 |
I was able to watch the top teams on Ice Network, and here are a few of my observations:
Team Finland 1 and 2 (Rockettes) had the coolest intersecting circles I've ever seen.
Team Russia 1 (Paradise) did some sweet pair/dance spins - in fact, the last few programs I've seen from Russian synchro teams are heavy on the freestyle moves. I saw one team even do side-by-side-by-side-by (you ge the idea) axels!
Nexxice was simply amazing. They won overall but actually came in second in the freeskating portion. I thought they should have been first in both, but I'll take the overall win. They skated to the flowing but challenging Blue Danube. It's a hard piece to get right with synchro in particular, given that the pace of the music changes constantly. It's hard to time twizzles and steps with that kind of flightiness. But I thought Team Canada 1 nailed it, speeding up and slowing down with amazing synchronicity. And I love that they had one man on the team whose role wasn't schticky. Too often you see teams with a guy on them who use him as a prop. I wish there were more men in synchro!
Team Sweden 2 had a pretty cool costume schtick with their Black Swan routine. Their white dresses turned black halfway through the routine!
Team USA can't get above 7th place, sadly. It's a bit hard to watch them in the context of international competition, because the top teams look so much more crisp and polished.
Team Finland 2 had a killer pass-through spread eagle! It's always fun to see the cool ways synchro teams can be original. They're all doing the same moves, but teams are constantly upping the ante with how they enter them, exit them and execute them overall.
And finally, a general note about watching synchro, if you aren't too familiar with it:
The mark of a good synchro team is if you look at any one skater at a time, you can see that they instinctively know at all times where the person next to them is, and need only extend their arm to connect.
#Synchroin2018!
No comments:
Post a Comment