There is a common belief within skating fans that flutzes (or lutz jumps taken off from a flat or inside edge) are most common among Russian ladies. I have always believed the opposite, but as I am currently taking a statistics course, I thought it would be fun to see how my beliefs, and the common belief, hold up against percentages and proportions. Because I don’t have unlimited time on my hands, I will only be looking into every ladies skater at Russian, Japanese and US Nationals and analyzing their lutz edges (I wanted to do the Korean ladies and I might mention a few just for fun but as Korean Nationals was postponed until next week I’ve decided to leave them out of this for now). Next time I might return with a junior edition (since flutzes seem to be rather common amongst the Russian juniors).
To Begin: What is a Lutz?
The lutz jump is one of the six types of figure skating jumps. The ISU defines the lutz as “a toe-pick assisted jump with an entrance from a back outside edge and landing on the back outside edge of the opposite foot”. Here are two textbook examples of what a lutz should look like:
(The landing here isn’t great - see the ice flying, but the takeoff is just perfection)
Both of these jumps, and any good lutz jump, have deep outside edges. Another qualification one may bring up is prerotation, but this post is mostly just analyzing whether or not certain skaters flutz - not whether or not their lutz is textbook overall. So there are a lot of skaters to be mentioned that have good outside edges on their lutzes, but their lutzes can’t be considered “textbook” because they prerotate far more than the acceptable amount. But that is a whole other controversial topic that really deserves a post of its own.
So what is a bad lutz then?
In this jump, the skater takes off from an inside edge, instead of the outside edge that the other two skaters use. There are some other issues with this particular jump, but the inside edge is the issue which is most glaring.
The Russian Ladies
Here are my conclusions drawn from Russian Nationals. Interestingly enough, besides Konstantinova, every other skater with an outside edge had a very clear outside edge. Out of the ladies with flat edges, some looked more inside (Samodurova’s namely but also Liza Nugumanova’s), while others looked more outside (Kostina’s), but because they all looked flat more than inside/outside, I grouped them together.
The Japanese Ladies
I only looked at the 24 ladies who qualified for the free skate, and for many of them I ended up having to use videos from the National Winter Sports because JSF doesn’t post full videos of their skates at Japanese Nationals to YouTube. I also couldn’t find any videos of Natsu Suzuki, so I could not include her in this analysis.
The American Ladies
Sadly there were a lot of American ladies that I couldn’t find videos of - so this is a rather short list (and probably not very representative).
Analysis:
In the Russian ladies - 47.1% have true lutzes.
In the Japanese ladies - 52.2% have true lutzes.
In the American ladies - 71.4% have true lutzes.
It’s really interesting that so many American ladies have good lutz edges. This is either because I could not find videos of many competitors, or because some competitors who have problematic edges did not jump the lutz (Starr is a good example). However, out of the American ladies, few have “deep” outside edges. Many of them do have “good” outside edges, as in it is very clear that they do, indeed, have outside edges, however few seem to warp the laws of physics like the most textbook examples do. Interestingly, the panel at US Nationals did call out many of the problematic lutzes with lower level skaters, while blatantly ignoring Bradie and Mariah’s clear flat edges.
Out of the Japanese ladies with outside edges, not that many have “deep” outside edges either. I would say Rika, Tomoe and Honoka have really great deep edges. A few of the ladies I wrote as outside really have iffy edges (Wakaba’s probably the best example - sometimes its outside, sometimes it looks more flat).
Out of the Russian ladies with outside edges, many have good outside edges. Except for Stanislava, all the ladies with outside edges have very clear outside edges (unlike in the other two countries oddly). I used to assume that coaches played a big part in whether or not a skater had an outside edge, but it appears this data says otherwise. The most interesting thing is that the slow motion replays almost always caught the lutzes in the best angle (the same angle as Boyang’s 4Lz in the first gif), and yet, very few lutzes were called.
For example, for the Tutberidze Girls, three have unclear edges and 1 has a good outside edge, however, Sasha Trusova used to be an Eteri girl as well, and also has an outside edge. Same goes for Mishin, who was often mistakingly thought to teach good technique based off of Liza Tuktamysheva’s textbook lutz. But as Samodurova and Guliakova are also Mishin’s student, it appears that this technique does not come from his camp. These conclusions make rational sense as Mishin and Eteri usually do not coach skaters since youth, but rather often take in already established skaters. Eteri has been known to only accept students with their triples. If we were to look into some younger juniors, or some retired (switched disciplines) skaters I think I could present one coach who has consistently presented ladies with correct edges - Panova. Besides Frolova who has a problematic lutz edges, many of her other skaters - Tsibinova, Tarakanova, Sotskova, Sinitsyna, Kanysheva, Kostyuk etc - have had correct flip and lutz edges. This would require some more analysis though.
While it looks like the US ladies clearly have a lead in this category, due to certain circumstances, it is unreasonable to say that overall, American ladies are less prone to flutzing just based off this data. I would do a 1-Prop Z Test but these statistics really do not check any of the assumptions or conditions necessary for such a computation.
Overall, it is really interesting that around 50% of the skaters at Russian Nationals and Japanese Nationals have problematic lutzes. It’s that widespread an issue. No, it’s not just Evgenia Medvedeva or Mao Asada or Anna Shcherbakova that suffer from it. Yes, they aren’t (well, Zhenya and Anya aren’t at least) being punished for it, but neither are a good percentage of the others who have problematic lutzes.
For reference, at Japanese Nationals, only two lutz calls were given in the SP (! for Yoshida and Uramatsu). The tech panel was much harsher in the FS with flip and lutz calls galore (Kaori got “e”, Rika Hongo got “e” and Uramtaus got “e”).
At Russian Nationals, in the SP only three edge calls were given - Trusova’s 3F, Guliakova’s 3Lz and Onishchenko’s 3Lz (which got “e”). In the FS, six edge calls were given (two on flips, two !’s for Guliakova’s 3Lz and one ! and one “e” for Onishchenko’s 3Lz). It is true that out of the lutzes at the competition, Onishchenko’s were the most problematic. However, Daria Usacheva’s were also taken off from an inside edge, and she not only was not called for the three lutzes attempted, but was given high positive GOE for many.
At US Nationals, Ikenishi and Murdock both received “e” calls on their lutzes. Ikenishi receiving one the free skate and Mudock receiving two - one in the SP and one FS. There were no other lutz calls for the event.
Of course, after watching so many events, assuming that flat edges will get ! calls and inside edges will get “e” calls is dreaming of the impossible. At best, really severe flutzes done by lower level skaters may be called, inside edges will be called “!” and flat edges will often be let go with no call nor deduction whatsoever. And while I looked at National protocols, it is true that these results are paralleled in international protocols as well.
So, in conclusion - Russian ladies do not flutz any more than Japanese ladies do. And flutzes are becoming quite a severe problem. Several of the skaters at the top have problematic lutz edges, and it seems like this issue will persist given how the rising generation seems to be struggling with lutz edges as well.
Many use these uncalled Russian flutzes as evidence of Russian overscoring, but in response to those comments I guide you to the PCS section of scoring. That is where the atrocities happen. Most of the top skaters won’t be punished for flutzing, however Russians are gifted extra PCS for existing, while the Japanese, with their excellent skating skills and attention to detail, seem to be getting punished with lower PCS (especially those prone to inconsistency).
To be a figure skating fan you really don’t have to understand things like skating skills or jump technique. They’re just bonus information available for your comprehension if you wish to dive deeper into the sport. However, because some misinformation seems to be spreading around about who has good skating skills and who has bad skating skills, I felt it necessary to give an overview of what qualities make up a skater with good skating skills.
You may have heard about a few notable singles skaters with great skating skills - Yuzuru Hanyu, Patrick Chan, Carolina Kostner, Alena Kostornaia, Rika Kihira, Marin Honda, Satoko Miyahara etc. - but what makes them good in comparison to the rest of the field?
(spoiler: just look how both these skaters gain speed while doing insanely difficult steps into their triple axels!)
Speed and Flow - look at how fast these skaters move on the ice. The best comparison would be to find fan videos shot from the stands. These videos can really capture the sheer speed skaters possess as they move across the ice. But fast speed is not synonymous with good skating skills. Example 1: Alexandra Trusova, who actually possesses good speed across the ice (not so much in step sequences). However, one really cannot say she has good skating skills. Speed is often paired with flow - aka how easily do they create speed? How easily do they maintain it? Do their movements look easy or labored and machine-like? An easy indicator of this is crossovers. Does the skater take several crossovers to get across the ice or just one or two? Positions in crossovers can also be an indicator of the quality of skating skills. Look at Sasha or Anna Shcherbakova’s way of building speed in crossovers and say, Alyona Kostornaia or Satoko Miyahara’s.
Quality of Edges - speed and flow are easy to tell, whether from fan videos or even in official videos. Watch Japanese Nationals and then Russian Nationals and you’ll be able to tell the overall level of speed and flow is on a different level. But again, those are not the only two ingredients necessary. Edge quality concerns how deep the skater’s edges are while doing anything, but especially turns and steps. The quality of a skaters edges are easiest to spot in step sequences, where skaters have to do several difficult steps and turns. Watch for how deep their edges are. In addition, watch closely when skaters attempt difficult turns such as counter or rocker. Do they “hop” their turn (aka their entire blade comes off the ice when the skater is changing directions)?
One-Foot Skating - one should not only consider the amount of one-foot skating but the quality of the one-foot skating. Often skaters will have clusters of one-foot skating combining various difficult turns in their step sequence. That is an indicator, but the amount of one foot skating across the entire program, including as transitions, is important to consider as well. Do skaters lose their speed through their difficult steps and turns or do they manage to actually gain speed?
Multi-Directional Skating - can the skater do difficult turns and steps in both directions? Is the quality of skating in both directions the same? In step sequences, skaters are required to do difficult turns and steps in both directions, so one can check if the skater has equally deep edges or speed while skating counterclockwise and clockwise.
Varied Use of Power/Speed/Acceleration - another indicator for skating skills is whether or not and how well a skater is able to vary their speed across a program. Can they speed up when the music allows for it? Can they slow down when the music calls for it? On that note, can the skater match their steps to the rhythm of the music? This doesn’t just mean matching a musical accent, but rather matching the entire tone of the musical choice. This quality ties in with musicality and it isn’t entirely a skating skills checkpoint. But of course, if you don’t have good skating skills, it is difficult to decelerate or accelerate easily within a program to try to match the music.
Many people often look for skating skills in step sequences, which makes sense given many of the difficult turns and steps or clusters of one foot skating are reserved for step sequences. However, it’s important to consider the entirety of a program when analyzing skating skills. In step sequences, do not be distracted the skater’s expression and arm movements (those are obviously important too, but not in terms of skating skills), the importance lies in the edges and the speed. Just because Alena Kostornaia falls out of a twizzle doesn’t mean she automatically has weak skating skills, her crossovers are still effortless, she can still create speed with just a few pushes, and the quality of edges are still good. Of course, in that old FS (the Nocturnal Animals FS) the amount of one foot skating was rather lacking.
And lastly - like all of figure skating - skating skills is subjective. Whether or not someone has good skating skills is subjective because “good” means different things to everyone. If your level of “good” is say Patrick Chan, very few skaters will even be able to touch the mark of “acceptable”. So thus, whether or not say Alyona deserves 9s in SS is also subjective, to an extent. Obviously no judge or fan should be using Patrick or Yuzu as the standard for a 8. Similarly, Alyona shouldn’t be getting 10s in SS, but also definitely not 8s. I think that range is reasonable, it’s only what multiple of 0.25 that might incite more arguments. With her best programs (Adios Nonino, The Departure namely) she’d be getting 9.00-9.25 in my book. Now obviously, in a perfect world, skating skills could be more objective - speed could be measured, crossovers in a program can be measured, the angles of edges and cleanliness of turns can be measured. But that would take a lot of work, a lot of waiting time, and the development of a whole new system. So, for now, it seems unlikely any big development of that level will happen.
Russian Juniors (Ladies) and Bad Technique (Toe Jumps)
It seems to be a trend, or a rumored trend at the least, that many Russian Junior Ladies nowadays have bad technique on their jumps. Since I love a bunch of the Russian Junior Ladies, and I personally never really placed too much attention on their jump technique, I thought it would be interesting to share how the facts match up with the rumors.
Eteri’s Juniors
Kamila Valieva
This season, Eteri has once again, produced the top junior (so far) of the season. This time the pupil who has brought her the title is Kamila Valieva. While Valieva has been applauded for her flexibility, her beautiful spins, her lines, and her skating skills, it is rare to see anyone praise her jump technique. There is a reason behind that, and the reason is that Valieva’s jump technique is rather bad.
Even in real time, and without a closeup, you can clearly see that Valieva’s jump technique in combinations is extremely weak. She bobbles in between the triple lutz and the triple toe loop, and this results in her basically doing the 3T with no speed going in. Though she has managed quite well so far with this technique, it is surely not one to rely on forever.
This GIF is from JGP Chelyabinsk, the most recent competition, and you can clearly see an outside edge. You can also see quite an amount of prerotation:
Valieva’s outside edge is actually quite good in this competition, but many have claimed that Valieva’s edge is consistently getting worse. This image proves otherwise, and you can see clearly that Valieva still has maintained a rather good outside edge.
However, her biggest issue is with prerotation.
Valieva places her entire blade down on the ice, and this creates a very awkward takeoff that almost make my ankles hurt looking at it. Her takeoff technique is similar to her senior in Eteri’s Camp - Anna Shcherbakova - except it seems to be even worse, as she leaves after 1/2 a rotation. The image above shows clearly that at 1/2 a rotation (when the screenshot was taken) her toepick is still on the ice.
On Valieva’s 3F, we see a similar issue. The edge is correct, but the prerotation is massive and results in a full blade.
However, the entrance doesn’t look nearly as awkward as the lutz, and she leaves the ice before 1/2 a rotation. Her edge is constant and never looks to be close to flat or outside. I would definitely say her flip is leagues better than her lutz.
Surprisingly, Valieva’s toe loop technique is also better than her lutz.
This shot is of Valieva’s 4T at 180 degrees. She definitely has taken off before 180, as you can see her foot is pretty high off the ice. Toeloops actually allow for up to 180 degrees PR (a fan made standard I believe actually), so her 4T technique isn’t that bad!
Daria Usacheva
This girl is one of my personal favorites. I love how expressive her movements are, and how powerful her steps can be. However, while her jump technique is better than Valieva’s, it’s not wonderful in anyway either.
Though her lutz edge, even in real time, is obviously very shallow, and possibly a flat edge, you can see that the takeoff is not nearly as awkward as Valieva’s.
Right as the toepick hits the ice, Dasha’s blade is flat or slightly inside. Her entrance is kind of similar to Medvedeva’s, in the sense that she gets on an outside edge before she picks, but rocks into a flat/slightly inside edge when she actually gets off the ice.
However, like Valieva, Dasha also uses a full blade. Unlike Kamila however, she doesn’t place her entire blade onto the ground, and so...
She leaves the ice a little before 180 degrees, somewhere around 160-170 I would say. This make her technique very similar to Sasha Trusova’s, who also uses a full blade, but doesn’t completely slam her blade on the ice. Another reason Kamila’s takeoff might look more awkward is because right as she picks off the ice, she uses a full blade, while Dasha stats out with a toepick and then places the rest of the blade on the ice.
Her flip has very similar technique to her lutz, so I’m not going to go into full detail about it. (Interestingly, you can see that Dasha’s full blade never fully hits the ice, rather she places the toepick in a sideways manner that allows her to rotate on the ice).
Dasha has a proper inside edge on her flip, not surprising since she has a flutz.
Similar to her lutz, Dasha takes off just a little before 180 degrees, since she doesn’t put her full blade on the ice. She does still PR more than the allowed amount however.
Maiia Khromykh
While I definitely prefer the former two skaters to Maiia, I feel like people don’t nearly give her enough credit. Her FS choreo is terrible and so she can’t so off how elegant she is and how nice her lines are, but there are certain moments when you can see how nicely she controls her lines and movements. But, how does her jumping technique compare with her training mates?
Again, the edge looks fine, but the prerotation looks rather obvious.
When the toepick hits the ice, Maiia is at a slightly outside edge, but once her full blade hits the ice, the blade shifts to a slightly inside edge. Maiia’s technique is like a mix of Kamila and Dasha’s. She doesn’t immediately hit the ice with her blade, but she also fully puts her blade on the ice.
This angle is horrible! But I can only guess that here Maiia has left the ice. I would guess she has 170-180 degrees of PR.
Here, it seems more obvious that Khromykh picks with her blade, which is odd considering she takes off a little before 180 degrees on the flip as well.
Conclusion:
All of Eteri’s students have improper jump technique. I would say Valieva has the worst prerotation technique, while Usacheva’s is slightly better than the rest. None of them are good though. So, those who say Tutberidze’s new trio of juniors don’t have the best technique are not in the wrong.
Panova’s Juniors
Kseniia Sinitsyna
Kseniia is my other favorite junior this season (along with Dasha). Her technique is much better than those who are coached by Tutberidze. Panova is actually known for teaching textbook technique and training students who have good skating skills and edges.
Her jumps look really nice and tight in real time because she has excellent air position, and a very nice rippon as well. But how do they measure when we slow them down?
Again, very nice outside edge on the lutz!
Kseniia has a very nice outside edge here, but in the second picture it seems that she has a full blade. Its odd, though, that despite having what seems to look like a full blade, Kseniia leaves the ice at around 90 degrees (a little more, but not by too much). So what do you think? Is it textbook? Or does the possible full blade mean Kseniia also has bad technique.
Again, very nice edge with a good lift and good transitions into the flip.
The same strange technique that Kseniia uses on her lutz appears here as well. She seems to have a full blade, but still PRs within a good amount.
Anna Frolova
Another one of the more underrated skaters. I have personally never purposefully actually looked into Frolova’s technique, so I am excited to see how Panova trained her!
While the PR looks to be pretty good, the edge seems to look less stable than Kseniia’s.
As I suspected, the edge is flat, bordering inside, and like Kseniia, she uses a full blade. She, like Kseniia, lifts off the ice at around 100 degrees, and so the PR is definitely within a good amount.
It also seems like Frolova uses a full blade on the flip, but I’m not sure. By the time she is at around 75 degrees, she is already using a toepick so that’s what I included. Again, pretty good technique!
Conclusion:
Panova’s students are known for having relatively good technique. They usually PR an acceptable degrees, and though Frolova doesn’t have the best lutz edge, that seems to be a rarity within Panova students.
Davydov’s Juniors
Viktoria Vasilieva
Another one of my underrated favorites this season. Similarly with Frolova, I have never looked closely at Vasilieva’s technique, so I am interested to see how textbook her technique really is.
The jump looks pretty nice in real time - with a pretty good outside edge (from what I can see), and a very nice rippon.
Here, we can see that the edge looks a lot less deep than it does in real time. However, it still looks to be an outside edge. Her takeoff is also very nice to the eyes, similar to the Panova students.
Vasilieva seems to barely manage an outside edge when she picks. Her technique is not as strange as those of Tutberidze’s students, and she seems to be able to keep an outside edge. She does, however, use full blade and that results in her having 180 degrees PR.
Like her lutz, Vasilieva has a full blade and takes off around 180 degrees. However, she does have the correct edge.
Conclusion
Russian skaters don’t seem to struggle on flip edges, but many of their lutz edges can only barely pass. The two Panova skaters both have very good technique in terms of PR, and Sinitsyna seems to be the most full Russian skater there is, with good edges, good PR and good interpretation. Anyways, this doesn’t mean that these skaters are bad, they just weren’t taught the correct technique.
As the Grand Prix comes to a close, Sasha has again broken records and made history with her every step. With the introduction of her 4F at GPF and comeback of the 4S at Japan Open let’s analyze some of these jumps.
Though her 4Lz has a little too much PR and her 4F has an unclear edge, her 4S and 4T are quite good. They might not be “effortless”, but in terms of PR they abide by the rules.
Even though the landing of this 4S was rather weak, the height and distance it got was INSANE. So insane even Nathan Chen felt the need to compliment it. I cannot wait until Sasha gets her 4S consistent because that will be a gem to see in competition.
Just look at the distance it travels! I can’t wait until someone does calculations of how high it is and how far it travels. Let’s take a deeper look at the takeoff:
In a 4S, the fanmade standard is 180 degrees, and so while Sasha goes a little over, it’s barely noticeable.
The jump is well rotated as well.Take a look at the takeoff and at the landing and notice that the blade is facing opposite directions. That is because of the half a rotation prerotation (that is allowed). When the takeoff blade and the blade at the landing are exact opposites of each other, that is a very clean quad salchow. Sasha’s would be about 40 degrees UR, meaning it is clean.
(sorry this gif is so bad, I have no idea why it keeps on pausing in the middle)
As I have said earlier, her 4Lz is my least favorite quad because of the PR, but it does look pretty effortless doesn’t it? Maybe because the gif above is super choppy, but her 4Lz kind of looks like a triple.
But I do have to compliment how tight Sasha’s rotation is here. It looks so tight and clean.
Sasha at least has a very steady outside edge and she never completely uses the “full blade”. She uses the toepick, and continues to rotate on half the blade until the 190 mark.
Sasha’s jump would be barely clean if we ignored the 90 degrees PR. However, if we consider the fact she only lifts off the ice at 190 degrees, her 4Lz attempts as a general have never been “clean”. I used the Rostelecom attempt because it has the highest GOE out of her 4 (out of 4!) successful attempts this season.
My favorite quad from Sasha is her 4T. The height, the distance, the correct amount of PR! And the fact that she does not only 2 of them, but 2 of them in combo and one in the back half!
(again sorry for bad gif quality)
The takeoff, while not looking effortless, certainly isn’t super labored nor difficult.
The fanmade standard for toe loops is 180 degrees, so Sasha definitely meets the standard. In terms of PR, this jump is fine. What about UR?
The rotation is really quite good as well. I’m not particularly surprised by this result since based off consistency rates and overall jump quality, you can see that the 4T is definitely her best jump. Not only does it reach good height and distance, it has the correct amount of PR and good rotation at the landing.
Now the new quad: 4F! Not taking account technique, her 4F is quite amazing. Good height, distance, rotational speed and a rather difficult transition in! This is her first time attempting it in competition and it was CLEAN and LANDED! How rare is that?
Look at that entrance! She has a lot of flow and speed going in the jump, and while the landing was super effortless, it was pretty steady and even.
From this slow motion I can already tell Sasha is using excessive PR, but again, you can see that she doesn’t but her full blade down as some other ladies (whom we will discuss in Quads and Ladies: Part 3) do. Let’s take a closer look at the takeoff:
Surprisingly, Sasha’s edge is rather unclear. It actually looks slight outside form this frame, but I have her the benefit of the doubt since the back of her blade is still forming a flat edge and from other angles it looks slightly inside.
The PR is rather excessive (sorry you can’t really see her blade, the height statistic thing got in the way). I would say it’s worse than both her 4Lz and 4T, but it is a very new quad for her so I am sure Sasha will improve the takeoff (her 4Lz used to be around 190 too and now its 180 and a little less).
The jump is very barely rotated beyond 90 if you didn’t take into account PR, but if you did then it would be UR. For the first time attempting I think Sasha did an amazing job! Since judges could care less about about PR, we will look at it from the 90 degrees w/o PR line. It would be called clean!
In Conclusion:
Sasha is amazing. She is pushing this sport further and even if her components are lower and her technique isn’t the best, she’s encouraging those with higher components and better technique to try quads too. Let’s not try to drag down a cute 15 year old okay?
Ladies and Quads Part 3 will come after RusNats and Japanese Nationals. I’ll analyze: Shcherbakova’s 4F, Valieva’s 4T, Kihira’s 4S, Tuktamysheva’s 4T, Akatieva’s 4T, Khromykh’s 4S and Zhilina’s 4T. See you then!
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Plenty of drama happened in this past month, from Alysa landing a 4Lz to Anna landing a 4Lz to Sasha landing a 4Lz, 4T+3T and 4T and setting a world record. So, are these 4Lz’s legitimate? Or are they just flukes that managed to pass the eye of the judging panel?
Let’s start with a correct example of a lutz - Polya’s lovely 3Lz
You can clearly see two things - 1. outside edge, and 2. correct use of the toe pick, which leads to minimal PR. As you can see Polya’s toe pick hits the ice and leaves after her body turns 1/4 of a revolution. In an incorrect lutz you would see that the skater’s full blade drops to the ice and only leaves after 1/2 a rotation. But I don’t think I need to elaborate any more on those topics, as they are commonly seen in many videos and posts. If you would like to learn more about PR you can watch triple flutz on YouTube. I think she does a very good job of explaining PR and its effects.
Anyways, so when looking for a CORRECT lutz (bear in mind, a correct lutz may not necessarily be a “good lutz”) we need just those two things! Outside edge and correct use of the toe pick.
So how about Alysa, Alexandra and Anna’s 4Lz’s?
Alexandra Trusova - Queen of Quads
I’m going to say this straight out and prove the point later, Sasha - out of these three - has the best 4Lz. It isn’t a very good one, but its first in this pecking order.
I am going to use the Russian Test Skates quad from Sasha when we talk about PR because the Ondrej Nepela angels make me want to cry.
So, though her right blade is covering her left blade (the one that is supposed to be on an outside), the fact that her knee is bent shows that it is clearly an outside edge (and not a shallow one too). She is, however, using a full blade, as seen by the fact that her entire blade has dropped to the ice. But was it rotated not including the PR?
For this analysis I will actually use the Ondrej Nepela quad:
So this is when Sasha is supposed to takeoff. Again, as I have said before, I am not counting PR yet. So, let us just assume she takes off here, the 1/4 mark.
So, in that situation, Sasha’s quad would have 100% been clean. But, if we had considered the 180 degrees PR that Sasha uses, the situation would’ve been more like -
But, that is up to you whether or not you want to include it. Now lets talk about GOE:
1) very good height and very good length (of all jumps in a combo or sequence) - You can talk all you want about Sasha PR, but her height and distance is pretty remarkable.
2) good take-off and landing
3) effortless throughout (including rhythm in Jump combination) - Sasha makes this jump look pretty darn effortless in my opinion.
4) steps before the jump, unexpected or creative entry
5) very good body position from take-off to landing - everything looks pretty neat and clean
6) element matches the music - WHY DANIIL, this is so easy to accomplish!
GOE w/o counting PR: +3
GOE counting PR: -1 (-2 for poor take-off and -2 for UR)
Total Element Score w/o counting PR: 14.95
Total Element Score counting PR: 8.28
Anna Shcherbakova - the Firebird Emerges
After failing to land a 4Lz internationally for an entire season, Anya has succeeded on her first try! It’s flawed but this is quite the accomplishment!.
This angle is actually really good for analysis since it clearly shows the edge, the toepick, and the rotation. So first let’s talk about the takeoff.
So as you can see, when Anya’s toepick hits the ice, she is on a slight outside edge. Her’s is much more shallow than Sasha’s, and if you compare the angle their knees are at you can clearly see that. However, Anya’s takeoff technique isn’t the best, and so she also drops her entire blade to the ice:
Now, here you can see her entire blade drop to the ice, and also you can see that her blade shifts from inside to outside. I would personally just give the lutz a ! sign because technically she’s on an outside when her toepick hits the ice, and that is when you technically takeoff. But again, I will calculate her score for if you judged very harshly on PR. You can also see that she is at 1/4 of a rotation and still has not left the ice. Now what about the rotation? Is it UR?
Sadly, Anya’s 4Lz wouldn’t be considered rotated even if we gave the PR a leeway. And though her 4Lz at RusNats last year and the at the domestic Russian Cup Stages looked rotated, and even her step-out at Junior Worlds had clean rotation, her first international 4Lz is still UR. It would even be a downgrade if you considered PR. And no offense, but the UR was obvious in slo-mo, and even quite clear in real time. But I’m sure Anya’s going to get the rotation next time, since she’s done it before.
1) very good height and very good length (of all jumps in a combo or sequence)
2) good take-off and landing
3) effortless throughout (including rhythm in Jump combination) - Anya makes the jump look pretty good and effortless.
4) steps before the jump, unexpected or creative entry
5) very good body position from take-off to landing - everything looks pretty neat and tight
6) element matches the music
GOE w/o counting PR: -1 (-2 for UR, -1 for ! sign)
GOE counting PR: -5 (-4 for <<, -3 for e)
Total Score w/o counting PR: 8.28
Total Score counting PR: 2.36 :(
Alysa Liu - New Hope for the US
The drought in US ladies figure skating is finally experiencing rain, in the form of superstar Alysa Liu. So how does her 4Lz measure up to her seniors? (I’m going to analyze both her competitions even though I suspect the technique wouldn’t have changed too much between three weeks).
Also not the best angle to work with, but the replays after provided an insanely up close and helpful angle.
When she first picks the ice (and when she takes off) Alysa maintains a steady outside edge.
(Sorry for the misspelling, 3am tings)
Here you can see that Alysa’s blade has dropped and she is no longer using just the toepick. Of course her situation appears to be better than Anya’s as Alysa’s entire blade doesn’t fall, but having an actual full blade does not mean that jump has to be more PR. For example, Alysa’s body only leaves the ice after half a rotation, while Anya and Sasha both leave at about 1/2 a rotation. But, does Alysa also have a UR?
Simply put, yes. This is when her toepick first lands, and she ends up completing the missing 1/3 of a rotation on the ice. If you count her PR, Alysa’s quad should also be downgraded due to way too much PR. But her Gdansk attempt looked much better in terms of UR.
(Well in real time at actually might've looked clean!)
I skipped the takeoff analysis because it’s basically the exact same thing as Lake Placid. As you can see here, Alysa was a lot closer than she was Lake Placid. But again, it is still UR.
1) very good height and very good length (of all jumps in a combo or sequence)
2) good take-off and landing
3) effortless throughout (including rhythm in Jump combination)
4) steps before the jump, unexpected or creative entry
5) very good body position from take-off to landing - everything looks pretty neat and tight
6) element matches the music - Alysa picks along with an upbeat in the music
GOE w/o counting PR: 0 (-2 for UR)
GOE counting PR: -4 (-4 for <<)
Total Score w/o counting PR: 9.20
Total Score counting PR: 3.45
So what does this mean?
Well, this really does prove the fact that as she’s been doing quads longest, Sasha has the most confidence going into the jump, and her rotation is the best. For me, I think Alysa’s Lake Placid 4Lz and Anya’s Lombardia Trophy 4Lz were both very UR. So, in my opinion, here is the ranking:
1. Alexandra Trusova - Ondrej Nepela (clean if not counting PR. Good height, pretty effortless and good posture)
2. Alysa Liu - Gdansk (not as UR as the two below, good posture)
2. Anna Shcherbakova - Lombardia (Effortless and good posture, but UR)
4. Alysa Liu - Lake Placid (good posture, but UR, and also rather stiff)
Bonus: Anna Shcherbakova, RusNats ‘19
Wonderful rotation, lest you count PR. And also, if I were to score that based on GOE:
1) very good height and very good length (of all jumps in a combo or sequence)
2) good take-off and landing
3) effortless throughout (including rhythm in Jump combination)
4) steps before the jump, unexpected or creative entry
5) very good body position from take-off to landing
