourage you to vote in all of the following polls (especially he last one) and help shaping the future of the sport and my contributions to it.

Your reading habits of my communications:

My innovations, mark everything you like:

Regarding my future labors as dedicated official:

From the Desk of Mr. Y. Speed: A New Agenda - Learning from other sports

To all members,

as is my duty as dedicated official, my attentions are constantly tangent to all kinds of other sports. Watching them in close proximity, I've since come to resolute that drawing from other successful sports and implementing their innovations into the disciplines we administrate, is the best way to secure the future of the athletic endeavours we govern. 

One of the factors of today's success is providing a spectacle that meets the demands of exiting competitive sport and a televisable format that appeals to sponsors and audience as well. So far, we have been working hard on effecting change in that regard. With the look towards the other sports, we can advance this agenda even more.

From the Desk of Mr. Y. Speed: Suggested Reading

Dear members,

as is common knowledge, I devote extended periods of my time to surfing the information super highways. This I do in order to broaden my horizon and find inspiration for my labours in sport administration. I cannot say how delighted I was, when I discovered a certain publication from a governing body that features each issue a great editorial piece by a fellow administrator.

Upon reading, I immediately recognised him to be a kindred spirit. From the way he administers his sport, one can tell he is always working hard to implement progress and develop the future in all disciplines.

You can access current and back issues here:

Be sure to everytime read the enlightening editorial pieces. It will help you comprehend how the minds of people in sports administration work.

I myself already am inspired by several of the ideas that I've read about, and surely with the further percolation of said ideas in my head, it will lead to astonishing new developments in the future.

With the kindest regards

Y. Speed

Skaters, Take Note of Misha Ge!

You know how we keep discussing how restricting and generic IJS is on many elements? I think the level step sequences are especially gruesome to watch. They are mostly generic, monotonous, slow, take forever and usually are in disconnect with the music. In my opinion, the worst part of the level requirements for the steps was the upper body involvement/movement bit. Because, once that was put in, we got the flailing windmills and the "kissing/saluting the ice" ladies, to say the least.

The arms flail so much, you can hardly see them

I guarantee you, there is nothing that interesting on the ice to require such close inspection.

I think it is not impossible to actually tick this box and still do something original and perform to the music, instead of flailing like crazy while some music is playing in the background. Lambiel was always so good at that. His step sequences were so fluid and musical, you barely noticed he was doing them, while also ticking the boxes. Takahashi is also another good example. And you don't even need to be a top class skater like Takahashi or Lambiel to be able to pull it off. You can even beat them at their own game, with not a world class choreographer either but your mum choreographing no less. How, you ask? Behold and pay special attention to the step sequence starting at 2.47:

 Just brilliant!

Now this is what performing flamenco should look like, while still getting a level 3 on steps and great GOE. I loved it!

Another thing Misha is so great at is exhibitions (which is natural given his flair for performance). If you haven't watched his gala from this year, you are really missing out on one of the greatest skating fun moments. 

Is he a natural, or what!

I don't know how many skater and group numbers were done to this number but none came close to this. This is what performing a gala should be about, not skating a copycat and watered down competitive programme to a slow, annoying pop tune or skating around without any feel for the music. His performance is directed to the audience from start to finish and incorporates a fantastic feel of music and great dancing. Absolutely wonderful!

Skaters, please take note! This is what performing really looks like. And if a middle of the pile guy can do it so effortlessly, I'm sure some of you can rock it too, Misha Style.

Hanyu sure has the Misha Style down.

Image by courtesy of Misha's twitter

Coulda Woulda Shoulda

There is no denying Figure Skating is a challenging sport. More so than some sports because;

a) You actually need to have an interest in figure skating to begin with, which (let's face it) is not very likely in most countries for the young male. Even in young females, the interest can be very little to non-existent if we are talking about a non-skating country (surely I would have had no interest in skating, hadn't it been for my mum and her obssession with Katarina Witt),

b) Even if you have interest, you/your sponsor must be able to finance the training costs, which are quite high, and

c) Even if you have met the above criteria, you might still end up not taking up skating because there are no decent rinks in your city/country (like in my case).

So, I think it is safe to assume that in terms of shining skating talents, we probably have a huge pool of lost opportunities on a global scale. I guess it is no wonder we get wunderkinds like Yuzuru Hanyu or Javier Fernandez once in a blue moon.

So, back in the day when I was following the TV competition Buzda Dans (Dancing on Ice, version Turkey), I have come across Ilhan Mansiz, who, in my opinion, was a shining skating talent gone to waste. He is a retired footballer (early retirement due to knee injury) so clearly he had some advantage, being an athlete, but his progress was still remarkable. To quote Samantha from SATC, he was a perfect case of Coulda Woulda Shoulda.

From rink to rink, blame Canada!

Picture me on my chaiselongue, wearing my favourite dressing gown, notepad in hand, a crème de menthe within reach, scribbling away at his post, and lackadaisically (as is customary these days) glancing over at the skating broadcast now and then. Thus was I happily, if somewhat idly, putting something on paper, when suddenly, in a strange twist of fate or rather an act of utter synchronicity, Kevin Reynolds took the 4CC Championship in quite remarkable fashion. Vouchsafe me a word with you by clicking on "Read more".

An Open Letter to Jeffrey Buttle from his Fangirl

Dear Mr Buttle,

When I first laid eyes upon you, it was sometime in 2006. I am ashamed to say I didn't even really notice you before that. I was too involved in my love for Plushenko/Lambiel/Joubert. You won the bronze in 2006 games. I said meh.. Then you went on to win the gold at worlds in 2008, over my favourite at the time no less. I said more than meh but I will not utter those words here. Overall, I was pretty much indifferent to you as a skater. Sure, you had lovely skating skills and some interesting stuff but I was not sold at all.

Nice but still meh..

Then you retired after  the 2008 worlds. To be honest, I didn't feel too bad about that. I figured I probably won't come across your work much after that. I was ok with it.

Then you started working on shows. First, I said meh.. Then you kept on working in shows. I tried to say meh but I was getting more and more unconvinced with my indifference. I was becoming a fan.

Meh? Not so much.. In fact, quite yay!!!!

 

 

But the breakthrough really came when your choreographic work really started to resurface in the competitive arena.

From the Desk of Mr. Y. Speed: Letter of Circulation

Today, in this breviloquent letter of circulation, I want to tackle some minor issue that was reported to me. Because I stay in close proximity to the sport, I often talk with all kinds of officials. Recently, acquainted judges come and tell me the following: "Y.", they say, "we sometimes have problems with judging certain components. More specifically with the assessment of the Performance and Execution Component. How should we, for instance, determine the physical, emotional and intellectual involvement, good Y.?"

Skater Appreciation: The Champion of my Heart

The famous "Plushenko stare of a champion"

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva is the kind of skater I have been dying to see for a while. Ever since she made a name for herself on the junior circle, I have been a fan. Maybe it has more to do with the current state of skating than Liza herself because when I list the reasons why I love her so, it makes me all the more depressed for how alienating skating has become to the casual viewer.

I love Liza because;

2013 Euros Preview: The Pairs

Wednesday is usually my favourite day to go skating myself, mainly because the evening session is not as crowded as on weekends. With Euros being underway and me trying to catch a bit of live coverage here and there, the only thing that’s missing are some decent preview posts. Wanna see me cobbling together another last minute one? You’ve come to the right place!

2013 Euros Preview: Skating, the Universe and Everything

Over here at the secret SFT-headquarters, the week had started off pretty quietly. After the fleeting image that was last weekend's Canadian Nationals had vanished, our attention slowly shifted to more pressing matters. As we were sitting at our round table of skating-awesome, it suddenly dawned upon at least

one of us that a preview for the Europeans would somehow be in order. Putting our heads together, it became obvious that our enthusiasm oscillated between, "I actually don't like previews.", "I don't feel particularly inspired.", and "Huh?".

To skate or to stay healthy.. Surely, it is a no brainer.

The Alexei Yagudin fans out there might know of a documentary produced by Channel 1 from 2007 named Любовь, боль и лед (Love, Pain and Ice). This documentary was the first time I have heard about Alexei's long going hip problems and his subsequent hip replacement surgery. It's a great skating documentary but it is in Russian. Nevertheless, I'm also attaching the videos' word inscription to be found here, anyone interested can put the file in google translate and read it.

Love Pain and Ice Part 1

 Part 2

Part 3

Basically, Alexei talked in detail about how his degenerative hip bone affected his life quality. At the time, I thought I understood his difficulties and sympathised with a situation where you are constantly in pain and uncomfortable.

A few weeks ago, after suffering from a sudden bout of constant hip pain, I went to see a doctor. You see, I had a heavy fall as an (very) amateur adult skater in 2007 and since then had on again off again hip pain. So I went in to hear something about micro breaks or something similar but instead with an initial diagnosis of sacroiliitis,  I was shipped off to different departments for a differential with potential chronic autoimmune diseases. While waiting for results, I read about my potential prognosis. Constant and persistent life long pain was the first thing that jumped off the pages. Being in pain for days at that moment, I simply couldn't see how anyone can deal and go on living a normal life with something like this on a permanent basis. Suffice to say, I broke down.

My diagnosis since then has been indeterminate. I solely seem to be suffering from degenerative hip issues but more severe possibilities could not have been 100% ruled out. Oh and I have been told to not set foot on ice again. Now, having gone through hell for 10 days and only recently having stopped aching, my first thought was "How can I never skate again?". And I am just a very amateur skater. I am not a pro, I am not a top level competitor. But still..

When hearing about stories like Alexei, I always thought the price surely must not be worth it. And even if you are not completely broken like Alexei but seem to suffer from various chronic ailments like say Plushenko, surely you wouldn't think of going back to ice to compete while risking more permanent injuries. I simply couldn't understand it. But denial (or rejection) is a very potent aphrodisiac. Despite all the worries for your health, staying away from something you love is so difficult. I think there are skaters who skate because after a certain point they don't know anything else and there are those who simply must skate. Knowingly risking your health to skate & compete again is a non-issue for them. I think I kind of understand their motivation now. I think I might step on that ice again, even if only for one last time.