Saturday, October 31, 2015

(Very) Small Mercies. The Shibutanis at Skate Canada

 The only upside to the Shibs coming in second at Skate Canada was at least it wasn't: "Did you hear something?" "Nope, I didn't hear anything."

They're in the runner-up mix now. Oh joy. Leaps and bounds for the ice dance team that I, for one, now consider the best in the world. If only ice dance could become a sport.

For me, Skate America was a huge what else is new, although a poster on Goldenskate had a belated observation, which will be cited later.

Before touching on the Shibs at Skate Canada, let's check in with life along the Milk and Honey Route, where Tessa plays model, hawks her jewelry line, and fiddles with filters and photoshop on instagram, while Scott's menage a trois continues strong:

I've followed this crap enough to be
pretty sure those are Kaitlyn's feet.
Nothing to brag about, not saying it is.
 What a life. It's almost a sister wives arrangement he's got going here. Scott Moir, who knew. Still, it's a bit odd to me that this is a guy whose primary influences in his career have been women (no matter what he pretends, it ain't Mike Babcock), and yet it's the women who appear to have more insecurity about the perception of Scott's traditional masculinity than I imagine any man could possibly have. Maybe some feminist consciousness raising is in order in Ilderton.

So, Skate America. These remarks from Goldenskate, I think, cover everything:

From "Moon" at Goldenskate. About Gilles & Poirier, but could easily be about Chock & Bates:
 I think that this is the point many people are trying to make. They are fun to watch but ice dance is a sport and is and should be marked predominantly on technique and quality of the blades knees and hips. This is the quality that makes good icedance versus pairs without lifts.
 I think sloppy feet and poor extension is a quality that any dancer is trying to show no matter what style they choose. This is not just a G/P problem. So many teams are trying to emulate SYTYCD programs and it has turned into messy show dancing. If you cant control your body movements and are constantly clutching and grabbing your partner for balance then scale back on the OTT moves and concentrate on partnering properly and blade work.

Oh come on now Moon, that horse left the barn after 2012. Why would anyone scale back when every deficit you're highlighting put an Olympic gold medal in Davis and White's possession vis a vis a team that not just did everything better than they did, but did it better than anybody in the world to that point. More accurate to say the "silver medalists" did everything, and the ones wearing gold didn't do anything that the rules, standards and critieria tell us are needed to get the highest protocols. Not to mention Virtue and Moir weren’t the only ones who beat Davis White on the actual ice.

****
Okay, Skate Canada. Duhamel Radford won pairs:



My problem with their skating is that Megan's run of blade is miniscule, and she is so stiff, so tight, so cautious, so pitched forward, she seems not to be breathing, let alone breathing through her movements, and, strikingly so compared to Radford's fluidity. The poverty of her range of motion makes Meryl Davis look like Misty Copeland (okay, not really. They both suck). This is another team scored on the stronger partner, contrary to what the rules proscribe. Duhamel used to be a demolition derby. I guess everybody's decided clenched is an enormous improvement. There's also this:

Lutz entry to the split triple twist, without the actual lutz part. Look at the protocols. Let's not get the outside edge, and just say she did.

*****

Skate Canada and the Shibs:

Their two magnificently skated programs came in second to a couple of polished (but not as polished as the Shibs themselves) journeyman efforts by the home team. Naturally and as ever, the team that crushed their competition in pcs, on paper, LOST the competition in pcs.

Quote from Sun Dae on Goldenskate:

Free dance practice was also very convincing for The Shibutani's. Hard to put my finger on it but they are skating with a lot of "moxie" and confidence. New music section works well with footwork which had emotion and expression throughout. Maia looks completely different this year. Not a little girl any more at all.

 I'll put my finger on it, Sun Dae. They're skating their programs, and at the highest level. Clean feet, speed, power, unison, fluidity, musicality, run of blade, tremendous ice coverage, seamless transitions, using the entire rink. Remember that? Weaver and Poje were pedestrian compared to the Shibs.
 
Love this from the Shibs short program:


In terms of gifs, it was between this and the stunning rotational in the long. Compare either of this programs with - forget Weaver and Poje - anything the current World Champions have ever tried.

If I were scoring this, the Shibs would have run away with the competition, Brobrova and Soloviev about six points back in second, but neck and neck with Weaver and Poje for third.

I'm only slagging off on Weaver and Poje vis a vis the Shibs. Weaver and Poje are Virtue and Moir compared to Chock/Bates and Gilles Poirier, yet the Grand Prix final and Worlds set up to score ice dance in inverse relation to what any team delivers on the ice so that God forbid a Marina Zoueva team win a major title in a third Olympic cycle. That's all we're looking at here. Paul/Islam, unfortunately, are elbowing a bunch of other teams for consideration up in Montreal, and the fact that they're Canadian probably works against them there.

Maia and Alex Shibutani after the free at Skate Canada.
Considering how they've been fucked over, their
passion and their skill are extraordinary. Even NOT
considering that, they're extraordinary.
  
 






34 comments:

  1. Have to agree with nearly everything here. The Shibs have stepped it up another level (or two or three!), which is incredible after all they've been through, and it was an absolute joy to watch them this competition. Never seen them look better, and no one has shown such a complete package since V/M.

    W/P and B/S both impressed in the FD. As an aside, can I just say I really appreciate you pointing out that there are good teams and bad teams and good teams can still be good even if they're not better than the best team? I get tired of hearing V/M fans say W/P suck. They don't.

    P/I... is it a lack of attention and/or preparation you're referring to? I think they're a fantastic team, they've often been my favourites, and they skated well here. But I have to admit that the move doesn't appear to have done them any favours. Even in what they're actually presenting on the ice, I mean. It would have been awesome to see them step it up too - I thought they might be on the cusp of it last spring, pre-move - but it appears to have had the opposite effect. Their talent is still very visible, but the FD in particular seems rather out of step with what they're capable of and yet they're holding back.

    But their result is absolutely ridiculous, they should be no lower than 4th. It's disheartening that they apparently continue to be SC's chew toy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Continued, forgot to add - I still would have put P/I in 2nd (or a close race for 2nd, depending on the TES) in the SD though. W/P, while good, clearly lacked training on this brand new SD, and B/S's improvements in refinement were much more apparent in the FD, IMO. The classic ballet content in P/I's is certainly a challenge, but then it was done by Haguenauer instead of D/L.

      Delete
  2. Not that it matters because I'm sure there's already another girl lined up, if not on the go, but I don't think that Ms Lawes is in the picture anymore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. W/P shouldn't have won. They were too sloppy against a sublime S/S who were pulling out all the stops. The Shibs were breathtaking, such speed and control, plus those twizzles are to die for. W/P were messy and their FD isn't any special. They will have to fight to keep that 3rd spot.

      I think the move has improved P/I skating. I see more strength and power in them (I will say that Marie and Patrice are good coaches) but aside from that S/D, they were not given superstar material to work with.

      Delete
    2. In my view, P/I's skating is no better overall than it was last spring. They're skating a more open program, so that has to be taken into consideration when weighing things like power. But would be interested to hear what others think.

      On what basis do we know D/L are good coaches? Last season their star teams appeared to struggle with skating skills.

      "Superstar material" sounds like the usual fan board crap about needing interesting, sexy programs. But if you instead you refer to complexity and showcasing technical range, then I think the SD is fine, but I agree with regards to the FD. Not that that explains their ranking whatsoever. It's only relevant vs themselves and the teams on the podium.

      Delete
    3. Superstar material counts because its what the ISU wants from ID teams.You need to learn how to play the game.

      Delete
    4. 9:31
      It's not that the ISU is rewarding teams for superstar material. Rather, it's that the teams the ISU has *chosen ahead of the competitions* happen to sometimes use superstar material.

      If a team is not on the ISU favored list, it makes no difference what kind of music they use. It's an issue of corruption, not music.

      Delete
    5. Exactly, Anon 10:03. The "superstar material" bullshit is used by the ISU to fool an uninformed public, but the public has eyes and knows what they are seeing is bullshit. Combined with the commentators' strained and forced "analysis", the general public KNOWS ice dance is a joke, because the "winners" are pre-determined off the ice.

      Delete
    6. "Superstar material" is a pretty useless concept when it's unpredictable what will catch the fancy of the skating world, and more often than not those programs are crap when it comes to technique and difficulty and should not be rewarded in the first place.

      P/I skated very well and that was completely ignored. Maybe it's not the best program they could skate. Maybe there's something strategic and political they could do that would help marginally (questionable, but possible). But those are secondary conversations if you're trying to explain why they can't get ahead. The bottom line is that the deck is stacked against them because of corruption.

      Delete
    7. 3:33.
      Agreed. The deck is similarly stacked against the Shibs. They're the best US team but the corrupt PTB decided Chock/Bates are their new American "it" team.

      It's a disgusting system. The winning teams are not deserving any of their inflated scores.

      Delete
    8. Exactly, 9:22 anon. Chock/Bates are the "chosen" ones in the US as a consolation prize for Igor being kicked out of Artic Edge, and not being one of the coaches of the US's first OGM in ice dance. Otherwise, C/B are a junk team only slightly better than Davis/White. They shouldn't be anywhere near the podium at their own Nationals, when you consider the depth of ice dance in the US.

      Delete
  3. I know people here have expressed appreciation for Jacquelyn Thayer's intelligent coverage before. Looks like she's set up a Patreon page!
    https://www.patreon.com/twofortheice?ty=h

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the info - anon at 9:46pm. Just to switch gears a bit, it's interesting to see some fans starting to realize that Tessa is the one who has the connections with media, is in the "in" crowd within the Canadian Olympic Committee etc. She is ensuring through social media that I scratch your back and in turn you scratch mine. More power to her. But if you dig deeper - for instance - Gold Medal Plates as an organization and then you look at the auction trips, it's all geared towards the elite and a money grab. Its networking. Pure and simple. Tessa's forte. If you look at the athletes that who are on the auction trips, none of them needed funding really for their sport. Not that these athletes do not merit being representatives, but none of them come from a financial background of let's say a Scott Moir or even a Joannie Rochette. The women's hockey gold medalists all had sports scholarships at US universities. Last time I looked figure skating doesn't have scholarships. It's like a high school clique within the Canadian Olympic Team - Gold Medal Plates, Right to Play etc. Scott will attend 2 smaller GMP events - which I think is fine. So if doesn't attend an auction trip - I don't think its the end of the world - whether it was his decision or not. At the end of the day, GMP is not a grass roots sports organization. Its a gloried fundraising event.
    At this point, I would be more concerned if VM are being blacklisted in participating in non-Canadian ice shows.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 8:34
    Thank you for bringing up the issue of being blacklisted in certain skating shows. I have noticed this for a while. I don't think it's coincidence that VM are never invited to the shows where DW are skating.

    Who knows if this is simply due to DW having a stronger PR or if it's blacklisting. It bears looking into.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anon at 8:34 here. For any fan that has actually followed the last quad from 2010 on and knows the amount of corruption that needed to take place to secure DW's dominance on all multiple levels, my best guess is that VM are being blacklisted internationally. We all know that the DW camp and their families have a vested interest in VM not returning to competition. My theory is that DW's camp is basically throwing money at these shows to invite them rather than VM. The skating community is small. Its all about appearances. And if you can still demonstrate to VM that we "own" you in skating shows outside of Canada - then we still "own" the ISU. I think its one of the reasons that Charlie White was recently smug in a recent article about basically they can come back during the Olympic year in 2017-2018 and win. Its not hard to be arrogant when you know the fix is in.
    In watching the medal ceremony at Skate Canada for dance, it was hard to watch Alex Shibutani. It was reminiscent of the GP Final in Japan in 2013 for VM when they clearly should won. I think that's the first time I have seen Alex Shibutani so disenchanted. I don't think Mitch Islam was thrilled about the results either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The thing with D/W taking about their comeback was actually pretty hilarious because in one article they said needed to come back for 2017 Nats, and then three days later, they said just skating 2017-18 would be fine. So at least they're probably bullshitting and won't come back.

      http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2015/10/13/meryl-davis-charlie-white-ice-dancing-winter-olympics-figure-skating/

      ^seriously, so much special in this one

      https://www.bostonherald.com/inside_track/the_inside_track/2015/10/olympic_stars_glide_into_boston

      Delete
  7. Scott's hanging out with sorority girls at lame country themed nightclubs now. What a guy! Please don't tell me that anyone still believes he's happily married to Tessa and they have multiple children.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not advocating for any particular viewpoint here. But reports or photos of Scott "hanging out" are only part of any narrative. At best, it's a one-dimensional caricature. Without any knowledge of how he is spending the other 99.9% of his time, it does not prove anything one way or another.

      Delete
  8. It seems that Scott and Tessa's Olympic medals are quickly losing their luster. "Someone" knows why they are not skating in upcoming high profile skating shows. Are they getting invited and declining? Are they already old news in the skating entertainment world? Is Scott's drinking and social behavior a worry? Are people just fed up with their facade? Shows and competitions translate to money and a few local Ontario shows and one Maritime show are not going to be very lucrative. It is a good thing that Tessa has branched out to the fashion and jewelry business as a neophyte socialite. What is Scott doing with his time?

    For me the fact that Tessa is attending Gold Medal Plate dinners and going on the BVI trip alone speaks volumes. Did Scott behave badly on the Scotland trip and thus not invited back?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Scott is scheduled to do the dinners in St John's and Saskatoon with Tessa but she did Toronto solo and will be in Victoria as well. On the night of the Toronto event, Scott was at a country music concert in London so it's not as if he had something important that prevented him from attending.

    I know that tumblr isn't the most reliable source of information but there was a post on there that suggested the reason that Scott wasn't attending the BVI trip is that because of his poor behaviour in Scotland, he's not welcome on any further auction trips. The patrons have paid good money to attend and no one wants to end up dealing with a moody and drunk Scott Moir.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anon at 8:40 am - if I had to guess - the issue was probably that Kaitlyn Lawes was in Scotland - which is kind of hypocritical since the musical entertainers brought their significant others. Lessons learned for Scott - don't mix business with pleasure. Also Lawes should have known better and let Scott do his own thing. We saw firsthand how agressive she was in attending Scotland then with the Stars on Ice tour, then the CNE. In my opinion, Scott is in a much better space now. He has his jawline and smile back. He is staying local and not running off to curling tournaments. He is keeping low-key. Let him live. I think its taken Scott a longer time to digest what happened over the last quad in terms of skating results, friendships, coaching etc. He will move forward. Other elite/professional players have had to go through transition periods. Even Clara Hughes went through depression and she has to be the most down to earth athlete I've met and had a casual converation with at Calgary's airport.
    I've stated before GMP is a gloried charity event for the elite. I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Off-topic, but Russia is being accused of government complicity in widespread doping and cover-ups.

    Of course, everybody (namely the US) will whine that "Russia is corrupt and evil!!!" and wax sanctimonious of they would never partake of such corruption.

    http://sports.yahoo.com/news/iaaf-russia-await-report-blackmail-doping-104340908--spt.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This article pretty much applies to the ISU.

      http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2015/11/7-quick-thoughts-on-iaaf-corruption-and.html

      Delete
    2. Looking forward to the day the ISU's corruption gets exposed. Specifically, they should answer for D/W entire trajectory to Olympic gold, beginning in their junior years and all through the senior years. All of it a farce.

      Delete
  12. Yes, I suspect Kaitlyn Lawes is part of the reason. The entertainers brought their girlfriends/wives as well but they didn't participate as though they were the invited talent. Kaitlyn's name never appeared in the list of athletes and yet she was front and center. I don't care what her credentials are, the fact remains that she was not invited by gold medal plates.

    ReplyDelete
  13. 12:13 and 10:28 Totally Agree. Hopefully Scott has moved on from KLawes. She was definitely out of line on the Scotland trip as indicated in so many of the pictures posted. Kaitlyn with her gold medal seemed to think she was an important (although not invited by GMP) participant. Many of the pictures of Scott on the trip showed him with a drink in his hand.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This is how stupid rumours get started.The fans can't understand why a celebrity is making a certain choice, they invent an explanation that seems plausible to them (generally at least a little salacious, makes it more exciting). And suddenly it becomes a fact that everybody knows and people stop using their brains and examining the validity of what's put forward.

    Seriously, if Scott's behaviour in Scotland was so bad, why is he going to two GMP events? They don't have to invite him, let alone ask him to emcee. If Kaitlyn hadn't been pre-approved for Scotland, why did they let her stay? And if she was somehow insufferable, why does it matter since she's obviously not in the picture right now?

    Most likely there's a completely unexciting reason Scott isn't going - like he doesn't want to. And if there is some dramatic reason you're not going to hear about it from bored fans dying to get their teeth on any tidbit of info. In the presence of an information vacuum, they'll overanalyze every little thing and then present their conclusions as truth. (Scott had a drink in his hand in 2 pictures - this means he was obnoxiously drunk the whole time!)

    Basically I hate dumb rumours and fans speculating like they're experts when we see 0.01% of their lives. It's messed up. V/M encouraged it (at least the positive stuff) but it's still messed up.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Agreed with everything 5:50 said.

    All these stupid stories about Scott are fanfiction.

    ReplyDelete
  16. So Tessa gave a brief interview at GMP Ottawa tonight - and she indicated that she and Scott are seriously considering a return. Is it just me or is she pulling an Evan Lysacek and will stick to the same response until 2017. Also it appears that Tessa is really the only outlier when it comes to recent athletes attending GMPs - even those recent athletes that will be attending auction trips are not attending more than 2 events. And if I were Scott, I don't think I would want to go through x amount of these shindigs.

    ReplyDelete
  17. So probably Tessa is going to the trip with Semple? This can explain why Scott isn't going...

    ReplyDelete
  18. More fan ficfiction, 12:00?

    ReplyDelete
  19. KLawes wasn't front and center in Scottland. Tessa and her new friend Miku posted many pictures of her - that's all. GMP hardly acknowledged her, she was in one or two official pictures just like the other wives, girlfriends and who else attended.
    Just because Tessa and Tumblr made a big deal out of their new found friendship doesn't mean anybody else did.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Has anyone else noticed tanith belbin signing off from NBC broadcast as tanith white?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, she's now Tanith Belbin White. She's been using that since her marriage.

      Delete