Daisuke Takahashi

ioanap, thank you for that long post at the top. It was a joy to read. I hope you're right that the quads and 3As are a mental thing. I, too, had hope after seeing Dai land triples in recent shows like they were nothing. I still suspect his quads are near-gone cry but that doesn't mean they can't come back after he heals up. I wasn't even too surprised at the UR 3A in Sochi. While Dai's 3As were light and beautiful when he's at his best, he never quite gets the height that someone like Yuzu or even aging Plushy gets. Combine that with his recent troubles and UR problems are basically inevitable.

Morozov does seem like a slimy person and I'm not a fan of the LP he gave Dai in the '12-13 season. (This doesn't mean I think his choreography universally sucks, as some people do. I just disliked that particular one). However, I forgive him a little, if he kicked some confidence back into Dai. I'm so glad Dai made it to Sochi, regardless of replacement. He mesmerized me both nights while everyone else was playing Zamboni. I know his quads were basically worth 2 points by then, but it never marred his performances at all.

The more I know about Morozombie, the more I find him creepy! My figure skating friends all dislike Morozombie. Now I know more about him. He is a talented coach, but as Tarasova've said, he has moral issue. hwell: poor Dai. What a relief he looks so happy now. With all the ice shows and the fans supports, I hope he will find more happiness.

Sandpiper said:

ioanap, thank you for that long post at the top. It was a joy to read. I hope you're right that the quads and 3As are a mental thing. I, too, had hope after seeing Dai land triples in recent shows like they were nothing. I still suspect his quads are near-gone cry but that doesn't mean they can't come back after he heals up. I wasn't even too surprised at the UR 3A in Sochi. While Dai's 3As were light and beautiful when he's at his best, he never quite gets the height that someone like Yuzu or even aging Plushy gets. Combine that with his recent troubles and UR problems are basically inevitable.

Morozov does seem like a slimy person and I'm not a fan of the LP he gave Dai in the '12-13 season. (This doesn't mean I think his choreography universally sucks, as some people do. I just disliked that particular one). However, I forgive him a little, if he kicked some confidence back into Dai. I'm so glad Dai made it to Sochi, regardless of replacement. He mesmerized me both nights while everyone else was playing Zamboni. I know his quads were basically worth 2 points by then, but it never marred his performances at all.

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That's true, he only got about 2 points for his quads in Sochi And I agree, his triple axels don't have a lot of height but he never had too much trouble performing them regardless. His quads on the other hand...

I remember watching a documentary a while back, just before the 2012-2013 season when Dai wanted to put 2 quads in his LP. He went to Moscow to work with Morozov and he was feeling conflicted he couldn't manage to land clean quads while training in Japan. I honestly have no idea what Morozov did or said to him but just after warming up Dai started landing quad after quad after quad. I don't remember how many quads he landed that day but it was incredible to see. The reporters filming the documentary were in awe and told him 'look how many quads you managed to land today' but he was still skeptical and said 'this doesn't mean anything, it's only the beginning.'

The psychological factor is generally very important in this sport. Viewers are immediately able to spot a conflicted or scared competitor. Patrick Chan's panic was in full display at Sochi. Yuzuru also let the anxiety take the best of him and had a very uncharacteristic fall on his triple flip. Knowing this, it's a wonder how Dai managed to compete so many years with his low opinion of himself.

I'm not too optimistic about his quads either but everyone thought he lost his quads completely after the 2012-2013 season ended and they miraculously came back last November even if they were a tad bit underrotated.

I think the 2012-2013 LP was choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne :think: And Morozov switched his Nanami Abe choreographed SP with Moonlight Sonata.

Somebody posted this old interview on tumblr today and I'm sharing the links here. It's from May 2008 right after his Cyberswan season ended. An incredibly successful season with an unfortunate end at the World Championship (also thought to be a consequence of the rising Morozov conflicts during that time).

Part 1
Part 2

The lady host repeatedly calls him handsome at the beginning of the interview

@ioanap
I'm talking about this LP. Lol, I'm such an idiot. It even says "choreographed by Shae-Lynn Bourne" in the video description. I think there were some people complaining about "crappy Morozov choreography" and I just took their word for it. I can't believe I'm saying this but: Morozov, if you're reading this, I apologize for misblaming you!

I agree psychology is a huge factor. I tended to put Dai's quad, Patrick's 3A, and Hanyu's 4S in the "technique problems" corner because they consistently messed up these jumps and no others (well, all three messed up other jumps as well in Sochi, but...). Whereas the Jeremy Abbott/Carolina Kostner/Sasha Cohen meltdowns I tend to see as psychology, because they're often brilliant on one night and bad on another without any logical trend. However, it's possible Dai's quad and Yuzu's 4S are also partially psychological. Incredible to hear Morozov somehow pushed him to get the quads back, even if they had issues.

The problem for Dai is that the penalty for UR is huge, much bigger than a fall, which means he'll find himself lagging behind in TES even when competitors make mistakes. This is basically what happened in Sochi. He also doesn't just get <--he gets <<, which is the kiss of death. Also, UR seems to mean automatic -GOE; not sure if that's in the rulebook, but that seems to be how it functions practically.

If Dai wants to come back, I hope he somehow works out the UR issue. I don't think he should go crazy and try two quads. He needs one good quad and a clean performance. Most importantly, he will need to compete out of passion rather than for medals (like Joubert did post-Vancouver). I would be thrilled to have him back regardless of where he places.

You can still blame Morozov for that horrible recycled costume though

While skaters like Jeremy, Carolina and Sasha had meltdowns and botched their programs, it is possible other skaters' anxiety may show up in certain elements they don't feel secure about. Yuzuru has incredible psychological strength but somewhere in there he feels insecure about his 4S. Somewhere in there he's bothered by the fact that skaters like Javier Fernandez and Kevin Reynolds are landing consistent 4S and the competitive side in him starts losing patience and he tends to try too hard. The jump is never UR so he basically has trouble staying on his feet. Back at the World Championship this past spring, he had his little meltdown in the SP and fell on his 4T. Thanks to that the 4S anxiety disappeared by the time the free program started because he only knew one thing: he needed a clean program to get the gold and he believed he could do it.

Dai's quads indeed got both << and -GOE in Sochi and ended up being worthless. Dai's always had a ridiculous problem; he hates falling. Whatever he does, he said he feels humiliated whenever he hits the ice. As he fell both in Turin and Vancouver, he wanted to finish 2 programs in Sochi by staying on his feet, especially after the unfortunate performances at the nationals where he even cut his hand. I guess he was aware his knee was not allowing him to land clean quads (or so he thought) and, maybe unconsciously, the only thing he was worried about as he was performing his quads was just landing on his feet, even if he ended up doing two footed triples. And this has been a general problem; he doesn't want to fall so he goes into his jumps cautiously; he's afraid of doing 4 complete rotations. That's how I've always seen his UR quads - signs of his lack of self confidence and to a lesser extent physical problems. Because if his accident in 2008 was the sole reason of his inability to land clean quads, what about those times he did manage to land them?

While in the 2010-2011 season he was still going for triple-triple combinations in his SP, he wanted to change that and add a quad in the following season. He said he started observing everyone else and he suddenly didn't want to lag behind the younger ones. He went into the 2011 nationals thinking "I'm gonna replace the triple-triple with a quad because I'm good enough to do it and I'm gonna nail it". Needless to say both the crowd and the commentators were shocked to see a clean 4T instead of a 3F-3T. He was probably shocked himself he was able to do it and went back to insecure mode in the LP. He later beat Patrick at the World Team Trophy in 2012 landing 2 clean quads in the SP and LP.

The 2012 nationals were another important point in his quads history. After landing a < 4T in the SP but having a clean program overall, he was still finding himself 9 points behind Yuzuru's SP. That fired him up to perform this incredible LP with 2 quads (the second one was rather shaky but still landed it). His reaction at the end of the program says it all: how on earth did I manage to do this, I didn't know I had it in me However, even this was not enough. Yuzuru performed a poorer LP but not poor enough to fall on second place. Dai had to settle for silver despite his efforts and this has most likely thrown him back into the whirlwind of insecure thoughts - how do I continue dreaming about gold in Sochi if I still get beaten with 3 quads? This, combined with the pain he said he was starting to feel in his legs, led to the disaster that was the 2013 4CC and to a lesser extent Worlds. Those poor performances only added up to the angst and he suddenly didn't feel motivated anymore, starting the 2013-2014 season the way he did at Skate America.

So if he comes back next season, he should just go for the quads and get a fall deduction rather than a << call. A fall is not even obligatory because who knows, maybe he's able to land quads with a free, fearless mind. But he should indeed stay with just a quad in the LP. He's most likely going to perform out of passion from now on more than the past Olympic cycle because I think he's got a lot of issues sorted out. Takeshi Honda previously said Dai can't stay out of competitions and he doesn't see him retiring right now. Takeshi probably knows him and his quads best. He did an incredible job getting Dai's quads back post 2008 and he sounds like he still has faith in him. Long post again

ioanap said:

Somebody posted this old interview on tumblr today and I'm sharing the links here. It's from May 2008 right after his Cyberswan season ended. An incredibly successful season with an unfortunate end at the World Championship (also thought to be a consequence of the rising Morozov conflicts during that time).

Part 1
Part 2

The lady host repeatedly calls him handsome at the beginning of the interview

Click to expand...

Thanks for the videos. Their conversations are so unintentionally funny. And I'm amazed and amused at how the trend of hairstyles can change in 6 years (supposing that this hairstyle was normal in 2008)
Looks like Dai was on this show again in April 2010, but the videos have been deleted.

^ Long posts are good (I'm learning so much!)

mikaboo said:

Thanks for the videos. Their conversations are so unintentionally funny. And I'm amazed and amused at how the trend of hairstyles can change in 6 years (supposing that this hairstyle was normal in 2008)
Looks like Dai was on this show again in April 2010, but the videos have been deleted.

^ Long posts are good (I'm learning so much!)

Click to expand...

I think I've seen young Japanese men still sporting that kind of haircut nowadays though. The last time he visited his hairdresser and got those highlights in his hair his hairdresser said he's trying to grow his hair again

I wish I could understand the entire conversation in those 2 videos but I only caught about 30% of it

Here's another documentary from the 2006-2007 season (no subtitles unfortunately) but it has lots of rare footage of his training and on + off ice moments (Dai interviews, Nobu interviews, Morozov interviews)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF6xNZG9CBA

Morozov's words are basically summing up the whole self confidence issue as well as what Morozov thought of him so I'm roughly quoting them here:

"Definitely he's one of the stronger skaters in the men's field right now and I think he'll have no problem to be at the top of the world."
"He started to believe in himself, I think, more. Because he was a good skater before but I don't think he was aware of what he was capable to do."
"Maybe he's gonna do 2 quads in a program, yes. It depends on how everybody else is going to be in practice at Worlds. (...) he can do it." (he did put 2 quads in his LP the following 07-08 season).

Welcome, Glenncoco! Your becoming a Daisuke fan from just this Olympic performance proves what a magnetic skater he is. Once he starts moving, one can't take one's eyes off him. I'm so glad he has so many appreciative fans and that he also has an Olympic medal to his name. I'm also glad he skates for a country that values its skaters so highly.

@ioanap
Oh, I agree, Dai's quads didn't become a problem simply because of that one major accident. I think we can say it's a combination of technique and psychology: Dai knows the quads are insecure for him, so he's worried about them in competition, and that makes it even harder for him to hit them. (Similar situation for Yuzu with 4S).

I know Dai has said that falling makes him feel humiliated, hence why he thinks, "I must stay on my feet in Sochi!!" I suspect it's more than that: falling likely throws him off in a performance, and it could negatively affect the rest of his program since he'll constantly think about the fall. Hence why I'm not sure "Go for it and fall!" will necessarily work out for Dai.

There's something else I want to bring up, though I'm not sure how much impact it had: Dai grew up on the tail end of 6.0. While he, being a late bloomer, didn't have much success under that system, he's old to enough to have trained under that mentality. In 6.0, falling was often the kiss of death. As Brian Orser once explained, regarding why he didn't go for a second 3A in Calgary: "A champion does not go down." 6.0 guys fought like hell to stay on their feet no matter what wonky air position or landing they had (see: Yagudin landing a quad on an inside edge, or doing a combination with his nose nearly on the ice, but somehow keeping hands/second foot off; Plushy landing any jump, from any wild angle. :yes: That's why I get frustrated when I see people go down today seemingly without trying to save the jump).

While Dai looks like a COP skater with his style of programs, I wonder how much of that 6.0 "Don't fall" mentality he absorbed? To be honest, I'm very much on his side. I don't think a bunch of champions going down helps the sport any, because casual viewers are really, really confused. I'm so glad Dai was there in Sochi, because the rest of the men's free was just . However, the current rules don't seem interested in punishing falls more, hence why Dai will find a comeback very difficult. (Everyone's confused about the rules these days... The Canadian commentators called Dai's << two-footed SP quad "One of his better recent quad attempts," even though an < outright fall wouldn't have been worse points-wise).

Y'know, I'm not sure what exactly went wrong with his quads in Sochi. It looked to me like he just didn't get enough height to complete the rotation. However, I recently saw the performances with Scott Hamilton's commentary, and Scott said Dai looked like he got decent height, but somehow wasn't able to pull in for the rotation. Anyone else have some thoughts? I assume Scott Hamilton knows better than me, but...

I suspect it's more than that: falling likely throws him off in a performance, and it could negatively affect the rest of his program since he'll constantly think about the fall.

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Indeed this used to be a major problem for him; one fall on his quad and/or triple axel would negatively affect the rest of the program. A good example is the LP at the Turin Olympics - he fell on his opening quad and performed the rest of his program with shaky, wobbly legs and a very anxious expression. But I think with time he managed to learn how to pull himself together and finish a program as if a fall never happened. The Vancouver LP for instance - he had a terrible fall on his quad at the beginning of the program; he could have panicked and popped / fallen on other jumps but instead he delivered a wonderful performance, with both technique and interpretation. La Strada felt like watching a theater play on the ice and the fall did not stop him from creating a moment for the audience. So unless he has other things on his mind (such as 'why am I still trying' and 'I'm terrible' like he's had in 2013), I think he can do it.

Dai grew up on the tail end of 6.0. While he, being a late bloomer, didn't have much success under that system, he's old to enough to have trained under that mentality. In 6.0, falling was often the kiss of death.

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I've never considered this but you are right. This could also be one of the major reasons. Dai was actually 18 years old when the CoP replaced 6.0, old enough to have struggles switching to the mentality of the new judging system. This, along with his own fear of falling may have heavily influenced his quads. Morozov did a good job helping him perform them (especially in the 07-08 season when he put 2 quads in the LP) but the accident almost ruined everything. His doctors told him to quit skating because he would never be able to jump again, let alone attempt quads so it's truly incredible the way he won an Olympic medal, became World Champion and GPF Champion, and was able to perform quads again (+ a quad flip that was never recognized because he performed it during the warm-up at the NHK Trophy in 2011).

Scott said Dai looked like he got decent height, but somehow wasn't able to pull in for the rotation.

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I have actually heard this a handful of times before, not just in Sochi. That he often gets decent height but still ends up unable to finish rotations. Maybe it's all about the take-off of his jump? In the LP at the 2013 NHK Trophy Kurt Browning said he only needs just an inch or so higher than usual to complete his rotation. He managed to do it on his first quad but he tripled the second one; according to Kurt, when the toe pick went in the timing was off. Could that be his psychological hesitation to go for it?

Here's the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7jc2nJ4fCo

ioanap said:

The last time he visited his hairdresser and got those highlights in his hair his hairdresser said he's trying to grow his hair again

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Apparently he's changed his mind and wanted a summer look.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp7DWy-CYAAzdxA.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp7DYd7CAAAKPE2.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp7DXfwCAAA264Q.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp7DYO1CIAAZ-F4.jpg:large

Not so sure about this one

ioanap said:

I think I've seen young Japanese men still sporting that kind of haircut nowadays though. The last time he visited his hairdresser and got those highlights in his hair his hairdresser said he's trying to grow his hair again

I wish I could understand the entire conversation in those 2 videos but I only caught about 30% of it

Here's another documentary from the 2006-2007 season (no subtitles unfortunately) but it has lots of rare footage of his training and on + off ice moments (Dai interviews, Nobu interviews, Morozov interviews)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF6xNZG9CBA

Click to expand...

Thanks!

I can try to translate some of the interview over the weekend. I found it funny because he had this expression of "how much should I explain to her?" on his face since the lady didn't know anything about the rules.

ioanap said:

Apparently he's changed his mind and wanted a summer look.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp7DWy-CYAAzdxA.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp7DYd7CAAAKPE2.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp7DXfwCAAA264Q.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp7DYO1CIAAZ-F4.jpg:large

Not so sure about this one

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Hmmm. Not sure either. :no:

ioanap said:

Apparently he's changed his mind and wanted a summer look.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp7DWy-CYAAzdxA.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp7DYd7CAAAKPE2.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp7DXfwCAAA264Q.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp7DYO1CIAAZ-F4.jpg:large

Not so sure about this one

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Ioanap and Mikaboo: Dai is very voguish so can pull off any look. Don't fret... hair always grows back quickly!

Mikaboo: Thanks in advance for translating the interview. I always looks forward to the English translations that are provided by very kind souls like you and your hard work and patience is always very much appreciated.

Well here's another one.
https://scontent-b-vie.xx.fbcdn.net...515_472826242854946_8875765650963975578_n.jpg

He just loves shaving the sides of his head.

And Kenji Miyamoto posted this on his blog
https://scontent-b-vie.xx.fbcdn.net...706_472826332854937_6272250132330975593_n.jpg

Plus, news report about Dai and his childhood friend and schoolmate Toshihiro Aoyama who is currently in the national Japanese team at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P649GswCVE

Daisuke interview w/ Eng Sub:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h56kVL9kD8

Sorry if it had already been post!

Dai is attending a talk & photo session today and tomorrow at the AminoVital store. Will post reports here as soon as they get published if anybody is interested.

Also, Dai and Nobu are attending another talk session on June 25th at the Tokyo Tower Studio. This should be interesting.



Edit - Dai's talk & photo session today

Pics (by @d1skpic)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqFI-rNCIAAVJJM.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqFJF5kCAAAy_-T.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqFIw5hCEAAzIM2.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqFIfP1CQAAEfA6.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqFInazCUAA13xu.jpg:large

Report by @b_c_h_e_r_r_y, translated by @noroton3 (many thanks!)

The following is my translation of reports from the Amino Vital Talk Show in Koriyama on June 14, 2014.

I thank blue-C san for the simultaneous report from the site!



＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

The talk show was emceed by a long-time acquaintance of Daisuke, an Ajinomoto employee who has interviewed him for 9 years, since Torino Olympics.

A group of junior skaters were seated on the floor in the front. Daisuke looked relaxed talking to them.

Our honorary sales manager Dai wore a chambray shirt over a white T, black pants and white sneakers. His accessories are black watch, a black bracelet, a circular shaped (?) ring. His hair was parted on the left side. He is tanned <3

Junior skaters asked him why he started skating.

D: When I was little, I was not good at physical ed., especially ball games. Not that I hated them; I was just not good at them. So I always watched other kids play without participating. So my PE grade was 1 or 2 (U.S. equivalent of C or D).

D: When little, I wanted to become a “salary-man”, or a Japanese business man. My father was not a salary-man, so I dreamed of wearing a suit to work.


Daisuke was never scolded as a child. As he asked the junior skaters if they have ever been scolded, he looked straight into their faces with his sincere smile.


Q: Having skating as a profession, it must have been extremely difficult.

D: No, because it’s the only thing I’m good at.

Q: What were your favorite recipe from the kitchen of the Takahashi family?

D: Hamburger steaks (the Japanese style), gyoza (pot stickers), and giant rice balls. Also “nagashi yaki”, a thin, crepe-like pancake (not sweet; he explains it's like a thin okonomiyaki) which we made together on the hot plate.

No matter how late he came home, like 10 or 11 o’clock, his family waited for him and had dinner together. Dai asked the junior skaters if they had meals with their families, about half of them raised their hands saying yes.

Dai likes having miso soup for breakfast, but not for dinner.

Asked about Sochi….

D: There were too many things. Coach Nagamitsu said she will be on my side no matter what happens. She accepted and protected me for what I was.

D: Figure skating is a rigorous sport. It’s like running a 1500m hurdle with jumps in the middle of it. Balance is important. Interval training (for strengthening the respiratory system) is very hard.

D: Maybe it seems irrelevant to speed skaters, but I recommend ballet to everyone. It teaches a lot about your body and your muscles. It’s good if you have a stiff neck, especially.

MC: (To the kids) He is a pretty good cook, too, you know.

D: No, no, I’m not! I only pack my lunch! lol

D: I feel stronger and have more stamina than when I was a teenager.

D: You can only learn from failure. You need to start that process young. At a very young age.

D: Thank you for buying a lot of Amino Vital. It also works when you drink…am I not supposed to say this?? lol

I hope you all take Amino Vital and feel refreshed. I don’t have much power right now, so please share some of yours.

(A collective sob on my Twitter TL (ﾉω･､))

The last message to the junior skaters:

D: There are things that I could only learn after I continued to skate until the age of 28. When you stick with one thing for a long time, you learn so many things, too. It means a lot to continue. You can ask others for help and support if you need to. I just hope you will keep skating for many years to tome.

(The photo session followed. Lucky 30 people were selected to take pictures with Daisuke one by one.)

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Original source

^Thanks ioanap for all your updates about Dai-chan, much appreciated!

cdngirl said:

Mikaboo: Thanks in advance for translating the interview. I always looks forward to the English translations that are provided by very kind souls like you and your hard work and patience is always very much appreciated.

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No problem cdngirl. It's good exercise for my brain!

Thanks for the updates as usual ioanap. He looks kind of ... older?

Translations of Daisuke's interview with Tetsuko Kuroyanagi are coming soon as I promised.

mikaboo said:

Thanks for the updates as usual ioanap. He looks kind of ... older?

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I think it's a consequence of this hairstyle. Whenever he shaves the sides of his head he always looks older. He seemed younger with his previous hairstyle to me.

So I'll be patiently waiting for his hair to grow back.