- Joined
- Feb 25, 2006
IIRC, Mirai's problems started when she was still skating under Frank, or shortly thereafter.
I think Mirai...hmm...I think Mirai needs a change of career. Everyone seems to think her heart really isn't in it, so she should probably stop spending so much money on any coach and use that money to get an education.
The fact that Mirai doesn't smile during her program doesn't mean that she is not enjoying it; I don't smile either when I skate. If I concentrate on smiling, I don't skate so well because then I don't pay enough attention to me feet. Sometimes one has to concentrate on what they are doing and don't have any energy left to deal with a smile on your face. Just try it at work - do whatever you are doing and keep a huge smile on your face (tiny smile is not visible on the ice). In a short while you may realize that you either lost the smile without even realizing it, or that you still has the smile on but that you are not concentrating as well on whatever you have been doing and that you are suddenly not a very effective worker.
Absolutely agree. I actually wonder if the lack of expression is simply the result of a concerted effort on the part of her coaches to have her concentrate and focus more on her programs. Mirai does seem to wear her heart on her sleeve and if she were to get be too emotional or overly expressive, it may be distracting, to the detriment of her executing the technical elements. Her spark when she was younger was quite infectious, but she herself said that it was easy to compete as a 14 year old when you don't have any thoughts, and perhaps the emotions back then didn't really affect her technically.
At any rate, I was really pleased to see her do so well at Rostelecom Cup. Hope she has the under rotations under control from now on.
Some would critique Mirai for not smiling if she were skating to a funeral dirge.
i, too, was pleased to see mirai look so secure with all of her elements in russia. when she puts it together, she's just a classically great skater, and it's stunning to think that she hasn't been to worlds since 2010. that being said, i don't think the bond number does her any favors though. the exhibition to "on golden pond," OTOH, really plays to all of her strengths--very serious and also expressive.
I suspect Mirai has too many things on her mind these days to truly feel relaxed and happy about her skating. It shows up on all her performance unfortunately. What she seem to need is a good mentor and a muse that can instill her confidence, keep her relaxed and deal with pressures properly. She was probably the least pressured and expected at the recent GP, and therefore of course she did her best work there. Utterly mad and perhaps predictable.
I suspect Mirai has too many things on her mind these days to truly feel relaxed and happy about her skating. It shows up on all her performance unfortunately. What she seem to need is a good mentor and a muse that can instill her confidence, keep her relaxed and deal with pressures properly. She was probably the least pressured and expected at the recent GP, and therefore of course she did her best work there. Utterly mad and perhaps predictable.
I remember four years ago heading into the Olympics all the top skaters in the US had mentors. I think Ashley was with Tara, flatt was with Dorothy. I can't remember who Mirai was with . I though that was a nice program. I wonder why they did not continue that. That was one of their few good ideas .
I don't remember anyone mentoring Mirai but surely she was if Ashley and Rachael were? Kristi Yamaguchi perhaps?
According to this article, Mirai's mentor was Charlene Wong heading up to the Vancouver Olympics (even though she was not her coach, of course). Curious that Mirai didn't seem to have a mentor like Ashley and Rachael. Wonder what the story behind that is.
http://www.management-mentors.com/a...ers-blog/bid/30562/Olympians-Have-Mentors-Too
.... I remember four years ago heading into the Olympics all the top skaters in the US had mentors. I think Ashley was with Tara, flatt was with Dorothy. I can't remember who Mirai was with . I thought that was a nice program. I wonder why they did not continue that. That was one of their few good ideas .
I don't remember anyone mentoring Mirai but surely she was if Ashley and Rachael were? Kristi Yamaguchi perhaps?
According to this article, Mirai's mentor was Charlene Wong heading up to the Vancouver Olympics (even though she was not her coach, of course). Curious that Mirai didn't seem to have a mentor like Ashley and Rachael. Wonder what the story behind that is.
http://www.management-mentors.com/a...ers-blog/bid/30562/Olympians-Have-Mentors-Too
Yeah that's kind of odd that Rachael and Ashley each get an Olympic Champion to mentor them but not Mirai.
I'm curious/confused about this mentoring discussion.
The article at the link below said that Wagner's coach was the one who approached Lipinski about serving as a mentor.
Who arranged for Hamill to mentor Flatt? Was it an official US Figure Skating initiative, or a private agreement (as Wagner/Lipinski's apparently was)?
(In any case, wild speculation: Is it possible that Frank Carroll did not encourage his skaters to have previous Olympians as mentors? The article above says that Abbott's was Wylie. No mention of one for Lysacek.)
Icey's article said that Apolo Anton Ohno's mentor was his father. So I'm guessing that the USOC or the speedskating federation was not involved in setting up Ohno's mentorship.
I could have sworn that the USFS had some kind of mentoring program at that time (don't know if they still do) - so I googled it and found this brief mention of an article on the subject in US Figure Skating Magazine - an article titled "Guiding Light":
http://www.usfigureskating.org/Magazine.asp?Issue=43145
Guiding Light
by Amy Rosewater: The U.S. Figure Skating mentoring program includes several Olympians and U.S. champions, including Dorothy Hamill, Paul Wylie and Tai Babilonia, and likely will expand to include several others soon.
I remember this as a mentoring program where past Olympians were paired with US skaters. I think the mentors themselves got to pick whom they were working with.
Mirai skated her best at Olympics, so I won't criticize Wong's mentoring though However, Wong had a completely disastrous Olympics in 1988, AFAIR. Of course, she was not reliable with any jumps beyond the 2A in any case again AFAIR.