Takehiko Kozuka

Watching his Worlds performances, I just absolutely loved his skating skills. His edges quality, speed, and steps were superb. I like his deep edges quality next to Verner. I also LOVED his 3A. He gets really a great height and has fast rotation and very clean landing. I also love his fast spins with beautiful positions. He is already better than Daisuke in spins.

British commentators absolutely loved his basic skating skills. One of them claimed to be a "big, big fan." They described him as a real talent and a complete package, who set himself apart from the jumping machines. This makes sense because his father and grandfather were skaters and his father has been his coach.

Artistically speaking, I feel that he has some work to do. His basic posture is not too good. He is a bit hunched around his chest and shoulders. Perhaps he could be a bit more straight, look up more, and stretch his neck so that he doesn't look down on the ice. He is also still a bit awkward in dancing parts. Since his moves now look serious and monotonous, he could perhaps use his head and upper body a bit more to give some variations in the moves, as his head and upper body are now always facing straight ahead regardless of the arm movements. His costume in SP was also not very flattering. But because his coaches Mrs. and Mr. Sato tend to produce very well-constructed, beautifully balanced programs, I have a great faith in his improvement in this area (BTW, I am a bit curious where he trains. He belongs to the same univ. with Mao and Miki in Nagoya, but Mrs. & Mr. Sato are in Tokyo).

I wonder if he could aim for a medal in 2010 (he would be 21 yrs old) or perhaps more likely in 2014 (25 yrs old).

Bennett said:

British commentators absolutely loved his basic skating skills. One of them claimed to be a "big, big fan." They described him as a real talent and a complete package, who set himself apart from the jumping machines. This makes sense because his father and grandfather were skaters and his father has been his coach.

Click to expand...

You should have heard the German commentators. They were raving about his skating skills, called him the best basic skater of the entire competition etc.

But I agree that he has some work to do presentation-wise. Just amazing everyone with his skating skills and speed across the ice will probably not be enough.

About the medal - he could surprise everyone of course - but right now the men's field is so deep that it is practically impossible (for me ;-) maybe others are smarter) to predict who will win a medal in two years. Apart from this I think that it may be possible the judges consider him as one of the "next generation", along with Chan, Carriere, Voronov etc. - and want to have Kozuka around for another Olympic cycle, therefore won't give him the marks right now that would put him into medal contention. That's not a conspiracy theory (I don't like those) but more an assumption that the judges want a certain group of skaters (Lambiel, Joubert, Buttle, Lysacek, Weir, Takahashi, Verner) fight it out at Vancouver, send all of them into retirement - and then will take a closer look at the next generation, including Kozuka.

I am of course looking forward to see him at lots of competitions with great programs.

I watched him in Gotenborg live and he has a lot of class. Hope he doesn't get a coach to change him.

Joe

I thought Taka's performance at Worlds was much better than those even at the Japan nationals at the end of last year, he just seemed more confident and polished, and I'm really looking forward to seeing his development. But I agree he's got a LOT of work to do on the artistry side - Daisuke's way ahead of him here. But I think, like it did for Dai, this will come with time. It would be great see him on the podium at Vancouver, but realistically, with the current competition, it will probably be his time come 2014.

Kozuka rocks!! At Skate America...a few of us were having a hard time at practice figuring out who was Kozuka and who was Nanri. Then one day Kozuka came out at practice with his name on the back of his shirt!! It was funny!! He was really nice. Gave me an autograph and took a picture with me..it was one of the nicer pictures that I have. He even wrote thanks on the autograph...or maybe that was Nanri...I don't remember I will have to look tonight when I get home.

sillylionlove said:

Kozuka rocks!! At Skate America...a few of us were having a hard time at practice figuring out who was Kozuka and who was Nanri. Then one day Kozuka came out at practice with his name on the back of his shirt!! It was funny!!

Click to expand...

So funny It's kind of him to let ppl know who he was

The first image that came to my mind when I saw him in that costume was the ping-pong player because there's some nice athleticism in there:agree: Then I was like, "Wait a minute, I am seeing the ice arena."

But I really liked his LP costume. He seems to look very classy in these traditional costumes.

Medusa said:

You should have heard the German commentators. They were raving about his skating skills, called him the best basic skater of the entire competition etc.

Click to expand...

Thank you for sharing. I wish I studied my German harder.

But if Kozuka has any chance to hear that (I mean, to study German or to hear it from someone), he and his family would be very happy and honored.

I agree with you that he would be perhaps the next generation.

I remember reading his interview that he started landing the quad, too.

Kozuka has the total package to be one of the top skaters in the world. I just think it's time for him to get a new choreographer. Kozuka is very shy and isn't expressive enough.. He needs a Morozov type of a choreographer.

ks777 said:

Kozuka has the total package to be one of the top skaters in the world. I just think it's time for him to get a new choreographer. Kozuka is very shy and isn't expressive enough.. He needs a Morozov type of a choreographer.

Click to expand...

Talking about Morosov, I actually liked it when he imitated Dai's steps & spins using his Romeo & Juliet for fun at an Ex show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRoik6y_Kmg
He looked very nice in that dramatic music.

His current programs seem to be choreographed by Yuka Sato. I generally like Mrs. & Mr. Sato's programs because they are very classy, musical, and tasteful. Having seen how Yukari developed in presentation, I feel that they would be good for him. Since their daughter Yuka Sato has a lot of experience in ice shows, I would think that she might be even better in producing good programs. I feel that she would be able to do various types of programs. Somehow, I wasn't quite impressed by the choreo of either programs of his this time. Perhaps they would come up with ones that suit him better next season.

I actually may want to see Taka & Mr. Higuchi as well. Mr. Higuchi teaches both singles and ice dancers. Mr. Higuchi regards Taka's skating skills very highly. He can help him fix his posture (I used to skate in the same rink with him before and watched him correct his students' postures). He also produces very classy, musical, tasteful programs.

I feel that he would look nice in Patrick-Chan type of classy, traditional skater-like programs, rather than dancer/character-type of programs (perhaps in future).

it really didn't take long for me to fall in love with this guy's skating. Him and Patrick Chan are the brightest future of men's skating!

I agree! Patrick Chan is really amazing! Both guys seem to be really nice persons, too! Since Patrick is fantastic in artistry as well, I hope that Kozuka will catch up in that area soon. Patrick has extremely well-constructed, very beautiful programs. I consider both programs of his masterpieces. He has great musicality and nice body lines and is able to dance. Since Pat looked a bit too serious and too authentic, I hope that he would have a bit sexier, more youthful, joyful programs and costumes next season to give him some more character to shine.

So it's about time the thread starter or the mod corrected the spelling of the skater's name in the thread title, I suppose.

Opps, sorry! My bad!

But I don't think that I could correct it. It won't be reflected on the index page even if I do.