Shizuka's Improvements? | Golden Skate

Shizuka's Improvements?

Gipson

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
I've always liked Shizuka's skating but it seems as if the judges only started to pay attention to her this season so what has she done in the last season or two to make the judges finally notice?
 

alicelouise

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
improvements?

I think it had to do with her choice of a coach. Don't get me wrong; she did deserve to win gold. However, at the same time, her new coach seems to be able to gain maximum results for her students from that Tamany Hall panel of judges. Arm twisting, politicking....who knows?

Would SA have won, skating the same way, under the aegis of her former coach?:D
 

Gipson

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Still, she had her best GP season even before switching to Tarasova so it can't just be all Tarasova's doing, can it?
 

Ogre Mage

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
I think she would have won anyway. But it is unlikely that she would have skated that way if she were still with Callaghan. She might have still hit the jumps, but I doubt she would have shown the kind of performance quality that she did.

Under Callaghan's tutelage, Shizuka's technical elements, such as her spiral and spins combinations, improved tremendously, as did her line. Callaghan is known as a technical coach and he really grounded Shizuka well.

Perhaps all that was needed to push Shizuka over the top was some flair, polish and sophistication -- an area which Callaghan generally is not strong in. Tarasova changed some elements in the program, such as the step sequence and final spin position to make the choreography more exciting but left the skeleton intact. That way Shizuka wouldn't lose her muscle memory. She seemed to encourage Shizuka to skate with emotion, as evidenced by her loud suggestions from the boards as Shizuka performed her program. They also apparently worked on Shizuka's breathing so she wouldn't run out of gas as she sometimes had during the season. And yes, it is certain that Tarasova' political weight didn't hurt either. But I thought it was a combination of things. I was certainly amazed to see how much Shizuka had improved throughout this season and amazed again for the improvement she showed at Worlds.
 
Last edited:

mzheng

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 16, 2005
Gipson said:
Still, she had her best GP season even before switching to Tarasova so it can't just be all Tarasova's doing, can it?

I said in another thread. Here I say it again. I don't see any dramatic improving in presentation department from Arakawa after she switched to TT like many ppl like to claim or the huge difference in presentation marks shown after she swich to TT.

In my book her presentation has always been good. She has been undermarked since last season, more so at the GP series this season. For presentation, artistry wise is a matter of taste; expression she always show an elegant reserved typical Japanese lady on ice; as far as basic skills her smooth edges, speed, flow and ice coverage has always been there. The improvement of presentation came from she switch to TT, now she just collect her due from judges or maybe pluss some interest on the due. Instead of 'TT brought out the best from Arakawa' I'd rather to say 'TT brought out the best result from Judges for Arakawa'.
 

hockeyfan228

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
mzheng said:
I said in another thread. Here I say it again. I don't see any dramatic improving in presentation department from Arakawa after she switched to TT like many ppl like to claim or the huge difference in presentation marks shown after she swich to TT.

In my book her presentation has always been good. She has been undermarked since last season, more so at the GP series this season. For presentation, artistry wise is a matter of taste; expression she always show an elegant reserved typical Japanese lady on ice; as far as basic skills her smooth edges, speed, flow and ice coverage has always been there. The improvement of presentation came from she switch to TT, now she just collect her due from judges or maybe pluss some interest on the due. Instead of 'TT brought out the best from Arakawa' I'd rather to say 'TT brought out the best result from Judges for Arakawa'.
I agree with you except for one thing: she was as strong at the end of her Worlds quali and LP skates as she was at the beginning. I don't think that that was true last year, when she tended to falter at the end, and even earlier this year, when she tended to run out of conviction a bit. Not a lot, but just a bit.

I wouldn't be surprised if the breathing work she did with Team Tarasova made the difference, because at Worlds she didn't give the judges any excuses to doubt her ability. Tarasova gave her the greatest compliment that a teacher could give a student -- that every day she remembered what she had been taught up to that point and that she implemented it.
 

shine

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
I really don't seen any change in Arakawa's skating since she left for TT. And why would we be seeing any changes since she was only with TT for less than 1 month ANYWAY?
 

BronzeisGolden

Medalist
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
I didn't see any massive improvements...but then again, I always thought Arakawa had lovely presentation. But, the one thing that I did notice was that she seemed to relate to the audience a bit more at Worlds than ever before. There were subtle hand movements and looks that weren't there before or had not previously been presented in such a grand fashion. This could have been the effects of TT or just simply Shizuka being in the perfect mindset for this competition...or both, who knows! She was brilliant in Dortmund! However, I would love to see her improve her spins (definitely the camel positions) for next season. That seems to be her weakest element.
 

curious

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 15, 2003
I'm sure Tarasova's clout with the judges helped Shizuka a great deal but it was her great skate at worlds that gave her the gold. She would have won the olys over Sarah with that skate,it was excellent.:D
 

Ptichka

Forum translator
Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
curious said:
I'm sure Tarasova's clout with the judges helped Shizuka a great deal but it was her great skate at worlds that gave her the gold. She would have won the olys over Sarah with that skate,it was excellent.:D
Not sure about the clout at all. I think she has clout with the Russian Federations, and it's the Federations that have clout with judges.

Anyway, I agree that TT didn't make a huge difference in Shizuka's skating, but there were a number of minor improvements. One thing that has been mentioned is that her Ina Bauer wasn't as spectacular before.
 
Top