Query
02-15-2010, 02:20 PM
I. I'm calling this a spoiler, only because it was very obvious while watching yesterday's Olympic Pairs competitions, with the videos of American National Freestyle and Dance competitions still fresh in mind.
All of the Pairs teams (especially the ladies) do a really pretty thing during spinning jumps and throws: they delay the rotation until a fraction of the second after they are in the air.
As near as I can tell, they use a combination of two techniques:
A. They jump or are thrown with arms and sometimes legs apart, then bring them together when they want to rotate - just like spins.
B. They are rotating fully extended arms and legs body parts into position when first in the air, wrapping in the direction of rotation, which takes up the angular momentum. When they stop moving those body parts against the rest of the body, the angular momentum gets absorbed into the rest of the body, and the whole body rotates.
On the other hand, you don't see this much in Freestyle jumps, not even by recent medal winners.
I looked a bit at YouTube videos. An older generation of Freestyle jumpers did the delay thing a lot too.
Some older written sources (e.g., Oglevie) mention the delay as one of the defining characteristics of skate jumping.
But as you get to newer videos, even of Olympic champions, Freestyle skaters start arms and legs less fully apart and less extended, and they rotate immediately.
Obviously that makes high rotation jumps easier, but the older way - the way the Pairs ladies are still doing it - is much prettier, and gives it a very special look.
Of course it's easier in throws, because a thrown lady starts higher, and has a bit more time in the air, but they do it when they jump from the ice too.
So - why is the delay obviously considered important in pairs, but not so important in freestyle?
----
II. All the best Pairs teams do something else quite dramatic that Freestyle and Dance skaters don't do much - they lean way off balance, then come back into it by pulling on each other.
I guess it must be considered part of the look of a good pairs team.
Dance teams could do this too, but you don't see it much.
There are ways a Freestyle skater could do other things to recover balance, like thrusting body parts or windmilling arms into the direction what would otherwise be a fall. Yet we don't see that.
Why is deliberate loss and recovery of balance part of Pairs but not of Freestyle and not much of Dance?
Or is this one of those questions best answered by "Tradition!"?
Incidentally "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Ballroom Dance" (a title whose start applies to me :) ) mentions deliberately loss and recovery of balance as part of Ballroom Dance technique, especially for guys wanting to show off.
All of the Pairs teams (especially the ladies) do a really pretty thing during spinning jumps and throws: they delay the rotation until a fraction of the second after they are in the air.
As near as I can tell, they use a combination of two techniques:
A. They jump or are thrown with arms and sometimes legs apart, then bring them together when they want to rotate - just like spins.
B. They are rotating fully extended arms and legs body parts into position when first in the air, wrapping in the direction of rotation, which takes up the angular momentum. When they stop moving those body parts against the rest of the body, the angular momentum gets absorbed into the rest of the body, and the whole body rotates.
On the other hand, you don't see this much in Freestyle jumps, not even by recent medal winners.
I looked a bit at YouTube videos. An older generation of Freestyle jumpers did the delay thing a lot too.
Some older written sources (e.g., Oglevie) mention the delay as one of the defining characteristics of skate jumping.
But as you get to newer videos, even of Olympic champions, Freestyle skaters start arms and legs less fully apart and less extended, and they rotate immediately.
Obviously that makes high rotation jumps easier, but the older way - the way the Pairs ladies are still doing it - is much prettier, and gives it a very special look.
Of course it's easier in throws, because a thrown lady starts higher, and has a bit more time in the air, but they do it when they jump from the ice too.
So - why is the delay obviously considered important in pairs, but not so important in freestyle?
----
II. All the best Pairs teams do something else quite dramatic that Freestyle and Dance skaters don't do much - they lean way off balance, then come back into it by pulling on each other.
I guess it must be considered part of the look of a good pairs team.
Dance teams could do this too, but you don't see it much.
There are ways a Freestyle skater could do other things to recover balance, like thrusting body parts or windmilling arms into the direction what would otherwise be a fall. Yet we don't see that.
Why is deliberate loss and recovery of balance part of Pairs but not of Freestyle and not much of Dance?
Or is this one of those questions best answered by "Tradition!"?
Incidentally "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Ballroom Dance" (a title whose start applies to me :) ) mentions deliberately loss and recovery of balance as part of Ballroom Dance technique, especially for guys wanting to show off.