We went to the first couple of sessions yesterday, but laid out of the novice ladies finals, and went in again for the junior dance short program: we slept most of the afternoon, which was a good thing. Better to miss a competition and end up with enough stamina to enjoy the next day. Jane’s got an extensive report up.  Dance is her particular delight. Men’s singles is my favorite—and Jane’s other most favorite. OSG, I think, is more fond of the ladies singles. We did stay to watch Sasha Cohen practice. She had a bit of trouble, but solved it. The women who’ve been on the regular competition track are eyeing her with some worry, I think. Jane thinks if she had been competing under the new judging system back in Torino, she would likely have won, and I think part of her motive in coming back is to prove that to herself. The old system could (especially with some judges) be forgiving of gross errors and sometimes outright violations as long as you stayed on your feet; the new one not only bears down on those, but puts emphasis on the ‘connective’ elements of movement on the ice, at which Sasha excels. In the old days, a lot of competitors skated from one end of the arena to the other, jumped, and skated the other direction and jumped, with a setup for the jump that had them skating on one foot going backwards for a third of the length of the arena—shall we say, pretty simple choreography.

Jane and I were discussing the theory that the skaters nowadays may be getting up to the new judging system, but some of the choreographers truly aren’t—I noted yesterday, I think, the couple that was quite screwed by their choreographer, who made them rush through their elements and lost them multiple points, not only losing the GOE (grade of execution +1 point for superior form ) but sometimes getting the element downgraded (-1 whole level) . That’s a real score-killer. It’s worth noting that one hitherto not-famous coach who also choreographs his skaters has 3 different skaters at the top of the standings. He has his skaters completing their moves with enough time to set up for the next. And that matters, bigtime. Choreography is having to change with the new system, and the more we watch, the more we are astonished at experienced commentators insisting that programs have to be packed. What they have to be is fully performed on each element, and that means they can’t be packed.

In Jane’s opinion and mine, what we need to do is put the figures requirement back in. It’s not great tv, and means skaters coming into competition for the tv cameras with an important score lurking silently in the background; or they could just require them as a prerequisite for entering competitive ranks. NOT having them I think is going to see our teams doing less well internationally, which will not help the national popularity of the sport.

Personally we’re going to have to hit the diet and the rink bigtime after we get out of Nationals. Even walking during the Zamboni breaks and hiking to lunch, we’re gaining. I don’t know what it is about the fixed-position sitting, but it’s hard on the body.