Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Andrey Filatov skating to the La La Land soundtrack for their rhythm dance at the 2019 Junior Grand Prix Final and 2020 Junior Russian Championships.
Silly question but how do the teams keep their twizzles equally matched? Do they pick the same spot or have one partner lead to the other to match or is it just pure repetitive training to get in to look seamless?
Q #193:
Hi anon,
Not a silly question at all and the answer is a lot of the times they don’t! Most camps/coaches teach twizzles very differently and an individual’s twizzle technique varies because of this. Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva a couple of years ago have an interview about having to undergo a pretty large adjustment in matching twizzles after switching from Nazarov & Filatov under Samokhin & Borovikova to a partnership with Bazin who had a different technique coming from Sudakov’s camp. This is why it’s easier to switch partners within the same camp, take Green/Parsons for example, because the basic technique is the same. For a lot of teams honestly you'll see them match at the start, maybe one rotation in, and then on the exit but the middle rotations are slightly off (like <90 degree difference in hips facing direction). A lot of the younger teams have a tendency to just each twizzle as fast as possible and hope their speed relatively matches during rotations and then spot their partner on exit or according to music timing. I find this especially true for the weaker direction twizzles (clockwise for most skaters).
From a rotational standpoint, a lot of partners don't spot at the same time in their rotation so you'll see twizzles where the hips, arms, legs, etc. match in slow motion but the heads don't. Especially outside of the extended leg feature where rotation tends to be checked and its much easier to spot facing forward. I'm sure a dancer could elaborate on why spotting feels particularly individual and difficult to change much better than I can. Basically its a lot of drilling it with regards to timing particularly with entries to positions like coupe or a blade grab where a mistimed entrance throws off the ability to match rotation the rest of the set. The exit is slightly easier to manipulate is one partner is slightly ahead because they can open up their body position at a slower rate than the behind partner and create the illusion of matching throughout.
From an ice coverage perspective, a lot of times the more powerful partner who covers more ice will start slightly behind or on the outside curve of the traveling direction to ensure that they stay relatively even in spacing upon exit from sets 2 or 3.
Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva and Nikita Nazarov's free dance costumes at the 2019 World Junior Championships and 2018 Junior Grand Prix Ostrava. They skated to Human by Rag'n'Bone Man and Nemesis by Benjamin Clementine.
“this is so random but it really bothers me that russian х is transliterated to english kh, in english k is always a hard k so it sounds totally wrong, especially at the start of names like liza khudaiberdieva and denis khodykin. it should really just be transliterated as h because although that’s obviously not completely accurate either, it would help english speakers get a lot closer to the correct sound. poor maya khromykh’s name is gonna get completely butchered on the jgp next season.“
We’ve just published our new interview with Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva!
We had the opportunity to catch up with her about partnerships old and new, her journey in the 2019-20 season, and how she is spending time in isolation.