Tim Goeble on Today

[MQSeries]

Tim said someting like he's starting to practice well again and that he's getting ready to do the COI tour in a few weeks. He skated to the same slow song that he has been using for his exhibition last year. Is it "Open Arm Wide"? He took a bad spill on a 3toe and landed a 2flip. I know the ice was probably bad (it didn't look smooth), but Tim's general skating didn't look good to me at all.

Ann introduced Tim as the quad king. I don't think that title holds true anymore, because Tim rarely perform more than 2 quads anymore. More top men are doing 2 quads in their programs, and I would say for some of them, their general skating seem better than Tim's. I'm not sure how much momentum Tim has lost by sitting out this year.

[Samskate]

Unfortunately, I missed the interview part. Thanks for the information about it. Did anyone notice Tim's spread eagle, by the way? Not good! I agree with you MQSeries; I think his skating was nowhere near what it once was. I felt really bad for him. Hopefully, he can regain it over the next several months or at least by next season. I think the song is "Arms Wide Open". Does that sound right?

[nyskatefan]

I missed the broadcast this morning ... sorry he still doesn't seem to be skating very well. I just feel so badly for him. How someone could go from where he was ... to this point ... almost like his career is in the past.
Whatever caused all these problems, I sincerely hope he can get himself together and make a real go of it next season. He is such a nice young man ... it just breaks my heart to see this happening to him.

Hang in there Timmy!!!

[MQSeries]

Yes the song was "Arms Wide Open".

Tim's general skating didn't look good at all this morning, but like I said, the ice didn't look that great on TV, and it's a dinky size rink. So maybe those factors contributed to his cautiousness this morning.

It'll be interesting to see where he'll place at Nationals next year if both he and Johnny deliver clean programs.

[DancerFan]

I thought his skating looked dreadful: no choreography, no line, faulty spins and the splat on the 3toe. If that's the best advertising COI can do, they are in trouble. Whatever his issues are, I think Tim needs to get them solved and stay out of the limelight until he's back in shape. It was an unfortunate national broadcast for him.

[what?meworry?]

i've been wondering about him. i saw his great "quad king" performance, be he's had problems ever since.

the thought has crossed my mind, partially because i remember his broken leg back when he trained a winterhurst (am i remembering correctly?) and there was speculation that he was being pushed to far to fast.

now he's had boot problems, which i believe is possible but not necessarily that a skater of his calibre would not be able to solve this by investing some of that envelope money in a custom boot from each manufacturor and invest the time to find one that worked for him.

the other side of the coin is that it isn't the boot issue but a physiological issue.

whatever the cast, he needs to get this solve. he has great talent but he is at risk of sinking into injury oblivion, like naomi.

[MizEdiesBoy]

I thought his skating looked dreadful: no choreography, no line, faulty spins and the splat on the 3toe. If that's the best advertising COI can do, they are in trouble. Whatever his issues are, I think Tim needs to get them solved and stay out of the limelight until he's back in shape. It was an unfortunate national broadcast for him.

I am trying to take into consideration not just his physical state, but his mental as well -- Nationals had to have broken his spirit, so he's gonna skate "broken" for a while.

The good news is he has all the way up until September to work on things. I think he'll be fine.

[fadedstardust]

The question is though, WHAT HAPPENED to him??? It's such a scary thing to lose all your jumps like that. I don't know how many people buy the boots story, but I don't. I mean, he never had boot problems before! Why didn't he stick to the same ones, he's done growing now, especially in his feet. If he tried something else that didn't work he could've just gone back to them, or in desperation worn last year's boots, they can do a lot of stuff to reconstruct the stiffness and stuff now. Tim said himself after Nationals SP that it wasn't the boots. How does a boot change your anotomical structure? They were so vague about it. Would you really trust your skating career to someone named Leisure Yu?? (the name of his doctor, that always cracked me up, hahah). But seriously, what's changed in his body? Back? Knees? What, no one knows. 12 pairs of boots? Are there even 12 boot companies out there? You don't hear Plushenko, Joubert, Weir, Sandhu, or even the pros Hamilton, Boitano, or anyone else complain. Custom boots are stiff and they're a pain in the butt to break in, and it hurts a LOT. I can understand an injury from breaking them in, but I can't understand how when they make a MOLD of your foot and how it's always worked for you before, suddenly through 12 pairs you can't find one that works and then it changes your body structure and you can no longer skate. That makes no sense. And I like Tim Goebel. I just want to know what truly happened. Did he not practice this year? Is something weighing on his mind? It's gotta be something else. Why would he even skate in the Today show if he had not found a good boot? And if he has, why would he still skate badly for himself? Confused, hope he gets back up, poor guy. The look on his face after Nationals made me feel so bad for him.

-FadedStardust

[skaternum]

I can tell you from personal experience that unbalanced, poorly fitting boots contributed in a major way to my lower back problems. I wound up with a torqued pelvis, sacroiliac joint problems, and the resultant muscular problems. Primarily because my boots weren't right. Because our muscles are strong, skaters bodies tend to compensate for these kinds of problems. Over time, this can create major biomechanical issues. I was off the ice for almost 6 months, and I've been in physical therapy for over 2 years. I don't doubt Tim's boot story one bit!