#electra fs

[shslartie]

My favorite Grand Prix Final Champ!!! 💖🥇⛸⚡️

[shslartie]

I’m so angry at so many of these little less than 17 year old girls attempting to just push out these difficult jumps.

Sure, it’s amazing that Rika has two Triple Axels. It’s amazing that Sasha has a Quad Lutz and a Quad Toe loop. And when Anna lands her Quad Lutz, it is great.

THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT EVERY SINGLE LADIES SKATER NEEDS TO BE WORKING ON TRIPLE AXELS AND QUADS.

Please let Alina take a break. She does NOT need to be working on a Quad Flip, especially with all of her growth issues and her joint issues, AND after not landing all of her jumps in Russian Nats. She MADE THE NATIONAL TEAM. She might not have made the podium, but that was NOT because she didn’t have a Quad. It was because she didn’t skate clean. If she had skated clean, she probably still would have had the technical points to at least be on the podium, if not first. She needs a BREAK, not to be broken by abusive coaching practices.

US Figure Skating needs to stop overhyping little 13 year old Alysa Liu. YES she is amazing, and YES she has a real bright future ahead of her — IF SHE CAN KEEP HER TECHNIQUE AND NOT GET THE NATHAN CHEN OLYMPIC YEAR TREATMENT. That is exactly what could happen if they start treating her like the Alexandra Trusovas and the Anna Shcherbakovas. We don’t need to make eteri girls. We need to encourage long lasting, healthy technique and put them in an environment where we an encourage and cultivate their talent for a long lasting career and not a flash in the pan that could ruin their bodies forever.

Rika Kihira does not need to be learning a Quad Toe Loop. While I trust her and the coaching staff, and that she will hopefully not be doing things to damage herself and will take the time to learn things correctly... I’m worried she too will face the wrath of puberty and a flash in the pan. I know that she does usually take her time to perfect things and work at it, and she’s looking for a challenge... but I’m still very very worried....

And more than ANYTHING I hate hate hate hate HATE seeing how many of the young skaters are getting messages on Instagram and twitter asking “when are you gonna do a Triple Axel??? Are you working on Quads????” And how many of them are saying “Yes”. What these girls need to work on is consistency.

+5/-5 is designed to reward cleanliness, technique and difficulty/ease of the jump rather than whether or not someone is doing a Quad. Sure, especially with the men, the difficult jumps can very easily get a +3 if they are even done slightly correct, but that doesn’t mean everyone can do that. And it DEFINITELY doesn’t mean everyone can do that safely.

I was hoping that after the whole Nationals marathon of competitions and after the Grand Prix series... that skaters would be taking somemuch needed breaks, and would be cleaning up and polishing. Because ACROSS THE BOARD, THAT is what is needed. Now, as we head into Euros and 4CC and Junior Worlds And Worlds... I am more worried than ever.

The ONLY good thing that I can think of from this... is that if there is ever a time to experiment and make these kind of dangerous decisions... it is now. At the tail end of the first year of the Olympic quadrennial. That way, people will either find something that WORKS — and they can hone that new technique for the next few years. OR they find out what doesn’t work, so they can make what they CAN do better. Or, worst case scenario, if they get injured... they have time to heal.

[shslartie]

Working on a sketch for a Rika piece!!! I’m real happy with how the pencil turned out, but now I’m scared to ink and paint it asdfghjkl

[shslartie]

IM STILL ANGRY

[shslartie]

Wow I just watched @trevenant and Karina’s interview with Skate Talk Online and What A Mood™️

The entire interview: A Big Freaking MOOD.