skatingforums
Watching the Zamboni => Spectator Skating Discussions => Topic started by: adragast on March 13, 2013, 06:34:47 AM
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Are you as excited as I am about this event? Are you going to attend to some of the events? Will you follow it live? This will be the first event I follow while being an ice skater myself. Of course I am just a beginner but I still hope I will be able to appreciate better the different performances.
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I am watching. Considered going but then booked our march break up with fun kids stuff.
So nervous, last two flights of men are about to get started. Go Javi and Yuzu!
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My heart is broken for Yuzuru and his injured left knee. Wonder if he will consider to withdraw?
Edit: with 3 spots for Japan now at stake of course he won't... Who would have thought the federation with strongest men's field would struggle like this in the SP?
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I've started working on back camels. Florent's fall makes me not want to do that anymore. I originally thought he slipped on a flying entrance, but the replay, it was a regular one...
OMG ow.
(Though I do wonder if he would have gotten up faster if he knew he had another move to do. Since it was a failed spin, he had time, whatever time the spin would usually take. But man, it looked like it hurt.)
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OMG poor Yuzuru. Brian Orser did not have a good day. Let's hope Elena does well for him today.
And poor Florent. I hate those falls they always hurt SOOOOO much and it always manages to bruise all the bones you lay on when you sleep. :) I loved his little dance at the end though. He's a cutie.
Can't wait for the dance today. It's always near and dear to my heart. :)
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Perhaps this topic could be marked SPOILER?
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Very comforting to hear how supportive team Cricket was.
Onto ladies short, where the meltdown factor is potentially greater :'(
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Well I saw our Canadian girl and looked up the results. Sounds like there was some good skating today from the ladies. Well some of them. :)
Next up dance. Can't wait to see the Polkas. My most favourite original dance when i was competing was our Polka. :)
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Where can you watch it?
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http://www.ltv7.lv/files/player-licensed.swf?file=ltv7_2_lv&streamer=rtmp://stream.ls.lv/ltv7_2_lv&type=rtmp&autostart=true is where I've been watching.
Very weird dance order- top two contenders aren't in the last group!
I thought they seeded by group, but apparently just by halves of the comp?
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Where can you watch it?
For some reason, DirecTV gave me access to see it on the Universal Sports channel even though I don't pay for the sports package. Can't access the online US site without a subscription, though.
Must be one of DirecTV's preview freebies. Of course, the bill just came and our rate went up $20, so DH wants to cancel. (I've been stalling because the few shows I watch are on cable channels.)
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Thanks for that link Skittl!
Can anybody tell me what "New SB" means? It is sometimes shown after a pair's score is shown.
Edit: never mind - I figured it out "SB = Season's Best" :)
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Thanks Skittl!
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Grrrrr... I seem to dose off just as things get interesting. I've managed to sleep through the second half of both the Mens and Ice dance. :'( 4hrs behind makes for late nights! I'll try and stay up tonight for the mens LP but my guess is I'll be asleep before they get to the winners again as the timetable says the last person will finish at the equivalent of 1.52am here! :o
This poster (http://www.youtube.com/user/LaRiservaISUMondiali)on youtube has a lot of the programs so far for anyone else who has missed things they wanted to watch! ;)
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OMG OMG OMG!!!!
Jjane what did you think of those skates! After pacing I was jumping for joy! :)
Anyone have any opinions on Yuna's return? She is such a beautiful skater.
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DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA!!! I am extremely proud of Yuzuru for pulling it together and Javier for wining the first world medal for Spain. After 2 days of heartbreak Team Cricket is doing well tonight!
And that please do not hold championship events on NHL sized rinks again!! The endless crashing into the boards are nerves wrecking...
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I commented on the rink size to my mom. So many men crashed into the boards.
So proud of Yuzuru for skating well, he is such a cutie.
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I'm furious with the men's results. Aside from the blatant gifting of the title to a very undeserving Chan, I thought Ross Miner got a harder hit from the judges than was strictly neccessary, and don't get me started on Kovtun's placement. For all the Russian Fed's harping and politiking he did not finish any better than Gachinski did last year...but I bet he won't get hung, drawn and quartered like Artur did!
The only happy thing for me was seeing Max Aaron skate so well. Nothing fazes him. Oops, I hit the boards, oh well, bounce off and keep going!
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Biting my nails for the final group in ladies LP...
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US ladies were not spectacular and won't medal, but got their job done!
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Wow...Yuna Kim. She is such a great skater
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There has been an inordinate amount of silly stumble falls and runs into the boards in Ontario. I wonder whatever possessed the event organizers to select a smaller rink! This is THE event of the season, not some small competition! Makes me also think the ice quality was different than traditional figure skating ice. I have never seen so many strange mishaps all in one event!.
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YUNAAAA!!!! That was one amazing FS -- one of the select few since 2010 that gave me goosebumps. I was almost crying midway.
Truly God's gift. You are a miracle. Thank you for all you've done for the sport. Wishing you good luck in Sochi!
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Well, Wagners fall had nothing to do with rink size. she splatted in the middle of the rink during her footwork sequence. Now you make me wonder if those "on ice seats" all the uber fans pay big bucks for weren't created at the expense of ice surface on London? I never realized that the front-most seats were temprary until I went to a televised skating show, where a few skaters had trouble with their programs. Michael Weiss ended up going through the temporary barriers and landing in someone's lap. At the US Nationals I attended, there were also temporary rows of seating that used padded folding chairs.
Really, there should be a standard, no? Hockey dictates the rink dimensions for games, so should figure skating without sacrificing ice for greed.
As for the ice quality, you might be right. Carruthers (announcer, groan) said that some of the skaters worked with the ice, some fought it. For the amount of money they rake in, why doesn't the ISU assign someone to make sure the ice is the right temperature and setup for optimal skating?
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Really? I fell asleep during Yu Na's LP, rewound it when I woke up, then fell asleep again. It was pretty, but not exciting or inspiring. (Although, next time I can't sleep, I might put it on.)
I thought that li Zijun's program was beautiful and exciting. I think Gracie Gold had the most fun in her programs, short of Max Aaron.
I was at the rink last night and I stumbled near the wall, but pushed away and kept going with some footwork. One of the people skating was startled and I said, just call me Max. energizer should sponsor him - takes a licking and keeps on ticking!
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This is my annual plea for the TV broadcasters to provide an announcer-free audio feed for those of us who want to hear the music, not random babbling. Peter Carruthers was very annoying, talking through the programs for no good reason. During the analysis, he just repeated what he had already said, so why not shut up during the program and talk during K&C and the video recaps? He was so tired, he could barely string a sentence together, so give the guy a break. Hire Tara Lipinski!
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I do find it off how many people were bumping into the boards but I guess with adrenaline and then the guys do such insane things with jumps now I guess they need to make the most of all the ice they are given. I saw a clip of Javier falling into the boards on a practice and I know for a fact the rink in which he trains is not a huge rink. I think they are just pushing things to the limits nowadays. I wonder if the corners are weird at that rink. Or I wonder if there was a difference in size between the practice rink and the main rink.
As for ice quality it is difficult once you get all the tv lights into a rink. I know from competing at national events those lights do crazy things to an arena. Part of being a skater is adapting to different sized rinks and quality of ice. It was probably quite soft ice which could partly explain why so many people looked so spent after their programs.
Yuna wasn't super exciting but man she is so solid. Wouldn't guess she has had the last couple of years off competing. She must be one of the most consistent competitors ever.
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I just looked up the rink dimensions for London. They love those long narrow rinks in Southwestern Ontario and they are incredibly awkward to skate in I find. (we do a lot of synchro competitions down that part of Ontario)
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I skate at 4 rinks, all different sizes. It really affects me. Low ceilinged cramped, tiny small village 1960's hockey rink I skate one way, vast towering distant ceiling 100 acre field 40 rows of seating I skate differently. The rinks are 10 feet narrower and 20 feet shorter/longer than each other. Nuts.
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For the amount of money they rake in, why doesn't the ISU assign someone to make sure the ice is the right temperature and setup for optimal skating?
I read the protocol and they said the ice quality was "very good". Is there a better ice quality grade than "very good" as far as ISU is concerned?
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I didn't realise the rink was NHL not olympic sized! No wonder so many got so close to the barriers if not actually crashing into them - some of the pairs and dancers came really close too leaving no room for their partners at the sides! :o
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I read the protocol and they said the ice quality was "very good". Is there a better ice quality grade than "very good" as far as ISU is concerned?
That just means it wasn't terribly gouged or divoted at the time of the skater's performance. It also refers to any debris on the ice, like another skater's costume bit, like a rhinestone, jewelry or fabric piece. To be honest, I think it's a leftover notation from the sport's beginnings, when the events were held on outdoor surfaces. Then, you had weather events and outdoor temperature issues as well. We all whine about puddles on the ice at our luxurious indoor arenas, but I started out as an outdoor skater. When the wind blows across the pond and literally blows you to the other side along with a batch of dirt, leaves, rai or snow, it does get a little difficult to skate, lol.
I was referring to non-zamboni factors like the ice thickness (esp. over the event logo, if any), ice temperature and arena humidity levels. I would expect them to have a standard set and have some way to measure those standards consistently throughout the competition.
Example: If the ice doesn't cover a painted logo thickly enough, the paint can rise to the surface and trip a skater unexpectedly. A coach once told me that one of her students was testing ice dance and at the end of the ice, the paint had lifted. The girl fell on the end pattern and when she got up, her leg was covered with the paint.
David Dore from the ISU spoke about the arena size and said that the dwindling popularity of figure skating in the US and Canada makes it impossible for them to hold these events at bigger arenas, which [I think] would have Olympic-sized rinks. I guess the coaches have to pay attention to the ice surface size and restructure accordingly, but for ice dance, that's gotta be difficult. As I said, I've been to events where they resize the rink to make "VIP" seating. I'd rather see those people get front row seats and leave the surface size alone.
I'm surprised none of the skaters or coaches mentioned it was a safety issue. With all the focus on concussions this past year, it would have been ironic (and tragic) if one of the collisions had injured a skater.
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David Dore from the ISU spoke about the arena size and said that the dwindling popularity of figure skating in the US and Canada makes it impossible for them to hold these events at bigger arenas, which would have Olympic-sized rinks.
I'm not sure this is actually true. Many of the 'bigger arenas' they were talking about were places that would hold larger crowds, but they were still NHL rinks. Even at the Olympics in Vancouver, they skated on an NHL rink, not an Oly, IIRC.
I think World's in L.A. (Staples Center?) was an NHL rink. It is common when big events are in North America.
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I'm not sure this is actually true. Many of the 'bigger arenas' they were talking about were places that would hold larger crowds, but they were still NHL rinks. Even at the Olympics in Vancouver, they skated on an NHL rink, not an Oly.
I wonder if it's true as well. I've always lived in an area with an NHL team or three, and multiple arenas. I felt the local arena's surface was bigger for Stars on Ice than it was for the NHL team's game I attended, but that could have just been because the boards are taken down for ice shows. At the Disson show I attended, the on-ice seats were literally on the ice, so that was a choice made by the tour company.
If you think about it in terms of seating, then I would agree that there are a lot of empty seats. I blame that on the pricing. They could simply not sell the upper tier of seats, so the lower tiers are more full and they need less staffing at the arena.
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But don't most of the skaters practice on NHL size rinks?
Also there are no on-ice seats at the Worlds or other competitions like this - I have definitely seen it at Stars on Ice but those show skaters often have to skate on anything - I remember seeing John Curry's show on a stage in Boston - and Dorothy Hamill did that as well! Talk about a small surface!
A lot of the seating is temporary seating - but that is because (I think) that a lot of the stadiums are basketball stadiums and then the ice is underneath the floor (this is how it is here in Portland) - when they have hockey or ice shows or competitions the walls go up, the floor comes out and the temporary seating comes in - it is a multi-purpose arena!
But it is true that the way the corners are handled can change how the programs will flow - I also think that there is an awful lot of adrenaline and that the skaters probably are skating bigger and bolder than they do at home.
Good thing they have practice time at the main arena!
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But don't most of the skaters practice on NHL size rinks?
This is definetly not true of European skaters, since they don't have the NHL there (Olympic hockey is traditionally played on Olympic sized rinks too- so it isn't a 'hockey rink' thing). I don't know how true it is of Asia/Australia.
The top US skaters also practice on OLY rinks: Colorado Springs, Detroit, etc all have Oly rinks. Heck, I live in middle of nowhere Iowa and there is a 2 sheet facility 30 minute from me, and one of the rinks is OLY- but there is no seating on that rink, so when they host regionals/sectionals, the competition takes place on the NHL rink.
However, they do know in advance the size of the rink they are competing on. I think most put cones out or mark lines to resize their programs.
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This is definetly not true of European skaters, since they don't have the NHL there (Olympic hockey is traditionally played on Olympic sized rinks too- so it isn't a 'hockey rink' thing). I don't know how true it is of Asia/Australia.
Well, that is true LOL
This discussion somehow reminds me of seeing footage of Worlds, etc., from the 50s and 60s where they had flowering plants or something a couple of feet from the walls - now THAT would have freaked me out and I don't know what the purpose was...
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I would think most North American based skaters train on NHL rinks. I looked up where Virtue and Moir train and they have 2 NHL sized rinks.
I don't think any skater from Worlds would blame the ice or rink shape or size. Like ice dancer said there is a lot of adrenalin coursing through these skaters and while a program may have fit in a smaller rink on practice it doesn't once they get out there.
It would be nice if only Olympic sized ice surfaces were used for competitions but that would really limit where these events could be held. I think one article sort of mentioned why was it in London and not say Toronto. I can't think of any rinks with lots of seating here that boats an Olympic sized ice surface since they are all purpose built for Hockey mainly.
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But don't most of the skaters practice on NHL size rinks?
Just in North America I think. Chinese fans also ranted quite a bit on the rink size.
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I would think most North American based skaters train on NHL rinks. I looked up where Virtue and Moir train and they have 2 NHL sized rinks.
Don't they train at Detroit Skating Club? They have 3 sheets, including an Olympic sized rink.
Any skater in North America should have access to train on an NHL rink, but many if not most of the elites also train regularly on Olympic size ice. The best situation is what DSC has- easy access to both.
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If you look up the website for their school it states they have a state of the art facility with 2 NHL sized rinks. They skate out of the Arctic Edge club.
Any skaters who train at the Cricket Club do not train on an Olympic sized surface. I would think most skaters, at least in Canada , don't have the opportunity to train regularly on an Olympic sized ice surface.
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Don't they train at Detroit Skating Club? They have 3 sheets, including an Olympic sized rink.
Any skater in North America should have access to train on an NHL rink, but many if not most of the elites also train regularly on Olympic size ice. The best situation is what DSC has- easy access to both.
They skate in Canton still. There are a lot of other teams at DSC though and it is nice that they have access to both.
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They skate out of the Arctic Edge club.
Oops thanks.
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said that the dwindling popularity of figure skating in the US and Canada
Could that be because national networks don't broadcast any? I missed worlds this year because I don't have Ice Network and my provider doesn't have Universal Sports anymore. The local paper only had two blurbs on finals, and none on the womens. Wait, that could be because it's ACC tournament time. Stinking basketball.
We have an NHL team and have several other rinks in the area, including one Olympic size.
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It wasn't even on ice network this year. So even big fans had to seek out different avenues.
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Universal Sports on DirecTV was available, but they didn't broadcast live. I got to see all of the top skaters just a little delayed.
(It was a free preview weekend; I don't have the sports package. Kept me from cancelling my service, to be honest.)
I jokingly said that we (a group of local adult skaters) should go to Applebees and ask the bartender to change the channel so we could watch Worlds. We had a good laugh about how well that would go over during March Madness, lol. Them's fighting words, woman!
I agree that skating was watched more when it was on channels that were available over the air, but it's been squeezed out by longer seasons, more games being broadcast, and even other sports that weren't televised extensively back in the day. Think about this weekend's college basketball conference; it's not just the final four being shown on TV, it's every matchup on either broadcast or cable!
Skating just gets overwhelmed and pushed to the back burner since it doesn't bring in the numbers. The major broadcast channels aren't going to take air time away from the bigger sports because they bring in more viewers. I was thinking that the CW network or ION Television would have the air time, but they won't be able to pay the high fees that the ISU wants. It's a business dilemma.
I don't think the broadcast issues help, but I also don't believe they've been the solo cause of driving down popularity of skating. I really think that skating has exceeded the audience's boggle factor. The skating, programs and even costumes are so fantastic (and pricey) now that it's become a spectacle of sorts and the costs of training are staggering to an ordinary person's mind. There are a lot of people who push their kids into other sports, including hockey, because they're afraid to get involve with such an expensive sport. It's not within reach of the average person, which is one of the reasons people enjoy shows more than competitions these days. Of my friends who love to watch skating, none of them are uber fans; they willingly admit that they can't tell the difference between a triple and a quad, although they think it's exciting when they know it's about to/has just happened.
I don't know why we haven't had an "american sweetheart" in such a long time. It's not from lack of marketing effort on the USFSA and ISU's part: skaters pay back by doing skating clinics, autograph signings, and personal appearances. Maybe that's part of the problem; they're just trying to hard to package heroes and force him/her/them on the public? For every skater they promote, there's a hater crew picking apart every limitation and mistake the skater has ever made. Yet, I don't think being a pollyanna is the right answer, either. People aren't perfect, maybe that lack of exposure back in the day was a blessing in disguise? I don't know.
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NBC is showing the Worlds highlights on Saturday, March 23 12pm
We have an NHL team and have several other rinks in the area, including one Olympic size.
The Raleigh News and Observer newspaper used to provide awesome coverage of figure skating. But that was when Kristi Yamaguchi lived in the area with her NHL-player husband. When he went to another team and they moved, the sports coverage of skating went waaay down. To be fair, the paper was not doing well financially, but I looked at it this morning and they had pages and pages of basketball coverage and one little blurb about the Worlds results.
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Beautiful highlights / fluff video in Japanese :love: :love:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IomcPmIUIRI
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I think Gracie Gold had the most fun in her programs, short of Max Aaron.
I was at the rink last night and I stumbled near the wall, but pushed away and kept going with some footwork. One of the people skating was startled and I said, just call me Max. energizer should sponsor him - takes a licking and keeps on ticking!
I've decided that Max is a bit nuts. Thus, I like him even more.
Him and Ross, the thing I took a shine to was the big grins, the happy faces. They truly look like they skate for the joy of skating.
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NBC is showing the Worlds highlights on Saturday, March 23 12pm
The Raleigh News and Observer newspaper used to provide awesome coverage of figure skating. But that was when Kristi Yamaguchi lived in the area with her NHL-player husband. When he went to another team and they moved, the sports coverage of skating went waaay down. To be fair, the paper was not doing well financially, but I looked at it this morning and they had pages and pages of basketball coverage and one little blurb about the Worlds results.
And nothing Sunday. Monday's had something like 12 pages of NCAA brackets. Even the Hurricane's coverage is dismal--they usually defer to the AP sportswriters (who can't write to save their lives) All they do is confuse me--why can't they write a linear article about the game?