you'll find that a lot of serious young skaters will get stuck and give up at various points along the way and therefore won't make it to the senior level. Achieving the top level in any test system puts you amongst the elite. All these systems have a pyramid effect, lots of skaters in at the bottom and numbers diminish as you work up the systems. We can't all be Olympic champions.

He probably has the split lutz due to ISI- it's required for FS8.

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Health allowing, I fully intend to find out if that one's possible in the future (my brain is super easy about mirroring skills compared to other people) so you may yet get to see it - I'm not entirely convinced it's possible because of how for a lutz, you try to actually minimize the counter-turning that occurs from the edge (shallow edge, etc) where as with a landing you get a lot of force turning you in the edge direction (hence the need for checking landings). When I discovered I could jump in the other direction easily that lutz-lutz thing was also my first thought. Right now I've sort of downgraded the aspiration to opposite loop-lutz. I'm going to need my conventional lutz back (and it wasn't consistent to begin with) after this 3-year break from jumping first if I'm gonna do that one though, so don't hold out hopes just yet.

Actually, the Senior test requires four different double or triple jumps, so a skater could pass it with doubles. Many skaters do get double jumps, thousands of them, and then never advance to senior competition.

A lot of serious young skaters get to intermediate, novice, or junior level, with the jumps necessary to test through senior (double lutz and double-double combinations) or better, and then realize that they have reached or already passed their peak.

So do they "test out" by passing all their tests up to senior and not compete in singles freestyle any more?

Do they continue to compete at intermediate or novice levels, where they can place reasonably well, through or beyond high school and therefore choose not to test up?

Do they try to test out and find that they can't master higher-level moves in the field (this will be even more common after this September), or can't master their nerves or stamina or technique well enough to be able to land consistent uncheated double jumps in a 4-minute program?

Do they lose their jumps or other skills to injuries or body changes?

Do they quit skating altogether and turn their attention to academics or jobs or social life or other sports or other hobbies?

Although there are many once-serious young skaters who take the first route and get their senior tests, there are plenty of others who choose not to test up or who find themselves unable to pass the tests even if they want to.

USFS gives GOE points for opposite spins and jumps. Although they are optional, they are rewarded. Which is why I have started working on them. I figure it will increase my combo and sequence possibilities.

Another item Rohene has done - CW 3Lz to CCW 3Lz, but the issue is that the CW version wasn't as good as the CCW so that he knew it would get negative GOEs.

Actually, less than 1% of all skaters who begin testing in the USFS standard track pass Senior anything.

Actually, a feature for opposite spins will only be sit and camel beginning July 1. If you are going to spin in your opposite direction, it better be GOOD - as good as your normal direction or don't do it to try and increase your GOE. GOE is about QUALITY of an element, not difficulty.

Cool, I guess that answers the question whether it's physically possible.

I would have to see his Lutz/Lutz triple triple. Lots of people can barely do a Triple Lutz-Triple Loop. I'm finding it hard to believe someone was landing Triple Lutz-Triple Lutz consistently, especially since the Lutz has a sort of "edge pull" take-off and pulling that off with the lean and edge you have on a jump landing is quite difficult.

Double Axel-Triple Sal I can see happening, though, since the change of edge required makes it very conducive to putting a Salchow, there, and the edge pull would be easy to accomplish, not to mention the check (on the landing of the Axel) has a lower possibility of making the second jump a complete catastrophe.

But, yea... I've always admired Rohene's sound basics and relatively diverse skillset. He can also do better laybacks than most women these days, and has generally beautiful jump landing positions/extension. He always looked very well-trained, as well as very ill-prepared.

Just because skaters get their double jumps, that does not mean that they test through senior level. What tends to happen is that skaters get those jumps at juvenile and intermediate level--10-13 years old. They compete for several years there, hoping for some significant level of success, and then hit puberty. Many skaters then poke around through intermediate and novice for another couple of years and then find that passing junior and senior level freeskates at 16, 17, or 18 years old isn't so easy anymore, although they could have easily passed it at 12 or 13. Early high school is probably the big drop out point, when girls grow and get other interests. Most have not tested through senior freeskate at that time. It's a shame.

Now I have something else to make me go the other way...

on jumps!

(that's for Stormy...)

Certain people are trying to convince me to compete ISI in Vegas this coming October. I have been working on jumps the other way for FS 7, even though I would compete FS 6 this year. I can do a loop and a flip the other way, but haven't put a lot of effort into the lutz. They aren't the best, but I can do them.

My hip injury (which they suspect is a tear... ) Now has me on a no jumping prohibition. sigh...

As such I decided to take a few moments to see if I could land on my right leg instead. OMG, it was a disaster. This really ought to be a skill they teach from the beginning, always trying both ways at least until doubles when you can "specialize". My waltz jump was pitiful, but after thinking about it- I actually think it's exactly what my real waltz jump looked like 4 years ago when I started.

My toe loop- well it was a bit odd, the pivot, rather than toe waltz, was SO much cleaner, but I couldn't figure out how to make my body leave the ice. I did better at the wall.

My salchow, that's where I gave up. I kept doing "regular" loops. I couldn't transfer the concepts of the movement to the other way.

I can do half-lutz and half-flip, though that doesn't help, because they land on the other leg. I've been doing them both ways since I started learning them because it helps the traffic flow of group classes.

I'll never reach the levels where ISI requires both directions- but OMG, it does not come naturally to me!

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Going to Vegas might be fun! I wish we had enough time to get the usual group together to go!

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IMO, this does help b/c you are learning rotational direction. I think this is more critical than landing leg b/c if you are doing a 1/2 loop or other 1/2s you still rotate your natural direction but land on the opposite foot. I also can do the 1/2 jumps both ways but I have to think about direction more than landing. Once I get the direction, the landing is obvious. I do waltz, sal and toe as walk throughs just to get the feel of the direction more than the landing.

Kay

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Oh, my point in "it doesn't help" is that my "natural" half jumps go to the right leg already, you just then push to the left leg. So doing them in the other direction doesn't help my "can't land on the left leg anymore" problem. Essentially they are just on the list of jumps I shouldn't be doing.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)