2014 Grand Prix series figure skating competitions have started since October 23 , and we have watched Skate America and Skate Canada and Cup of China on NBC channel.
It was so nice to see Johnny & Tara & Terry as the commentators in Skate America and Skate Canada.
We really enjoyed and were laughing a lot in some of their comments.
Johnny has already impact, even just sitting there, and also is entertaining and knowledgeable, and Tara is catching the rhythm of Johnny's talking well.
I think they are really match together with commentating and also Terry is a wonderful veteran commentator.
I really love seeing this commentator combination.
That's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to seeing ISU competition on NBC.
I was a little disappointed they didn't show them at the end at Skate Canada , and they were not commentating for Cup of China's event on November 9.
Terry and Tracy did professional great job for Cup of China, although, I also want to get a laugh with commentators, which we have with Johnny and Tara.
Hopefully NBC will show them at every skating event, both in the starting time and ending time, like at skate America.
For about the skating competition,
So far, my top favorites in the GPS competitions are Elizaveta Tuktamysheva for ladies, and Jason Brown for men.
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva's SP & FP
Elizaveta Tuktamysheva Free Skate - 2014 Cup of China
We are both really impressed with her improvement of artistry, her movements on the ice this season.
Very naturally graceful and artistic, like flowing in the air.
Never knew Mishin became her coach, but he coached her really great.
Maybe he took her to ballet /dance classes ?
Not sure how he did it, but wow !
Her movements are naturally feeling with music and with well-balanced line.
I love her Free program music, choreography and her performances.
She was constantly doing something with the music and also some parts are fun with humor.
She includes some unique poses with the choreography, which are fun.
Great quality jumps with smooth landing.
I knew she had a lot of potential for the artistry, and her performances were often interesting for us but within such a short time, I'm amazed by her improvement this season.
We watched her performances several times already.
Also I'm wondering if Mishin might have taught her a secret of winner 's mind set ?
She has been successful and already won four gold medals including the Cup of China, and one silver medal.
We are very impressed with her mind toughness this season as well.
I'm so glad I have now another favorite skater this season.
Congratulations on winning another gold medal at Cup of China !
Jason Brown's FP
Congratulations on winning a silver medal at Skate America !
Jason's free program is my favorite program this season.
Rohene Ward did a wonderful job for it and I really love this choreography and music. and Jason is doing so well with this choreo.
Honestly, though, I thought Jason's movements and expression looked better this year at the Nebelhorn Trophy , because maybe the pressure and nerve from hometown support and crowds, his body looked slightly stiff and cautious here.
It's a shame , while it's great to see a lot of support and applause , skaters can not show their full potential because of pressure and nerve.
He may be already trying something to handle the nerves , but I've read that before skating, doing meditation may be able to help to focus the moment.
But his spins were gorgeous and amazing, as usual.
About his jumps,
Since his jump plan of his programs has no quad, he will need to skate clean without UR jump to win.
It's possible he could have won GPS competitions even with a few mistakes with this scoring system , if others made a lot of mistakes, but it's more of what kind of win one wants to have, is the point, I think.
Yuzuru Hanyu wants to be an unbeatable champion like Evgeny Plushenko was, and can not satisfied with just win.
But I suppose Team Jason has their plan and goal each season, until next Olympics, so I look forward to seeing his improvement.
Jason's great part is his artistry and spins and uniqueness, even his PCS was given lower than present top skaters who all do quad jumps and may have more speed. But his artistry is the best to me.
In the men's competition, after Daisuke Takahashi retired, Jason Brown and Alexander Johnson are the only two skaters who I feel have the natural talent of artistry , and have their own style on ice so far this season.
Hopefully, more artistic men's skaters will increase in the future.
Tatsuki Machida's mental toughness
Congratulations on winning a gold medal at Skate America !
What I've been inspired from him is his mental toughness and his motivation since last season.
Figure skating is a mind game, ( actually life is a mind game also ), so if skaters can not understand how to play the mind game, they will not be able to win.
Machie ( his nickname ) seems that he is often analyzing everything to win the competition.
Last season, he put himself in the tough environment to improve his mental toughness, moved the ice rink from American rink which ice was always good conditon to a Japanese ice rink which has ice that is not always good condition.
also changed his life style to a tougher situation. He said during the skating competitions, he would have to face tougher situation, so he chose to have a life style that would strengthen his mind toughness.
I didn't know about him until 2012 - 2013 season , in the skating world he seemed to just come out of nowhere, and now he is one of the top contenders for worlds champion, who can land three quads.
After his successful grand prix competitions in 2012 - 2013 season, he lost focus and then placed last in GPF and also had a total meltdown in his free skate and placed 9th in the Japanese nationals competition.
That tough experience made him fire and reslove and since then he didn't make the same mistake by analyzing how to solve the problem and win to get a Sochi Olympics ticket.
For technical part, he said last season , he re-started from basics of skating, analyzing the position and angle to jump successfully.
For about his performance,
Honestly, I loved his performances, both SP and FP in Cup of China 2012 the most, even though he wasn't attempting guad at that time, his triple axel was flawless and smooth and beautiful.
I thought he has a lot of artistic potential.
Last season, less impression of his artistry, I loved his quads and triple axel jumps, with beautiful air turning position and beautiful smooth landing when he was on.
but in this competition, skate America 2014,
When I first time watched it, I felt something is missing.
Maybe too much calculating ?
Some parts of the movemetns and expression were good and detailed, but most parts, I felt his body and movements were no connection to music and line of the body movements were off.
This choreography looks difficult.
But when I watched second time, I felt different impression, like the more I watched it, the more it's growing on me , and felt he was fabulous and enjoyed with it.
It's still beginning of the season, so he may polish the programs until GPF and Japanese nationals.
Hopefully he will more polish it.
I don't feel he is the type of artist who can do water flow movements naturally, but he is so talented technically and smart to analyze his mind-set, and a strong will to improve.
I love seeing skaters who are always improving.
Polina Edmunds
I like her short program tango this season.
Her jumps at Cup of China were not perfect , but artistically it was enjoyable.
Love her body movements on ice. Very natural with a lot of flow and grace.
Just wondering why she received level 1 step sequence for both her SP and FP ?
I suppose her team planned higher level step sequence.
Samantha Cesario's both programs
Her performances are always pleasure to watch, and this time is no exception, she skated clean with great artistry, landed all the jumps.
For her Carmen program,
Honestly, we both prefer her last season's carmen's choreography to this new version, but she changed the jumps placement, like placed 3-1-3 combination jumps in the beginning of the program, so I understand needed to change the choreography.
No matter that some critics say her skating is slow,my husband said her skating didn't look slow to him and hd always enjoys with her artistry, including all the elements.
Also, we will be looking forward to see her performance with different music, which is something unique.
Elena Radionova
We both love seeing her skating. Her skating may be still something like a junior , but her movements with her thin long legs and long arms are something interesting to us.
I think she has charisma and is like a lovely doll.
The free program's music Rachmaninof's Piano concert #3 may be too heavy for her.
and would be better to use music which is more light.
Her several jumps landings looked shaky, but overall skated well without making a major mistake.
Well deserved win !
Congratulations on winning a gold medal at Skate America !
For this season, I mostly enjoyed ladies skating.
There are several interesting skaters who are artistic and have personalities on ice.
Also I always feel skaters who have a lot of talent or full of potential are not showing all their full talent, and sometimes this is because the program lacks quality .
I really think music and choreography are very important tools to make big impact for the performance.
I always feel frustrated when talented skaters are doing not impressive music with poor choreography. ( this is subjective though. )
This season I'm very impressed with Rohene Ward's choreography a lot. It's very creative.
While many other programs have boring choreography which includes alot of arm flailing, most of the time Rohene Ward and Tom Dickson's programs are the opposite, their choreography has great impact and interesting to watch.
For music,
I always love to see something new or unique music.
There are many of my all time favorite music, but if so many skaters do the same music even if that's one of my favorite music, it's not as exciting to watch much.
Overused music such as Carmen, Romeo & Juliet, Phantom of Opera, Firebird, might be less impact to me already.
Skaters may want to be judged by who does the best performance/program with the same music, but I would rather watch with different music, which no one or almost no one was performing in the past.
This season, grand Prix competition still continues and we are very looking forward to seeing all of it with Johnny Weir /Tara Lipinski / Terry Gannon's commentary every Sunday on NBC !