Mao Asada news

[Blades of Passion]

Well, sure it would be better if the jump passes were spread out, but you have to consider the fact that Mao is going for a 3-axel rather than a 2-axel, and most women usually only have their 2-axel in the 2nd half of the short. You also have to consider that this is the first time skaters will be choreographing with new rules on spins and step sequence, making it more difficult for them to hit levels on these components.

The spins and footwork are not any more difficult. She had to alter the sequencing of her combination spin a little to fit the new rules, but that spin isn't any more difficult of a spin than the combination spins she has done in the past.

Considering there is 1 less technical element in the SP for both Men and Women this season, that is even MORE reason why they shouldn't be cramming all of their jumps at the very beginning of the program. They only have to do 7 technical elements!

Look at Patrick Chan's new SP. His planned technical content is a 4Toe preceded by steps, a 3A, and a 3F-3T. That's a harder layout than what he has does in the past but he thankfully didn't cram all of the jumping passes right at the beginning of the program. He put a spin in before his 3F-3T combination, and it should be noted that Men have had to change their spins much more than Women have to fit the new rules.

[seniorita]

the thing is not what he has added but what he can do in competition, if he does this layout of a short, i ll bow

[bekalc]

I'm not sure why Mao can't put a spin or something before her 3flip. Its not like she's not use to doing 3flips at the end of programs.

Oh and Mao Asada with Sato!!! Best Mao news I've heard in a long time. This is a decision that should have happened two years ago, when she decided to move back to Japan. Finally Mao-chan is on the right track.

[NMURA]

In Russia, almost all men's (and majority women's) SP are frontloaded. Tarasova has choreographed a man's program as usual.

[colleen o'neill]

I just love Mr. Sato for Mao's coach.. perhaps we'll see some Yuka choreography for her in the future...

I'm not thrilled with her new SP either..I'm hoping some alterations will be made.

[Nadine]

Read the news this AM, but though delighted, am wondering how long will this one last? Hmmm...

Seriously, Mao's track record with different coaches is atrocious (Monna, Higuchi, Yamada, Arutunian, Folle, Tarasova), and now Sato (that's 7 different coaches in the 5 yrs. she's been a senior). Yes, he is the very best coach not only in Japan, but the entire world, when it comes to technique. But Mao & her Team are the ones that I worry about. After all, is it her calling all the shots, really? Or her federation? Whichever, all this coach changing never works out good imho, and I'm not talking about changing once or twice, I'm talking about making it a habit (and I'm sure you all know a skater that has done this, so I won't list examples).

In fact all this change makes me appreciate the great ones that never left their coaches ~ stayed with them through thick & thin throughout their amateur careers ~ Evgeni Plushenko/Alexei Mishin, Sarah Hughes/Robin Wagner, Oksana Baiul/Galina Zmievskaya, Brian Boitano/Linda Leaver, Midori Ito/Machiko Yamada, Katarina Witt/Jutta Muller, Kristi Yamaguchi/Christy Ness.

I do not want Mao Asada to end up like Michelle Kwan, whom left her long-time coach Frank Carroll right before the 2002 Olympics only to never truly recover her former greatness after that, imho. And the same thing happened to Mao Asada before the 2010 Olympics. Went coachless basically throughout the past two seasons, only to end up with a silver medal at the Olympics, just like Michelle.

My sincere hope is that Mr. Sato remains as Mao Asada's coach until at least the next Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, 2014. Just like Yuna Kim stayed with Mr. Orser for four long years leading up to the 2010 Olympics. Smart thinking.

p.s. as far as her new SP, this is a new quadrennial, a time to work on fixing her jumps and adding new 3/3 combos., etc., therefore I don't expect much either way. Time to start all over again, and build each season, until the next Olympiad.

[SerpentineSteps]

Seriously, Mao's track record with different coaches is atrocious (Monna, Higuchi, Yamada, Arutunian, Folle, Tarasova), and now Sato (that's 7 different coaches in the 5 yrs. she's been a senior).

Not really true. Arutunian was her coach at the beginning of the 2006-7 season, her first as a full-fledged senior (I wouldn't call Mao a Senior in 2005-6, since she was too young to go to Worlds or the Olympics), and Folle was Tarasova's assitant, only attending the 2008 WC because Tarasova was sick.

That would make Sato her 3rd coach as a senior.

Even if you are including the 2005-6 season, it's actually 4 coaches. Yamada's been her coach since she was a novice (e.g. 2002 Nationals... you'll see a TINY Kanako at the very end of the clip; very cute), with Higuchi acting as an "assistant coach" of sorts (attending 2005 TEB because Yamada was sick). Monna hasn't been her coach since she was a child.

[Nadine]

Semantics really, SerpentineSteps, semantics, but thanks for the clarification.

My point is that I do not want her to make it a habit. She's too great of a skater to be jumping around from coach to coach to coach (sorry about the pun, none intended). I want her to achieve what she is more than capable of achieving ~ to skate her very best when it counts the most ~ like Tara Lipinski did in 1998 in Nagano, Sarah Hughes in 2002 in Salt Lake City, and Yuna Kim in 2010 in Vancouver.

I forgot to add in my prior post that working with someone that speaks her language is key, as well as being from the same country/culture/etc. Just like the great ones I mentioned before, all had that in common.

[bekalc]

Read the news this AM, but though delighted, am wondering how long will this one last? Hmmm...

Seriously, Mao's track record with different coaches is atrocious (Monna, Higuchi, Yamada, Arutunian, Folle, Tarasova), and now Sato (that's 7 different coaches in the 5 yrs. she's been a senior). Yes, he is the very best coach not only in Japan, but the entire world, when it comes to technique. But Mao & her Team are the ones that I worry about. After all, is it her calling all the shots, really? Or her federation? Whichever, all this coach changing never works out good imho, and I'm not talking about changing once or twice, I'm talking about making it a habit (and I'm sure you all know a skater that has done this, so I won't list examples).

In fact all this change makes me appreciate the great ones that never left their coaches ~ stayed with them through thick & thin throughout their amateur careers ~ Evgeni Plushenko/Alexei Mishin, Sarah Hughes/Robin Wagner, Oksana Baiul/Galina Zmievskaya, Brian Boitano/Linda Leaver, Midori Ito/Machiko Yamada, Katarina Witt/Jutta Muller, Kristi Yamaguchi/Christy Ness.

I do not want Mao Asada to end up like Michelle Kwan, whom left her long-time coach Frank Carroll right before the 2002 Olympics only to never truly recover her former greatness after that, imho. And the same thing happened to Mao Asada before the 2010 Olympics. Went coachless basically throughout the past two seasons, only to end up with a silver medal at the Olympics, just like Michelle.

My sincere hope is that Mr. Sato remains as Mao Asada's coach until at least the next Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, 2014. Just like Yuna Kim stayed with Mr. Orser for four long years leading up to the 2010 Olympics. Smart thinking.

p.s. as far as her new SP, this is a new quadrennial, a time to work on fixing her jumps and adding new 3/3 combos., etc., therefore I don't expect much either way. Time to start all over again, and build each season, until the next Olympiad.

I really don't think Mao's biggest issue was that she was changing coaches, her biggest issue was that she didn't have a good fulltime technical coach supervising her training. Tarasova IS a good coach but she was in Russia, and Mao was in Japan. Folle does not have a proven record of being a good coach and wasn't there talk that during some of the time Mao's mom was supervising the practices? Considering Akiko's coach offered at Four Continents to help Mao with her axel, I'm wondering did she even have a good jump coach?

I take the decision to hire Sato, someone who will be there supervising Mao's training every day as a wonderful sign that perhaps Team Asada has learned their lesson. I'm thrilled by the news. Previously she had no coach, and now she is going to have one.

And I think Michelle's issue may have been a matter of her also being past her prime a bit and trying to hold on to her body. I think she could have won in Salt Lake, if she had chosen at least to hire a decent technical coach to supervise her practices. It was her decision to go coachless that was the problem.

All never forget when people were saying that Mao mentioned once in 2008 that it was nice not having a coach because than you can practice whatever you want , when you want. I remember hearing this and shuddering about what it could do for her long term. And seriously with Tarasova in Russia, and Mao in Japan, you have to wonder how coached she truly was. If Mao now realizes that she needs someone to push her, and yes make decisions on what she trains, and how she'll train, I think we will see her skating improve. Sometimes some coaches don't work out, and I dont think coaching changes can be the big problem some are making it out to be, it can be, but at times it isn't. I really think her biggest issue was frankly (I wonder how coached she even was for the last two years)

[rtureck]

Comparing Patrick Chen's sp to Mao's sp is stretching. Why not compare Mao's sp to Lambiel's sp. Hello 3a?

Anyway, I love that Mr.Sato will be coaching her. Best wishes to both. I hope Mr. Sato will get his first student OGM in 2014

[camion]

@Nadine
What in the world are you talking about? Monna is known to be a starter coach in Nagoya. Many girls there have followed the path of starting out with her then moving on to either Sato or Yamada. And Higuchi/Yamada worked together with Mao, as well as Tarasova/Folle. She changed her base to California because of overcrowded rinks and worked with Artunian. So basically she's had three coaches since she moved up to seniors. Unless you want to be really anal and count her one senior competition in the GPF '05 as working with Yamada in seniors. You honestly can't consider that to be a lot of coaching changes in the skating world. If you do, you would have to designate "atrocious" track records to most senior ladies.

[janetfan]

Anyway, I love that Mr.Sato will be coaching her. Best wishes to both. I hope Mr. Sato will get his first student OGM in 2014

What a nice thought and I second this outstanding Hall of Fame coach seeing one of his students win the OGM.

Kozouka is a possibilty as well in 2014 so Mr Sato could even win a double!

If Mirai doesn't win in 2014 then I would hope that Mao wins.

Here is a clip with Nobuo Sato and Miwa Fukuhara

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id5E4UIulNo

and another with Mr Sato working with Kozouka:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1AJX...eature=related

[Nadine]

Lol, I guess I can be grateful that Mao has not yet reached the record of Nicole Bobek (11), though she now ties Sasha Cohen (4). :D

Anyhow, I sincerely hope this is her very last coaching change, but after reading about Shizuka Arakawa and her (8) coaching changes, maybe this is just the way it is done in Japan?

I wish Mao-chan and Mr. Sato well, and this will be my last word on the subject.


GOOOOOOOOOOO MAO!!!!!!!!!!

[evangeline]

It was her decision to go coachless that was the problem.

All never forget when people were saying that Mao mentioned once in 2008 that it was nice not having a coach because than you can practice whatever you want , when you want. I remember hearing this and shuddering about what it could do for her long term. And seriously with Tarasova in Russia, and Mao in Japan, you have to wonder how coached she truly was. If Mao now realizes that she needs someone to push her, and yes make decisions on what she trains, and how she'll train, I think we will see her skating improve. Sometimes some coaches don't work out, and I dont think coaching changes can be the big problem some are making it out to be, it can be, but at times it isn't. I really think her biggest issue was frankly (I wonder how coached she even was for the last two years)

Whoa! Mao actually said that?! No wonder her skating (or at the very least, her consistency) seemed to be on a downward slump since she left Rafael.

Anyways, I'm excited that Nobuo Sato is Mao's new coach--his emphasis on speed and basics should help Mao regain her old effortless fluidity (which unfortunately has sometimes been missing for the past two seasons) back. Plus it'll be great seeing Mao get the lucky back-pat that Kozuka gets from Sato...

[bekalc]

Whoa! Mao actually said that?! No wonder her skating (or at the very least, her consistency) seemed to be on a downward slump since she left Rafael.

Anyways, I'm excited that Nobuo Sato is Mao's new coach--his emphasis on speed and basics should help Mao regain her old effortless fluidity (which unfortunately has sometimes been missing for the past two seasons) back. Plus it'll be great seeing Mao get the lucky back-pat that Kozuka gets from Sato...

I remember hearing that/reading that somewhere I think it was more practicing what I like as much as I want or something. Typing to fast from me. My impression wasn't so much that Mao would be lazy but that Mao would maybe work on things she needed, cared about and perhaps leave out things she didn't think she need, didn't care about. And it would mean her overall skating would suffer. I think we saw how her basics suffered. That's why having a coach is a good thing because a coach is someone objective who can see things you' don't see and make you do the things you may not want to do, but need to do anyways.

But it was a long time ago but don't quote me. In general I don't think training on your own (or with Mao's situation) is long term a good idea. I hope Yu-na knows this as well and gets help soon, if she wants to stay in.