Maria trains in Alexei Mishin’s group but, surprisingly, has very good and memorable programs every year. Last season she skated to “Firebird” in the short and to “The Fairytale of the Voyages” in the long. The year before - “Pirates of the Carribean” short and “Swan Lake” long.

Maria now tries all the triples, even though the most difficult ones - 3Lz and 3F - are not so consistent. Since last season she attempts 3T-3T in both programs. 

She had a couple of successful competitions in the end of last season, this is why she was considered as a JGP contender. In Tallinn she will replace her groupmate Arina Petrova. Arina had better result last season, but this year Masha outscored her both times they met.

I like Masha and her style very much, she is always not like others and always attracts attention. This is why I was so happy to see her in the Entries list.

Anna is a unique girl. She has only two triples - 3T and 3S - and still managed to beat girls with more serious jumping content last season. Rather consistent 3T-3T in the short helped her quite a lot. Skating to oriental music she placed third at Russian novice competition, ahead of other JGP legible girls. This was enough to get in the team in spite of not participating at Junior Nationals.

Anna is coached by Viktoria Volchkova (now Butsaeva) like Polina Korobeynikova and Sofia Biryukova. That is why Anna’s skating skills are awesome and her PCS are consistently high. Even though her jumps in the FS are usually not executed cleanly she still can beat those skaters who URs/DRs or falls on difficult triples. As a Volchkova student, she will certainly learn some new triples lately.

Moreover Anna is very consistent skater, she proved it in the beginning of this season having skated well at two local competitions. She was prized for that with a JGP assignment in Tallinn and afterwards even replaced Kristina Zaseeva in Milano.

As for this season’s programs I prefer her “Cats” short than “Don Quixote” long. It fits her lyrical style much better.

Two previous seasons were difficult for Kristina. She has grown up and her jumps became inconsistent. This problem still remains and hurts her results - last season she did no clean program and won only one medal. Kristina had a disasterous JGP in Sheffield where she scored below 100 for both programs. 

In the end of last season Kristina had no flip or lutz - at least she didn’t show them at competitions. But she has rather consistent 3-3 (3T-3T or 3S-3T) and when she does her jumps, most of them are ratified. Now she is coached by Elena Vodorezova (like Adelina Sotnikova) and one hopes new coach will bring a breath of fresh air to her skating and Kristina will be able to skate to her capabilities.

I can say nothing bad about her music choices, they seem interesting to me. Programs still may be better, but at least I’m not bored while watching them. Here’s her “Entry Of Gladiators” SP and Ouverture to “Fledermaus” FS from Russian Junior Nationals, where she placed 8th.

Music choices for the upcoming season:

SP - Fledermaus by Johann Strauss (?)

FS - Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Polina’s last season was rather good. Practically all her free skates were clean or close to it. She tried all the triples (except 3Lz), 2A-3T and 2A-1Lo-3S combos. Her skating is elegant, light and everyone compares her to Alissa Czisny and calls “Russian Alissa”.

The main Polina’s problem is consistency, especially in the SP. She tends to make different kinds of mistakes there and then move up in rankings after the long. She trains under Viktoria Volchkova (like Sofia Biryukova) and it can be considered as an advantage and as a drawback, too. All Viktoria’s girls have wonderful presence on the ice and really good skating skils. But all of them are pretty much inconsistent. To add to this, Viktoria has rather unusual style of coaching (and the healthier one, I think). Her girls don’t have all the triples at the age of 11 but learn them year after year. Last season Polina had a new triple - 3F and, hopefully, they’re training 3Lz for the upcoming season. But even with inconsistent 3Lz, I think Polina will be able to medal if she skates clean free skate.

I don’t like Polina’s programs too much. There’s nothing special in it. And I want her team to choreograph something new and different for her.

Here’s her “Otonal” free skate from competition for juniors.

Music choices for the upcoming season:

SP - Russian theme by Chaikovski

FS - Otonal by Raul Di Blasio

Last season was the first for Sasha (shortened from Alexandra) to train in CSKA under Svetlana Sokolovskaya (she also trains Anna Ovcharova). Sasha and Svetlana reworked skater’s jump technique and learned new triples, therefore the competitions results were far from her potential. But everybody still recognized a girl with huge jumps and impressive stroking - Sasha shined at Novice level three years ago, but a year later didn’t perform so well. So one can say it was a decent comeback for her!

Sasha’s jumps are really high. It’s like she can land any 3-3 easily, just a matter of time. She does 3S-1Lo-3S and she even attempted 3Lz-3Lo combo at Russian Nats! Even though it was 3Lz-three turn-3Lo«. In the end of the season she tried 3T-3T, not very successful (2nd jump was marked with «). During the season she showed all the triples and different combos. Her best jump is 2A, she usually does it out of the spiral and tano. Really impressive, especially in person. The only problem here - her flip take-off is now clearly outside edge. When she has no lutz, the flip edge was correct, but seems like lutz attempts spoiled it. I hope they’re working on it during the summer. Her spins are rather good, practicaly every position is very centered. And what I like about Sasha the most - her skating skills are really, really good. She flows across the ice so easily, it wins me over.

Sasha participated in 12 competitions throughout last season and had both ups and downs, but managed to make it to the national team. Here’s her Grieg SP, choreographed to the music I like so I like the whole program, too. There was nothing special in her programs last year - just good ones for a girl whose aim is just to skate clean, land new jumps. For the upcoming season I expect something memorable from her and stability, of course!

Sasha is one of my favourite juniors, so I’m really-really-really excited that she’s assigned to participate at JGP in Australia! There are some girls whose last season scores were higher than Sasha’s that’s why I worried about a spot for her. So good luck to Sasha at test skates this August - and Brisbane is waiting!

Music choices for the upcoming season:

FS - The Devil’s Gallop

It’s going to be the third international season for Polina. From her first one she has two bronze medals and one of them - from Junior Worlds 2010! She put two solid performances (just like at Russian Jr National 2010, where she won) and deserved her medal. She had ratified 3Lz-3T in both her programs - noone could match her there. Last season was not as successful. She had only two really good competitions - the local one in her native St Petersburg (where she beat A. Leonova) and European Youth Olympic Winter Festival. But at both JGP and both Nationals she was far from her best.

Polina is a strong skater. She has all the triples (even though she lips and her loop isn’t too reliable yet), amazing spins, especially wow layback and biellman. And for me her interpretation is rather good. But not for the judges. Polina’s skating is considered to be too childish (partly because of her tiny heigh), she lacks speed a little bit, therefore her second mark is pretty low. But now, as far as I can see, Polina’s grown, she’s becoming more mature. Not sure about her jumps though, hope they don’t suffer from it. This summer Polina participated in “Art on ice” show and that can help to develop her overall skating. If she holds her nerves and puts together everything she can, she will be a contender for medals without doubt.

As for her programs - I think they were fine. Except her Romeo and Juliet free where she “killed herself” in the end. Here’s her best skate of “Grafin Mariza” free.

I’m curious to see new Polina’s programs and her SP layout. Since 3Lz is the jump out of step sequence for juniors and 3Lz-3T is the strongest combo for her, interesting to know what she will have in the short.

Next season Polina will be age legible for Europeans and Worlds, so it’s going to be an interesting battle at Nationals.

Music choices for the upcoming season:

SP - Malaguena by Ernesto Lecuona

FS - The Matrix (soundtrack) by Rob Dougan

It was a breakthrough season for Rosa. She won a JGP medal (bronze in Courchavel), placed top-10 at Russian Nationals, nearly edged Polina Shelepen out of the junior worlds team (less than one point gap!) and won the Final of Russian Cup beating Makarova, Leonova and Lipnitskaya.

Rosa is one of the most elegant skaters I’ve ever seen. Her skating style is flawless, light and charming. She has all the triples and her jumps are rather high, especially 2A. I really hope she can add 2A-3T to her free program next season. She hasn’t any difficult combinations and practically never recieves level 4 for spins. But her biggest problem is singled jumps. This year she singled less jumps than a year before but it still hurts her placements. She completely bombed her short at Russian Nationals, and a singled jump at Russian Junior Nationals costed her a trip to JW.

Rosa’s programs suit her very much, but they’re a little bit similar to each other. Here is her Mozart short and here - winning free at the Russian Cup Final to “Umbrellas of Cherbourg”. Lovely performances.

I hope her next season’s programs will be memorizable and sparkling. Next year Rosa will be age legible for senior competition, and I really want her to fight for the Worlds and Europeans spots at Russian Nationals this December. And 3-3 or 2A-3 combinations along with level 4 spins and good programs could be huge advantage there.

Polina has five international medals already: three Junior Grand Prix golds, JGP bronze and a silver from JGP Final 2009. She wanted to move up into seniors last season (she was guranteed one senior GP as JGPF medalist) but her team thought she would be illegible. It was very stupid from them not to check the information and even not to try to move up.

So she stayed in juniors but struggled al the season. Here shorts were ok (here’s the best one - from JW) while there were step outs and under-rotations during the longs. Polina were growing all the time so it may be the cause of mistakes. Meanwhile she didn’t lost her jumps and still has 3Lz-3T. She barely made it to Junior World finishing less then one point ahead of Rosa Sheveleva at Russian Junior Nationals. As she didn’t medal at JGPF or JW this season she didn’t gurantee a senior GP but she still could get it based on season best or just get the home spot at CoR. But no, she is still going to compete as a junior. Personally I can’t get this decision.

Polina has all the triples (edge call on a flip), 3Lz-3T, 2A-3T, good 4-level spins and 3-level step sequences. As a student of Eteri Tutberidze Polina’s PCS mark is not so strong as TES one. She lost gold at JGPF 2009 because of that, for example. They’re working on the second mark now but it’s still not comparable with the best skaters.

As for the programs, while her Swan Lake SP is so-so, a Russian folk FS is just rubbish. I don’t know why such a beautiful girl skates this. For me her best program is “Love in Venice” which she skated two seasons ago. It suited her so much. Morozov makes her programs for the upcoming seson, and I’m not really excited about it, to be honest. Hope I’m wrong and Polina will have amazing routines.

Even though her skating style is not my favourite one, I respect Polina so much. She overcame injuries, growth spurt and still is able to land difficult jumps. Such a strong girl.

Music choices for the upcoming season:

SP - Variations on classical music

FS - Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelsson

Yulia moved to Moscow two years ago and it was worth a shot. Her two previous seasons were wonderful. Practically every time she skated relatively clean and therefore won lots of different medals. I consider her best achievement is 4th place at Russian Nationals this season where she beat Ksenia Makarova. Here’s her free skate.

Yulia has all the triples (sometimes flutzes though), 3T-3T, 2A-3T and amazing flexibility. Her spins are just wow - fast, flexible and centered. I think this girl has a very strong character. When you look into her eyes you understand that she will achieve everything she wants to by all means. Very good quality for an athlete.

But like everyone she has drawbacks, too. She is coached by Eteri Tutberidze (like Polina Shelepen) and personally I don’t like the way Eteri works with her students. All of them have jumps but lack the basics. This fact hurted Polina at the international stage and it may hurt Yulia, too. For me the choreography of her programs leaves much to be desired, especially of the long one - “Carmen”. And in the short program the music is mixed in a realy strange way. Yulia’s skating is very fussy and I always have a feeling that she is in a hurry. Also I don’t like how coaches put the spiral transitions into the program. They are more about “look, I can do this and that, it’s so cool” than about the theme and the music.

Yulia is one of the girls who guranteed herself two JGPs. It will be insane if she doesn’t get them. For the next season I want programs for Julia which will suit her young personality. I’m not a fan of “Carmen” for a 12-year-old.

Music choices for the upcoming season:

SP - Dark Eyes

FS - Un Giorno Per Noi from Romeo and Juliett