Wakaba Higuchi makes her junior Debut

angelfacehanyu · Aug 2, 2014

Marin is much more consistent than Wakaba. She either comes 1st or on the podium. I guess Wakaba looks more mature for her age, although they are both born on 2001. I think they are both good, but Marin has more star potential because she seems to not suffer too much with weight issues later on (marin is very very thin, which is a bonus for female skaters for jumping)

Meoima · Aug 2, 2014

gotoschool said:
I like the comparisons, but I hate to build the expectations too high and jinx them because winning multiple world championships and setting world record scores like Mao and Ando is a mighty tall order to fill.

Agree! And to me, Wakaba looks a little labour on the ice. While Marin Honda is still just a little girl. Who knows which kind of skaters they will become in the future.

It was immense pressure on Mao when she was still a child and look at what happen to her. She surely has a great career, but it could have been better if not for that much pressure.

ballerinaonice · Aug 2, 2014

Wakaba is one of my favorite junior skaters right now! She mentioned in an interview a few months ago that she has 5kinds of 3-3s already.As for the rivalry between Wakaba and Marin, I think they are on the same level right now. I believe they went head to head three times last season(Asian Trophy, Novice Nationals, Junior Nationals). Wakaba won two of them. Although I love Marin as well, Marin isn't as strong a competitor as the media makes her seem to be. I would love to see them go against each other with both of them having perfect skates. I think they have almost the same technical content. Wakaba should get more GOE on her jumps, and a higher skating skill score, but Marin should have the higher PCS overall.

angelfacehanyu · Aug 4, 2014

ballerinaonice said:
Wakaba is one of my favorite junior skaters right now! She mentioned in an interview a few months ago that she has 5kinds of 3-3s already.As for the rivalry between Wakaba and Marin, I think they are on the same level right now. I believe they went head to head three times last season(Asian Trophy, Novice Nationals, Junior Nationals). Wakaba won two of them. Although I love Marin as well, Marin isn't as strong a competitor as the media makes her seem to be. I would love to see them go against each other with both of them having perfect skates. I think they have almost the same technical content. Wakaba should get more GOE on her jumps, and a higher skating skill score, but Marin should have the higher PCS overall.

love your explanations! I agree with them being good rivals

CanadianSkaterGuy · Aug 5, 2014

I think she's a lovely skater but her arms are quite sloppy and her face lacks expression. And yes she looks a bit laboured too. I wouldn't compare her to Kwan... To me, at this point she's more reminiscent of Kexin Zhang (good technique and jumps but bland artistry). Her jumps are strong though which is great to see and will serve her well. I think Honda is still ahead of her in terms of overall finesse. Should be an interesting rivalry though.

gotoschool · Sep 6, 2014

I was really impressed with Wakaba today because she shows that she has the fighter spirit like Mao to go from 5th in the SP to 1st in the LP against Evgenia who I think has 3 gold medals in the Junior Grand Prix. And she did this just after her 13th birthday!!! Her tech score (67) was almost as high as Serafima's last week (68) who is about a year older. She also has incredibly beautiful and powerful jumps with wonderfully tight symmetrical revolutions and the best skating skills I have seen so far this Junior Grand Prix Season. I think if Wakaba could develop a Biellmann, some nice spirals and a little more balletic grace, she would be at the top. She's pretty close already. One thing that helped Wakaba win the freeskate was that she had 2 points more in base tech score, 59 to 57 and 4 jumps with over 1 GOE compared to only 2 for Evgenia and Evgenia lost 2.4 points on the base value of her lutz. Evgenia made a little bit back on the spins and PCS which helped her win overall, but not enough for the freeskate. Wakaba and Evgenia are my two favorite skaters that I have seen this Junior Grand Prix Season and it was really exciting to see such great competition between them today with such wonderful freeskates.

Mrs. P · Sep 6, 2014

Congrats to Wakaba on her silver medal! That was a great free skate.

khlaw · Sep 6, 2014

The opening of this year's WC gala - That was my first time seeing her and when she skated like that, with no music at all, i was like "WOW!!! This gal has nerves of steel!!" And since that moment I just cant stop liking her :love:

Very very happy to see her LP performance today it is such a good start for her junior seasons and I wish her all the best:agree: Can't wait for her next competition!

Mangomango · Oct 5, 2014

Wakaba is my favorite Junior skater right now!
She skates with such presence for a 13 y/o.
I can't wait for her to enter Senior level. I hope she can end up like Asada (but maybe a bit more consistent haha)

ArcticMonkeys · Oct 5, 2014

To be honest I thought before the beginning of this season there is nobody, who could challenge russian junior girls in the JGP series. But it seems very possible that Wakaba is in the podium in GPF!

She is my favourite junior skater right now and I hope she can learn 3A soon! Wakaba has great technical skills already now and with triple axel she would become invincible.

gotoschool · Oct 5, 2014

Mangomango said:
Wakaba is my favorite Junior skater right now!
She skates with such presence for a 13 y/o.
I can't wait for her to enter Senior level. I hope she can end up like Asada (but maybe a bit more consistent haha)

I love her skating too. Beautiful, fluid and powerful jumps and supreme skating skills for her age. I guess you are joking with the haha about her being more consistent than Mao because 3 world championships and 4 Grand Prix Final championships with a high level of competition is certainly a great way to be "inconsistent." I don't like to jinx young skaters by making comparisons, but she certainly has been a pleasant surprise.

Barb · Oct 5, 2014

Wakaba and Evgenia are my junior favorites too. But I am so impressed with Wakaba, she reminds me to Michelle, so secure, so expressive and her jumps are delicated, strong and beautiful.

Meoima · Oct 5, 2014

I am impressed by this girl, too. Not a fan of her yet but wow, 13 years old and she made it to JGPF already, against Russian wonderbabies, very awesome. I hope she can get a medal.

Sophie-Anna · Oct 5, 2014

First time I saw her was Worlds gala 2014, but the next time during JGP Ostrava, I didn't really noticed it is a same girl I saw during that gala

I did not liked her skating at first, but during this JGP in Dresden I just fell in love to her skating. She reminds me a bit of Akiko Suzuki.

Wakaba Higuchi makes her junior Debut

angelfacehanyu

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Meoima

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ballerinaonice

angelfacehanyu

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CanadianSkaterGuy

gotoschool

Mrs. P

Uno, Dos, twizzle!

khlaw

Mangomango

ArcticMonkeys

gotoschool

Barb

Meoima

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Sophie-Anna

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