The Quad God? || Analysing Ilia Malinin's Quadruple Jumps

[@dontforgetmashekels9005]

hes landed 102/139 quads with positive goe. thats a 74% landing rate, which is pretty good for someone doing so many difficult quads and quad combinations. thats great consitency. hes also the first and only skater to jump 4a, 4a in the sp, 4lz+eul+3s, 4lz+eul+3f, two 4+3 combos in the second half, 6 quads in a free skate, all 6 different quads, 8 quads in the same event and 5 different ones in the same program. he also landed 4 different quads the first time he tried (4t, 4f, 4lo and 4a). so yes, hes absolutely the quadgod

[@blueflamesandice]

@dontforgetmashekels9005 He's absolutely brilliant. The only thing I can really nitpick about was the transitions out of his jumps, which would to me then make him the quad god. But he's so impressive with his jumping passes regardless of what I think 😂

[@What_a_coincidence]

@@blueflamesandicenot trying to be mean but how else would he exit the jumps? On the other leg?

[@blueflamesandice]

@What_a_coincidence ahaha I mean, it has been done before! No, I'd like to see for example, a back twizzle exit perhaps, or a spread eagle exit, maybe some more creative transitions out? Or, on the other end, a really strong sustained running edge from the landing? That's just me being super fussy though!

[@What_a_coincidence]

@@blueflamesandice ohhhhhhhhh I thought u meant how he LANDS the jumps haha

[@Gerta-fh7dm]

Tell me why are you trying to analyze jumps if you don't understand the technique? You can't do an axel without prerotation, it's technically impossible. Prerotation on an axel is 1/4 of a turn. As a result, you incorrectly mark the start of the jump and put q where there is none. A fully rotated jump should fall into the entry arc.

[@LinaMalkova]

Before analyzing a jump, you should open a textbook and learn the jump technique, then open the ISU rules and you should also have clear, high-quality videos. Take the same Axel. An Axel is a jump from the edge, so it technically has a pre-rotation of 90-120 degrees. You can't do an Axel without pre-rotation and pre-rotation is part of the jump. At 4A, taking into account the permissible ISU under-rotation, there should be 4.2 rotations in the air. Ilia has the most minimal pre-rotation stage of 90 degrees and he literally finishes most of his 4As in the air. The 4A from the World Championships was exactly like that

[@canyoubelieve2167]

That quad flip was a thing of beauty. Best I’ve ever seen by any skater.

[@artisticskatingpassion7425]

I agree with your analysis, just that i think it is impossible to have 0% pre-rotation for any skater, the point is to have as little as possible. I will add that his jumps for my taste lack height and deployment on the ice but it is difficult to achieve perfection, his way of performing them allows him to succeed on a technical level, although for my taste he lacks entries, exits and transitions that add more interest as well as the appropriate insertion of the jumps in an elaborate, meaningful and expressive choreographic context, this is why even if I recognize his astonishing ability to be able to correctly perform all the quads, including the 4A, I get deeply bored when I see his jumps, I prefer fewer quads in a program but more powerful and moving jumps like those of Adam SHF which take my guts, or those of a skater who is very different from Adam with his light quads coming out of nowhere with magnificent entries, transitions and exits like those of Hanyu, the 2 opposites in short, but there is something for everyone and Ilia of course has with his palette complete quads a large audience that supports him and I am happy for him because all skaters work hard and they all deserve respect whatever our preferences, so bravo Ilia for his work which allowed him to achieve the feat of being able to jump the 6 types of quads 👍😊

[@LinaMalkova]

A Hanyu fan talking about Ilia's jump height? The same Hanyu who had no idea what a high jump was? Ilia literally has the highest jumps. His 4A is 80-85 cm. His Lutz is just under 80 cm. Hanyu's jumps out of nowhere? Just look at his puny Lutz and his 4T entry across the entire rink

[@artisticskatingpassion7425]

@@LinaMalkova I´m a fan of many skaters especially those who have something to say, who are storytellers, convey emotions through elaborate choreographies that they perform with a keen sense of musicality, have a bearing, an elegance, facial expressions, expressive arms... in short, they are real artists, such as Adam SHF, Stephane Lambiel, Jason Brown, Deniss Vasiljev, Kevin Aymoz, Yuzuru Hanyu, Ean Weiler, Anthony Paradis, the list goes on, but I'm sorry Ilia is not one of them, I admire his ability to perform all the jumps but for me it is not enough, I prefer fewer jumps in programs such as for example the recent one presented by Kevin which is real and pure figure skating, so there is no point in continuing to talk about all this because we do not have the same vision of figure skating. It does not matter, everyone has their own criteria, that's all.

[@GordonAnderson-cp8lg]

@@artisticskatingpassion7425 I agree with you entirely. I’d like to add to your list a non artistic skater who recently returned to competition and, boosted by multiple quads, finds himself back on the podium in two of the recent senior Grand Prix with a highly inflated components score. Step forward - Daniel Grassl.

[@artisticskatingpassion7425]

@@GordonAnderson-cp8lg Well, I like Daniel, I find him artistic, he is graceful and has beautiful arms as well as beautiful spins, but he has a defect due I think to the fact that he develops his movements enormously like a ballet dancer and this slows him down, he looks more like a classical ballet dancer than a skater, it would be good if he could skate a little faster, I will see if I have the opportunity to tell him about it, that said with so little speed it is surprising that he manages to do his quads, but I do not think that he is overscored, his scores are not that high, I find them normal. That said, my favorite active skaters are the French Adam and Kevin, then I really like Deniss and Jun, and among the juniors Ean Weiler and Anthony Paradis, this independently of their ability to do quads, because if I like jumps I don't like when there is not a large artistic part combined with athleticism. Every fs fan has their own preferences and opinions, depending on their personality and expectations, for me fs is an art like dancing, except that instead of slippers and a firm floor it is a slippery floor with skates.

[@LinaMalkova]

at the grand prix final in the short program his 4A was less fully rotated than usual, but his underrotation on 4A was very small and amounted to 50-70 degrees, which is the norm according to all the rules. The same can be said about other jumps. At least learn to correctly mark the initial and final stages of the jump and then do video analysis

[@npe1]

So many errors made by the narrator of this video. It begs the question if she has ever skated or is just a "skating fan".

[@blueflamesandice]

@npe1 would you mind highlighting the errors for me so I can learn and do better next time? I'd really appreciate it if you have time!

[@npe1]

@@blueflamesandice Yes of course. The main issue is that you use grainy screenshots which can be used to support any argument. In real-time all Ilya's jumps look fully rotated and landed properly to me. Let's be clear, the judges are very strict about jumps not being executed properly and always thoroughly penalise a skater if a jump is under-rotated or massively pre-rotated. In all the examples you showed, the ISU technical specialist did not penalise Ilya for any under or pre rotation. With all due respect, they are the professionals who were actually there rink side to witness the jumps and to play them back if they thought there were any problems with them. They did not not rush to any ill-informed decisions based on a few grainy screenshots from YT.

[@blueflamesandice]

@@npe1 fair enough! I apologise for the poor screenshots as my laptop is not the best

[@signeermegasejxD]

i might be crazy (or just new to skating lol) but for the 4a, should he not be facing opposite directions on the takeoff and landing, since the jump has 4,5 rotations? isn't it under/prerotated, or am i missing something? just found your videos and they're very lovely

[@blueflamesandice]

@signeermegasejxD nope, you're absolutely right! The problem with the screenshots is that they're nice and blurry, so it's quite difficult to tell. If you watch closely in real/0.5 speed, you can see it's q/under rotated (depending on how mean you are). You're absolutely right though! Thank you so much for your support 🩵

[@canyoubelieve2167]

His axel take off is textbook perfect. Go watch any other skater and you’ll see essentially the same take off. Not pre-rotated or under-rotated or he’d get a deduction.