This Way Lies Pladness

[dlgood]

Are you a Hockey fan? Do you find uniform design interesting? Well then, check out the story on very special Plaid Uniforms worn by the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League. (Affiliation - Nashville Predators) -- My icon shows the regular jersey designs...






I think I kind of want one of these. It's mesmerizing. You could skate at ludicrous speed. How could any goalie defend against someone dressed like that? It's just not possible.

Olympics Note - Sasha Cohen fell on her tuchus and got Silver. Very sad for her. People will remember Michelle Kwan as the skater who kept getting beat. They'll remember Sasha as the skater who choked.

Both the US and Canada hockey teams have been bounced. It's only mildly disappointing for the US, because our team is old and slow. Which, really, is a sorry indicator on the quality of under-30 US Hockey players. It's crusing for the Canadians. They've got young players, they've got great players, how can they not even score against Switzerland? My expectation is either Finland or Russia for gold. I like Alex Ovechkin, but I have a longstanding practice of rooting for the Finns the minute the US is eliminated, for no reason other than I think Finnish names sound awesome.

Comments

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

Ah well, perspectives are funny things.

Yeah. Proper perspective might have it that Sasha Cohen isn't a choker, so much as that she just isn't that good. Not good enough to hold up for an entire four minute program.

The only thing being... I saw the look on Sasha's face before she started her skate. And it was the face of someone who was expecting to fail. Perhaps, people look at the way she skates her shorts and think that her failures aren't physical... that it's mental.

[blackcat333-99.livejournal.com]

I’d be one of those people. Because she has skated clean programs in exhibition (although, again, some exhibitions she has had that one flubbed jump). The thing is – her mistakes are inconsistent. It’s not just the same jump that gives her trouble so she falls on it. *That* would be a failure to properly learn an element. But she CAN and has skated all of the elements cleanly – just not consistently. One time she’ll flub a jump that she previously skated with perfect ease. Or she’ll flub a jump that earlier in that same program she got right. It seems to be a mental thing, that she expects herself to make a mistake, so she makes it: and once she’s made it, she pulls it back together and skates the rest cleanly and beautifully. Which is another baffling and frustrating thing about her skating, because most skaters that flub a major element frequently procedure to lose all their fire and just go through the moves with the rest of their program, knowing that they’ve lost. Sasha makes the mistake, and it seems to fire her up – she finishes the darn programs with a beauty and skill that makes you say “if only”. If only she had not had that one (or two) mistakes. She’s a great talent, but will not make it into a great competitor category until she can overcome that block within herself.