Saturday, November 13, 2010

Skate America Mens Free Skate

Group 1

Viktor Pfeifer, AUT
  • He will be performing a circus themed program
  • Opening triple toe-triple toe is clean with a nice flow between the jumps
  • Triple axel nice landing
  • A little bobble on the ending of his third triple
  • Triple-double combo good but a little slow
  • Footwork seems a little simple but he did the majority of it on one foot--a little more stretch on his free leg would really help with his GOE
  • Triple salchow-double toe with a little bit of a skid on the landing of the first jump
  • Turned out of his next triple lutz but didn't put his free leg down
  • Doubled his next jump
  • Nice camel spin but a little slow, showing some good flexibility
  • Double axel tilted in the air and he falls
  • Awkward position in his combination spin and misses the end of the music for his ending pose
53.02 TES + 55.44 PCS -1.00 = 162.47 into 1st place

Shawn Sawyer, CAN
  • Alice in Wonderland themed program
  • I really love Sawyer's artistry and I hope he works on the jumps to back it up because he has some really great qualities
  • Triple axel was slightly tilted in the air and he too footed the landing
  • Triple flip-triple toe was nice
  • Tilted on his next triple lutz but holds onto the landing
  • Flying sit spin with some nice arm positions
  • Gorgeous spiral that a lot of the women would kill for
  • Great triple jump with almost no prep into it
  • Doubled his flip and turned out of it but was able to tack on the triple loop
  • Nice interaction with the judges
  • I like that his whole body is engaged in the footwork sequences
  • Nice triple out of his footwork sequence
  • Great camel position but I prefer the traditional donut spins
  • Hits the triple-double-double combo but with almost no speed at the end
  • Hits his trademark Y spin
  • Some jump problems but a pretty solid program for him
  • I love that someone gave him a Mad Hatter hat and he totally played it up as he exited the ice 
63.10 TES + 66.58 PCS =129.68 new seasons best and into 1st place

Stephen Carriere, USA
  • I'm not sure I would have picked this costume for West Side Story but we'll see where he goes with it, interesting choice of the bandages on the hands as well
  • Nice axel to start the program
  • Two foots his quad toe and takes a fall
  • Step sequence he takes a bobble but there is a whole section where I'm not sure if he's actually falling or if that's the choreography
  • Nice triple on the music change
  • Camel spin with arms back  into a donut--could use a little more flexibility in his back
  • Lands his next triple
  • Double axel-triple toe combo is solid
  • Double toe with one arm over the head and two arms over the head but weren't very well done
  • Spins are very slow and almost came to a stop
  • Triple salchow out of footwork
  • Hand down on triple-triple combo with overhead arm variation again
  • Last spin comes to a virtual stop
  • Some real highlights in this program and a lot of so-so moments, maybe some stamina problems toward the end
  • Priscilla Hill has different scarves to match each of her skaters costumes!
62.28 TES + 63.78 PCS -1.00 = 125.06 into 2nd place

Nan Song, CHN
  • Yellow River Concerto and he's wearing a top with multiple shades of yellow
  • Doubles his opening quad attempt
  • Great height on his triple axel-triple toe but he nearly stops between he jumps
  • Falls on his next jump
  • Combination spin has some so-so positions which could be more stretched out
  • Triple lutz-double toe good, but slow between jumps and he doesn't ride out the landing
  • Tilted in the air on his triple axel and he turns out of it but he doesn't put the foot down
  • He needs to really stretch his free leg during the footwork and add a little more speed and flow across the ice
  • Fighting for the endings on all of his jumps but he's staying on his feet
  • Camel spin into broken camel spin, needs more flexibility through the triangle spin
  • Finished after his music
60.55 TES +58.34 PCS - 1.00 = 117.89 and into 3rd place

Kevin van der Perren, BEL
  • Mummy soundtrack is his music and it looks like he has a wing on the back of his costume
  • Nice quad toe with a little bit of a lean on his landing
  • Triple axel with a lot of height
  • Nice combination
  • Sit spin was good, nice low postion but he lost a lot of speed
  • Footwork seems a little slow and he's not getting his whole body involved in the movement
  • Solid triple with great flow out of the landing
  • A little bobble on the landing of his triple loop
  • Doubled his toe and bobbled on some footwork out of it
  • Lands a triple-double but fights for the second landing
  • Slow on his second sit spin combination
  • double axel-triple toe combo
  • Really slow camel position in his combination spin
69.87 TES + 62.54 PCS = 132.41 into 1st place and new seasons best in total score

Adrian Schultheiss, SWE
  • Romeo and Juliet--quite a departure from his free program last year where he was insane
  • Huge opening quad toe
  • Triple axel-double toe combination
  • Another triple-double combo
  • Some really awkward positions in his camel spin
  • Singled his next jump
  • Sword-fighting through his step sequence but its very slow and lacks the intensity one would see in a duel, this part of the music also sounds like its been dramatically slowed down
  • Nice triple
  • Good low position in the sit portion of his combination spin
  • Pops his next jump
  • Turns out of the landing of the triple flip
  • Nice sit spin positions but he loses some speed when he changes feet
  • I'm not sure this program suits Schulheiss very well and it doesn't seem like he has a lot of connection to the program or the audience, it looks like he's just going through the motions
60.21 TES + 64.28 PCS = 124.49 new seasons best and into 2nd place

Warm up group is on the ice.  Ten took a fall on a jump attempt.  Murakami takes a fall on a jump.  Oda lands a nice three jump combo.  Takahashi two foots a jump.  Mahbanoozadeh lands a nice jump.

Group 2
Denis Ten, KAZ
  • Ten taking his time at the boards before heading out on the ice
  • Fall on his opening triple axel
  • Fall on his next jump--tilted air position and he couldn't correct
  • Triple double combo and he turns out of the double and puts both hands down
  • Some nice attack on this step sequence
  • Takes a hard fall on his next jump and slides toward the boards and takes a second to get back up
  • Lands a triple loop
  • Hands down on his next jump
  • Nice triple
  • Takes a fall on a double axel out of a difficult entry
  • Combination spin is a little slow
  • Nice stretched out camel position
  • Really going for it here in his choreographic step sequence but he takes a little bobble
  • A tough program but I really admire how much he still put into the program and he still tried to put on a performance
54.69 TES + 61.92 PCS -5.00 111.61 = new seasons best and into 6th place

Daisuke Murakami, JPN
  • Triple lutz-triple toe was solid with a lot of speed but his air position looks odd
  • Triple axel-double toe
  • Great camel position
  • I don't like when skaters go to the board, stop and prep for their step section and announce it's coming
  • Nice entertaining step section and he's really performing to the crowd and engaging them in his performance
  • Great height and landing on his triple axel
  • Lands another nice triple and he looks like he's having a ball on the ice
  • Takes an awkward landing on his next jump and puts both of his hands on the ice
  • Nice triple triple sequence
  • Could be a little lower and more stretched out in his sit spin positions
  • Interesting variation of a spin in the pike position at the end of his program
  • Very energetic, entertaining and mostly clean skate for this young Japanese skater
68.83 TES + 68.16 PCS - 1.00 =135.99 into 1st place (personal best free and total score)

Armin Mahbanoozadeh, USA
  • He is skating to Avatar soundtrack and wearing a blue costume
  • Nice opening triple toe
  • Great triple axel with a nice landing and flows right into the next movement
  • Triple-double with one arm variation
  • Another nice triple
  • Some playful choreography through the step sequence and a really nice difficult sequence done on one foot
  • He could work on performing some of these character moves a little more and making sure not just to execute the movement
  • Triple axel double toe was nice
  • Nice sit spin position
  • Triple flip with a difficult entry
  • Another interesting spin sequence
  • Another clean triple
  • Singles the first jump of his three jump combo but tacks on the double toe-double loop
  • The smile has really come out for this step sequence
  • Camel spin into a really nice donut spin and picking up speed into his sit spin and a nice fast scratch spin
  • Fantastic program from Mahbanoozadeh!  I hope he can keep this up and continue to land clean programs. 
  • Priscilla is now wearing her final scarf of the night.
73.62 TES + 69.94 PCS =143.56 and into 1st place (beats his old personal best by 20 points)

Adam Rippon, USA
  • I love the way the fabric of his costume ripples when he skates
  • Doubles his triple axel
  • Nice triple with great flow out of it
  • Fought for the ending of his Rippon Lutz but holds on
  • Nice position on his flying sit spin
  • Puts a hand down on his second triple axel
  • I wonder if he'll be able to hold off Mahbanoozadeh with these errors on his jumps
  • Nice triple toe-triple toe
  • Lutz with one arm over his head and he's able to add the sequence
  • Falls on his next jump attempt
  • Interesting cross foot spin position
  • Nice foot work sequence and the crowd is getting behind him
  • Nice triple
  • Great donut position in his combination spin
  • Not a great program for Adam and we'll see if he can hold on to the podium
57.94 TES + 72.24 PCS -1.00 = 129.18 and into 2nd place

Daisuke Takahashi, JPN
  • Turns out of his opening jump
  • A little forward on his triple axel but he holds on to the landing
  • Solid triple for his next jump
  • Nice spin position in his sit spin but he slows through the rest of the combination spin
  • Great footwork sequence right in front of the judges and really performing and engaging his entire body
  • Triple flip double toe he looks a little odd in the air but he hangs on
  • Takes a hard fall on his next triple and lands on his side
  • Layback spin variation
  • Next triple is clean
  • Great triple with very little set up
  • Triple toe combo but he loses a lot of speed on the last jump
  • Another great step work sequence for Takahashi
  • He needs to straighten his bottom leg in the last spin sequence
  • Another tough program in the mens competition but he didn't give up and gave the program everything he had
64.95 TES + 85.00 PCS -1.00 = 148.95 and into 1st place

Nobunari Oda, JPN
  • Takahashi left the door open so Oda just has to go relatively clean to win gold
  • Falls on his first jump attempt
  • Low landing on his next triple but he hangs on
  • Triple-triple, maybe two footed on the second jump
  • Really interesting position in his sit spin and he gets very low in his traditional sit spin
  • Nice triple axel
  • Triple double combo
  • Nice triple jump right on the music
  • Triple salchow-double toe-double loop
  • You shouldn't do the spread eagle jump unless you can hit the full position
  • Really hitting all these jumps at the end of the program
  • Nice position in his camel spin and good speed throughout the sequence
  • That should be good enough to win
68.17 TES +79.64 PCS -1.00 = 146.81 and into 2nd place

Top three free skaters:
Top TES: Mahbanoozadeh
Top PCS: Takahashi

Gold: Takahashi
Silver: Oda
Bronze: Mahbanoozadeh

Takahashi and Oda will qualify for the Grand Prix Final.

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