Mao Asada Fan Fest | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Mao Asada Fan Fest

mary01

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
to me when i compare Mao now with at last years worlds she looks much healthier and I think Mao is around the 164-165, cause to me she looks a tiny bit taller than yuna, but maybe that's because she has such long legs!

anyway thaanks for all the links and montages it was soo nice to see, and I agree Mao's skating is natural, pure & light it's the kind of skating that draws the audience in... she is such a delight to watch! wish her all the best at worlds she really deserves it!
 

krenseby

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 8, 2006
anyway thaanks for all the links and montages it was soo nice to see, and I agree Mao's skating is natural, pure & light it's the kind of skating that draws the audience in... she is such a delight to watch! wish her all the best at worlds she really deserves it!

Yeah I think she is a simply wonderful skater; she could totally leave out the jumps and I would still enjoy watching her. Also, I hope she knows that her celebrity extends beyond the confines of her home country of Japan and that her skating is appreciated worldwide.
 

mary01

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
wish there would be more news now, before worlds beginn i would love to hear how she is preparing for worlds, and what her focus will be! one thing i noticed sice sato became her coac is that the media attention around her has decreased, probably to give her some privacy!
 

Vash01

Medalist
Joined
Jul 31, 2003
I absolutely love Mao's skating. She is such a complete skater. The COP ur rules have hurt her career, but she is such a fighter to take on the challenge and improve her jumps. All this after winning two world championships and an Olympic silver. Many others would have been satisfied with those accomplishments. The way she handled the tragedy of her mother's passing makes me respect her even more.
 

Ilvskating

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 30, 2010
I love Mao and wish her gets Gold at World with two beautiful programs. I love her ex programs particularly. She just shines and beautiful. I loved it when she skated with Jeff for that Aladin program, so cute and sweet:)
 

hurrah

Medalist
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
There are some interesting YouTube clips that compare Mao’s triple axel to Yagudin and Midori.

This one begins with Yagudin talking about how he begins to ‘irritate’ :laugh: in the air using the right side of the body, and then a slo–mo comparison of Yagudin and Mao in her old form:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKAeky4s8-g&feature=related

And then this one is a slo-mo comparison of Mao’s most recent triple-axel and Midori's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZvy6Ne2I34&feature=related

Watching the two clips together, you can see that Mao's form used to be exactly like Midori's, but now, she has incorporated some of Yagudin’s form of using the right side of the body to begin the rotation.
 
Last edited:

hurrah

Medalist
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Just found a clip made by someone in her team (probably, I think...?) comparing Mao's jumps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBKXCZzB_S8

For me, it was interesting to see the loop jump comparison, because I knew that something had changed with Mao's loop because this season, I started hearing this huge sound of her edge slicing through the ice as she took off, and I assumed something had changed so that she was no longer 'pre-rotating' on her loop, but I didn't know what it looked like, but looking at the clip made me see exactly how it had changed.

And also, I could tell in real time that her salchow had changed, that there was a smoothness to the jump that wasn't there before, but watching it in slow motion enabled me to see what exactly had been amended.

Actually, I found it amazing to see that these corrections that she is making are, from an amateur's perspective, so small and minute.
 
Joined
Mar 11, 2011
Just found a clip made by someone in her team (probably, I think...?) comparing Mao's jumps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBKXCZzB_S8

For me, it was interesting to see the loop jump comparison, because I knew that something had changed with Mao's loop because this season, I started hearing this huge sound of her edge slicing through the ice as she took off, and I assumed something had changed so that she was no longer 'pre-rotating' on her loop, but I didn't know what it looked like, but looking at the clip made me see exactly how it had changed.

And also, I could tell in real time that her salchow had changed, that there was a smoothness to the jump that wasn't there before, but watching it in slow motion enabled me to see what exactly had been amended.

Actually, I found it amazing to see that these corrections that she is making are, from an amateur's perspective, so small and minute.


Well, to me, pre-rotation for the edge jumps are still there, even worse. Don't take it bad, edge jumps need some level of pre-rotations for most of skaters.
To see the comparisons of her jumps, it's more evident that she's been losing height and some distance. 2 axel is the only one that's got better on the distance.

Mao was in the best shape for the couple of seasons heading into Olympic, including oly season. I don't know what got her mind but as she started to rework on her jumps, her humongous jumps weren't there anymore. I still remember how shocked I was at her 3f-3lo and solo 3f with that height and coverage.
 

hurrah

Medalist
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Mao was in the best shape for the couple of seasons heading into Olympic, including oly season. I don't know what got her mind but as she started to rework on her jumps, her humongous jumps weren't there anymore. I still remember how shocked I was at her 3f-3lo and solo 3f with that height and coverage.

You either have bad memory or truly know nothing at all to be able to claim that Mao's jumps Olympic season was her best. Mao actually went under a small growth spurt in the off season right before Olympic season began, and she was in big trouble. I still remember the shock when I saw her first performance of the season, which I think was Japan Open. It was only her sheer determination and natural talent which, despite lack of proper coaching on jumps, enabled her to win Olympic silver and World gold medal that year.
 
Joined
Mar 11, 2011
You either have bad memory or truly know nothing at all to be able to claim that Mao's jumps Olympic season was her best. Mao actually went under a small growth spurt in the off season right before Olympic season began, and she was in big trouble. I still remember the shock when I saw her first performance of the season, which I think was Japan Open. It was only her sheer determination and natural talent which, despite lack of proper coaching on jumps, enabled her to win Olympic silver and World gold medal that year.

My "shock" came from her olympic performances and her worlds performances in 2009. They were really huge. Then the next season, she was off and I've been really struggling to know why. I didn't know she went through a small growth spurt after oly season. Thanks for the info. Come to think of it, she did start to have a slight different body shape back then from oly season.
 

hurrah

Medalist
Joined
Aug 8, 2009
Actually, I agree that Mao's original flip was bigger, but the technique was bad, whereas her flip now has decent technique. And I think her still as of yet flutz is a big jump and should get good GOEs if and when she gets it to become a lutz.

And I think the reason why Mao's new flip is smaller is because she will never do a solo flip in competition; they will always be in combination, so she needs to complete the flip with good speed, meaning she has less time in the air to complete the three rotations.

So she trains her flip privileging speed over size, but with her lutz training, she doesn't need to think about having enough speed to make it into a combination so it is now a big flutz, and hopefully will become a big lutz.
 
Top