We're back this week to talk about some Canadian junior dance (and some other disciplines too)! Skate Canada held a simulation this last week for junior skaters and we're excited to be back watching and discussing skating. We discuss technical difficulties in virtual competition being even more unfair than regular technical difficulties, why the men's event is currently less competitive than junior dance, why we wish dance teams weren't allowed to have a break between their two patterns of the Blues, and a choreographic sliding move that is kind of terrifying and we'd like to see abandoned.

Flutzes and Waxels Podcast

2021 Skate Canada NextGen Competition

The ISU just dropped a whole bunch of important documents, so we are here to discuss new rules, Grand Prix assignments, and some of the other stuff that has been going on in the skating world in the last little while! We discuss how much we wish that an ISU Congress had been able to happen this year or last, whether the Grand Prix (or the rest of the regular fall season) will be able to go on as normal, and question what is going on with some skaters missing from the Grand Prix lists and what certain federations were thinking when they created the Ice Dance assignment list.

2021 Grand Prix Assignments

This off season, we've got something special planned for our Patreon subscribers, and you won't want to miss it! We teased our new upcoming series of episodes on Patreon this weekend, but wanted to share what we're going to be doing this off season with all of our listeners. Listen in to our preview here, and you can catch the full series on our Patreon at patreon.com/flutzescast !

Summer Patreon Series Teaser

The men and dance teams at world Team Trophy didn't perform quite as well for the most part as they did at Worlds, but we find tons to discuss, including speculation on who might skate a disco rhythm dance next season, who might be in the fight for Canada's Olympic spots, and which French skaters are delivering the weird programs we always hope for from team France. Plus, since this is the last competition of the season, we talk a bit about what we'll be doing on the podcast this off season!

World Team Trophy 2021: Dance And Men

The last event of the season in complete, and in this first part of our World Team Trophy recap we discuss some pretty consistent pairs programs, some wild PCS variance between Worlds and this event for similarly skated programs, and why this was probably not the best time for a last minute program change. Plus, we talk a bit about the issues with holding this event so close to Worlds, with an audience, and with little enforcement of the ISU's own COVID guidelines.

World Team Trophy 2021: Pairs And Ladies

We've discussed all the skating that happened at the World Championships, but we had a lot of concerns about how this event was run in the middle of a global pandemic that we felt needed to be addressed. We discuss the safety and effectiveness of the Worlds "bubble" and our concerns about negative ramifications we haven't even seen yet, and also discuss why the upcoming World Team Trophy is such a bad idea, and why the ISU needs to sort out the current confusion about which countries exactly have qualified their Olympic spots at Worlds versus Nebelhorn.

COVID And The 2021 World Championships

We wrap up the skating from Worlds with the men, who skated surprisingly better than we had expected! We discuss the dramatic showdown for gold that we were disappointed didn't quite happen, our sadness over China having only one spot qualified at a home Olympics, and why our favourite jump of the whole event might not be the same as everyone else's, and which was sorely underappreciated by the judges.

World Championships 2021: Men

The ladies event was a frustrating one for many, including us, and we try to make sense of the judging and final placements. We talk a whole lot about PCS scoring and what could possibly be done to fix it, the underdogs who rose to the occasion and the favourites who struggled to skate their best, and try to imagine an event where everyone skated to their full potential.

World Championships 2021: Ladies

The excitement of a pairs event can be a great or a terrifying thing, and this event had a bit of both. We discuss why making this the Olympic qualifying event was particularly unfair for the pairs competing here, defend our love for our new World champions and their programs, and wonder whether this will finally prompt Japan to start developing more pair teams to try to take advantage of their only team's newfound success.

World Championships 2021: Pairs

We are back to discuss all the many happenings at the World Championships, which we still can't believe actually took place! We start with the dance, and discuss our relief at the tech panel being more restrained in handing out levels, why the way Olympic qualification spots are handed out could be so much improved, and gush over the teams who were finally properly rewarded for their great skating and programs, and defend to the teeth the teams who went unappreciated by the judges.

World Championships 2021: Ice Dance

This weekend we settled in to watch the virtual Skate Canada Challenge, and we were (unsurprisingly) excited about the dance. We discuss both the junior and senior events, why repeat programs can be a benefit or a hindrance this season, why more judges should appreciate fun programs, and the programs we don't really understand but loved anyway.

Skate Canada Challenge 2021: Dance

This weekend we also watched the virtual Skate Canada Challenge, and we had a lot to say not only about the singles and pairs disciplines and the general state of Canadian skating, but also why it was necessary for Canadian nationals to be cancelled, and the many issues that come up with running and judging virtual events, and why these issues would be even larger on a global scale.

Skate Canada Challenge 2021: Singles And Pairs

We wrap up US nationals with a really strongly skated men's event, and discuss why our opinions about skaters need to grow and mature along with them, why this might have been a better season to repeat programs rather than get new ones, and some really weird Axel technique.

US Nationals 2021: Men

We have a lot of (potentially controversial) thoughts about the dance event at US nationals, which featured some fantastic teams, but also some frustrating judging and tech calling. We discuss why levels are so vital in assessing a dance event, why the standard to achieve a level four should be continually evolving, and why federations should allow audiences to see lower level skaters online who usually aren't shown on the TV broadcast.

US Nationals 2021: Dance

Next up is the pairs event, which featured some strong teams, but some inconsistent scoring which left us frustrated. We discuss the close race for potential Olympics spots next year, how much the success (or failure) of lifts can really impact the end opinion of a program, and why nationals scoring should still be consistent.

US Nationals 2021: Pairs

A figure skating podcast to satisfy all of your skating news, analysis, and recap needs. Run by lifelong skaters and skating fans, Alicia and Mary. Get ready to jump right in to the nitty gritty details of what’s happened this week in figure skating.

hubhopper

Flutzes and Waxels Podcast

hubhopper