Fred's, (Used to be Barb's), Board

The Federation (ISU) is apparently looking to close the gap between technical, artistic sides of sport. Expect some changes as early as next season...

Read all about it here: http://www.icenetwork.com/news/2017/09/11/253667206

Although I know they need to adjust the amount of points offered to a different elements, I really hate to see the sport going in this direction. When Pro events have artistic programs, it just doesn't keep my interest at all. Over time I've also not been that interested in gala performances. Now that vocal is allowed, I fear an artistic program would be very little different from a gala performance. What we don't want is some jump fest for a technical program with no balance to the program. A good balance of technical and artistic is what's needed, and NO not a shorter program for the FS. I was interested to hear Brian Orser's perspective as I respect his opinion as he KNOWS from a skater and coach's perspective. They want to bring more interest to the sport, but I fear it would do just the opposite. Now there's no guarantee that it these changes will happen, these are only PROPOSED changes. Hopefully saner heads will prevail!!

I could often enjoy a performance more heavily weighted towards the artistic sense, but true, I wouldn't want a steady diet of them. Also, while it is nice to see barriers being pushed back, we must never put such pressure on the skaters that they are motivated to risk injury to achieve the prize. It's a complex thing to play with scoring seeing the way it shapes the sport.
There is no question that change is desirable and maybe even necessary, I'm not sure this is the group I would trust to do that.

From what I read here, I think the idea of taking some of the points away from the quad elements, while giving more room to award QUALITY for the element is a sound move. There will still be athletic elements present in the competition but it sounds to me like it may help prevent "messy" quad skaters from beating other very refined skaters who take into account posture, air position, landing position, and line. Anyone who actually does something athletic, or requiring finite control of muscles, realizes that refinement of motion is what comes AFTER a skill is learned, and is usually more difficult than the skill itself.

Well said, Kevin

I'm wondering about this term "Radical." It's not the ISU's strong point.
I'm wondering,... (fearful?), that they mean something more than tweaking the numbers for the elements.

fred wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2017 8:17 am I'm wondering about this term "Radical." It's not the ISU's strong point.
I'm wondering,... (fearful?), that they mean something more than tweaking the numbers for the elements.

Well, I think the "radical" has already been approved for next season. The reduction of 30 seconds from the long program and removal of one element. That's pretty radical, and seems to be a done deal. I think that's a mistake though.

Yeah, certainly for the ISU that's pretty radical. I tend to think of "radical" as like when they went from the 6.0 to the CoP. scoring system. Maybe they could make judges accountable for their marking or something like that. However odds are they'll find some new ways to mess up the sport, like selling advertising to corporations and then requiring the skaters to wear the ads during their performances. Or they might require 2 laps of speed skating before the short programs.
Oooo, I hope they're not reading this.

Kevin wrote: Tue Sep 12, 2017 7:00 pm From what I read here, I think the idea of taking some of the points away from the quad elements, while giving more room to award QUALITY for the element is a sound move. There will still be athletic elements present in the competition but it sounds to me like it may help prevent "messy" quad skaters from beating other very refined skaters who take into account posture, air position, landing position, and line. Anyone who actually does something athletic, or requiring finite control of muscles, realizes that refinement of motion is what comes AFTER a skill is learned, and is usually more difficult than the skill itself.

I agree that you made some good points. Unfortunately, the fact that so many quads are being done, they are essentially taking over the event. What we don't want is that a program is about one particular element. Now the way things stand a person doing so many quads in a program might have an unfair advantage over the more complete skaters. If a jumping bean could land all the quads, he might unfairly win. This is the way I understand the changes to that. So, I'm agreeing with you.

It's definitely a good idea, if that's what they have in mind.