Suguri Switches Coaches

Wow a lot of moves to Russian coaches.

OT, but on the subject of "yet another Carmen," do men ever skate to Carmen? It has some rousing martial music, like the Toreador's song.

Mathman

PS. But I have to confess that this tune was forever ruined for me by the episode of Gilligin's Island where the castaways did "Hamlet, the musical," and used the Toreador's Song as a setting for Polonius' advice to Laertes.

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be!
And don't forget.
Stay out of debt.
Now just take this piece of good advice from me.
Guard thine own Sovereignteeeeeeeeeeee!
And there's just one more thing.
That you must do.
To thine own Self. Be. True."

Mathman said:

OT, but on the subject of "yet another Carmen," do men ever skate to Carmen? It has some rousing martial music, like the Toreador's song.

Click to expand...

Michael Weiss skated to "Carmen" in the 1999-2000 season. I thought it was one of his best LP's choreographically and he really skated it well in Cleveland to win his 2nd Nationals title. Plushenko used "Carmen" for his LP theme two seasons later. THose are just two that immediately come to my mind.

About Fumie: I love her speed and flow -- and her COI program this past year was one of the highlight's of the Chicago show for me. I hope her change of coach and move to Chicago work well out for her.

Chrystia Mee said:

Wow! This thread seriuosly shocked me. I'm a huge FUmie Suguri fan so I haven't decided what I think. But I'm leaning towards change might be the right thing for her. Her basic skating is fantastic and she's got a lot of talent. When she's on, she does very well. I don't agree about yor comments regarding her speed, but everyone seems to have varying opinions when it comes to FUmie. I hope that she has an incredible comeback season.

Click to expand...

I think Fumi is a beautiful, lyrical skater, with great musical interpretation. When her jumps are on, she's one of the best; however, she's had problems with consistency, so a coaching change may be a great move for her. I would imagine that she might feel over-pressured living and training in Japan, and a change of scenery - not to mention country - might be what she needs to relax and concentrate on her skating.

Actually, I would love to see her train with Frank Carroll of Kristy Ness, as both of those coaches have certainly proved their ability to train champion skaters.

Vasiliev seems like a oddball coaching choice to me, but I'm sure Fumi has good reasons for making this choice.

Whatever she does, I wish her the best!

Mathman said:

OT, but on the subject of "yet another Carmen," do men ever skate to Carmen? It has some rousing martial music, like the Toreador's song.

Click to expand...

Viktor Petrenko used the Toreador's Song as part of his short program (or it was probably called original program back then).

I have to say, I really don't understand Fumie's choice of Vasiliev for a coach. However, I do understand her move to the U.S. I too believe that Frank Carroll would have been a better choice for her...maybe, he didn't have the time to coach her. IMO, I don't think Vasiliev has proven himself as a singles coach. He may have helped T/M with their consistency, but this was not true for Volchkova. Hopefully, Fumie is the type of talent he needs to prove himself as a singles coach. Maybe he has coached a champion singles skater before, and I'm unaware of it.

I believe that Fumie left Sato because much of his time would have been spent with Miki Ando, and Fumie needed a coach that could focus primarily on her ...perhaps, this is why she chose Vasiliev. I am also a Suguri fan, I really want to see her improve her flexibility, as it will make her spins and spirals more interesting & beautiful. Right now, I believe that Fumie is stuck in the middle of a pack of extremely talented Japanese skaters. I predict that Fumie will be battling Yukina for the final spot on the Japanese team for Worlds 2005. In this case, I would prefer Yukina to go. It's just a shame that Japan has so many gifted ladies and will only have 3 slots for Worlds. IMO, Japan should be alloted at least 4 slots for its ladies based on the most recent ISU rankings. Japan has the deepest ladies team in the world. The U.S. is still a power in ladies skating thanks to Kwan & Cohen. However, beyond those 2, the talent appears to run a little thin in comparison to the Japanese ladies. However, I predict that the Russian ladies team will return to prominence this season at Worlds in Moscow and will definitely be a factor.

Gipson said:

Viktor Petrenko used the Toreador's Song as part of his short program (or it was probably called original program back then).

Click to expand...

Yagudin skated to Carmen in one of his early years- may be 1997? I will have to check my tapes.

Just curious - does Fumie speak much english - or do these Japanese skaters use translators - or how does it work? Of course, I guess with Tarasova and Arakawa - with both of them not speaking that much english - it's the same problem - just trying to imagine how they communicate effectively at practice.

GoldPatina27 said:

Just curious - does Fumie speak much english - or do these Japanese skaters use translators - or how does it work? Of course, I guess with Tarasova and Arakawa - with both of them not speaking that much english - it's the same problem - just trying to imagine how they communicate effectively at practice.

Click to expand...

Communication is does not always take place by words. In fact even when people don't speak a common language, they are able to communicate. It is quite amazing- this ability, us humans have.

Back when Tarasova worked with Sasha, she said that she felt the language barrier hindered the work. My guess is that both Fumie and Shizuka should speak English quite well; in Tarasova's camp, so does Platov, and I think he works with her a lot.

From the interviews I recall, Fumie spoke English quite well and was the most comfortable speaking English out of the top Japanese women

Fumie has been coming to Canada to train with Lori Nichol, for various periods of time, for about 10 years. So by now she has some facility for the language. After graduating from college last year, she said that she was planning to work on her English so she could come to the U.S. for graduate school.

When Shizuka was living in the Detroit area last year, working with Richard Calaghan, she lived with a mixed Japanese-American family, who helped her quite a bit. Even so, she and Calaghan had to rely on a lot of non-verbal communication, IIRC.

Mathman

Vash01 said:

Yagudin skated to Carmen in one of his early years- may be 1997? I will have to check my tapes.

Click to expand...

Yagudin skated a FP to music from "Carmen" at '96 Worlds (with a complete bullfighter costume to boot)--he was 16.

As for Fumie's coaching change, I think Vassiliev is an interesting choice (ITA that Carroll would probably have been a better one; even TT, though she's too busy with Arakawa) . I don't think you can completely write him off though as an effective singles coach. The only real high profile singles skater we've seen him coach is Volchkova, which unfortunately didn't work out. But we have seen a relative amount of success with T&M. IMO, what Vassiliev can bring to Fumie is a certain, consistent fluidity to her skating. We all agree that she's a powerful, speedy skater with good basics; what she needs is a bit more delicacy and softness to turn her into a (more) well-rounded skater. She's already made HUGE progress with this in the choreography department with Lori Nichol (see the "Ave Maria" SP, if you don't believe me); perhaps Vassiliev will help to reinforce this as far as the other elements of her skating go.

It will be interesting to see...

I believe Fumie speaks English quite well from her brief interviews I watched on American TV. Her father was an airline pilot in Alaska. This is where Fumie initially learned to skate. My guess is that she is more fluent in English than the other Japanese women. Shizuka appears to be less fluent...she understands English very well, but it is more difficult for her to speak.