US Nationals

PROTOCOLS are up here:

http://www.usfigureskating.org/leaderboard/results/2011/68096/CAT001SEG001.html

I love Mirai... "I have to do jumps anyway, so why not go ahead and land them?" I sincerely hope she and Alissa do tomorrow!! Their free skates - especially Alissa's - are absolutely gorgeous. Rachael's program was apparently her best short program yet (I haven't seen it yet)... unfortunately, her fs is not that great this year. Too cutesy. And Agnes is great, but she has had complete meltdowns in every fs so far this year. Sad. I hope that Agnes at least makes it to Four Continents, she has a lot of potential.

Rachel had the biggest crowd reaction today - I was genuinely impressed. Both Alissa and Mirai skated well too, and once again demonstrated the importance of strong spins particularly in the SP this season. CaroZ is fully recovered with much stronger spins and the pearl back in her repertoire now, which was good to see. Both her and Ashley can never seem to get things fully together at Nats though.

On other note - while I understand that NBC is desperate needs the sponsors and ratings, I am never going to sympathize with their iron fist deal in having IN only stream the first half of the men and ladies free skate live.

Thanks for the info guys! Wow, that's great for Mirai! Here's hoping she can hold it together in the free skate. Whatever happens, this is shaping up to be an exciting competition!

I'll be interested to see Rachel's SP, though I'm not usually big fan of hers...

END OF THE WORLD!!!!!

Rachael got the highest PCS among all ladies??? I can't wait to watch this program

Thank you bellarina for protocols. I found a few mistakes there: how could Carolina Zhang plan to do flying layback spin?

I am very upset by the scoring. It seemed very random, and the PCS were all over the place. Alissa should have had the highest PCS followed by Nagasu and Flatt, not the other way around. Also, Flatt got +3 goes for her crazy flailing footwork - Mao doesn't even get that at Japanese Nationals, and there is really no question to who has the better footwork.

US Nationals always overscores Rachael, in my opinion - she got a 130 last year with her free skate (anybody call that insane?). Yes, she's consistent and all, but she is slow, a lot of her lutz and flip technique is sloppy, her footwork is ALWAYS a bunch of flailing arms and legs, and her spin position are... ugly. I don't like watching her. And I think they're being conservative with Alissa because she used? to be so inconsistent, and same with Mirai. Gr. She always nabs a spot on the worlds team because USFSC decides she's consistent enough for it, but at worlds, the judges always keep her down because her skating skills are not up to par. It bugs me. I hope Mirai and Alissa make it this year simply because they are a joy to watch, and they have a pretty good chance of getting the US three spots next year.

It's amazing how no one seems to like Flatt.

alyssa wrote:

It's amazing how no one seems to like Flatt.

Shhhh... we have one at Yuna forum, and she hates Mirai.

I' very happy for Mirai! I hope she will give a great free skate!

has any viseo's shown up, really want to watch mirai, flatt, and alissa's short program!!

ballerinamao wrote:

has any viseo's shown up, really want to watch mirai, flatt, and alissa's short program!!

I think you can watch it for free on universal sports, but only live. Other than that there's no yt videos yet, but that's subject to change at any time, so you never know... TV coverage descriptions only talk about LPs and they say nothing about SPs! If the descriptions (the ones I have through comcast anyway) are correct then we guess we won't be getting to watch any of the SPs on tv. The descriptions have an ever so convenient way of being wrong though sometimes (which has screwed me over before...), so I'm recording all the figure skating airings this weekend, even the repeats. If they are wrong this time, it might actually be a GOOD thing.

thanks star85 I will just have to be patient and wait until some videos are going to be loaded on youtube... I just can't wait to see who will make the world team this season...

Live "unofficial" results are up here, for those who are interested.

http://www.usfsa.org/leaderboard/results/2011/68096/results.html

Well Rachael Flatt's style is basically the opposite of Mao's style, IMO. Mao has great posture, positions, carriage, lightness - she makes things look easy. Rachael looks slow, labored, and heavy, with bad posture and no stretch. I don't think many Mao fans can appreciate Rachael's skating, unless they like everyone who skates

I agree about Rachael. She's consistent. She's mentally strong. But there's nothing to love, nothing beautiful or exciting about her skating imo. And she doesn't have a body shape that's suited for figure skating. (It's not that she's not pretty, it's just that she doesn't look graceful)
I don't like saying bad things about her because she comes across as a sweet person and she always displays great sportsmanship, but I find her skating very bland.

wow! ryan looks good! and his quad was gorgeous!

what happened to adam?

Adam screwed up his Rippon lutz! Ugh! And Armin Mahbanoozadeh also screwed up his lutz! Sad... I wish those two had been right up there with Jeremy and Ryan.

Oh, and somebody posted up Mirai's sp. Not high quality, but the best we have for now. She did a wonderful job!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih_T0RgKEF0

Wow....the whole Rachael Flatt issue. Well, I looked at the protocol, and I was shocked to find that Agnes Zawadzk had higher TCS. I finally saw her skate, and she's a more stable jumper in my opinion. I'm just not sure if she is completely consistent with all her jumps and consistent with competitions as well. It was her PCS that put her in 4th (4th, right?).

Saw the ladies SPs just now for the first time.

I'm not usually a fan of Rachael Flatt's skating at all, but I thought she was SO good. I had my doubts about her East of Eden program, but she sold it and skated the most beautiful program I've ever seen her do. She wasn't at the level of beauty of Alissa Czisny's skating, or Mirai's, but I really, really liked what she did. She put her whole heart into that program and I've never seen her do that so far.

I thought Alissa and Mirai were great. I think the very small point difference between the Top 3 is right. I haven't seen Agnes's program yet.

I'm so sad for Armin and Adam! I hope they nail their free programs.

I'm also super happy for the Shibs and the standing O they received!

Can't wait for the ladies FS tonight!

bellarina wrote:

I'm not usually a fan of Rachael Flatt's skating at all, but I thought she was SO good. I had my doubts about her East of Eden program, but she sold it and skated the most beautiful program I've ever seen her do. She wasn't at the level of beauty of Alissa Czisny's skating, or Mirai's, but I really, really liked what she did. She put her whole heart into that program and I've never seen her do that so far.

It really is the first time I've ever seen Rachael fully attack her program, and I appreciated that too. She's not the most graceful skater out there, but she really went for it. The extended layback ina bauer was a nice touch and IMO a lot more effective than the typical ina bauer 2A the ladies seem to be doing by the truckload the last few years.

Mirai and Alissa were solid in the SP, so it really is up to how things go in the FS now.

Congrats to D/W on their 3rd National title and the Shibz for placing second!

ETA: Here's a live NBC stream for those outside the US or don't want to wait for a few hours until their local NBC station will broadcast the event (like myself in Cali). The stream should automatically start after letting it load for a minute or two.

ETA2: Congratulations Alissa! This was her night through and through. Rachael's in second so Mirai is probably not going to be coming to Tokyo...

Im a little sad mirai is not going to worlds
but congrats to Alyssa and Rachael

I'm happy for Alissa, but so sad for Mirai. She was so nervous right from the start, probably more so since she went right after Alissa, and more tentative than usual...I'm glad she was able to hold onto her program, though.

Did anyone else think Rachael was very overscored? What is it that the US judges see in her that international ones don't? Consistency, maybe?

Just a couple minutes ago - worlds team is officially Alissa and Rachael, 4CC will be announced later today. Hopefully Mirai can make junior worlds at the least. She should make 4CC, it would be insane not to let her go.

Hopefully Alissa and Rachael can get 3 spots for the US this year! Although international judges seem to dislike Rachael, so it will probably be all up to Alissa to make it in the top five. I hope she medals, it would be wonderful for her (and her coaches, Yuka Sato and Jason Dungjen - they've done an amazing job with her).

I think Mirai should have won the silver. She didn't double any of her jumps, only had one obvious mistake (that death drop killed her spirit, though) besides a tough skating out of her opening triple lutz-double toe. However, for some reason the US has always liked Rachael's skating most likely because of her consistency (she got a 130 last year!). In all honesty, she's the first consistent skater the US has had since Michelle Kwan, but still, a 121 for that? A bit much.

I do hope Mirai can really build on this experience - in the press conference, she was talking about how a lack of training did not help her. I think a lot of training helps her feel more secure and calms her nerves down so that she can rely on muscle memory. So, if we see her at 4CC/junior worlds, I hope she really takes what she learned at nationals to heart. If she can pull it together, she will be the future of US skating. And I'm glad that she said, "It's not like my career's over, I'll just take the bronze and run away with it." She will have some extra fire at next year's nationals because of this.

I dont really like Rachael, I mean her skating, she is nice, but there's something im not to comfortable with her, her spins are not the best, and her jumps this time were not perfect also, anyways I hope they make a good job at worlds, and hope Mirai goes to Juniors worlds, or 4CC , there is still alot of time for Mirai