Ami Parekh

[sonador16]

...is a much better skater than I thought! Here's a vid of her 2007 Worlds SP (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukKZ5EVcLQk)

She's got lovely spins and edging for the most part, decent speed, decent lines, a lovely Kerrigan spiral, and decent spiral sequences.

The only thing the girl cannot do is jump. And it's not her fault; she doesn't KNOW how to jump! It's ridiculous, her coach obviously has not taught her proper entries OR proper technique. If she had a good jump coach, I think she could definitely move up in the rankings quite a bit, at least break top 15, which would be great for India.

She needs to lose that costume though. Note: Faux saris do NOT make good skating costumes. If she wants to look Indian, she's gotta get a better costume designer, and she can lose the chutti (the thing on her forehead) as well...it's sort of distracting.

I was surprised, seeing as she's coached by Jeff DiGregorio (Tara's old coach) and Tara did have decent jump technique besides the axel and flutz...I mean, surely he can do a better job than he's done? I was shocked at how poorly she jumps, considering he taught Tara all her triples.

[sashasparkles]

Woah! Her jumps are odd! She really needs a jumping coach. But her spins seem fine, but her spirals need some work. She might show promise.

[olympian121]

What is with those jumps?? They were slow, low, almost lazy. But her spins are pretty good, and so is her catch knee spiral. [thats what its called right?]

[melkajts13]

Thanks for posting this, I had not seen her skate before.

On first viewing, I love love LOVE her basic style...it kind of reminds me of my own, actually (not being arrogant or anything, I just see some similarities, lol). She has really good spins too, spirals not bad either (fan spiral was iffy though).

Her jumps kind of remind me of Alissa Czisny because her also it seems doesn't really coordinate the movements of her arms and head with the rest of her body in the air and her axis is really off. At least that's what I saw, I could be wrong about that. And she seems really hesitant going in like she's expecting to fall so that could be part of it too.

Overall though I hope she moves up in the ranks through the years because she does have a lot of potential!

[sonador16]

What is with those jumps?? They were slow, low, almost lazy. But her spins are pretty good, and so is her catch knee spiral. [thats what its called right?]

It's called a Kerrigan spiral, b/c Nancy did the whole support your free leg thing...I've never heard it called a catch knee...but I really don't know if there's another name for it besides Kerrigan spiral...

And Jackie, yeah, her fan spiral is definitely iffy! :lol:

I also love her basic style, I think that she has the same basic style as any of the great lyrical skaters...she just is a little awkward and hesitant/unpolished in some places, which would DEFINITELY go away with some confidence and a little dance work for body awareness.

I agree that she's rushing her jumps...she's definitely hesitant and expecting to fall, so she delays and delays the entry...and then desperately launches herself into it to try and get it over with.

She reminds me of a horse that rushes a jump and just muscles over it to try and get it over with. You have to pull back, slow down, steady the horse, and force it to not rush.

I'd love to see a top coach, or any good jump coach really, get their hands on her, have her do all her singles really calmly and focus on good technique...and then slowly do doubles and just do them really easily not trying to muscle it and desperately fling her arms and rotate trying to squeeze out a triple when there's no chance of it happening.

If someone worked with her like that, working on her basics rather than making wild attempts at triples, after several months, she'd probably be jumping triples...the talent and potential is there.

[rosepetal]

I love her spins, she's certainly got no worries in that department - fast, solid, quick changing, no wobbling. I also love her hand movements and positions, she's very expressive. Her jumps were quite embarrassing, though. I find it quite shocking that her coach let her enter the competition when she quite clearly wasn't ready - falling on every single jump in an SP should be very telling. Either her coach is holding her back or needs to teach her a better technique.
She's a lovely girl, though and even though there's room for improvement, she could have the potential to do quite well with the right coaching.

[polosatik]

i like her, pretty style, great fast spins, elegent on ice...but her jumps annoying me,:( can she land one of her jumps cleanly? i hope so

[Aemskater]

She reminds me of Alissa Czisny. She has great spins and spirals but her jumps just are not good.

[CohenSquared]

Soo much potential. If only she could get those jumps down...

[Lanie]

She's got a lot of potential. If she's in the US she needs to get herself to a jump coach or go to MN when Mishin is there. I love her lyrical style, she's very elegant and not sloppy which is what you'd expect from obscure skaters...

[michiruwater]

She's lovely to watch. If she just fixed her jumps and worked on her extensions in the spirals a bit, she'd be dynamite.

[sonador16]

Apparently, she trains with Jeff DiGregorio, Lanie, which would mean that she's at UDel, which SHOULD mean that she has access to dozens of excellent coaches and jump coaches (not to mention that DiGregorio SHOULD be able to teach her her jumps, as he did a decent job on Tara...) It's weird. And she's a US resident...it would probably be like if *I* decided to compete for India and got a dual citizenship (since I'm a US citizen by birth). I don't know if Ami is a US citizen or not, but she definitely lives and trains here.