Wakaba Higuchi | Page 23 | Golden Skate

Wakaba Higuchi

Crossover said:
Yes, but his full season as a senior started last season. Japan Open is a good place to promote their own skaters especially skaters with a JW medal. She deserves every attention since she is not only the two time JW bronze medalist but also a silver medalist at Nationals beating Mao, Rika and Kanako. That is why I expected to see her at the event. I think the federation would assign her to a Challenger before the event just like Uno's participation in US Classics.

I really hope the influx from the new generation like Wakaba rocks the stagnant ladies field.
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Yayyy I'm so happy for Wakaba! Tp think of it, she, like Uno, Silver in her last year as Junior too. Hopefully she does well there! Satoko plus Wakaba is definitely exciting to watch. Very different in their skating styles IMO. Wasn't expecting Nobu at all but this is great! Even more excited!
 
I wasn't expecting this, but I'm very excited for her!
 
Yay can't wait! Hopefully I can catch the Livestream.
 
solar said:
I'm liking her SP! The choreography is very. Someone might have mentioned this, but does anyone know her jump layout? She's not entirely backloading her jumps like last season either.
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Looks like 2A, 3Lz-3T and 3F, with the 3Lz-3T and 3F in the second half.
 
I think I will definitely love this SP, already looks very interesting and promising. Wonderful Job Shae-lynn and Wakababy :luv17:
 
It will be hard for Wakaba to make a senior breakthru, given the Japanese field and her PCS issues, but I enjoy her jumps and energy. Will be looking foward to her in the Japan Open. :hap10:
 
Alchamei said:
It will be hard for Wakaba to make a senior breakthru, given the Japanese field and her PCS issues, but I enjoy her jumps and energy. Will be looking foward to her in the Japan Open. :hap10:
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As far as the Japanese senior ladies field is concerned, I actually think she can quite easily blow everyone out of the water IF she delivers the jumps (including a clean 3F). She already got silver last year!

On the international stage yes, I guess the judges won't be rushing to award her high PCS like they did Zhenya. She'll have to work for it :)
 
The programs seems promising, can't wait to see her debut this on Lombardia!

I think she will be fine as long as she lands all her jumps. Her PCS is already about 27 for SP and 57 for FS during JWC (even with a fall on her 3lz3t), not far from Zhenya during her junior years. I doubt that the judges will hold her PCS down, especially considering she has good skating skill, good jumps and she seems to improve her artistry during the off-season. Zhenya keeps improving her PCS event by event cause she is consistent. If wakaba is as consistent later this season, I can see her becoming top podium contenders very fast :)
 
very interesting SP choreo, different from everything Wakababy has ever done. From her EX and this SP, it is very obvious, they worked on her presentation style. there are more emphasize on pauses and really highlighted breathing/phrasing/posing/facial. if you compare Wakababy's presentation style from previous lyrical EX (the one in white dress). The most obvious difference is this. her previous style is more flowing with music and seamless. I guess this is their reaction against the critics that Wakababy lacks artistry (which I disagree).
So this season, they just put the "artistry" right on your face. But personally, I think it is just a tad bit forced (that is not the direction that I personally wish Wakababy will head to in the future though. and why I personally do not like Russian style). I wish, she can perform everything naturally and organic and truly internalized everything as the season goes on.
Wakababy is really a versatile and smart girl, she can give you everything you are demanding from her, except for the things that cannot be changed(e.g. her physique). From the training footage with Stephane. I think she has really great freedom of upper body and arms and really relaxed upper body, which enabled her to do many different things.
in terms, PCS and GOE bullets, this choreo clicked every box (also are the trendy moves). There is no reason to give her low PCS, if she is decent this coming season.
 
mcq said:
The programs seems promising, can't wait to see her debut this on Lombardia!

I think she will be fine as long as she lands all her jumps. Her PCS is already about 27 for SP and 57 for FS during JWC (even with a fall on her 3lz3t), not far from Zhenya during her junior years. I doubt that the judges will hold her PCS down, especially considering she has good skating skill, good jumps and she seems to improve her artistry during the off-season. Zhenya keeps improving her PCS event by event cause she is consistent. If wakaba is as consistent later this season, I can see her becoming top podium contenders very fast :)
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I think if she doesn't backload overload, she might be pretty consistent, but we'll see. I like this sp, the emphasis of pauses in the program is new from her previous competitive programs. Im glad that ShaeLynn helped to show her "graceful" side in terms of holding positions more, now people can't exactly say she doesn't have any artistry cause her facial expressions are there too. Though I always thought she isn't exactly the "stone face" type, even when she fell in her sp at JW, she was still "expressive". Now I'm extremely curious about the free skate, but tbh I'm more worried about the costume than the Triple Axel 😂 as far as I remember, I've hated every Scheherazade costume Ive seen so far besides Yuna's
 
Wakaba Higuchi experienced a back problem in the first half of the ISU Junior Grand Prix last year but she won silver at the Japanese Nationals and she was ahead of senior skaters like Asada and Hongo. I think she's ready to compete at the senior level and she'll represent Japan and perform her new free program at the Japan Open to be held in October. I'm personally fascinated by her friendship with Evgenia Medvedeva, who will also participate in the tournament.
 
sailormoon said:
Wakaba Higuchi experienced a back problem in the first half of the ISU Junior Grand Prix last year but she won silver at the Japanese Nationals and she was ahead of senior skaters like Asada and Hongo. I think she's ready to compete at the senior level and she'll represent Japan and perform her new free program at the Japan Open to be held in October. I'm personally fascinated by her friendship with Evgenia Medvedeva, who will also participate in the tournament.
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She'll probably present her free skate for the first time in Lombardia Trophy first in the beginning of September, before Japan Open. And I'm very intrigued by the friendship with Evgenia too, as seen at DOI, they're both so cute and there's a really good sense of friendship and rivalry between them. They're both amazing sportsmen and it's interesting to see them compete with each other again after having been separated for a year. Japan Open will be the first time they go head to head since 2015 Junior Worlds, wow so exciting
 
Before international competitions, Wakaba will attend a local 'Tokyo Figure Skating Summer Competition' from Aug 26-28. The entry list has just been released and she'll be competing in the Senior ladies (alone with Yuka Nagai):

http://www.jsfresults.com/local/2016-2017/fs/13/01/08-18-entry_20160816.pdf
(NB: the entries file is in Japanese, but the 1st page is for Sr. ladies and Wakaba will be skating by No. 10 (Nagai No. 3))
 
JuliaHols said:
I think if she doesn't backload overload, she might be pretty consistent, but we'll see. I like this sp, the emphasis of pauses in the program is new from her previous competitive programs. Im glad that ShaeLynn helped to show her "graceful" side in terms of holding positions more, now people can't exactly say she doesn't have any artistry cause her facial expressions are there too. Though I always thought she isn't exactly the "stone face" type, even when she fell in her sp at JW, she was still "expressive". Now I'm extremely curious about the free skate, but tbh I'm more worried about the costume than the Triple Axel 😂 as far as I remember, I've hated every Scheherazade costume Ive seen so far besides Yuna's
Click to expand...

She is going to include the 3A in her FS? Really? Wow that is exciting, I hope she will land them (and also fully rotate them). Actually I don't follow junior much aside of JWC and JGPF, and I only saw her performance during JWC. I never saw her land the 3A, I wonder if there are footages? I am generally immune to costume now though there are some skaters whose costume I am looking forward to. :biggrin:
Personally, I never find her to be "lacking" in artistry as what the general skating fans' consensus about her skating seem to conclude. She just strike me off as someone who has yet to mature artistically, could be the result of focusing on her jumps/technique first. She is like what? 15, 16? A bit early to judge one's artistry when s/he is still so young. It is kind of unfair if just because someone has strong jumps or technique, s/he is immediately labeled as a technical skater who is inartistic.
One of her weakness, i think, is her flexibility though. Her spiral is not really pretty. Though it is not a required element it would be great to see her improve on that. She also could improve on her musicality too.
 
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