Skate America practice session.

[icarus]

Skate America practice sessions:

Wow.

Not too coherent right now, partially because I was up at 4:45am. But some incoherent thoughts:

Wow. Those two Canadian men's skaters arrowing across the ice. What speed. This isn't figure skating. It's Nascar.

Wow. Evan Lysacek bulldogging Johnny Weir. (Okay, I get it, I get it. He considers Weir "the enemy." More about this later.)

Wow. The difference between the fiercely competitive men's skaters and the far more polite ice dancers.

Wow. The sheer adorableness of Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates spunky 1940s program. Really, grab this one on YouTube the moment it's available.

Wow. Belbin and Agosto. What class. It's like watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers show up for an intermediate tap class. There's no comparison. (What makes them great is that Agosto is as fine a skater as she is, and just as riveting. And hell he looks good in tails.) They skated another couple's music, actually skating one to either side of them. More about this psych out in a minute.

Wow. Skaters try to psych each other out by skating one another's music. And it works. There was an incredible moment where Lysacek was skating Weir's music, circling Weir as Weir tried to do his program, making "I'm taking you to the cleaners" eye contact. They were skating together against Johnny's will, it was beautiful, and intense -- visual trash talking. Lysacek skated away, turning his back on Weir, hand on his hip as he stood at the boards, obviously pissed. Another trick is to throw big jumps during a skater's turn, distracting the crowd.

Wow. Todd Eldredge was there with Kimmie Meissner (who has ugly dresses). She seems to be skating well. All smiles and her coach and Todd were beaming. Todd chews gum like a baseball player.

Wow. Miki Ando is a beautiful skater.

Wow. The men fall a lot. They're aggressive, they try all their hardest jumps in practice, and... I started keeping a list of the various ways to fall. There's the skate sliding out and slamming into the boards. There's the overbalance plus shoulder skid. There's the skate wobble followed by dropping like an anvil. There's Johnny Weir's favorite, the overshoot plus bottom bounce (legs in the air, very silly looking). There's the Evan Lysacek forward stumble with shoulder roll, like he's been tackled. There's the falling out of the jump with an ice touch. There's the sideways slide on one's side. The toepick snag and trip (with or without faceplant). The spin wobble with backward flop. The desperate "oh no!" skate skitter followed by a butt bounce. The mushy landing with a sloppy backward thump. The variety is endless. And most of the falls were in men's. In women's, only Kimmie spent the practice working on her jumps.

Also, I think coaches' eyes turn into laser beams as soon as "their" skater hits the ice.

I got a lot out of this, and not what I expected to see at all.

Comments

[whatifisaidno.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun, especially the nonconsensual pairs skating part :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

LOL. Skating non-con. *g*

Definitely intense. I would not want to be on the receiving end of it, but watching it was really something. Closest I'll ever get to seeing them skate pairs, eh?

[tty63.livejournal.com]

Very cool. All I know from skating comes from Out of Bounds and whatever I happen to catch on TV (not very much, not having a TV in my house), so I love reading your analysis on it. If you want to post more I'd love to read it. What did you expect to see? How many skaters were on the ice at one time?

All that falling sounds very painful. The psyching out is interesting - I didn't think about it, but of course it must happen if the skaters get the chance.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

What did you expect to see?

I expected to learn more about the coach-skater interaction. Not the skater-skater interaction.

Also, these practice sessions are quite systematic.

How many skaters were on the ice at one time?

One flight at a time: six.

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

It depends on the skater re: the psyching out. Most don't do it, but a few do. Most are polite, and just going about their own business.

Albain Preaubert, for example, at last year's SA, stood at the boards for the mens and ladies practices that he wasn't on himself, eating a sandwich and dancing. He wasn't psyching his competitors out. He's a goofy guy, and he was just being himself. Cracked me up.

Sometimes, the audience will interpret things as psyching out, which are really just a part of practices. Things like near misses on the ice tend to be accidental, not on purpose.

But there is psyching out that goes on. Even in ice dance, but it depends on who is out there on the ice. Some skaters play mind games. Most just go on about their business.

tty63, NBC in the US will show some highlights from Skate America on Sunday, I think at 4pm, if you want to catch it.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Like that Sasha Cohen cut-off during the 2002 Olympics practice session that NBC made so much of?

There is no way what Lysacek was doing was anything but a psych out. We can't know the context. Maybe Johnny Weir said something snide on the walk in just before they hit the ice. But Evan was definitely pissed. And he didn't do it with any other skater.

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

Evan has a bit of a history of, shall I say, "commanding" the practice ice he's on. I'd imagine sharing it with Johnny made that more so.

It's not out of character for Evan to have done this. I'm not surprised.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

The men's practice yesterday was much more chilled out, everyone focused on their own work. My guess is the guys were like race horses spoiling for a fight the other day -- and Skate America is the opening of the Grand Prix.

I didn't realize that your practice group will change if you move up in the standings. I caught Frank Carroll watching Kevin Reynolds yesterday while Evan was out on the ice, close enough to catch that Carroll seemed impressed.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Fascinating! Where are you that you're seeing all this?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

In the stands with about 70 people who trickle in, off to the sides. If you get the All Event Tickets you can go to the practice sessions.

[from-the-corner.livejournal.com]

Skaters try to psych each other out by skating one another's music. And it works.[...]

My, I wish I could see that... =)

Sounds like you're having a blast =)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

So much fun!

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

Kimmie is working on her jumps because she'd *better* be working on her jumps. Kimmie gets killed because she underrotates and wrong edge entries. So she'll do an okay triple, and end up getting marked for a sloppy double. Bad news. V. bad.

My personal favorite fall is the "catch toepick face plant". I've perfected that one. I'm still suffering the after effects of my last demonstration of that one.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

She fell apart for last year's Nationals, too, so yeah, I wasn't a bit surprised. But she and her coaches (and baseball-like gum-chewing Todd Eldredge) looked very pleased. I can't tell edges, but her jumps did not look underrotated. They did look... minimalist. I can see that she could easily underrotate.

My personal favorite fall is the "catch toepick face plant". I've perfected that one. I'm still suffering the after effects of my last demonstration of that one.

Owwww....

It looks like the most startling of the possible falls. The skater's eyes go wide the instant before they hit the ice.

[beadslut.livejournal.com]

This is more fun than actually watching, or listening to Dick Button. I hope you work it into Out of Bounds somehow, I think you've caught the mood of the competitors really well.

[auburnnothenna.livejournal.com]

That description makes my mouth water over the prospect of seeing your observations translated into Out of Bounds.

[dunv-i.livejournal.com]

I'm embarressed to mention that I have done every single one of those falls, (as well as more - e.g., flipping off the heel on a spin or a jump and jack-knifing down. That one's dangerous, too.)

I so wish I were there, and not failing at my Latin translation.

[heythere10.livejournal.com]

I had a chance to interview the Stars on Ice cast a couple years back and got media passes to the practice... It was amazing to watch all of those incredible athletes train... gives you some insight into what they go through to get to where they are. It was a bit different than what you witnessed though in the sense that it was a show and the skaters were a LOT more relaxed. People who usually compete against each other were cheering each other on and encouraging each other and giving tips. It was a little quiet on the ice and there was a bit of a crackle of tension when a couple of the amateur skaters were practicing together, but mostly, it was friendly. Also, I remember how tiny the girls were and how, although they were the size of twelve year olds, they all had massive muscles.

That's a really neat observation. Thanks for sharing!