Does anyone else feel that AJ is slightly too young/inexperienced in teaching others to be having a partner on Strictly this year? I know that he's been dancing for years and is obviously very capable as a dancer however that Samba was far too kick for Claudia to keep up with no matter how hard she tried.

Where as if it was someone like Kevin (who I know a lot of people don't like) or Alijaz then they would've seen she wasn't able to keep up or able to do the dance justice in certain aspects and changed the choreography to reflect that.

I just think that he doesn't have the experience of teaching a complete novice dance like a professional.

too bloody fast! she's a decent dancer but not a pro, aj!!

I feel a bit for him though, because surely the song dictated how fast the dance was which wasn't down to him.

the dance was too fast for Claudia

he seems to be showing off himself rather than her imo

Not his fault, the music was too fast and frantic for a samba and you have to dance to the music being played .

I think AJ is doing a great job - Claudia clearly has confidence issues, however it's better he's giving her harder routines than going for the easy route (like the judges have picked up with Kevin/ Louise).

He can't seem to win on here, pre show people were saying he'd be another Jared and be giving poor/ little Content and now that's not the case, he's being criticised for giving too much.

Wrong music and not just for this samba tonight.

The music was too fast for Claudia and that should have been taken into account by someone! She's strong, but she's got a long way to go to make a dancer!

Claudia was asked to cover so much floor tonight, I wondered if it was the buffer's week off.

Hopefully he will learn from tonight's experience and be more realistic about what she can achieve. The last thing she needs is to be set up for failure on the altar of his ambition.

I posted on one of the subjects before this season even started that I thought AJ was too inexperienced to choreograph week after week.
He is a brilliant dancer and was a highly experienced amateur competitor but as such someone else always did his and Chloe's choreography.
He and Chloe only turned pro because of Strictly leaving Chloe right royally stitched up, They were competing amateurs until literally the week before the programme started.
It is a fact that AJ is getting help with his choreography from Neil and others!

Perhaps less is more, he packed it full of content but I prefer that then being ultra safe.

Yup exactly. Len said to AJ he sacrificed the quality to stay in time with the music, but surely that's the whole point of dancing is to make your body movements match the music.

If there's a problem with the music then that surely should be taken up with whoever picks the music, and not with the pro trying to make the dance go along with it.

As others have said, AJ can't be blamed for the music choice. It was way too fast but he and Claudia did their best with it.

Could they not have had discussions to slow the music down a little? Wouldn't have been difficult for Dave Arch to get the band to play it a bit slower surely?

Aj could have asked to slow the tempo.

He could have also done more static section and fewer travelling ones.

But he is bloody YOUNG, and he's bound to make a mistake or two and Claudia did her best and I think they'll be fine.

I get so annoyed that those producers won't give us just one Latin piece of music for the Latin dances . The Samba is such a wonderful dance when danced to a real Latin beat .

The tune could be played at any speed. He chose the speed. It's not a record.

Five BPM fewer, would have made it more manageable.

Yes A.J you can dance at that speed, but your partner isn't a professional. Time to start grow up and realise it's not all about you.

If she's in the dance-off he should get Dave Arch to reduce the tempo a bit, he controls the tempo at which the band plays.

It wouldn't bother me if he were not back next year. Was he selected because he's short and they needed someone that size for Claudia?
There's far better dancers with more experience than has he.

My sister in law can't stand AJ,she reckons he is showing his talents off at the expense of his partner

Your sister in law is incorrect

He's still learning and I don't think that's a bad thing.

Plenty of pros have made similar mistakes in the past... hell, last week Jo packed her and Ore's jive so full of content that, whilst it was great, she was outdancing him nearly the whole way through. A few weeks before that she harmed their marks by faffing for half their dance (Tango). I am NOT picking on Jo, all the pros have done similar things as I said, these are just the most recent examples that come to mind.

I don't know whether it is the fact that Claudia seems to have a lot of fans or the fact that AJ is particularly young, but I think it is slightly harsh on him.

It is a bad thing if he's making it too hard for Claudia.

I don't mind him "learning," but not on a Saturday night.

It'll be a travesty if they go out because he wanted to impress people with how fast he could dance.
If they're in the dance off, he needs to slow it down a bit. We could see that and the judges as good as said so. Few will notice if it's 5BPM fewer.

As I said in my comment, not the first time this has happened, but for some reason people are more upset than usual. I wonder why?

Claudia and AJ will be fine. Even if they are in the bottom 2 (highly unlikely) they're not leaving, since they'd probably be there with couples that scored lower. AJ will take the judge's comments on board, I'm pretty sure. As I said - he's learning. Other pros had to and as per my comments above, other pros still are!

I agree 100% and said as much in a different thread. I wondered when they introduced him at the start of the series why they had picked him. He may well be an amazing dancer on his own but he lacks life experience to be able to teach anyone, let alone someone younger than him, to dance properly.

We've had incidences in the past every year, where pro dancers have "run interference" for their partners when their celebrity is pretty inept, the judges aren't deceived by it, they don't do it for them, but to give the public the impression the combined performance was better than it actually was.

He should have known she would be struggling with the pace, they've been doing it all week, haven't they? It was an ego trip by A.J. in this instance.