Cup of China

Is there anywhere I can see Taka's SP ?

Happy to see Mirai again! this girl makes everyone happy. You go girl !

On the other hand, I was surprised to see the number of empty seats.

I love new SP of Miki Ando!!!! It's gorgeous!!! Great music and choreography. I've never been fan of Ando but this program makes me like her more than ever!!! New program of Nagasu is a bit boring compared to her SP from olympic season

Brian Joubert did great job with his 4-3. What a pity he didn't do clean 3A- I hope tomorrow he will win

ddmm wrote:

Is there anywhere I can see Taka's SP ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NEj5ySwCO4
I hope you can access YouTube.

maowataiyo wrote:

I don't know if it was actually considered a DG or underrotated. She probably got hit up on her axel and slightly on her 3F, but either way I'm so livid right now. That combination was exciting and wonderful.

ETA: I watched the slow-mo a couple of times and it looks fine. How Lysacek can get away with stuff, and Miki can never get her 3-3s ratified is beyond me.

miki will be fine in the long. i'm hoping she'll do better than her Japan OPen skate. Which YT videos did you watch? i can't keep up with the rules!!! i thought i understood the UR and DGs. Aside from miki and shiz who else has been doing the +3Lo combo? and one with a really good GOE? I wanna see what it's supposed to look like when done w/o calls. hugshugshugs!!!

one happy thought----miki's so beyoooootiful!!! there's something different in her look! and mirai too!! great eye makeup on mirai!!

kaarolcia wrote:

ddmm wrote:

Is there anywhere I can see Taka's SP ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NEj5ySwCO4
I hope you can access YouTube.

Thank you Kaarolcia. I love it!

I'm proud of Mirai - it was her first competition of the season after she was recovering from an injury and she did well. She didn't look too happy with the score but I don't think she should be disappointed with how she did. Her jumps look like they're improving, especially her landings (she used to have this hooked landing), which are really stable to me now. I'm not in love with the music and choreography - I didn't instantly love it like I did her programs from last year - but maybe it'll grow on me.

I liked Akiko's performance too. I'm not sure I like the step sequence of Miki's program that much but her 3Lz-3Lo combination looked great. It sucks if it really was downgraded

I'm glad BJou also went for a difficult combination. I really miss seeing 4-3 combinations - I think they bring a wow factor that's missing from men's programs right now. BJou's 4-3 looked awesome. I think Taka-chan did really well too. I think he's going to open up even more and have more fun with the program as he gets familiar with it; I look forward to seeing that happen. And I hope Taka-chan makes the GPF this year

Performance-wise, I don't think Miki was as *on* today as she was at JO, but she was squeaky-clean and easily wins the event. Akiko made several errors today and was definitely not at her best.

Judging from the scores it looks like the judges dinged Mirai for several URs again. Her spins were not as fast today and her spirals were on the wobbly side too - I have to recheck protocols once it comes out.

The men are next!

Good Morning , girls!

Yay I am so happy for Miki!!! And for Mikiandofan#1 too

1. Miki ANDO -172.21

2. Akiko SUZUKI - 162.86

3. Alena LEONOVA - 148.61

4. Mirai NAGASU - 146.23

Awwww I am sad about Mirai, but she is coming back from an injury, so I think this is pretty good given the circumstances

Mirai did 4 combination jumps.... she really shouldn't have put 2T for her second 2A.

Congrats Miki!!

Protocols for ladies are up!

http://www.isuresults.com/results/gpchn2010/

Now we can see why Miki just got third place after the SP. Her loop was called under-rotated, but the main problem seems that she got spins lvl 1 and 2 and step sequence level 2 only

Is this me or judges are being more strict when it come to spins lvls this season?

Yay, Miki won!



I'm so happy she went clean, but, like clover said, she wasn't very on.

Dani-Chan wrote:

Yay I am so happy for Miki!!! And for Mikiandofan#1 too

Yey! Congrats to Miki Ando and Akiko Suzuki! Go, team Japan!!!

Dani-Chan wrote:

Now we can see why Miki just got third place after the SP. Her loop was called under-rotated, but the main problem seems that she got spins lvl 1 and 2 and step sequence level 2 only

Is this me or judges are being more strict when it come to spins lvls this season?

I'm relieved to see it wasn't fully DG'ed (<<) though - even if it's judged UR, the +3Lo combos are still quite competitive in terms of points this season - about time too, since +3Lo is much harder to pull off than a +3T. Mirai got a slew of DGs which wreaked havoc on her TES score in addition to the kicked-out combo.

I'm not surprised with all the level 2s and 3s we are seeing on the spins due to all the changes regarding positions and level features. If anything, quite a few of the ladies were able to get level 4s on at least two spins which I found pretty impressive. Holding rotations seem to be more important than ever now since edge changes can only work as a level feature once now.

Group 2 of the men on the ice!
BriJou's outfit looks awfully familiar...isn't this the same costume from 3 seasons ago?

Dani-Chan wrote:

Is this me or judges are being more strict when it come to spins lvls this season?

Yeah, the rules are more strict and complicated this year! It's really difficult for the skater and the coach arrange the three spins to get level4 for all of them. Last year you could do the Biellmannposition in the Layback and in the Combinationspin for example and get in both spins a feature (you need 2 features to get level2, three for level3 and four for level4. And you can get a feature by spinning at least three turns in a 'difficult position' or by spinning 8 rotations in one position!) for that. But this year you're not allowed to repeat a difficult position in one program and you can get the '8-rotation-feature' only one time on the left leg and one time on the right leg. Furthermore the edge change on the right leg (it's not that difficult) isn't a feature anymore.
With all these controls you can see why the most skaters (Mao and Miki included) don't get level4 three times.
Strangely, Mirai got level4 on all her spins in the SP. I mean, her spins were beautiful and with high quality and under the rules from last season I wouldn't disagree with that but IMO it was a level4 on the Combinationspin and only a level3 on the flying sit and layback because she spins 8 turns on the right and the left leg in her first spin. Therefore, it shouldn't count for the next two spins but it does... Maybe one of our experts can explain that for me ?!

[I hope you can understand that because my english is not the best and it's even difficult to explain it in german for me... but I did my best to announce you the mystery of the figure skating rules ! ]

miki is such an empty vessel in regards to emtotionally connecting with the music and to the audience. everything feels flat too me. no inate sense of musicality. all learned.

josling wrote:

[I hope you can understand that because my english is not the best and it's even difficult to explain it in german for me... but I did my best to announce you the mystery of the figure skating rules ! ]

You did a much better job than I did in explaining the levels on spins, josling!

Here's ISU's summary of SoVs (Scale of Values) and level features for this season:
http://isu.sportcentric.net/db//files/serve.php?id=1862

I'm pretty sure Mirai satisfied the difficult entry feature for her flying sit, and beginning this season having at least three revolutions on an intermediate position (sideways or backwards) count as a level feature for the layback which should explain Mirai's level 4s on them. Kanako received all level 4s for her spins in the SP at NHK in a similar manner IIRC.

The men skated very well today! I really enjoyed Tomas, although I must say...did he have to start his MJ medley with the exact same music cut as Plushy?
Congrats Kozu on your second GP win! It's been a while since he skated a clean FS - very well deserved.
BriJou unfortunately ended up 4th.

YEAH taka won by 16.71 points... congrats. brandon mroz came in 2nd tho... beating verner and joubert.

Yeeeay!!!! Taka-chan won!!!!!!!

I'm happy for him!!!

Yey! Congrats, Taka-chan!!!

Oh Mirai Was really rooting her for her first GP medal.
But Congrats to Miki and Taka-chan

I*M HAPPY TOO. HOPE MAO WILL WIN THE LAST COMPETITION AT TEB TOO.
CHEER MIKI TO WIN GRAND PRIX FINAL AND MAO FOR JAPAN NATIONAL
AND WORLDS.

Quick snapshot of S/Z in the audience.

P/T should win this unless they have a major meltdown...which I don't see happening. I hope Sui/Han could land their throw quad again.

aoi88 wrote:

Oh Mirai Was really rooting her for her first GP medal.
But Congrats to Miki and Taka-chan

Me too, about Mirai... I like Miki and Akiko of course, but I actually prefer Mirai's skating more than their's just a little more, so I was rooting for her. Could it have been because of her right leg injury? She didn't seem so shocked at K&C, so I think she knew it would turn out that way.

I didn't like the music she chose for her pros this season, btw...why is 'Witches of Eastwick' suddenly so popular? Leonova used it for her FP, too. I didn't like either of the music editing, but I guess Leonova's was a bit better. I already had a bad feeling when I saw Mirai's FP costume, I was right and it was 'Sayuri'...again!!! Does everyone have to skate to that or something??? It's not that I hate the melody, but it sounds so much more Chinese rather than Japanese for a film based in Japan. That music always reminds me of how folks in western countries totally have asian countrie's tastes mixed up.

Miki was good. Her jumps are better than last season. Just needs more of the energy and passion she usually has. But instead, her skating was very neatly done this time. But she has to do something about her spins. I was just simply sorry that Akiko wasn't as good as she actually is...well, they'll get better.

The guys competition was...not as much as I'd expected. This season's guys' competiton at NHK cup has totally spoiled me. After seeing Amodio's new pro, Verner's M.Jackson pro was kind of boring for me. As much as I love Joubert, his new FP is disappointing to me also. I miss his energetic steps. He never should've had Wilson do the choreo IMO.

Takahiko was fairly clean and I guess he deserved to win. But he's not at his best yet either. And someone please persuade him to wear something a bit more flashy next time!

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

I didn't like the music she chose for her pros this season, btw...why is 'Witches of Eastwick' suddenly so popular? Leonova used it for her FP, too. I didn't like either of the music editing, but I guess Leonova's was a bit better. I already had a bad feeling when I saw Mirai's FP costume, I was right and it was 'Sayuri'...again!!! Does everyone have to skate to that or something??? It's not that I hate the melody, but it sounds so much more Chinese rather than Japanese for a film based in Japan. That music always reminds me of how folks in western countries totally have asian countrie's tastes mixed up.

But figure skating is all about overused music! /sarcasm

I'm fine with Witches of Eastwick - it's not even close to being in the Carmen category yet. I was more bothered with Totentanz still being used (twice at NHK), and unless I'm going crazy I've heard three variants of Aranjuez at this year's CoC already.

As for Sayuri/Memoirs of a Geisha...I honestly don't mind the mixing countries thing since all cultures are guilty of it and that particular film still tried IMO. NBC's Heroes was far, far worse. Both Yukari and CaroK skated to it at Tokyo Worlds '07, so I guess it's making an inevitable comeback.
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Not a particularly good skate for P/T but they still win the event, Sui/Han are in second with a two-footed throw 4S. As usual, Sui/Han's base value for their programs are higher than their competitors by 6~10+ points.

Mirai's LP is better than her SP, but I don't feel she connects to this music as well as her programs last year. I like her LP dress though.