what is harder????

[Badams]

what is harder for the women to master? a triple/triple, a triple axl, or a quad jump? i ask this because it seems that if the triple axl was easier then the quad...sasha would already have one. and also, the triple/triple. of course...perhaps she has focused so much on the quad that she neglected the practice the others? :?:

[Dustin]

Either the quad or axel - depending on the skater. The triple/triple is far easier than either.

[loveskating]

[quote:9f7329766a="Badams"]what is harder for the women to master? a triple/triple, a triple axl, or a quad jump? i ask this because it seems that if the triple axl was easier then the quad...sasha would already have one. and also, the triple/triple. of course...perhaps she has focused so much on the quad that she neglected the practice the others? :?:[/quote:9f7329766a]

I agree the 3/3s are easier for women than either a 3 axel or a quad. Very few women have ever landed a quad even in practice...more have landed a 3 axel in practice, no one has landed a clean quad in competition, and only 2 elite skaters have ever landed 3 axels in competition, Ito and Harding, and Harding was not very consistent on it.

Of the 3/3s, however, some are harder than others...the 3 lutz/3 loop has been landed twice, maybe 3 times, in competition ONLY by Irina Sluteskaya and no other lady has ever landed one in competition.

The 3/3 loop is also very difficult, but has been landed by numrous people at least once in competition. Tara Lipinski was the only one who did it for several years, went for it in every LP, that I recall. The 3 lutz/3 toe loop is also very hard...not many have landed it (Yamaguchi, Bonaly and others, but I don't recall them all).

The reason is upper body strength and body shape, IMHO...men simply have more muscle power in their upper bodies.

[Spinner]

[quote:d44049fc12="loveskating"]The reason is upper body strength and body shape, IMHO...men simply have more muscle power in their upper bodies.[/quote:d44049fc12]

This is exactly right. Cathy Casey noted years ago that a study of double vs. triple Axel jumps in men showed that they had no real variance in height, just rotational speed. Their findings--it takes stronger arms, not stronger legs to perform a triple over a double (so you can pull in faster). It may be a while before we see quads from women, but I'm sure it will happen.

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