Mao seems to be struggling a lot with her jumps this season. She also looks extremely nervous. What has happened?
Athletic young ladies between 12-14 have no fear in front of an audience and judges. However, after 2 seasons, it becomes it becomes more fearful when fans expect more. In Mao's case she became the top ranking athlete on the eligible circuit. A win of Worlds this season will calm her down and we will expect top skating skills from then on, and the jumps will just be elements in the programs.
Joe
Her toe-loop is cheated and her 3axel probably too.
I'd say that there are three factors contributing to her jumping problems.
1. She wasn't concentrating on training jumps durring the summer. Her main goal was to improve her artistry, spins and steps. She also started training ballet again. Later in the summer she was injured and couln't jump at all for some time. And just before Skate Canada there were fires at Lake Arrowhead and for some time she had troubles with getting ice time. In result, she didn't spend as much time working on jumps as perhaps would be advisable.
2. Her choreography is much more difficult than anything she tried before. Difficult steps, spins, paying more attention to artistry - she has to pay attention to all those details and it drains her stamina and her concentraion away from the jumps.
3. She is a perfectionist, and it makes her feel very heavy pressure in competitions. In practices her jumps were great both at SC and TEB (except perhaps 3A and 3-3 at SC which weren't 100% solid, those two elements she improved greatly in just 2 weeks).
You can read a great interview translated by Caliblue here:
http://maoasada.logu2.com/mao-chat-f5/asada-mao-sixteen-t57.htm
It's about the "Tall Bridge" which Mao sees in competitions, and which she is afraid to cross.
Her toe-loop is not cheated anymore (it was toe-axeled back in her junior days, but she corrected her technique).
Her 2A-3T was ratified at NHK, and there are some videos on YT showing her landing both 2A-3T and solo 3T. In both cases it was clean.
I doubt she will try a solo 3T in her program, though - when she does it will probably be 3F-3T. Mao wrote to Yu-Na in a message "I like your 3F-3T combo. Let's do our best together!" And some time later bibi reported that Mao landed this combination in practices at SC (although some were still with a step-out back then).
Video with solo 3T (early off-season):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSuKnVqhcXY
I often watch jumps in slow-mo, frame-by-frame, and I don't remember seeing her 3A underrotated when it was landed. Especially at TEB practices her 3A was a real beauty with superb air position and height - and definitely fully rotated.
After TEB LP when asked how she feel about her performance she replied that she was unhappy that her long had no toe-loop and salchow yet - so I guess she is working on 3S as well.
Video with solo 3T (early off-season):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSuKnVqhcXY
I often watch jumps in slow-mo, frame-by-frame, and I don't remember seeing her 3A underrotated when it was landed. Especially at TEB practices her 3A was a real beauty with superb air position and height - and definitely fully rotated.
It's really great if she brings back 3S and 3T into her program. I recall her 2A-3T last season and it was beautiful when she landed. I was wondering why she doesn't have 3T this season. Would you think that she may bring in both 3S and 3T during this season?
Last year her toe-loop was still so-so. At least the toe-loop I remember from Worlds.
She did have a good one at NHK Trophy, but I think that's the only time she landed it cleanly.
Like most teenagers, she grew...a lot. Mao used to be small, but within the past 2 years you can tell she's grown. The puberty monster hit her, sorta like it hit Kimmie last year.
It was good! It seems she fixed the toe-loop proble. Why she doesn't include it in her program? Maybe she isn't confortable yet. Maybe we will see an attempt at GPF?
Last year her toe-loop was still so-so. At least the toe-loop I remember from Worlds.
Would you think that she may bring in both 3S and 3T during this season?
IMHO one thing can be certain: she will continue working on all her elements. The question is just in what order she will start improving them.
She really dislikes having any element of her skating inferior to others. At Counter Challenge she praised Caroline's layback... and at Skate Canada and TEB she already showed great improvement when it comes to leg turnout. I think that seeing Yu-Na praised for having full set of triples will certainly encourage her to work on her jumps as well.
And apparently Mao is in Russia right now, working with Tarasova.
Wow good for Mao that she went back to Russia. She seemed to be so insecure about her SP. It would be good that she can train with Tarasova to rework on it.
Do you think she still stick to a quad? (quad loop?!?!) After the rule change
I don't think she will try it this season. Sometime in the future - maybe, but I think for now she learned that it's better to skate an easier program, but clean and wholesome, than try another high-risk element that might go wrong and which only takes her concentration away from the choreo.
The best quad attempt I saw from her was, ironically, 4S. It was gorgeous, high, with tight air position, and only slightly more than 1/4 underrotated.