Ladies LP

[daniel1406]

the flower wasn't packed fully.. the top.. NOT AT ALL...

so they should give it to Mao directly....through her pp or someone...

[ilunga1965]

Thanks for joining us, ilunga1965, and welcome.

P.S. Your English is outstanding!

Thanks for your warm welcome.

[Bennett]

Just watched caro. I love the music. Some unfortunate mistakes. But her entry to flip seemed shorter than before. I liked her costumes from past seasons better. The LP costume was not very fashionable. I basically like the SP costume, but they need to adjust it to fit her body.
The steps in both programs were fab. she does bring the audience in her lively steps in both programs. I wish she did not have a strange combination of Chopin and Tchikovsky (spelling?) in her SP though.

[harmy18]

the flower wasn't packed fully.. the top.. NOT AT ALL...

.

Come on guy~ do you think ppl would wrap thoroughly the bunches of flowers?? or would you give that bunch of flowers to your gf? How weird is that
but I think they will pay attention to this next time

Anyway, let's stop this flower-event here, OK? It is NOT that serious since judges had be aware of it.

For me, just curious about your persist in this event, really different from my Aussie fds, no intention to offend

[macemace1980]

Hello everyone! This is the first time I post a comment here even I have been reading this Forum for 2 years.
At TEB, Yuna was so great and her jumps were very solid and she seemed to have full of confidence and very determined.
Team Yuna is very strong, Yuna, Brian and David packed together is almost invincible!!
I am a Mao's fan so I feel so bad for her because she was too nervous before she started skating.
I am not sure about Tatiana but to me the problem is Mao who seems to be very stressed and so weak psychologically.
I hope she and Tatiana will solve many problems they have and they made at TEB.
I like this forum because none of them posts any comments which hurt others and I am learning a lot by your comments.
As I live in a country where nobody is interested in Figure Skate, I need to watch Youtube that is the only way to watch this sport, but I am very tired and sad about vulgar and nasty comments there.
Thank you all here for your elegance and respects

[Justin]

sunflowers incident was funny cause thelittle boy who tried to carry them was smaller than the flowers And he was dropping stuff! But he got a big applause from audience
But it was thrown on the whole other diagonal side of the rink and not where yuna didnt try her jump!Both Yuna and Mao have great audience by the way, I learnt some japanese words

There wasn't just one bunch of flowers on the ice but several. I remember a guy sitting two rows below me threw it like a discus thrower to the ice. It wasn't sunflowers, i think, but it was thrown near the spot where yuna later attempted her flip jump. I am not saying yuna missed the jump because of this but i felt uncomfortable by the items thrown unpacked.

[Olympia]

A few pages back, someone compared Michelle Kwan's impact to the acclaim of the current Big Two, Asada and Kim. Though I will always admire Michelle greatly, I have to agree with those who point out that from a world perspective Kwan is more than matched by our current stars in terms of popularity. And that's completely fitting. Each era gets to have its stars, and that doesn't diminish the people who came before. I have an unusual perspective. Where I live there's a sizable Korean community. The local Korean newspaper often devotes a whole page to Kim, even for a Grand Prix event. (An acquaintance showed me the page from his current paper. The picture was a gigantic close-up worthy of a Hollywood A-lister.) She's one of the most famous people in Korea. And I remember hearing that Asada came to California to train a few years ago because she was so popular in Japan that it was like living in a fishbowl. So I think these two ladies are (deservedly) hugely famous, and that can only be good for skating. I certainly feel comfortable rooting for both of them. At this moment, they're the class of the field, along with Rochette and Ando.

[daniel1406]

Come on guy~ do you think ppl would wrap thoroughly the bunches of flowers?? or would you give that bunch of flowers to your gf? How weird is that
but I think they will pay attention to this next time

Anyway, let's stop this flower-event here, OK? It is NOT that serious since judges had be aware of it.

For me, just curious about your persist in this event, really different from my Aussie fds, no intention to offend

I think people MUSTN'T throw things to the ice ... Gala shows--- it will be okay..

and I'm very happy that u hav Aussie friend who is interested in figure skating... actually .. u didn't say that clearly so I don't know wether ur friend's interested in skating but I wanna assume that lol.. u no .. in Aus.. I can dare say that .. No one is interested in figure skating ... really ... no one...

[demarinis5]

Is the Gala Exhibition being telecast live anywhere?. I checked Icenetwork but did not see it listed.

[Ptolemy]

Ptolemy, that's a scary thought you've brought up about ladies' coaching in Japan. I don't know whether this fact is related to your idea, but interestingly, two of the only "wrapped leg" jumpers to become world or GP medalists have come from Japan: Nakano and the great Midori Ito. (The only other world-class skater with that fault that I recall was one of the Claudias from West Germany: I think it was Claudia Kristofics-Binder.) Maybe it's not a coincidence that those three Japanese ladies, Ito, Nakano, and Asada, all have a triple axel. This seems to reinforce your theory that the Japanese skating program looks for ladies with natural jumping talent, and that some (not all) of their coaches don't force them into the prescribed form. If your idea is correct, Ptolemy, it doesn't bode well for Mao. That's really too bad, because she's phenomenal and it would be nice to have her among the contenders for the OGM.

Isn't it funny: if you just looked at statistics, you'd expect YuNa to be the undisciplined raw talent and Asada to be the technically meticulous one. Here's YuNa, from a country with absolutely no skating tradition and no coaching program--what's more, her coach, Orser, has no previous history of champions that I can recall. On the other hand, there's Asada, from a country that's a huge skating power, especially in ladies' singles, with a bunch of world champions (Ito, Yuka Sato, Ando, Asada), several experienced coaches, and presumably a national skating federation with a strong interest in training young skaters up to standard. And her current coach, Tarasova, has one of the most impressive records of Olympic wins in history! It makes the achievements of Orser and Kim even more impressive when you consider this comparison.

My thoughts exactly. You said it much better than I could. It's very sad about Mao. Imagine how she must feel struggling and scoring as she does now, with all that natural talent.

[Ptolemy]

As for the jumping techniqe, I do find it nothing short of miraculous how Yuna has come so far with no huge glaring weaknesses in her technique, considering how Orser only became her full-time coach in March 2007 - her jumps, as many have remarked, are textbook, and while her spins and spirals could all use some honing they're all decent at the very least.My theory as to what might have happened is that Yuna's Korean coaches, having no local precedents to go by, taught her only what they could, which was what was textbook, and Yuna's natural talent helped her along the way.

I think you are exactly right. There are many examples of kids fathers coaching them from books. Don't we always do better when we don't know and try to learn than when we think we know only to find out we didn't.

[Ptolemy]

I wasn't even thrilled about this comp cuz.. I knew Yuna was gonna win after her short...
She is too perfect to be bitten ....

I hope other skaters practice more and more... otherwise.. I want ISU people send Kim to Man's comp... she would get at least bronze medal or something in even man's..

I didn't like the Kim's music.. because I compared them with her's in last season. But I realised that compared to others it's actually good. so It's all fine now...

Um.. some people didn't understand about the really high record score that Yuna got even without TF in her LP...

um.. well.. watch her video again...

the first reason is of course her perfect jumps... the use of edges, air positions and landing positions.. (I haven't seen such a perfect jump in lady's comp.. it's more than perfect actually I should say...)
and I noticed that in this season Yuna got more + cuz of other thing..
Did u notice that Yuna's skating speed was little bit slower before her jumps compare to last season?
That's because of the unique steps before her jumps and after jumps..
It's really hard to put steps or movements before or after jumps.. especially before.. cuz it could lower the speed and change the direction of skating flow.
But Yuna did it .. although normal pp (including me) were not interested in the steps before jumps... so pp could wonder that y she got record scores... but I think she deserves it. I do really.. her skating is more than skating .. that's y I love her.
I'm worrying about me having really high expectations in her skating...lol

Mao.... I loved hers.. was greater than last season actually..
I hated her coach cuz I thought she made her do 1 TA in short and 2 in her LP.
But I found out that the reason that she's doing TA's in her programs was because she wanted to....
I really don't agree with her choice..... I think that choice has been made to win Yuna Kim... But .. y does Mao hav to skate to win Yuna....
u no wat? I'm telling u .. even if Mao can't win Yuna.. that's fine. I'll still love her skatings and many people will still love her skating..
I'm sorry for Mao that it's really hard to bit Yuna...
But it doesn't matter. I do love her skating .... Mao's own skating.. but these days TA is ruining her own skating.... someone should tell her that just skate her own skating..like she did few yrs ago..
her fans doesn't care wether she's in 3rd or 4th or 5th. As long as she is showing her own skating.. we will love her.

Now her skatings r only focused on TA to win the comp.. it cuz It's ruining her other beautiful talents.. winning shouldn't be the most important thing for her.
The reason I love Mao is because she has soft skating not about jumps but the beautiful spirals and spins.. the flow of her skatings... Now I'm sad cuz I can't see that..

Well thought out and insightful post. I agree, I wish Mao would forget about Yu Na and skate for Mao. Her gala programs are the best.

[harmy18]

I think people MUSTN'T throw things to the ice ... Gala shows--- it will be okay..

and I'm very happy that u hav Aussie friend who is interested in figure skating... actually .. u didn't say that clearly so I don't know wether ur friend's interested in skating but I wanna assume that lol.. u no .. in Aus.. I can dare say that .. No one is interested in figure skating ... really ... no one...

Well.......I think it would be difficult for ppl who wanna show their loving towards that particular skater. Still remembered GPF in Korea, audiences threw tons of dolls, flowers to Yuna, I like that pic

As to my fds...... their passions towards a particular sport can hardly last for more than a month..... I just wonder how come things happen like that

[Olympia]

I feel silly: I listed the Japanese world champions from memory in an earlier post, and didn't I forget Shizuka! And she's the one who's won the Olympic gold medal as well. Whoops!

Edit: I just went to watch Asada's free skate. What oppressive music. Can you imagine rehearsing to that thing day after day? It's like a dirge. I'd be despondent skating to that even if I could do a quintuple jump. If Tarasova felt she had to choose Russian music, there's so much else that would suit Asada's personality: parts of Le Coq D'Or by Rimsky Korsakov, for instance, or heaps of other Rachmaninov, or an extract from Tchaikovsky's Suite Number 3, for instance. (Like that waltz section, or the final theme and variations.) Oh, golly! I am distressed.

[kyla2]

O.k. for those of you that lack historical perspective and don't see the difference in the sport since Michelle skated, I can only assume that you didn't watch figure skating then or you were visually challenged. Take a look at tapes of all Michelle's competitions, nationally and internationally, the arenas were either full or just about full. Take a look at the stadiums when Yu Na Kim and Mao skate, they aren't even near full, this is internationally. Lot's of empty seats. There is a reason for that. Yes, Yu Na is a star in Korea and Mao in Japan but that's pretty much it. They don't connect with audiences internationally and Michelle did. She was the number 1 or number 2 female sports personality for endorsements while she was skating. Considering we are talking about a sport that most Americans and the rest of the world were not engaged in, this is a phenomenal statistic. She was as good as gold to any endorser. As you all know, America had a ton of sports personalities, who were also international stars, so this was no mean feat. Michelle was even invited by mainland (Communist) China to skate. She was even on THEIR radar.

Yu Na and Mao cannot carry the sport except in their home countries, Michelle and her competition/contemporaries did. Skating was carried by U.S. t.v. channels consistently and now it is barely visible. You have to have your head buried in the sand if you don't see what has happened since Michelle left the sport. While you are at it, take a look at what has happened to the sport in general. NBC had to be begged to carry the Grand Prix series for all of 2 hours on a Sunday from 1-3 p.m. Not good. I have watched figure skating for 47 years and I can honestly say, the programs are predictable (thank you ISU for this unGODLY point system which ensured that) and the skaters going through the motions in order to get the points. It's a tragedy and while you all sit here offering your opinions on how wonderful everything is, the sport is going to hell in a handbasket everywhere except in two countries in Asia. I sure hope some of you can get a Korean t.v. station in 2 years.