Michael discusses new programs, new judging

My programs are going well. The short and long are really good and we’re just making minor adjustments to both. I could really skate them both if needed to now.

The long is where it should be. All the choreography is finished. As we do run-throughs we might make a minor adjustment. I think all the difficulty and footwork and spins are where they should be.

The new scoring system should be interesting. I know that I definitely am not short of counters, rockers, brackets and choctaws!

When we’re skating our programs there will now be a spotter and a technical assistant who will call out the jumps. It’s up to the judges on the panel to score skaters.

I’m not sure who will benefit from the new scoring. I think we have to compete and see what type of skater has the advantage in this situation. I don’t know if it’s artistic or technical. From all the rules I’ve read, the judges don’t want to see just jumping. They want to see more difficult entries to the jumps. They don’t want to see the jumps come out of nowhere. All jumps, except the quads, are more disguised.

All my jumps have more difficult entrances. For an example, a triple Axel may have a three-turn going one way and another three-turn the other way. The judges just don’t want to see the long glide into a triple Axel as in the past.

The way the scoring goes, there will be a value put on a jump and a level. Levels go from one through three. Say you’re doing a triple jump that is basic opposed to one that has an entry with different footwork. You will score the basic value for completing the jump, but you will be awarded bonus points for adding difficulty to the entry and exit.

Judges will also decide if skaters receive minus points. Hands touch the ice, it could be minus a point; you fall, that’s also minus points.

The difference is this is all cumulative. You can get points back. Even if you fall on the first four jumps, you can still accumulate points.

There are three levels. For example, a level three spin is like the ones performed by Lucinda Ruh.

Don (Laws), who helped write the book on the new rules, has been a big help. He will tell me that my straight line footwork is a level two and then we put in some counters and rockers at the end of it to raise it to level three. The one thing Don has emphasized is that it is better to do a level two element well than a level three not so good and not receive any points for it.

Quad toe may be worth 9 and quad lutz 11. So if you do a quad toe you can receive up to three bonus points and get a higher score than if you tried the more difficult quad lutz but didn’t get any extra points.

The ideal program is if you do all the jumps and footwork and get bonus points for all the elements.

Choreography has five categories that will earn points: musicality, transition, flow, body line and posture.

We have planned some of our strategy on the new scoring system.

There are so many requirements in the short and long program, I don’t want to use up the time when I won’t get credit. I figure why waste my time if I’m not going to be rewarded.

I’m looking forward to the competitions and seeing how it works.