| 2004 SKATE AMERICA My partner Brian ordered a pair of tickets a month ago to go to Skate America. It was a surprise. He ended up telling me in weeks in advance so I would not make any plans with work. Thank you sweetheart, I love you ;-) October 22, 2004 Friday I took a day off work to attend the Ladies SP and the Men's LP. We arrived in time at Mellon Arena around 12:30 to watch the practice. PRACTICE 4 LADIES SP AND MEN'S LP I was so excited to sit front row for this practice session. I taped some of their runthroughs on my carmcorder, I will post it as soon as I figure out how to transfer it to my computer. Miki Ando did numerous 3Lutz/3Loop/2Toe combinations, and triple flips. No quads were attempted. Just the required elements. Cynthia Phaneuf really amazed me. She took her time warming up with everything. She did a lot of edge exercises that I normally don't see other Senior skaters do anymore. She had was in a zone the whole entire time during practice. Not like the other skaters who are constantly looking at their competitors. Cynthia always look calm and collected, even after a little mistake. Alissa Czisny I really did not know what to expect from Alissa. Last time I saw her was 2003 Nationals in Dallas. At that time she was skating like a young Jenny Kirk. Alissa had wonderful centered spins, a gorgeous sideways layback, and a very decent spiral. Her jumps was hit or miss. She would fall on a 3Lutz or a 3Flip. Yukina Ota She was lovely to watch. Good deep edges. But her Lutz is a forever problem for her. She kept popping, falling short of rotation and crashing down on the ice. Her speed can get better though. Vakhtang Murvanidze He is really a treat to watch. V always reacted when he got an applause, smiling and waving. His LP music choice is very different than what skaters would choose. It was a vocal orchestration of a man wailing. He did have trouble with his triple jumps during the runthroughs. Some few quad toe loops were attempted, but falls short on rotation. Stefan Lindeman I was excited to see his skating in person. He had decent speed and flow. His music was the first one to play. Stefan did not do all his jumps, just ran through the choreography and spins. I think the music fits his personality on the ice. Hopefully he will make it top 6 at worlds again. Evan Lysacek His coach Frank Carroll and Ken C. sat 2 seats away from me. Then Brian Joubert was 3 seats over. Since the coach's stand was full already, then decided to seat themselves front row next to the audience. I was so shocked and I tried to listen to Evan's coaches advices as much as I can. Of course Brian Joubert's coach I cannot understand b/c they spoke in french. Evan was very consistent, calm and collected. During his runthrough, he almost collided with Brian Joubert going into a triple lutz. Joubert's coach tried to warn Brian 4 times yelling a french word. Brian, in his own world, did not hear it in time. Well he realized within a second and a half that he was very close to Evan, he moved 4 inches and Evan had to quickly miss Brian and re-set up for his Lutz. It ended with nasty fallout. ooohhhh Brian Joubert Brian was very consistent as well. He already had the look of confidence that he will walk out as a champion that night. He did a 85% of his program, less spins, just jumps and footwork. Michael Weiss Usual attempts on the two footed 4Toe into a triple toe combo. A lot of pops here and there. Mike tried the 4Lutz too way at the end of the practice. It ended up with a 3 and 1/2 revo. |