Make up your minds

 From the latest article on Virtue/Moir.

Most of the choreography happened at the Arctic Edge ice rink in Canton, Mich., just outside Detroit, where the couple trains. In Canton, Virtue lives in an apartment with her mother, and Moir lives in his own place nearby. They return to their parents’ homes in the London area on weekends, a weekly pilgrimage to escape Canton’s insular skating world.

 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/more-sports/brace-yourselves-for-the-new-virtue-and-moir-program/article7255437/

Canton's insular skating world? They found a reporter who'd swallow that one?

Canton doesn't give a fuck about figure skating and neither does Ann Arbor or Detroit. They can walk out of that rink and nobody knows who the hell they are. What an insult to the Detroit area. Unlike, say, Ilderton, most people in Canton have other stuff on their minds besides what's going on in the rink at Arctic Edge.

But they lie to this reporter and say they flee each weekend to Canada, to places like Ilderton, because God knows "insular skating world" can't describe Ilderton or London. What a relief to spend time where it's not all about skating!

This is just more putting up a front to the Canadian fans. Canadian fans are the ones they lie to and manipulate the most on social media, so the idea is to kiss ass and flatter Canadian fans as much as possible in legit media. They are con artists - or wannabes.

Tessa has said she and Scott are only allowed in the States 180 days out of the year - that's less than six months out of the year - but she "lives" in Canton instead of say, across the border, and Canadian Kate Virtue does as well? Mommy got a visa to live with her 23 year old during weekdays in Canton, MI even though the girl claims to return home every weekend? What the hell for?

They are such liars. The question is, do they dupe the reporter or is the reporter a pal who is helping them out?

I think they choose the reporter they can manipulate. Do Scott and Tessa have to hunt for eager journalists who are thrilled to get the coup of face time with Olympic champions, so eager they will write lies in the first person or be so excited about the opportunity they're easily manipulated? Or seek journalists outside the "skating journalism" pool? Because established skating journalists don't write about Scott and Tessa in the journalist's own voice. They report what Scott and Tessa say, instead of reporting those lies as independently verified facts. That's how they get around reporting on a couple who lie as often as they breathe air.

Another thing - Tessa and Scott rarely make themselves available for in person interviews, even with established outlets, but one of the "journalists" they granted an audience with last year was so green he apparently saw the opportunity as a career maker since he tweeted about it as it was taking place and linked to it on twitter constantly afterwards. That was an interesting choice of interviewer for them, but I guess he fit their criteria.

These two darling figure skaters couldn't be making a habit of seeking out the "journalist" they can manipulate, could they? That would be so unlike them.

If mommy lives with her why do they return to their parents' homes on weekends. Mommy is her parent and already lives with her, according to her. Mommy can't stay behind "in Canton" unless her visa is more leniant than her daughter's, so the two of them are always, always together, is that it? In Canton, and then they spend the weekend together too, in Canada.

Scott's own place nearby is indeed very nearby - whichever side of the bed they share he prefers.

I enjoyed Tessa lamenting that people associate her personality with that of Carmen now. Who does that, Tessa? Where? Is that another fake problem like the Clooney problem? Is she still insulting people with the idea that they can't tell the difference between performance and off-ice?

She mourns that it's always the negative things that stick with you.

Yes. And let's pretend this is really happening. People associate her with Carmen, just like they got her and Scott on ice all mixed up with real life, just how it happens with George Clooney. People are idiots like that. When Michelle Kwan skated Salome at age 15 people thought of her as a lethal seductress afterwards.

Skating fans. The worst.

In her mind she may be getting a bad rap from imaginary people who associate her with Carmen now, or, like the Clooney crap, she's totally making it up (that would be more like her) but why complain? It's better than if she were getting a universal bad rap from all the lying and manipulating she actually does do to the skating public (and apparently to credulous journalists cherry picked by her and Scott for gullability). That complaint took gall.

The Virtue and Moir families have produced two outrageously entitled little mini divas. In the same interview that Tessa is whinging about a made up problem - people associate her personality with Carmen - she's forcing more complete lies into the public domain (including that one). And she has the balls to adopt a pose of being misunderstood? She wants to be misunderstood. That's the whole fucking point.

It seems to me her psychology education hasn't done much for her if it hasn't taught her to understand the difference between what she feels about something, and facts. Someone who routinely confuses the two is a diva.

There's no doubt people who love her would object to that characterization and object to describing Scott that way as well, but if you insist on making decisions based on how you feel about something, whether or not it's founded in reality, and if you believe because of your feelings it's your right to lie and manipulate people, and then turn around and profit from your lying, you're a brat. And that's the nicest word for it.

P.S. there's someone who visits the comments section and insists this blog is a publicity arm of Scott and Tessa themselves, that it's doing Scott and Tessa's bidding. If this person sincerely believes that, it's ridiculous. But, at the same time, Scott and Tessa know they get new assholes ripped every time they produce swill like this article, so it's difficult not to think these lies are bait. A bid for attention, negative attention. They do need something to point to (other than shit Tessa makes up and lies about) to justify all the lying they do.

It's entirely backwards - they lie huge, then the blog reacts, and then they can point to the blog as evidence that they need to lie (look how closely the blog picks at them!) - but hey, we're talking about the skating fandom and based on how Tessa and Scott have lied to the fandom throughout their public history, they don't worry much about lack of logic being an obstacle when they set out to work fans over.

I have noticed that this time the places that usually get all worked up when there's a new interview are a whole lot more quiet. It's nice when people who have supported someone wholeheartedly suddenly wake up to the possibility that the person they support don't give a shit and and actually can't stand them. In Scott and Tessa's case, their current, primary interest in their supporters is in shifting responsibility for their bullshit from themselves onto their supporters. That's the only purpose of this article.

All the negative stuff Scott and Tessa claim to believe about the public, that justifies the hoax in their minds, is clearly stuff they want to be true. It's not a challenge they faced. It's an excuse they were seeking. An excuse for what? There's a side of them tired of being perfect little role models and it feels good to treat the great unwashed like trash on the down low, to work them over, and, by implication (Tessa's stories about how her performances are wrongly associated with who she is in real life) - blame them, insult them, treat them as stupid? Are Scott and Tessa that insecure that they require a scapegoat onto whom they can exorcise their resentments? They have to put on a good kid face to everyone else - let's invent the Evil Public so Scott and Tessa can get their frustrations out on a bunch of strangers, act out on the internet, and feel justified.

Or are Scott and Tessa just that arrogant, just that spoiled, that indecent, self-obsessed, and completely lacking in any understanding of what it means to be compassionate or empathetic because, if it's not personal to them, they are incapable of getting it?

It used to look as if this sham turned a couple of very nice people into people who did some very mean things. But now it looks as if this is just who they are. The sham isn't a bungle - it's a mirror. The whole charade of privacy and the barrier is a made up situation they hide behind because the solution they've invented excuses them taking all the negative shit inside them out on fans, and apparently they have a lot of nastiness built up inside them that needs an outlet, and, as fans are powerless, fans are universally resented and at the bottom of the totem pole, fans get the shit kicked out of them by Scott and Tessa.

What they're doing is pretty cold, so there's that too.

Hurry before tickets are gone

Let me see if I have understood the format. The orchestra will play "musical masterpieces" from figure skating programs while images of the skaters who used the music will be projected onto a screen. As the music plays, Debbi Wilkes is going to talk and share her colorful insights about something. Skate Canada is charging money for this. The seats will be filled by prison inmates on a mandatory field trip plus a smattering of folks deceived into attending by scheming spouses planning to collect the life insurance after their partner offs themselves.

As if we didn't know it already - this confirms that there was no "glitch" with skatebug during Skate Canada.

Second, it looks as if she's been thwarted in plans to carry on the act during Canadians (please God), and this is her make do. It's very Debbi. "Canada Skates to the Orchestra" with no skating to the orchestra. Debbi talking to the orchestra. It's live action skatebuzz.

Having aced business development while serving as a Skate Canada director, Debbi appears to be in the middle of building a unique post-Sochi performance niche for herself. It's ingenious. The Hershey Center must need to clear both pedestrian and motor vehicle traffic from the vicinity on the night, and what better way to guarantee a ghost town for blocks around. I know if I were in Mississauga I'd want to put at least five miles between me and the Hershey Center just in case Debbi had an exterior sound system set up.

Scott's got himself another brain trust

No doubt Ms. Holbin Hilborn (thanks, below) is a lovely girl. But in her as yet brief run as Scott's social media girlfriend, she has had three public facebook names.

Cassandra Holbin Hilborn
Brooke Cassandra, and, as of yesterday
Cass Brook

That last one is just sad.

You know how you get privacy without hurting your brain thinking up facebook name changes? Switch out your public cover photos. But no. When her facebook is found, she waits til the photos of interest are posted on the blog, and then creates a new screen name to demonstrate that she and Scott are all about the privacy and they never intended the photo to get put here, but she leaves the photo public.

"She" of course meaning "the sham."

It seems as if it would be more convincing if she'd just switch out her publicly visible cover photo to one that doesn't feature Scott, but these people are pretty fucking lazy in the bullshit department. They half ass everything.

As this will go on awhile (just wait til London Worlds!), I want to help out with some proposed facebook names courtesy of the numerous name generators on the web (hip hop, gangsta, pop star, pirate, Mafia, vampire, Mexican wrestler and Star Wars). Just plug in Ms. Holbin's Hilborn's three facebook names and get:

Coco Lipps

Miss Tricky

Candy the Spy

Nicola the Hammer

Rosa Scarface

Vampire Madeline the Immortal

Butt Ugly Elanor Cutty

Pirate Azriel the Black

Iron Deficient Bella

Casho Holin, and

El Sombrero Misterioso

Any time.


P.S., as this season wears on it becomes ever clearer that Scott shut down his fan facebook because he knew Sham V.2 was coming and thought it was a good time to hide out.

Her heart belongs to Mommy

(Scott's new sham partner has changed her facebook name for the second time. She must want her privacy).

I considered "Cognitive Clusterfuck" as this post title but I didn't want to make it unsafe for work. I'm only doing this post as a way of continuing a conversation in the comments below about Tessa and lying.

There's the idea in some quarters that Tessa is the driving force behind prolonging the sham past Vancouver, and I think that's a sensible assumption. But some of the comments have been ultra scathing, painting Scott as a victim, and Tessa as a woman who uses what she picks up in U of Windsor's super demanding psychology program to manipulate the fans. Which - way to insult yourselves, people. Debbi Wilkes has already demonstrated that misapplied Psychology 101 doesn't exactly get the job done in public relations. Why would Tessa be more successful, even if that's what she was attempting.

One of the issues with how Tessa and Scott lie to the public is how unreservedly and often carelessly they mix lies with truth. The problem is that a lot of people take everything they say as the truth and it all becomes difficult to process. I get that. But the funny part is even people who know Scott and Tessa's real status can instinctively and mistakenly process what Scott and Tessa say as the truth, and it requires conscious effort to work through the crap.

For example, there are people who know that Scott Jessica was a sham, who nevertheless initially had a knee jerk reaction that as a pseudo girlfriend Jessica had some sort of entitlement to consideration from Scott  - such as - isn't it kind of cold for Scott to gift Jessica a Tiffany's key that is the same key Tessa has already owned for a year?

The answer is no. It's no ruder for "Scott" to give her a "gift" that Scott's wife already owns than it would be for George Clooney to bestow - on camera, in a movie - a prop picked out by the production team upon his movie co-star. It's all for show. Off camera, in neither case is the relationship real, or even much of a relationship or even friendship at all and the purpose of the sham isn't Scott but Scott and TESSA. Jessica was employed in the interests of both of them, not just the guy next to her in the frame while she smarmed and simpered it up for the camera lens. Same as Clooney's co-star works for the director, the producer and to give life to the script created by a screenwriter.

Still, in the case of something as home grown as the Scott/Jessica sham it's natural that it takes discipline to remember this, because we're wired to believe images even if we know they're staged.

The example most relevant to this post: I know for a fact that Scott and Tessa are together. I know they made that shit up about Kate moving to Michigan when Scott and Tessa did. They wanted us to believe Kate was there making sure her daughter's partner never had the opportunity get into her pants because Mommy never left Tessa's side unless a gay guy, an older French speaking serial divorcee, or alpine athletes who get tacky on twitter were coming to call. I mean that's the takeaway we were supposed to get.

For people who know that Scott and Tessa are together there shouldn't be any take away at all, but the reality is that Tessa and her mom are close, and Tessa's incessant mommy-izing can clutter the mind with images of one of those infamous child-woman movie star types from the golden age of film, who always lived with her stage mom, honeymooned with her mom, had mom on set, and mom ran everything, including her marriage(s).* You have to kind of give your head a shake to get rid of that impression. Otherwise even those who know about Tessa and Scott can be lured into thinking Tessa only listens to Mom, Mom has the last word, Tessa would always pick mom over Scott, and Mommy runs Tessa's marriage.

It's a hard image to reconcile with the Kate who spoke so compassionately during the Vancouver Olympics on two topics - the death of the luger and the death of Joanne Rochette's mom. But everything Tessa says works to create the idea that "there are three people in this marriage - it got a bit crowded" (© the late Princess of Wales). She doesn't make a move without mom, nor listen to anyone but mom.

Of course, when Tessa sells this, she intends for us to think Scott's not in the picture. She's not pitching this "I only listen to my mommy - what she says, goes." story towards people who know Tessa is with Scott. She is aiming it towards people who have been led to believe (by Scott and Tessa) that Tessa has dated the ex-boyfriend of her training partner, an older, divorced daddy and player, and an alpine skiier who makes Jessica Dube look charismatic. When she's not dating anybody. She's with Scott.

So people who know she's with Scott have to consciously shake off the image of Scott married to a woman who doesn't listen to his opinion about important stuff and only cares what mommy has to say, who brings mommy into every aspect of her life, and that Scott is living the boner shrinker scenario of all time.

I started thinking about this stuff again while participating in the comments section in the post below - how Tessa tends to broadcast her ability to tune out (the infamous seven people on her cell phone) and broadcast her reliance on Mom's judgment. It can lead you to think that well, Mommy tells Tessa the sham is good, discussion over as far as Tessa is concerned, Scott will have to suck it up because the subject is now closed.

When the reality is, Tessa lived for years independently from her Mom; Kate was in London after Tessa and Scott shifted training to Michigan, and  Tessa was with Scott. Tessa and Scott were not at odds prior to TEB 2009 - Tessa and Scott were preparing to marry.

But I started thinking again about how Tessa hides behind her mother when the "Tessa is the REAL liar!" stuff comes up, because I know that - apart from those who say that aloud - this is a subtext believed by quite a few people. I remembered that after Scott and Tessa won gold, Kate recalled for the press the time Tessa was facing her first shin surgery. Kate told the media that she felt her daughter (whom she described as eighteen and a half at the time) had been through enough, and Kate didn't want Tessa to get the surgery. Meaning, I suppose, she didn't want Tessa to get the surgery in October, get her screaming legs back on the ice by December so as to be ready for Canadians and then compete at Worlds. It was too much. Per Kate, Tessa said: "I have to if I want to go to the Olympics." And Tessa did.

What Tessa did that season, I think, is full metal woman commitment and guts, and bought her a huge amount of slack on what her needs might be - or what she decides they are, which might not be the same thing - while she and Scott continue to compete. Because of her and the pain she was willing to skate through in 2009, she and Scott were able to win gold in 2010.

Unfortunately, she and Scott have played so much public relations politics with her shins, have repurposed them to cover a pregnancy, to cover marriage plans, that what she went through and its impact on her and those around her can be lost. In order to scam the public, she and Scott both underplayed the excruciating reality of what she went through (they did this during the worst of it - 2008-2009) when it served their purposes, then swung around and exaggerated the reality of it when it served their purposes (the second time around - 2010-2011).  I think they insulted her initial experience by using her shins to lie and manipulate the second time around - oh the pain oh the angst - but they're willing to corrupt everything. It's nothing new.

When it comes to lying and prolonging a scam, I believe the shins (the original shins - not the second round where she skated shows all summer, had a surgical tune up at some point, carried a baby and continued to skate, and went to events wearing stilletos) play into the sham's long life. Tessa wants it. Who is to deny her after what she did for Scott, for everyone who'd invested years and years in the two of them, what she put herself through to keep their dream on track and achieve it?

It's a noble idea and I think it's something they tell themselves. The problem is that someone as committed to a hoax as she is and they are should stay consistently committed to the supposed "principles" behind it, not drop them when they want to do something else. Something else like poke a stick at fans who are getting bored of the whole thing, or try to get people worked up and agitated so you can tell yourself you still need to do what you're going to do anyway. It sort of falls apart when you look at that part. I wonder, though, if they've noticed.
_______________________

*Or clutter the mind with memories of Michelle Kwan and her father Danny.

How apt. (a/k/a "Who is it for"?)

Canadians are near, and twitter says:

This post is ultimately about double purposes. And double-dealing. And double-gaming. I love how the headline implies that a double dose of fan support is daunting. "Dose" isn't a really positive noun. It's like "suck it up".

But first, here's one part of Scott and Tessa's Canadians preparation:

Looky there with the "you two" in the comments section.

Before focusing on double games, we've all noticed that Scott and Tessa's sham approach has been modified to protect themselves and their child from any (further) future distress stemming from daddy and mommy cuddling up to other men and women all over the internet. Look at that latest up there  - it's swimsuit weather and Scott even has a shirt on.

Still, this is all going be FUN for the kid as it is, just based on what's out there already.

The above remark might be in a none-of-our-business category except for the fact that Scott and Tessa extol family values and talk about their familial relationships. So I believe it's fine for an observer to comment on the potential distress these two role models* are going to cause a little one in the future. EVERY kid is unsettled by this stuff; that's a given. It doesn't matter if mommy is okay with what daddy is doing (or even if it was mommy's idea), or vice versa. 

For example - I was viewing a popular DIY blog the other day where the husband of the DIY couple had a doppelganger present at a book signing. The husband reported that the doppelganger's daughter was distressed by photos of the couple that decorated the signing table because at first glance she thought it was daddy and wondered what daddy was doing with "that lady." "Daddy" wasn't doing anything but smiling at the camera - no pda - but it still created that funny feeling in the pit of her stomach, that insecurity in the child.

I also know that the children of actors can be traumatized when they see their mother or father in even the most G-rated scene with a love interest - even if it's live and on stage and they know it's pretend. I've been told first hand, and I've read accounts from children of well known performers (for example, the children of the old time movie and theatre star Margaret Sullavan have said this). It's universal. No matter how secure everything is at home and between the parents, it doesn't make the child feel safe.

So I'm sure Scott and Tessa's child is going to be fine with the photos of Daddy kissing Jessica Dube and seeming to roll half-naked with her in the sand, Jessica Dube publicly extolling Scott as a boyfriend, and now Scott posing arm in arm or cheesily in suggestive circumstances with Cassandra up there. No worries. The kid will use context clues like a pro. Whatever mommy and daddy say will make it okay. Everyone at Skate Canada has the ability to control others' visceral responses with just words. They learned from Debbi Wilkes.

Failing that, Tessa can always refer to one of her psychology textbooks. I'm sure it's all very healthy.

Still, the new sham style is Scott and Tessa all over. Is screwing over the fans possibly creating a distasteful situation for themselves down the line? How can we protect ourselves and still fuck with the fans?

I know, keep to the platonic mantra in the legitimate media, and rely on that context to encourage the interpretation that otherwise innocuous photos like the one above are "Scott and his girlfriend." Don't do literal boyfriend/girlfriend photos anymore. Platonic in media, Scott in vicinity of the same girl in a variety of locations and times on social media - the fans will do the math, but without the fan context, the photos are meaningless (unlike the Jessica/Scott photos). Or maybe they want to minimize just how assy they were - maybe they want to rebuild their nice kids image and not keep re-domonstrating their gratuitous douchebaggery quite so conspicuously. It could reflect badly on them with people who count somewhere down the line. (There has to be self-interest in it somewhere.)

Scott and Tessa are all about having it both ways. 

And they continue to work it and mind fuck the fans in the legitimate media as well. The short dance? Eh, the original story they came up with was too complicated, so now it's just based on themselves, they say. Two people in love and enjoying themselves, shares Tessa blithely. It's the writer of the piece tasked with the caveat: "based on their long relationship as partners". 

It's okay cause that Cassandra thingie up there is in the hopper, ready to go.  Fans can just WTF with what Scott and Tessa say, as usual, nothing new there.

I do think it's interesting that it's reached such a state that some of their most credulous fans have become cynical about everything out of Scott and Tessa's mouth, and every photo that pops up on social media.

Okay, that's done for the moment. I now want to go back to the idea of preparing for a home town competition. For years home competitions have been where Scott and Tessa have ramped it up past overkill. Jessica in the stands. Holiday spam in facebook. Planning committee meetings.War games. Platoons of locals recruited to Team Sham. All mixed in with Scott and Tessa baiting fans with the potential of their off-ice relationship. Why? After all, it's home. Half the people in the stands know them.

So is that the reason? Could this be for people who know them, not for the fans?

Here's why I'm wondering. Fans can be managed but people who know them - it gets sticky. We don't want anyone thinking Scott and Tessa are too good for the half million people they number among their personal friends and family members. We don't want people thinking Scott and Tessa don't appreciate or have forgotten where they came from. But come competition time, t's hard to sneak in and out of town. Everybody knows you're "home".

Here's what I'm getting at. We can see that Scott and Tessa have used family and friends to manipulate the fans. But have they used the idea of "fans" to manipulate family and friends? After all, they have kept this going to past the point of absurdity. They look like asses. The sham is its own reason for existing at this point. There's no constructive purpose, fan wise. The rationale behind the barrier it creates is contradicted by a lot of what Scott and Tessa do and say. But it keeps on. Yes, ass covering, face saving, and spite are part of it. But what else?

Do they, for their home town communities, want to create the impression of big stars who need a dense barrier between themselves and the general public? Redirect friends and family from wanting facetime or access with Scott and Tessa and instead send them into sham enabling? Use the fan situation as an additional reason Scott and Tessa don't have a lot of time to spend?

If, when Scott and Tessa are home, they convince their friends and (very extended) family that they have so so so much to manage - not just the skating, but the pressure of fan interest, they can use the fan "situation" to shut out the people who want a piece of them. Oh, the fan situation - they can't. They have to practice, they need the bubble, and they can't really get together because of it.

Is the barrier for fans, or do Scott and Tessa just say it's for fans but it's evolved into a pretext to get some breathing distance from people they know? The Cassandra photo is ridiculous. Scott and Tessa don't need to sham for fans in fucking Windsor Mississauga.
But if Scott and Tessa wave the "We need protection from fans!" flag prior to the competition, it could deter some of the gazillion requests and messages they get, and their family gets, for some of their time.

That's why the twitter links "prepare for double dose" was inadvertantly on point. So much preparation by Scott and Tessa when they skate anywhere near their beloved home town communities.The fans there must be so much more rabid than in other parts of Canada. Or maybe it's something else.

Could Scott and Tessa be hypocritical when they get teary about the wonders of London, Ilderton and Windsor? Especially Ilderton, the community that created the unspoiled, genuine kids Scott and Tessa grew up to become? That heart-thump gesture Scott does.The falling over himself about it being his favorite place in the world? After all, they've verbalized similar gratitude and love for Canadian fans. They've talked of Canadian fans as a value add to their career. "All of Canada on the ice with us."  But their behavior shows their real opinion of fans. Scott laid it on thick on his fan facebook and regular facebook in what he said to fans, while his actions were meanspirited, inconsiderate and incredibly insensitive. He'd express everlasting gratitude in legitimate, public formats. On social media he'd work their feelings then stick in the shiv. So he's very practiced in hypocrisy. So's Tessa - nobody is as poised lying through her teeth as that girl. She can even bring tears to her eyes, she's so moved by her own lies.

So do Scott and Tessa really love their friends and family from the home town communities from which they hail? They say they do. But we know what their words are worth.

It would be ironic if some of the friends and acquaintances who so enthusiastically jumped in to help Scott and Tessa fuck over stupid fans were also being diverted, manipulated and played by Scott and Tessa, in the interest of what they want most - to be left alone without owning that they want to be left alone, without being mature about it. They are professional hypocrites. It's like a cheating spouse. They'll never do it to you? Think again. Hypocrisy is their go to. What they say can never be trusted. Sincerity is a persona for them, not a character trait.
___________________________
*I still love much of what these role models have done. Q. Say, why is Jessica Dube holding a newborn Quinn Moir? A. So the lie will convince more people!

For people who are all about the boundaries they have none - everything is fair game when it's time to dish out the bullshit.  The vulgarity has been breathtaking. Behind it is a freakish yet petty competitive zeal that doesn't know when to grow up. It's a self-obsession that believes if there IS a boundary to the sham, people might notice and conclude the wrong things. It's self-dealing - there are no boundaries in the vulgarity and disrespect with which they'll treat people behind closed doors (a/k/a social media). In legit media, where they want to be shiny and sweet, butter wouldn't melt in their mouths. (This is why I respect Tanith and Evan. Tanith Belbin didn't run one situation on social media and a different one in the legitimate media. She was the same with both. There was no "This is good enough for fans but I certainly don't want to be tarnished by it. I don't want to deal with it down the line. I just want fans to choke on it NOW.")

That's out of the way

This press release:

http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?39602-Dub%E9-and-Wolfe-retire-from-competitive-figure-skating

I don't have much of an issue at this point with Mike Slipchuk, but I hope he lays it on just as thick when other skaters retire:

“Jessica has been a fixture on the international figure skating scene, representing Canada for over a decade. Her strong will, desire and work ethic helped her overcome serious obstacles and challenges, while competing in two Olympics and winning a world bronze medal,” said Mike Slipchuk, High Performance Director, Skate Canada. “Though Jessica and Sébastien were only together as a pair team for a short period, they had a tremendous 2011-2012 season, winning the silver at our national championships, and representing Canada at the world Championships. It’s always encouraging to see our national team athletes choosing to stay involved in the sport in some capacity. We look forward to their future contributions to figure skating in new roles.”

I think it's Bryce Davison's work ethic, coupled with their personal relationship, that carried her through some serious obstacles and challenges, not a few of them self-inflicted, and it all fell apart when she switched to a partner who lacked Bryce's Jessica-focus, zeal and incentive.

That said, the press release is at first glance well done and not uninteresting (free car for four years)?

Scott Moir and Marina Zoueva are conspicuously not thanked. Perhaps despite her cheery messages after the Langlois/Hay wedding, there's bad blood between the now ex-lovebirds.

Tangent - nice work if you can get it

This is about the post below, in which we read about the lonely pluckiness of Jessica Dube as she trained alone without Bryce in 2010.

The article must have thrilled Dube Davison fans. It reported how Dube Davison talked every day, that Jessica felt lost without Bryce and still relied upon his support and advice, and it described Bryce not only showing up for her regional Challenge competition (with his family), but visiting Montreal to watch her practice. And not a mention of Scott Moir!

As an example of the double dealing that went on continually with the Dube Moir hoax put over on the public, this shines.

But the tangent part is reading quotes from Annie Barabe'. Such as this:

“In pairs, they were only doing the Axel and Salchow, just doing those jumps every day, and sometimes if it doesn’t go well, you just keep practising your mistakes in the jumps,” Barabe said. “When there’s more to practise, sometimes you have less problems.* Now she’s way, way more consistent in her jumping.”

What is she, a coach - or a spectator? There are skating parents with more of a clue.

If your skaters are practicing their mistakes, the coach is supposed to deconstruct the mechanics of the mistake and re-set the technique so it's proper. That's the job. I recall Bryce verbally deconstructing Jessica's salchow problem as her tending to get back on her heel. He said it was a matter of adjusting the mechanics, because other than that the technique was basically solid. He could and did deconstruct his own issues too - understand them, and work to correct them (such as his hip opening up in his axel landing). I really think Bryce coached himself most of the time. He had to have.

If your skaters' practice day is so dull and predictable their mind wanders and they fuck up, maybe you should step up and challenge them.

In watching Jessica (at first to see the much-reported "misery with Bryce" - which was never actually visible and was a projection by fans, and then to see what her mechanics were like when she slipped up) - I noticed in competition after competition she did one of two things when there was a mistake - got back on her heel or fell off an outside edge. It got worse as seasons wore on. She got lazy about it.

At the time I thought "Good luck with getting her to adjust that one, Bryce" because even then it was pretty clear that when Jessica makes mistakes she tells herself and is told it's all because of her high expectations of herself.** It's a perfectionist, emotional thing - that's more flattering, and it's how she prefers it. It's not about tedious stuff such as re-organizing what you're doing physically.

Second, from the below it also appears that at Barabe's camp, the skaters do the same damn thing every single day. Again - WTF, she's a coach. It's not like that's some winning formula for her either. 

I think many observers of Dube/Davison, including Davison, were dying for Dube Davison to do something other than the same damn program every season the same way. Easiest money David Wilson made every year.

If Barabe's theory was if her skaters can do something in their sleep it makes it less likely they'll make mistakes, it was a stupid theory, because a sign of a Barabe skater is a head case who chokes and wobbles. The positive reinforcement absent a challenging coaching environment is going to give you damn good reason to choke. If a skater's not prepared, they're going to be nervous. Her skaters get maintenance training. "Maintaining" isn't going to support you when the stakes are high.

It also leads to mental sloth. For someone like Jessica, she often appeared as if she HAD fallen asleep out there on the ice and had plenty of mental room to mull over other things, such as 'why did I stumble just there - better pull up short on the throw landing coming up to make sure." "Hmm, everything seems okay in this jump but what if I fall? Better put a hand down." And in the non arial stuff she'd occasionally trip over her own feet just because it appeared she actually had catnapped between dismount and spiral sequence. And of course, with her mind so focused on self-protection, she wasn't focused enough on the here and now, so more mistakes. She hadn't trained in a challenging enough way to engage either her mind or body.

Basically it appears as if Jessica hasn't been coached to take responsibility out on the ice.

That's not good coaching. Good coaching - good choreography - is the short program that someone - Zoueva or Wilson or someone else (commentators never settled on the name) did for Dube/Wolfe last year. While, naturally, Jessica appeared to like the ponytail swinging part the most, overall the short was her more dynamic skate last season. The rhythms and transitions and connecting moves were new even if the actual elements were the same, so she actually had to invest herself in each non-element move to pull it off. She couldn't do it in her sleep. If your athlete can do it in their sleep, that's not a good thing. Things get sloppy.

Third - the flattering spin in this Jessica interview! Oh, now that she's free from the expectations of all the winning she always does with Bryce - all those Grand Prix golds, for instance - Jessica is just knocking out those triples - lutzes, flips, salchows.

Except she wasn't. She never had a triple toe really. I can't recall her landing a 3 loop. She could get a lutz airbourne, but underrotated/two footed the landing. She didn't have a flip because it got edge called. During her first season with Wolfe they had sbs flips which were then abandoned because she couldn't take off on an outside edge. It was back to salchow.

I don't get how that training center decided that keeping a skater static was the best way to ensure success. It seems more like a daycare situation than a coaching one.

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*Why didn't Barabe apply this insight to the layout of the programs? If a skater is skating the same program, same style, same layout, same everything, every year, it's going to get stale. Everything from the performance to the technique. Jessica got out of shape, and she got sloppy. Why didn't Barabe give her skaters "more to practise" outside of the jump area? Why is she such a fan of formula, of rote repetition of the dull?

**Later Jessica added more cover by throwing in "virus" "tendonitis" and now "ankle."