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Guide to Watching Figure Skating on the Family ChannelJan 11 '02 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Catch the Family Channel this Saturday to watch the LIVE broadcast of the US Nationals Ladies Figure Skating finals. ABC will air this the following day. If you recall the “whack heard ‘round the world,” you know that it was the start of the figure skating revolution in 1994. Of course, I’m talking about when Tonya Harding’s then-husband and friends, the Gilooly cronies, decided to swat rival Nancy Kerrigan in the knee, hoping to thwart her National and Olympic Gold dreams. What they did, instead, was escalate women’s figure skating to a new level of popularity. This weekend, The Family Channel is airing portions of the 2002 U.S. Nationals Figure Skating Championship. This competition serves not only to crown this country’s best skaters—in this Olympic year, the top finishers qualify for the US Olympic team. Family Channel Schedule Saturday, January 12, 8-11pm Eastern Ladies Short Program, Ladies Long Program (Live), Pairs Long Program, and Mens Recap This same broadcast will be re-aired on ABC on Sunday, January 13, at 3-6pm Eastern. Those who are familiar with this elegant and demanding sport and enjoy watching it may not know what expert commentator Dick Button means when he says “triple loop.” I decided to write this review to help the casual spectator better recognize skating elements to appreciate the nuances of the sport. Disciplines There are three main figure skating disciplines: freestyle, pairs, and dance. (If you’ve heard of figures, they have ceased to be part of competitive figure skating.) Freestyle is probably the most commonly recognized form of figure skating—Michelle Kwan is the defending US National Ladies Freestyle champion, and Timothy Goebel was last year’s Men’s gold medalist. (I won't give away who won the Men's competition this year, which was decided on Thursday night. The Family Channel will air a recap of the Men's event.) Spins and multi-revolution jumps are the primary elements of freestyle skating. Pairs skating involves two skaters who strive to “skate as one.” They perform many spins and jumps similar to freestyle, but they do so in unison. The man also lifts his female partner above his head or “throws” her into solo jumps. A signature Pairs move is the “death spiral”: the man pivots on his toepick, holding his partner’s hand as she slowly descends into a position parallel to and inches from the ice, rotating around him. Dance consists of fast, intricate footwork performed by a couple. There are no multi-revolution jumps in dance and spins are limited to three-revolution dance spins during which partners must be connected. Holds are required (the man may hold his partner off the ice in an interesting, intertwined position to express the music), but lifts above the shoulders are strictly forbidden. Since there are none of the impressive multi-revolution jumps common to freestyle and pairs in dance, most casual observers consider dance to be the “easier” of the three disciplines. Not so. In this reviewer’s opinion, dance is the most difficult skating discipline because of the quick moves, deep edges (read: soft, bent knees), and precise unison required to become a successful dance team. Compare the footwork in a freestyle program to the constant turning and sudden direction-changing of a dance routine and you will appreciate the intricacies of dance. Recognizing Freestyle Elements This short guide will help you to recognize the spins and jumps of freestyle. This may be helpful to you if you have a difficult time distinguishing jumps from one another. It's easy to get confused, they happen so quickly! Jumps Axel Easy to recognize because it is the only multi-revolution jump to take off from a forward entrance. In a triple axel, the most difficult jump in figure skating (yes, more difficult than a quad, four-revolution jump), the skater will take off on a forward outside edge, turn in the air three and a half times, and land on the opposite foot. Loop Also easy to recognize because the skater jumps off from and lands on the same foot. This is an “edge jump,” meaning the skater does not use a toepick to assist the takeoff, s/he uses the outside edge to lift into the jump. The skater will take off from and land in a backwards-moving position. Tara Lipinski clinched her Olympic Gold in 1998 by successfully performing a very difficult triple loop/triple loop combination jump. Salchow The salchow is another edge jump; again, the skater does not use the toe pick to lift off the ice. The salchow is sometimes difficult to recognize, however, since many skaters “free leg” (leg used to lift into the jump) comes so close to the ice, it may appear like they are using the toe pick. The jump lifts off a back inside edge. A common entry is for the skater to perform a three turn (a simple turn from forwards to backwards on one foot, aptly named because the tracing looks like the numeral three) and then lift the free leg into the jump to start the rotation. Toe Loop In this jump, the skater will use the toe pick on one foot to lift into the jump, landing on the opposite foot. Most skaters perform the triple toe loop by picking in with the left foot, rotating in a counter-clockwise direction for three revolutions, and landing on the right foot. I say “most skaters” because the vast majority of figure skaters rotate in a counter-clockwise direction for jumps and spins. People who are “lefties” tend to rotate in the opposite direction. Todd Eldredge jumps and spins in the clockwise direction. Thus, he uses his right foot to pick in for the toe loop and lands on his left. Flip Another toe-assisted jump. The skater picks in with the same foot that s/he lands on. An easy way to recognize the flip is by the pronounced three turn at the beginning of the jump (again, a three turn is a simple turn from forwards to backwards on one foot). The skater will use his/her toe pick to push into the three turn to start the jump entrance. The three turn that is performed is called an outside three turn because the three turn starts on the outside edge going forwards and ends on the inside edge going backwards. The jump then leaves off an inside edge. You’ll need to know this fact for the next jump… Lutz The lutz is essentially the same as the flip with one exception: the skater’s foot leaves the ice off an outside edge. You can recognize a lutz by the common entrance: the skater glides backwards for a relatively long time, and then the skating foot leans to an outside edge (ouch, it looks like this hurts, doesn’t it?) immediately before the opposite foot picks into the ice to launch the jump. The lutz is the most difficult toe-assisted jump because of this outside edge requirement. If you hear the commentator say the jump was a “flutz,” that means the skater leaned to an inside edge at takeoff, like the flip. Spins All spins rotate in one direction, and if you noted my explanation above in toe loop, you know that most skaters rotate counter-clockwise. Thus, for these skaters, forward spins are performed on the left foot while backspins are performed on their right. Scratch This is the common upright spin in which the skater wraps one leg around the other, gaining terrific speed. A very fast scratch spin--where you can nearly see the front and back of the skater’s head at the same time--is called a “blur” spin. Dorothy Hamill is famous for these. Sit Skater is in a sitting position. The most impressive sit spin is when the skater is in a very low position with the free leg parallel to the ice. This is called a “shoot the duck” position. When the skater drops his/her head to touch the knee in this position, it is called a “cannonball.” Current variations of the sit spin include placing the free leg ontop of the knee of the skating leg and the “half sit” where the skater has a very bent knee but is not in the traditional low position of a sit spin. In the half sit the arms are typically held outstretched to each side instead of together and down in the regular sit. Camel In this spin, the skater’s body resembles the capital letter “T”. The body and free leg are held parallel to the ice. The “flying camel” is when the skater jumps into a backwards camel spin. Layback Almost exclusively performed by women, the layback is when the skater has a graceful arch of the back and free leg bent and lifted nearly parallel to the ice. The name of the spin really says it all. Beilman Named after Denise Beilman, the first woman to perform this spin (and the first female to complete a triple jump in competition, 1978), this spin requires great flexibility. Sasha Cohen is the current top US female skater performing this spin. A skater will typically transition into this spin from a modified camel position, grabbing the free foot (skate) with one hand to raise it behind the head. Then the skater grabs onto the skate with both hands and lifts the foot so it is above the head. The back is, of course, extremely arched during this spin. Illusion/Windmill The skater alternates his/her torso and free leg up and down in phase with the spin, creating the illusion of a windmill. Death Drop A flying spin in which the skater jumps into a back sitspin. Very dramatic! It almost looks like the skater will land on his/her head! Other Elements Spiral Move in which the free leg is held behind the skater, at least parallel to the ice, but usually past parallel. Similar position to the camel spin, although the free leg is typically held much higher in the spiral. Michelle Kwan’s signature move is her inside-to-outside spiral during which she covers almost the entire ice surface. This move requires tremendous strength and control as the skater transfers the spiral from traveling on an inside edge to an outside edge. Charlotte Skater glides backwards on one foot and lifts the free foot to a split position, bowing the head down to nearly touch the knee. Spread Eagle Skater glides in a straight line on two feet, toes pointed out in opposite directions. The skater can lean back for an outside spread eagle or forward for an inside one. Ina Bauer Similar to a spread eagle, but one leg is usually deeply bent in the front of the skater while the back leg is stretched out into a modified lunge. Almost exclusively performed by women, an arched back is key to a graceful Ina Bauer. Scoring There are nine judges at US Nationals, and skaters in freestyle are given two marks from each judge, one for technical merit and one for presentation. The highest score a skater can achieve is a 6.0, and the top competitors will typically score in the 5.0 to 6.0 range. The location where the skaters receive their scores is called the "kiss and cry" area, named for the emotions this process can stir up! Considerations for the technical merit score are how well the skater performed the required elements, namely the accuracy of the jumps and spins. There are standard deductions for missed required elements, such as a skater missing the second jump in a two-jump combination, or if a skater falls and misses a jump completely. Other small deductions may be taken for bobbles or wobbles, slow spins, and other technical elements that contribute to the overall quality. Presentation marks reflect how well the skater interprets and expresses their music. Skaters with good posture, stretch and flexibility will get high presentation scores, as will those with dramatic performances that build in momentum and energy. Skaters who adopt a "character" for their program or express a theme are also typically rewarded with high presentation marks. To determine the winner of the event, all the scores from all nine judges are not added together. Rather, ordinals are assigned according to how each judge scored each particular skater. For instance, if judge "A" gives Michelle Kwan a 5.8 for technical merit and a 5.9 for presentation, while he gives Sasha Cohen a 5.7 and a 5.8, respectively, this judge has scored Michelle first and Sasha second. Michelle's total from this judge is an 11.7, higher than Sasha's 11.5. With nine judges, each skater gets nine ordinals. The skater with the most first place ordinals is then named the winner. Then the skater with the most second place ordinals is given the Silver. Take care to note that if anyone besides the winner receives a first place ordinal, that skater's first place ordinal becomes a second place ordinal. This process is repeated until all the placings are determined. There are often ties, but the tie-breaking is a little too complicated for the purposes of this general review. Heck, ordinals can be confusing enough! You may see a skater with several 5.5's receive a recognizably lower 4.9 from a particular judge. This judge, however, may not be necessarily scoring this skater any lower on his ordinals than those that gave her a 5.5. You have to pay more attention to how each judge places each skater in relation to one another, not necessarily the number value of each score. In Closing I hope this guide helps you better appreciate and understand the beautiful and demanding sport of figure skating as you watch Nationals on the Family Channel this weekend! The expert event commentators will be former Olympic Champions Peggy Flemming and Dick Button, with sports announcer Terry Gannon. Former pairs champion, Peter Carruthers, will interview the skaters post-performance.  |
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