what happened to the italians?

Scali tripped and fell but held on to Faiellas skirt, then his foot slipped out behind her and she went down too. Chris and Simon on Eurosport seemed to think that they still got fairly good marks though, as they just switched positions with the Kerrs.

lol - am watching the mens on the red button.

Can someone explain to me what a flip jump is?

Do these guys do any back somersaults like Robin used to do.

I love the music that Ten skated to and i don't think the choreography did the music justice. I think that music deserves to be done by a dance couple or maybe even more done as part as a show.

There are 6 jumps used in competitive skating, in order of difficulty they are toe loop, salchow, loop, flip, lutz, axel. Toe loop, flip and lutz all use the toe rake to lift, the others come straight off an edge.
A flip comes after a turn to backwards and the right toe rake is picked into the ice. A lutz comes after a sustained back edge, again with the right toe rake. A toe loop comes after a turn to backwards and uses the left toe rake to pick.

A loop comes off the right foot, salchow off the left. You probably know how to spot an axel, as it's the only one that takes off forwards.

Thanks for the jump break down bluespike.

There are signs you can use to identify jumps if you're not familiar with them.

Axels - forward take-off

Lutz - toe-assisted jump. After the axels they're the easiest to identify. Usually done from a looong backward glide, the skater leaning on an outside edge, and launched with the other toe-pick in the corner of the rink. You can see them coming a mile off especially by the women (the younger ones tend to lean forward and raise their back free leg very high before it strikes the ice). Occasionally preceded by footwork.

Flip - toe assisted jump. Usually entered from a straight forward glide, with the free foot held up in front. Just before the jump, the
free leg will tap the ice, pushing the skater into a turn (so they're backwards), the other foot picks the ice launching into the jump.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPzjUwuGJLQ

Loop - edge jump. Curved entry, skaters cross one leg in front of the other just before jumping, to form a 'loop' - well it's how I think of them!

Salchow - edge jump. Usually performed in circular pattern of steps.

Toeloop - toe assisted jump. Mostly performed as 2nd or 3rd part pf a jump combination. Otherwise you can identify them by their straight line approach into three turns into the jump. I got this off Wikipedia which may help distinguish them from flips.

"Spectators sometimes confuse the toe loop and flip jump, since they are both toe-assisted jumps with similar straight-line entry patterns. One way to distinguish them is that in the toe loop, the pick is outside the curve of the jump, while in the flip, the pick is inside the curve. Many skaters also "chop" the toe pick more on the flip than the toe-loop."

I started writing about the position of shoulders and arms, but it got too complicated for me. Maybe others can give better tips on identifying jumps than me.

Back flips are definitely not allowed and you can be heavily penalised for doing one (no idea by how much though in the COP system). I think it was in the Nagano Olympics, Surya Bonaly found herself, after the short program, shut out of the medals, so she decided in the long, to hell with it, and did a fantastic one legged back flip to the delight of the audience.

Well done to Lyscaek for a great, clean skate. I was routing for Joubert to begin with, but he's just too arrogant to like! I think all his talk about the competition being just "practice" for the Olympics puts down Lycaek's achievement and devalues the Worlds for what it is. We could all see how gutted Joubert was after he finished - why can't he just admit how much he wanted to win, but it went wrong, and give credit where credit's due??

For most skaters who jump anticlockwise you can tell a Flip from a toe-loop by which foot picks into the ice.

For a toe-loop the basic entry is a right forward inside 3 turn to a right back outside edge and then the left foot picks in to launch the jump. This is why it is often used as the second jump in a combination as it picks in off the left foot and as jumps land on the right back outside edge, that foot is free to pick for second jump.

The loop is also used as a second jump as it comes off a right back outside edge which is the same edge as they landed on so can jump off the running edge after landing the first jump.

The flip comes off a left back inside edge with the right foot picking in to launch the jump and so it is not possible to use as a second jump in combination.

The Lutz is similar to the Flip (right foot picks in) but comes off a back outside edge which is why it is so much harder as it involves counter-rotation.

Clockwise skaters just swap feet to jump in other direction but there are fewer of them (Carolina Kostner is one)and so their jumps can sometimes look odd.

So if they pick in with the same foot as they land on it's a flip or lutz, if with the other foot it's a toe-loop

If it's the second or third jump in a combination it is a toe-loop if they picked in and a loop if they didn't pick in.

Salchow is a curvy edge jump from a left back inside edge bringing the free foot around and up. The free leg stays off the ice. It usually starts from a left outside 3 turn to left back inside edge.

The loop is an edge jump off a right back outside edge and the free foot is often rested lightly on the ice trailing the skating foot (skater will be facing backwards to direction of travel in the prep)

thanks for all the jump breakdowns - they are really helpful.

Poor Joubert. The Bambi sequence at the end wasn't his finest moment

It reminded me of Fusa polli and Magagloi at the Winter Olympics in 2006, He fell and dragged her down, if looks could have killed then he would have been a dead man

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhfFa...rom=PL&index=6

Lol, I agree but I also like your Bambi analogy.

I see the Kerr's came 7th & the other british couple came 23rd

I loved the Kerr's routine and I normally love Moir/Virtue but I just didn't like their performance, it was very clever but the music drove me mad and I couldn't wait for it to end.

I absolutely loved Moir and Virtue, including the Pink Floyd soundtrack, awesome, they were by far the most exciting in my eyes! The Kerrs were very good, though, perhaps the most beautiful routine of them all - John is a good looking guy, too!

I thought The canadian couple were superb as were the winning couple. I also loved the Kerr's routine. They skated it beautifully.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the World Championships, but I've been slightly perplexed by some of the judge's scores.

The wrong couple won the dance competition in my opinion and the positioning on the leaderboard of some of the ladies after the short programme was questionable. It definately pays to skate nearer the end.

It was a shame to see Joubert choke on the big stage again

I hope the Canadian lass (Rochette?) claims the silver medal tonight. She really impressed me. The Korean is in a league of her own.

She was amazing even with her fall.

I really thought that Joubert had it in the bag what was it about 10 seconds from the end what a shame. Although I liked Lysacek a lot

Sorry I'm not good with any of the names, I know a few but not enough obviously.

Don't worry I'm struggling with the names as well! I've not watched figure skating for a couple of years so I'm a little out the loop.

Rochette skated clean (she performed to Summertime).

With regards to the ice dance I really enjoyed the penultimate programme (I think they were American) but they missed out on a medal altogether And also the couple who had a costume change mid-way through their routine - very original.

Missed that, it sounds interesting. Do you know what they were called?

Natalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat - the French couple. I really enjoyed Virtue and Moir. So original with their lift entries and exits. I was blown away by her simply balancing on his thigh (no hands!!) while he was spreadeagled...amazing!

I thought the French were great ( but I am biased ) and for me Virtue and Moir out-entertained me over the Americans.. should have been a reversal in placings for me.

I was very interested to hear RC say that sometimes with the new scoring, the less aesthetically pleasing moves/lifts are the ones which will earn the big points.

Do you know where I can see it. I think I did see it, but it was around bathtime for LO so it may have been a bit here and there.

Adored Virtue and Moir. I'd have them win too.

Robin Cousins' commentary annoys me though - he gives his opinion on who he likes, but doesn't back it up with any insight into anything other than "flow" and "great lifts" and "music". He doesn't specifically why Virtue and Moir are better, or why possibly the Russians could have won. I don't come away having learnt anything about figure skating after watching the BBC. Did Chris and Simon on Eurosport say anything more enlightening?

Kim Yu Na was just brilliant - am a big, big fan. I can't think of an Olympics as exciting Vancouver is going to be, with so many world champions entering; Kim Yu Na, Mao Asada, Miki Ando and presumably and Kimmie Meissner as well. Hopefully Sasha Cohen too, (as if things aren't interesting enough!) As much as I enjoy the big Kwan-Sluskaya, Yagudin-Plushenko type rivalries, it's as much fun to have such a diverse field where anyone in the top group could win it.

Can't say I feel the same about the men's comp sadly.