Kanako Murakami's Future | Golden Skate

Kanako Murakami's Future

CarneAsada

Medalist
Joined
Sep 17, 2011
It seems that Kanako plans to continue, as she has already mentioned how much she enjoyed competing in Sochi and how she would like to make it to Pyeongchang. However, Kanako got wrecked by the tech panel at 2014 Worlds with 6 underrotation calls in her LP. While some of those calls were very harsh, her unorthodox technique on several jumps probably doesn't do her any favors in the panel's eyes. Is this a sign that she should attempt to rework her technique (fix her flutz, get rid of her hammer toe on Lutz and flip, possibly change her weird squatting entry to the loop)? Could the Japanese ladies afford this kind of short term sacrifice from one of their top skaters?
 

Sam-Skwantch

“I solemnly swear I’m up to no good”
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Country
United-States
PHP:
Nope. She said she is staying:yay:


That would have been awful if Akiko,Mao, and Kanako all didn't compete next year.
 

CarneAsada

Medalist
Joined
Sep 17, 2011
i thought she was planning to retire??
She was, but things have changed. After the Worlds LP, she was heard telling Mao "I'll work hard next season" or something similar. Everything she's said recently points to her staying for some time.
 

anyanka

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
She was, but things have changed. After the Worlds LP, she was heard telling Mao "I'll work hard next season" or something similar. Everything she's said recently points to her staying for some time.

Great news! Hope she can build. She'll likely lead the Japanese ladies for the next quad, but I wouldn't count Miyahara or Imai out completely either.
 

FTnoona

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 26, 2009
Gosh if Mao takes her break next year, Kanako is gonna be left as Japan's #1. It's kinda strange with Kanako, one moment the tech panel says her jumps are alright and gives her a pass and then another moment they kick her to the curb. If she's gonna fix her technique, I doubt it's gonna be a short term fix since it's probably in grained in her skating. Mao worked so hard to try and fix hers and she still has problems. If Mao doesn't skate next season, is Japan likely to get 3 spots in ladies for the following worlds? Kanako might as well try and fix it and see what happens.
 

cooper

Medalist
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
i like kanako's enthusiasm when she skates.. maybe she needs someone who can help her jump technique..
 

makaihime

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 20, 2014
^It is a weird thought indeed...with her being Japan's #1 if Mao takes a side-line next season. Can Japan afford Kanako reworking her tech's? No. But should she do it anyways? Yes. Will she? No. She's so fun to watch and has so much talent, its really a shame she doesn't have that competitive drive :no: She loves being on that ice and probably isn't ready to give it up, but with the way its looking for the ladies, her road to pyeongchang is an extremely difficult one. I'd love to see her around for another 2 seasons but I really can't see her going on past that.
 

hippomoomin

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 30, 2012
Great news I was just thinking about her future. She has great speed and power, but at the same time, caught with urs for all her jumps in this competition and next, none. For a skater, this kind of unpredictability is frustrating.
Working on her jumps is not the best strategy since we all know it will take a long time and may not work out in the end at all.
Since I've seen so many skaters got better consistency by losing some lbs (Gracie, Adelina, and S/K), so she might try this little trick, especially considering she didn't have under rotations when she was a junior and lighter.
 

CarneAsada

Medalist
Joined
Sep 17, 2011
Gosh if Mao takes her break next year, Kanako is gonna be left as Japan's #1. It's kinda strange with Kanako, one moment the tech panel says her jumps are alright and gives her a pass and then another moment they kick her to the curb. If she's gonna fix her technique, I doubt it's gonna be a short term fix since it's probably in grained in her skating. Mao worked so hard to try and fix hers and she still has problems. If Mao doesn't skate next season, is Japan likely to get 3 spots in ladies for the following worlds? Kanako might as well try and fix it and see what happens.
I do think Kanako should try fixing it. She doesn't have to worry about maintaining a triple Axel and her 3Toe and 3Salchow are perfectly fine. She's no Kostner but I think she could still rank OK if she repeated the Salchow and toe while fixing other jumps. Mao's technique fixes took so long partly because she had personal setbacks along the way. Tarasova was able to give Mao a quick-fix Lutz in just a few months, and her flip was serviceable by late 2011.
 

Pepe Nero

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 11, 2011
I think it's great news that KM plans to continue. Retirement from amateur skating would only make sense if she had decide she no longer enjoyed the sport; she has too much potential to quit otherwise.

Whether she should change her jump technique depends, in my view, on her own goals. Does she aspire to mainstream recognition in the sport right now? A few bronzes and silvers, when the judges are so-inclined? Yes? then she should change her jumping technique, so that it conforms to the feminine expectations of "ladies" FS.

Does she want to be revolutionary, or at least a favorite among those who will be recognized at some later time as challenging the rigid gender policing of FS? Yes? then she should flaunt that mule-kick, and any other aspects of her jump technique that are for purely cultural and arbitrary "reasons" considered un-feminine (i.e., un-GOE-worthy for persons in the ladies competition).

I hope that KM will follow in MA's footsteps: keep ignoring the unwritten rules of jumping in the discipline of ladies' FS.

As a footnote: Mao Asada kept doing the 3A even when her PCS went up when it disappeared from her programs, in the intervening years between 2010 and 2014. It's just my optimistic hypothesis that she cared more about her place in FS history than a few medals at competitions here and there.
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
It was very clear at Worlds that Kanako's jumps were UR. She barely made it around and had weird landings on many of them. IMO she peaked at 4CC, was a bit off at Sochi and way off at Worlds. She was probably tired and stressed out at the end of a long, tough season. Yes, she has a bad jump technique and a tendency to UR her jumps and when she is tired or under stress it gets worse. If she doesn't address her problems, they are only going to get worse as she gets older. Miyahara also has UR problems, but seems to be somewhat more successful dealing with them. She is likely to pass Kanako as Japan #1 in the next year or two.
 

MaiKatze

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 4, 2012
Kanako only confirmed so far, that she will skate next season. I doubt we will see her for another quad. She wasn't happy with how this season ended, which is understandable.
 

Blades of Passion

Skating is Art, if you let it be
Record Breaker
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Country
France
its really a shame she doesn't have that competitive drive :no:

Oh, I'd say she definitely has competitive drive. She just never gets the results from the judges. Many of the UR calls she gets are unfair and it must wreck her mentally, wondering what more she can do.

Her jump technique is unique. Aside from the flutz, it shouldn't be cause for any additional penalty (unless the jump is overly telegraphed). She isn't Yukari Nakano; her technique isn't THAT flawed.

Mostly, going forward, I just hope that she skates her heart out. Two good programs will also be key. She can't coast on reputation like Mao or Kostner. I'd like to see her do a SP again with all 3 Triples in the second half of the program. She's still the only female to do that and it does help to set her apart.
 

gotoschool

Medalist
Joined
Mar 5, 2014
Great news I was just thinking about her future. She has great speed and power, but at the same time, caught with urs for all her jumps in this competition and next, none. For a skater, this kind of unpredictability is frustrating.
Working on her jumps is not the best strategy since we all know it will take a long time and may not work out in the end at all.
Since I've seen so many skaters got better consistency by losing some lbs (Gracie, Adelina, and S/K), so she might try this little trick, especially considering she didn't have under rotations when she was a junior and lighter.

I think you hit on something with Murakami and her feast or famine tech deductions because I only noticed her having a difficult time landing and rotating one double axel, though I don't have a video of her program in front of me and other posters such as chuck m above have noted that her UR's were obvious, so maybe I am missing something. What do other posters think? Personally, I was really shocked by the -12 points in deductions and her sub 60 PCS when I thought she actually skated quite well. Ditto for Suzuki. It also seemed strange that Mao had no deductions in her SP and -11 in her LP. The variance just seemed too large to be believed and made me wish we could go back to the 6.0 system when the jumps weren't analyzed under a microscope and artistry seemed to count for more. Though I do like the high octane tech content more under the COP system. In any case, I'm glad Murakami is staying. She has a warm spirit and energy I really like. Now if she can just improve the smoothness of her skating and her rotations. But honestly. I thought Murakami's performance in the LP was a lot better than the judges did.
 

Meoima

Match Penalty
Joined
Feb 13, 2014
I think you hit on something with Murakami and her feast or famine tech deductions because I only noticed her having a difficult time landing and rotating one double axel, though I don't have a video of her program in front of me and other posters such as chuck m above have noted that her UR's were obvious, so maybe I am missing something. What do other posters think? Personally, I was really shocked by the -12 points in deductions and her sub 60 PCS when I thought she actually skated quite well. Ditto for Suzuki. It also seemed strange that Mao had no deductions in her SP and -11 in her LP. The variance just seemed too large to be believed and made me wish we could go back to the 6.0 system when the jumps weren't analyzed under a microscope and artistry seemed to count for more. Though I do like the high octane tech content more under the COP system. In any case, I'm glad Murakami is staying. She has a warm spirit and energy I really like. Now if she can just improve the smoothness of her skating and her rotations. But honestly. I thought Murakami's performance in the LP was a lot better than the judges did.
Personally I think the judges were too harsh on her. It's like a bad reputation among the tech panel and people would just assume Kanako could not made it. Even her SP in worlds seems to me that she was underscored.
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
I found Kanako's musicality and interpretation were quite moving, but let me put it this way: if she were singing, her diction would be mushy---that's how her jumps were. I could see she was going to get dinged for a jump because she'd get too low on the landing and then have to save it, or she'd land a jump and move out of it too quickly for it to have been completely rotated. I think Kanako was tired after the long season and she invested all her energy into the emotions of the performance instead of into its physical components. She was so happy with her performance, but I knew her TES was going to get slashed. It was sad to see her face change in the KnC from joy to crushing disappointment.

She does need to find a balance between emotional and athletic performance, and she has to work on the athletic part first and foremost. Every season isn't going to be as tough as this one was, so she can take some consolation in that.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
She really needs to focus on her technique. Needs to get stronger to get a bit more height and muscle around that extra rotation. As much as people want to whine that the tech panel is giving her unfair UR calls, if every panel is doing it and if she's getting many of them (including 2 URs called in her SP, and 6 URs called in her FS on home ice), you need to stop blaming the tech specialists who are consistently calling it as they see it and actually look to the skater.

As a skater, she's beautiful to watch, and arguably deserving of higher PCS, but I'm betting the judges lowball her when they see all those <'s. Her programs last year were some of my favourites. I'm glad she's staying! Hopefully without being in the shadow of Asada and Suzuki, she'll have more confidence.
 

NMURA

Medalist
Joined
Jul 14, 2010
I think their treatment on Murakami is due to her #3 position among Japanese ladies. It was not clear in past two seasons. Actually she was the #2 at London worlds (as a result, Suzuki was treated harshly). Only she could not live up to the expectations in this season (save for 4cc in Taiwan). If she becomes the #1 Japanese lady in next season, her problems will be "improved" or "reduced" drastically. However it's not an automatic development. Miyahara could make strong performances during the GP season and take the position from Murakami. Murakami can't afford to lose the confidence further. She must prove that she can be counted on. Therefore she doesn't have the luxury of correcting techniques. Prepare well and skate like at 4CC from the beginning of the season. Anyway, I expect Miyahara will be the #1 in due course. Her technical problems are less obvious than Murakami and much more consistent. It's better to prop up Miyahara to be more competitive at international competitions.
 

BusyMom

Medalist
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
It's better to prop up Miyahara to be more competitive at international competitions.
If they want Miyahara to be their #1, they have to do it now. In a few years Marin will step over both of them for sure. The kid has the whole package, talent and star power. They need to hype her up for the next OG same strategy with Julia. The judges and the skating fans will love her.
 
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