{"id":23868,"date":"2020-01-11T18:18:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-11T23:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/?p=23868"},"modified":"2020-01-11T18:19:03","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T23:19:03","slug":"gilles-poirier-use-grand-prix-final-appearance-as-motivation-for-second-half-of-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/gilles-poirier-use-grand-prix-final-appearance-as-motivation-for-second-half-of-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Gilles &#038; Poirier Use Grand Prix Final Appearance as Motivation for Second Half of Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Maura Sullivan Hill | Photo by Robin Ritoss<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Piper Gilles &amp; Paul Poirier returned to the Grand Prix Final this year for the first time since the 2014-15 season, propelled by their most successful Grand Prix campaign to date: a first-time Grand Prix victory at Skate Canada and a silver at Rostelecom Cup.<\/p>\n<p>While the duo saw it as a milestone, they ultimately weren\u2019t happy with their fifth\u00a0place finish in the six-team field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were really pleased to be back at the Final. It\u2019s something that has eluded us for several years and we\u2019ve been very close many times, so it was really nice to be back there and really feel a part of the top echelon in the world,\u201d Poirier said on a Skate Canada media call ahead of the 2020 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in Mississauga, Ontario. \u201cAs much as we didn\u2019t quite get the result that we wanted there, we really feel like we were in the mix, especially with coming fourth\u00a0in the free dance. I think that did build our confidence. We really feel that we are in the mix, that we\u2019re competitive, that we can really challenge for the podium at the World Championships.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Armed with that confidence and judges\u2019 feedback, Gilles and Poirier have made some changes to their programs looking ahead to both the National Championships and the international events in the second half of the season, Four Continents and Worlds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe feedback we got from the Final and from the Grand Prix events guided the modifications we made to our programs leading up to Canadians,\u201d Poirier said. \u201cIt\u2019s really been about that, taking in stride all the feedback we\u2019ve gotten and seeing [how many] more points we can really eek out of these programs, so that when we do get to Four Continents and Worlds and we\u2019re competing against those teams again, we\u2019re really getting everything we can out of the programs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Their Joni Mitchell free dance has been their strength all season, and Gilles said they are focused on speed on the technical side of that program. In the rhythm dance, they changed some of their transitions to emphasize speed and flow throughout the program, and are also focusing on the required Finnstep pattern, where level calls have often put teams at a deficit heading into the free dance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was about taking the transitions between the elements and simplifying them so that we can keep more speed, which we feel really helps, especially with our skating skills mark in the components, which tends to be our lowest component of the five,\u201d Poirier said. \u201cIn terms of the Finnstep\u2026we\u2019ve been training it a lot. We\u2019ve been skating it a lot tired, so that we know that we can execute it well tired and I think we just need to skate it with confidence next week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re on the hunt for another first time-victory in Mississauga, after five silvers and two bronze medals at Canadians since their senior debut in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>The duo will be skating on home ice of sorts, as their training base is in nearby Scarborough, Ontario. They see it as a helpful practice run for the upcoming 2020 World Championships in Montreal, which will be in front of another home Canadian crowd.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will definitely hold a special place in our heart if we end up on top of the podium [at Canadians], being home and sharing that with our friends and our family,\u201d Gilles said. \u201cI think this will just give us a little bit more confidence going into the World Championships, knowing that we can perform at home, in front of a Canadian crowd. We\u2019re looking at taking this as almost a practice run for March [at Worlds]. We\u2019re very excited to show our new stuff, but our sights are set farther from here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Maura Sullivan Hill | Photo by Robin Ritoss Piper Gilles &amp; Paul Poirier returned to the Grand Prix Final this year for the first time since the 2014-15 season, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_gspb_post_css":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-interviews","category-featured"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?fit=1691%2C1000&ssl=1","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?fit=1691%2C1000&ssl=1",1691,1000,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?fit=254%2C150&ssl=1",254,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?fit=300%2C177&ssl=1",300,177,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?fit=768%2C454&ssl=1",768,454,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?fit=1024%2C606&ssl=1",1024,606,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?fit=1536%2C908&ssl=1",1536,908,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?fit=1691%2C1000&ssl=1",1691,1000,true],"et-pb-post-main-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?resize=400%2C250&ssl=1",400,250,true],"et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?resize=1080%2C675&ssl=1",1080,675,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?resize=400%2C284&ssl=1",400,284,true],"et-pb-portfolio-module-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?resize=510%2C382&ssl=1",510,382,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image-single":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?fit=1080%2C639&ssl=1",1080,639,true],"et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?resize=400%2C516&ssl=1",400,516,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Gilles-Poirier-7711.jpg?resize=45%2C45&ssl=1",45,45,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Team IDC","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/author\/idcadmin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Maura Sullivan Hill | Photo by Robin Ritoss Piper Gilles &amp; Paul Poirier returned to the Grand Prix Final this year for the first time since the 2014-15 season, [&hellip;]","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GOSM-6cY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23869,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23868\/revisions\/23869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}