Kozuka striving to improve despite recent success

Glad to hear that. I wish him all the best!

Very nice article. He's one of my favorites. I knew his parents had been elite skaters, but not his grandfather too. I like that he calls his coach 'Nobou-sensei' and that he talks and emails with Yuka.

Kozuka seems to have been raised very traditional - proper and respectful.

I read a fan's account of an encounter with him in Beijing. This fan of Kozuka spotted him and Oda during the Junior comp so she and a friend came over to meet them while the rest of the "stalkers" were around Patrick. She still needed a picture with Kozuka after her friend had taken off. Knowing a more Westernized Oda was quite easy going, she asked him to take a photo of her and Kozuka. Koz was rather uncomfortable about it because Oda was his elder and such request was considered disrespectful. Oda didn't mind but Kozuka was apologetic about the impoliteness. Of course, after the crash with Dai, Koz was extremely contrite about it and couldn't apologize enough.

These big fans of Japanese skaters found Patrick first and went to sit aound him. They became so comfortable with him they didn't want to move away to continue their star search. His warmth and friendliness were attributed as North American and contrasted with the Japanese reservedness. Takahashi is very proper in the Japanese fashion too but he has a higher status, the big brother of the three.

Training with Kozuka seems giving good effects on Mao as well. In a recent article Mao said Mr. Sato counted her spins the other day and to her surprise she found she could do 104 spins at a time now, which she could do only around 30 before.

Hanaka said:

Training with Kozuka seems giving good effects on Mao as well. In a recent article Mao said Mr. Sato counted her spins the other day and to her surprise she found she could do 104 spins at a time now, which she could do only around 30 before.

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Good for her. I'm happy both can learn from each other. And wish him the best luck at world in Tokyo. I just hope going as the national champion doesn't give him too much pressure, but at least he is not going there as an absolute favourite or the defending champ.

wonderlen3000 said:

Good for her. I'm happy both can learn from each other. And wish him the best luck at world in Tokyo. I just hope going as the national champion doesn't give him too much pressure, but at least he is not going there as an absolute favourite or the defending champ.

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I think pressure will be on all the japanese skaters, especially that each of the 3 guys is expected to come in contention for a podium finish based on their recent results.

Now that US has some of the most unexpected skaters in their team, I think they cannot really challenge for anything close to a medal. The Europeans are not that consistent, therefore most likely Chan vs. the Japanese trio will be battling for the podium, of course Joubert or someone else like Amodio from Europe can always sneak in (Joubert didn't miss the podium since 2005).

Thanks! I think the world of "Taka!"