by Jacquelyn Thayer Olympic figure skating commentators tend to keep the sport’s coverage in a classic 6.0 mindset: there is a technical elements mark, obviously used to score things like jumps and twizzles, and an “artistic” or “presentation” mark — meant to score something less definable, based heavily on subjective emotions and tastes. It’s true…
by Jacquelyn Thayer This Grand Prix ice dance team-by-team analysis has been expanded from recent Snapshot Stats features on Two for the Ice on Tumblr. CHOCK & BATES vs. WEAVER & POJE A pair of world medalist teams in an oft-unsteady position: Madison Chock and Evan Bates ceded the U.S. national title to Maia and…
With Finlandia Trophy, the pre-Grand Prix — and most pivotal — stretch of the ISU’s 2016 Challenger Series has concluded, along with the debuts of most of the US and Canada’s international dance teams and pairs. Notable absences like Maia and Alex Shibutani (USA) and Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje (CAN) in dance, and Alexa…
In the second question in Two for the Ice’s Ask the Expert series, ice dance coach and Mariposa School of Skating dance director David Islam — whose students have included current Junior Grand Prix competitors Hannah Whitley and Elliott Graham and 2010 Junior World medalists Alexandra Paul and Mitch Islam — tackles the question of…
In this PCS series as in all analytical articles, it has generally been TFTI’s aim to provide some deeper insight into the numbers presented — related or not to on-ice performance. But in the matter of Grades of Execution in this first half of the 2015-16 season, our mission may have failed. It should first,…
While our previous entries have focused exclusively on the question of PCS, an overall evaluation of fall results has prompted a secondary question: what relationship, if any, exists between the role of PCS and that of the ostensibly more objective TES? *Note: Deductions when present have been added back to total scores to allow for…
As the Grand Prix series concludes prior to the Final, the establishment of a field in the absence of the world-leading dance teams of the previous quad has begun to emerge. To that end, a review of the development, from last season through most recent international competitions, of PCS as assigned to those senior American…
by Jacquelyn Thayer Range among PCS categories — and among marks assigned by individual judges within a category — may be the nitpickiest of topics to assess. Certainly numbers here are minuscule, with variations typically hovering around the 1-point range for both dance teams and pairs (despite the different factor applied to each category within…
by Jacquelyn Thayer Since its introduction under the International Judging System in 2004, the program component score (PCS) has in popular view functioned as a sort of equivalent to the previous system’s “second mark” — that score which weights the aesthetic qualities of performance, rather than difficulty and purity of technical content. This is something…
