by dimi » 05 Oct 2010, 20:51
Levels are not given by judges rather than technical caller and you dont know who that is everytime.
The thing is not that Rippon scored more than Plush in JO, of course not, who cares for JO marks, the thing is that Rippon scored as much as Lysacek in Olympics, a mark very similar to Evgeni top scores. The rules have changed since torino a little, (one less spin was required in Vancouver, now jumps count more, level 4 in footwork is hard to give anymore, spin requirements) but what has changed a lot was that back in 2006 judges were still thinking 6.0 and were untrained to CoP, now after all these years their pcs come harder and the trend is transitions and backloaded programs, which was not in 2006. Also they didnt have edge calls, and Evgeni is called in his flip now, the same flip he does since ever. Takahashi lost many points in Vancouver because of edge calls. Plus Evgeni then was the No1 dominant skater, there was none to threaten him, when Evgeni was clean nobody could beat him. Even when not clean he still had won some times. Judges had in mind that this was the skater to beat and forgive him for mistakes. It is not normal he got less points in Tango than GOdfather in Torino since in Tango he had more things going on and jumps counted more , this is proof that system has changed. Biggest proof is the reigning Olympic Champion himself. In 2006 , under the same CoP, someone like Lysacek would have never won no matter if he had all his jumps at the end. There was no way the same skate 4 years ago would even be on podium. Judges marked with 6.0 stil in mind and marks were given like candies, this was the big difference.
Plush was getting level 4 footwork bck then and all his spin level 4 , something that now ONLY Takahashi, Lysacek and Chan has gotten, he didnt manage to take level 4 to his footworks in sp and lp, and this is hard to get and depends on caller, like spins. Plush has said that footwork of level 4 requires as much energy as the quad, it is not that easy to improve his steps. What is less hard to get is maximaze your points in jumps, pretty much what you say.So if you jump that perfect well like Evgeni, your big target will be to get the maximum jump points, something that Lysacek got in Vancouver, is Lysacek better jumper than Evgeni??? NO. But CoP thought so. Our only disagreement is that you dont maximaze them in LP by doing a 4-3 and all your jumps in front, if you read well the CoP rules you see we say not something different, we just say to keep his quad and transfer the combos later. This is 6.0 thinking, if you put down rules you see that 4-3 and 4-3-3 in CoP do not worth it anymore, it can be beaten by a skater doing a solo quad and a 3-3. In y opinion Evgeni is who he is because of Mishin and himself, whatever he would be given to skate he would be the same successful skater because of his talent, since talent is there a new choreographer,more CoP expert would be nice. It is a same he did all the sucrifices to lose in Vancouver on a technicality.