Everything about this. Charlie's arms. Meryl's splayed out. Her legs.
Wait, that's it? I think she hits something a little higher. She's only got one arm free still though. Still grabbing.
There we go. Only her chest is lifted (remember this when we see Maia) and though Charlie's got an arm "free" it's actually backed up behind Meryl's right leg.
There we go - Meryl's core bisecting Charlie's shoulder, left leg doing whatever.
He's got both legs pinned but Alex releases his right arm from Maia's as she arches her torso up near verticle and her knee is bent against his back. We could also see Alex's face because Maia could actually lift her own trunk.
I think the key here below is the core over the shoulder which pretty much makes her butt 'buttressed" by Charlie's head, so once again she's using only her chest and he's handling the rest.
You can see the mechanics here. His head is like a bumper in a pinball game with her butt, hips, pelvis and stomach lodged/pinned to his neck. He's got her right leg pinned. Her left leg is whatever.
Pasted. Like a glue trap.
It truly takes a village. look at her right arm, shoulder across his neck and then down the length o his shoulder, look at his alignment, look at his left hand, look at his chest vis a vis her back and butt. For real, there aren't more efficient and yet HARDER ways to do this, ways that show control of your body in space and some technical skill?
Again, love Charlie's sudden "look, my arm is free!' while Meryl's right arm continues as a human straight jacket plus why the fuck can't Meryl hold her own leg up?
Well, that arm wasn't free for long. Also, look how high his hand is on her leg.
Her arm. His alignment. His arms. Why is it this much work? Why are they still superglued?
The best part of it all is the head and arm escaping that mess, signaling madly to the crowd how awesome it is they can lift their chin and extract a free arm while their bodies are snarled like an L.A. traffic jam. What is the free arm and chin celebrating or proving?
Shibs next.
Every single gif and cap of DW shows horrific skating skills and technique - what little exists. Just horrific. It's an absolute embarrassment that they have been given podium placements, let alone any championship.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day when there was so much complaining about Russian politics in ice-dance, at least it was never possible to say they couldn't skate. They were great skaters, in spite of some objection to some scores.
How the hell did the sport allow a team with these craptastic skills to win two world championships? Not only that, these guys have been allowed to beat one of the best ever, if not THE best, ice-dance team in the history of the sport. Something is seriously wrong with this scenario.
Charlie must have really strong neck muscles...
ReplyDelete(Quick, check- isn't there a neck-muscle PCS criteria?)
Surely there's a head-flinging or arm-flinging criteria? Also, a criteria for knee-slides. Since as *everyone* knows, it takes great skating skills to perform those things correctly -- along with the strong neck muscles, of course.
Deleteremember when people at Goldenskate were saying that D/W were in a league of their own and that v/m were just as good as P/B and P/B can beat v/m?
ReplyDeleteyeah right.
Goldenskate prides itself on their monitoring of posts, but somehow the DW ubers had pretty much taken over that place.
DeleteSomeone needs to crash their party with all these caps and gifs so they can see their beloved team is just all smoke and mirrors. I nominate OC!
Delete5:49
DeleteYou could just provide them a link to the blog. If Goldenskate doesn't delete the post with the link (a big if), they can come and decide if their party is crashed.
In spite of the great work OC has done here on the blog, I would be surprised if many who decided DW are "the best" would change their minds. When I think how they declared DW to be on a par with VM, with no evidence to back that up except their own fanciful wishes, well even with the evidence right here I think they'll still cling to their delusions. Besides, all the analysis going on here is Meeaaaannn - and in figure skating message-board history that's equivalent to not being allowed to change the narrative.
But, but, but... the protocol says DW are better! It's there in black and white! And the USFS is bad at politics, so it must be true!
Delete"But, but, but... the protocol says DW are better! It's there in black and white! And the USFS is bad at politics, so it must be true!"
DeleteYes, because the protocols never lie.
Oh my gosh, that must mean Piper Gilles is quite in the same ballpark as Tessa Virtue. The Canadians' protocols say so and we know they tell the true story.
I personally love how all the reasons that the D/W ubers are giving for Meryl being the better dancer have nothing to do with actual dancing skills or are patently untrue...
Delete11:13
DeleteThey should prove it with gifs and stills and compare those with gifs and stills of Tessa in similar/same elements, just like blogger is doing. Words are nothing...prove it.
It's one thing to say they like Meryl better on a personal level - they just think she's nicer-prettier-dresses better- whatever... but that is not the same thing as saying Meryl is better at skating or dancing. I don't think they know the difference.