From: loosemore-sandra@bulldog.cs.yale.edu
Newsgroups: rec.sport.skating.ice.figure
Subject: my visit to Simsbury
Date: 30 Aug 1996 10:36:21 -0400
Organization: Yale CS Mail/News Gateway

Yesterday I took a break from work and spent the day in Simsbury.  As
usual for this sort of expedition for me, my activities included both
participant-type and spectator-type things.

While I was in Simsbury I met up with fellow net-folk Ilana Konerding
(by arrangement) and Emily Hunter (by accident).  Emily is a regular
at Simsbury and was able to fill me in on some background gossip.  She
says the latest hot rumor is that the Stars on Ice cast will be 
practicing there this fall, starting in a couple of weeks.

First, the spectator-type content about the elite skaters...

In the morning session, Scott Davis was working on his new short
program.  As other netters have already reported, he's using a jazzy,
upbeat piece of music.  The program has some humor to it and I found
it to be not nearly as obnoxious as last year's short, but it's got
that irritating one-sided choreography entirely oriented towards the
judges.  It seems like Scott is either very dense about picking up new
choreography, or else maybe there's a language problem, because Galina
kept having to get Viktor Petrenko to demonstrate what she wanted him
to do, over and over again.  It looked like Scott and Viktor have a
very friendly working relationship and I suspect it's probably good
for Viktor to have a training partner like Scott, to force him to keep
his own skills up.

Scott was mostly concentrating on his choreography and only doing
double jumps.  I was somewhat amused to see him making a couple
attempts at a change camel early in the session, and not doing it
terribly well, either.  Given Scott's reputation as a spinner, it's
pretty amazing that he basically does not have a camel spin in his
repertoire at all.

Viktor was not doing much other than assisting Scott in the morning
session.  In the afternoon, Scott wasn't there, and Viktor spent more
time working on his jumps -- I saw him doing some triple lutzes
and loops and such like.  But he didn't seem to be working on any
programs of his own.  By the way, for people who keep track of such
things, Viktor's bald spot is getting bigger.  I wonder if he's going
to start painting the top of his head like Scott Hamilton does, or if
he's just going to keep wearing a hat when he performs.  :-)

I am not sure if Oksana Baiul has really put on that much weight on
her hips or if she was wearing crash pads underneath her baggy pants.
When I saw her on the TOC in New Haven last spring, people were 
commenting that she was looking anorexic, but she's certainly filled
out again now.  With her hair short and bleached very blond now, she's
barely recognizable as the same skater we saw in Lillehammer.

I got the impression that Oksana is not a happy camper.  She was doing
runthroughs of two or three new programs -- I lost track because they
were all pretty similar pop ballads, full of angst and dramatics.  But
she would often just stop in the middle of the runthrough, or walk
through half the program, and a couple times even just sat down on the
ice while her music was playing.  It didn't look like her heart was in
it.  I kind of wonder if it wouldn't help if she chose some more
cheerful or uplifting music and choreography instead of going for this
heavy angst stuff.  OTOH, maybe I just caught her on a bad day.
Incidentally, the only triples Oksana was trying were the salchow and
the toe loop; she was having more luck with the salchow.  She was also
taking quite a few spills on her double axel.

In the afternoon session, Katya Gordeeva showed up.  In contrast to
Oksana, Katya looked absolutely radiant and was showing off two
exquisitely choreographed new programs, both very classical in style.
She looks so small and thin and fragile, but she skates with speed and
assurance and has a real presence and maturity on the ice.  I don't
think she's going to have any problems continuing her professional
career as a singles skater.

The other skaters on the elite sessions included Jessica Mills, Eric
Bohnstedt, and Julia somebody-or-another who Emily said is the
second-ranked skater from Hungary.  Jessica looked about the same as
last year, and was still having a lot of problems with her jumps.
Eric was also not jumping particularly well, but he did do some
impressive spins -- his flying sitspin was huge.  Julia sort of has a
triple lutz, but she has a pretty bad problem with an ugly hunched
landing posture on all of her jumps that Galina was trying to get her
to correct.

Now for some more general comments, more oriented towards participant
skaters....

Having been at Ice Castle about a month ago, I was very much struck by
the difference in atmosphere between the two rinks.  The freestyles at
Ice Castle, particularly the non-elite sessions, were crowded and
intensely competitive, with the skaters working almost exclusively on
jumps.  At Simsbury, things were much more free and relaxed, with
nearly all of the skaters taking the time to warm up with MITF-type
exercises before moving on to do their jumps.  (It doesn't seem like
they have either patch or MITF sessions, though.)

Simsbury also seems like a much friendlier place for adult skaters.
They gave me no hassles at all about walking on to the afternoon
low-test freestyle sessions, and I see that their fall schedule
includes an hour and a half afternoon session specifically set aside
for adults.

Physically, the Simsbury complex is new and it seems to be
well-designed with plenty of room for the skaters to warm up, a
pleasant cafeteria and lobby area, and adequate seating for spectators
in both rinks.  On the other hand, it seems like one of the uglier and
less cheerful places I've skated.  I decided it was probably the lack
of windows and natural daylight that contributed most to this
impression, although it probably also doesn't help that the building
is painted a depressing shade of gray inside.

-Sandra