The "What a Hoot" thread

[loveskating]

My "what a hoot" award goes to the Toronto Star for its absurdly hypocritical claim that the ISU's COP rewards "inferior skating"

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1130363406413&call_pageid=968867503640&col=970081593064&t=TS_Home

What a HOOT because when it comes to rewarding inferior and truly second and third rate skating, so many skating professionals in America and Canada taking in the big dough have never made the international podium, or won gold, or even silver at Worlds....while so many champion and superior skaters are deamonized or simply ignored right out of the sport.

[Mel On Ice]

What an idiotic article:

"The not-so-new-anymore scoring system was designed to emphasize overall skating proficiency: artistry over athletic spectacle, crisp edges and fluid movement, the technical exactitude of spins and complicated footwork, all the connecting minutiae between dramatic jumps.

Little of which pulls an audience out of their seats, certainly not in the manner of a blurring, face-contorting quad or an explosive triple Axel."

minutiae? If you count the seconds skaters are in the air in a 2:40 program, they still have to fill 2:33 seconds with content.

Little of which pulls an audience out of their seats? Alyssa Cziny and Stephane Lambiel has wowed 'em on the strength of her spins, Sasha and Michelle get 'em on their spirals, I could go on...

what a moronic article.

[NoVa Sk8r]

The writer can be dense and a bit of a firebrand ...
but I couldn't help but laugh at her pet peeves articulated in this piece (http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1130713804074&call_pageid=968867503640&col=Columnist969907621263). 8-)

[trains]

Newspaper writers can fool the general public into thinking they are experts on skating. Not one of them has ever even tried a three turn. People who are actually skaters can always tell from the way the articles are written or worded that the writer has never actually experienced what they are being an expert about. Unfortunately, that is the public face of skating.
We have some doozies in the Toronto area.
But I guess we have to be grateful to have the coverage. At least the photos are good.

[miraclegro]

As far as i know, the reason they implemented the new judging system was so that the "favorites" wouldn't always linger at the top unfairly, and also to have more balanced skaters all around. It seemed to me that it had all gotten to be just a "jumping" contest before the new system. Needless to say, i still don't quite get the scoring, and wished they had done it a little more viewer-friendly! As much as i absolutely adore Michelle Kwan, there were times it seemed she rated higher just because she had her status. I still love her the most, but i do believe in fair judging. Of course if they like your outfit, you can still sneak in a few points, right? ha ha

[lotusland]

What is it they say? "Any press is good press, just spell the names right."

What some of us seem to forget periodically is, Rosie Dimanno and other sports reporters do not write exclusively for the died in the wool figure skating fan. Their articles are for the general public, which of course includes the true blue fan, but is not restricted to the true blue fan. Say what you will about the woman, any way you slice it, at least she gives the sport some coverage, and there is nothing like a good controversial piece to spur some interest in an event or our sport. Personnally, I am happy she writes anything at all, there are tons of publications both big and small that don't even give figure skating a single solitary line.

As far as what judges do with the not-so-new COP scoring system ... seems to me its business as usual. And if you disagree, just look at the component scores from Skate Canada last week. There are several examples, but here's two you might want to think about. Why were Sandhu's SP component scores were so ridiculously high after a very poor short program? Or, why were Buttle's LP component scores so high after falls, flip-outs and wobbly elements? I am not saying these two are not good skaters, but at that time and that place, their performances failed them ... its funny how the judge's marks didn't take notice of the physical interference with the program's seamless, flowing, superior execution. ;)

Okay, go ahead and flame me.

[Rapt2Go]

No flames here. Point.

[feelthesunshine]

Hello everybody, my favorite skater is Jessica Ranko Houston , I love her very much and i want to meet her , but i don't know what her email address is, so if anybody could help me i'll be grateful.Thanks. :bow:

[LTM]

this woman been writing foolishness about figure skating since at least Nagano if not before. Is she even an actual sport writer?

[loveskating]

What is it they say? "Any press is good press, just spell the names right."

What some of us seem to forget periodically is, Rosie Dimanno and other sports reporters do not write exclusively for the died in the wool figure skating fan. Their articles are for the general public, which of course includes the true blue fan, but is not restricted to the true blue fan. Say what you will about the woman, any way you slice it, at least she gives the sport some coverage, and there is nothing like a good controversial piece to spur some interest in an event or our sport. Personnally, I am happy she writes anything at all, there are tons of publications both big and small that don't even give figure skating a single solitary line.

As far as what judges do with the not-so-new COP scoring system ... seems to me its business as usual. And if you disagree, just look at the component scores from Skate Canada last week. There are several examples, but here's two you might want to think about. Why were Sandhu's SP component scores were so ridiculously high after a very poor short program? Or, why were Buttle's LP component scores so high after falls, flip-outs and wobbly elements? I am not saying these two are not good skaters, but at that time and that place, their performances failed them ... its funny how the judge's marks didn't take notice of the physical interference with the program's seamless, flowing, superior execution. ;)

Okay, go ahead and flame me.

I haven't seen the skates, but certainly, the same thing happened under the 6.0 system, so COP can hardly be the problem.

On the face of it, the COP is just more fair because it rewards spins, spirals, jump erntries, etc...the things skaters like Ilia Kulik were actually doing.

P.S. I just took a read of other forums and it appears to me that the Kwan fans are mainly the ones bashing the COP. Hmmm. Am I wrong?

[likes2skate]

I haven't seen the skates, but certainly, the same thing happened under the 6.0 system, so COP can hardly be the problem.

On the face of it, the COP is just more fair because it rewards spins, spirals, jump erntries, etc...the things skaters like Ilia Kulik were actually doing.

P.S. I just took a read of other forums and it appears to me that the Kwan fans are mainly the ones bashing the COP. Hmmm. Am I wrong?


Was the writer of the article a Kwan fan? :lol:

The only problem (and I am a Kwan fan) I have is that everyone's programs are starting to look the same. (Bielman, sasha spiral, etc...)

[Vicky458]

This is a response from Sonia Bianchetti in regards to Irina's high scores from COR.

as promised I have asked my son about Slutskaya. He said that both her programs have very hig level elements, except on step sequence of level 1. She skated very well and she is already in excellent condition. The problrem to me is that now the fact that you have high level elements, which give you a lot of marks, does not coincide with good skating. To me now skating is turning from a beautiful sport to a difficult sport, which is a totally different story. I must say I am really concerned from what I hear. All the programs look more or less the same, with the same spins and the same positions. I am not so sure that a very complicated camel spin, or lay back spin, is better than a simple, fast, well centered spin, in a wonderful postion, without too many restrictions as to the number of turns in each position, seconds of durations etc. All is very depressing for me. I would like to see our spòort to progress in beauty and art, and not the opposite.
All the best Sonia

[loveskating]

I'm not sure you can make an objective case for that.

All programs are constructed of the same required elements, its the overall meaning and quality of the program and the execution that differs, as well as the characteristics of the skaters.

I think the programs tended to look the same as to elements under the 6.0 System as well -- lutz combo in the beginning, second lutz towarrds the end....eh? Most of all, it was jump, crossovers, jump.

To me, the programs are far less similar under the COP because of the jump entries and importance given to transitions and execution levels.

I think that when there is an advance, when people have to push beyond their comfort zone, like when the 3 jumps replaced the 2 jumps, there is a lot of complaining...but the sport as a whole is advancing.