Rika Kihira

skylark · Nov 30, 2018

Hi, Rika Kihira fans! I only "discovered" Rika by watching NHK free skates, and WOW! what an experience to see that as an introduction to a skater! That was quite simply one of the most breathtaking skates ... programs, execution and especially expression .... that I've ever seen. I want to add my agreement that Rika should keep going to Tom Dickson for her free skates. I think it's a magical combination of choreographer and skater.

I thought some of you might like to read what I posted about Rika in the "2018 IDF: thoughts, analysis ..." thread.

Rika Kihira. My new favorite solo lady. This event, she showed incredible strength of character and presence of mind, to alter her plan in order to keep up the quality of the skate as a whole. There's that word "presence." She has wonderful ice presence; she's got the IT factor. All through her free skate, there are small touches that express sublimely every note of the music, every rolling arpeggio, every trill, every musical sound simulating water or another element of a beautiful storm. Rika did not let one of these tiny moments get lost. So however much of a challenge it was to do the smart, point-getting jumps, she didn't lose her vision of the total effect of those jumps and all the other micro- and macro-movements. I am beyond impressed; I'm in awe. She's something special; the choreography is spectacular, and she uses her talent, her athleticism, and great choreography to their greatest effect: making a beautiful program.

Rika evoked the storm, with every crackle of lightning, every suddenly snatched heartbeat, every moment of glidng on.

leoleo · Nov 30, 2018

skylark said:
Hi, Rika Kihira fans! I only "discovered" Rika by watching NHK free skates, and WOW! what an experience to see that as an introduction to a skater! That was quite simply one of the most breathtaking skates ... programs, execution and especially expression .... that I've ever seen. I want to add my agreement that Rika should keep going to Tom Dickson for her free skates. I think it's a magical combination of choreographer and skater.

I thought some of you might like to read what I posted about Rika in the "2018 IDF: thoughts, analysis ..." thread.

Rika Kihira. My new favorite solo lady. This event, she showed incredible strength of character and presence of mind, to alter her plan in order to keep up the quality of the skate as a whole. There's that word "presence." She has wonderful ice presence; she's got the IT factor. All through her free skate, there are small touches that express sublimely every note of the music, every rolling arpeggio, every trill, every musical sound simulating water or another element of a beautiful storm. Rika did not let one of these tiny moments get lost. So however much of a challenge it was to do the smart, point-getting jumps, she didn't lose her vision of the total effect of those jumps and all the other micro- and macro-movements. I am beyond impressed; I'm in awe. She's something special; the choreography is spectacular, and she uses her talent, her athleticism, and great choreography to their greatest effect: making a beautiful program.

Rika evoked the storm, with every crackle of lightning, every suddenly snatched heartbeat, every moment of glidng on.

oh wow thanks for such a nice review, i am always so happy to hear compliments for her, as if she was my daughter or something :laugh:

I agree with everything you said, her free skate program is so wonderfully made, the details Tom Dickson created in that program are really impressive. I cannot even decide what my favorite moment is; is it the step sequence? or the spiral sequence? or is it the knee gliding moment at the end after her last jump? There are just too many great details. It is by far my favorite ladies program of the season and i'm hoping to see it skated clean once again.

By the way, Shoma has already arrived in Vancouver. He left yesterday. I am really hoping Hamada's team will arrive early too. It would suck to see Rika struggle with jetlag again at such an important competition.

melgirl25 · Nov 30, 2018

leoleo said:
oh wow thanks for such a nice review, i am always so happy to hear compliments for her, as if she was my daughter or something I agree with everything you said, her free skate program is so wonderfully made, the details Tom Dickson created in that program are really impressive. I cannot even decide what my favorite moment is; is it the step sequence? or the spiral sequence? or is it the knee gliding moment at the end after her last jump? There are just too many great details. It is by far my favorite ladies program of the season and i'm hoping to see it skated clean once again.

By the way, Shoma has already arrived in Vancouver. He left yesterday. I am really hoping Hamada's team will arrive early too. It would suck to see Rika struggle with jetlag again at such an important competition.

Did she arrive a little early to France? I’m sure they will get there early. Vancouver is out of the way for both the Russians and the Japanese so I hope all of them arrive early.

Danibellerika · Nov 30, 2018

Rika made such a big impression on me this season. Her free skate is spellbinding! I'm looking forward to seeing her live next week!

rikaquegira · Nov 30, 2018

melgirl25 said:
Did she arrive a little early to France? I’m sure they will get there early. Vancouver is out of the way for both the Russians and the Japanese so I hope all of them arrive early.

Team Japan arrived a bit early in France but I guess it wasn’t enough for Rika since she said she was not in her best form due to jetlag.
I hope Rika arrives in Canada really soon. She said after IdF her next task was to get better condition to the GPF so I’m sure they will take extra care with the whole timezone difference situation. [emoji120]

melgirl25 · Nov 30, 2018

rikaquegira said:
Team Japan arrived a bit early in France but I guess it wasn’t enough for Rika since she said she was not in her best form due to jetlag.
I hope Rika arrives in Canada really soon. She said after IdF her next task was to get better condition to the GPF so I’m sure they will take extra care with the whole timezone difference situation. [emoji120]

My partner works with someone who is from China and he swears by fasting for 48 hours to beat jet lag when he goes back home :scratch2:

Shayuki · Nov 30, 2018

rikaquegira said:
Team Japan arrived a bit early in France but I guess it wasn’t enough for Rika since she said she was not in her best form due to jetlag.
I hope Rika arrives in Canada really soon. She said after IdF her next task was to get better condition to the GPF so I’m sure they will take extra care with the whole timezone difference situation. [emoji120]

Canada is easier for the Japanese than France when it comes to jet lag. It's most difficult to go "backwards". In Canada, Rika would be skating when it's early in the morning in Japan - I'm sure she's used to skating at such a time.

leoleo · Dec 1, 2018

Danibellerika said:
Rika made such a big impression on me this season. Her free skate is spellbinding! I'm looking forward to seeing her live next week!

Oh how great for you! Have lots of fun! Cheer for her please

gotoschool · Dec 2, 2018

I will be cheering hard for Rika at the Grand Prix Final. I don't know if this has been posted and the translation is not that clear, but here are some translated comments Rika made dealing with time differences, sleep and her views of what to focus on (and not focus on) in competition. The article is from November 28. Rika quoted "In the French Cup, we quickly changed the free composition from fatigue caused by jet lag. I tried a nap but "my head got up and I slept only in my body, it was the game when I got tired."

Vancouver, Canada, where the GP Final (December 6th - 8th) will be held also has a 17 hour time difference with Japan. Rika continued, "I sleep as late as possible and get up late and I want to take a nap. If you look at only the points, you have not arrived at all, enough is possible with no mistake." Pursuit of the best slide (performance) with the best sleep.
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20181127-00000279-sph-spo

I hope Rika will be able to adjust her sleep schedule to fit well with the time difference.

mattabc · Dec 3, 2018

Vilord said:
As there where som disscussion earlier as to wheter or not it would be benefical for Rika to ad a +3Lo combination or a 2A in her free. It would be verry beneficial since the 2A could then replace a 2T. Adding a 2nd 2A and a +Eu+3S combination could also be bennifical if the goal is to increase the BV Eteri style.
Suggested layouts: (with +3Lo)
3A+3T
3A
2A+3Lo
3Lz
---
3F
3Lz+2T+2Lo
3S

(with +3Lo and +Eu+3S)
3A+3T
3A
2A
3Lz+3Lo
--
3F
3Lz
2A+3S
Three axles in a row should be considered bad composition so mixing around the jumps a bit might be a good Idea
To be fair it is probably more important this year to be consistent than increasing BV since she allready has the highest by far. To be able to battle with the quad juniors next season (assuming they still do them) i think she will need a layout like the last one which is the Ideal for a program with two 3A. (Apart from putting all the combinations in the last half to get bonus on them)

Her technical score can theoretically go even higher if she repeats the 3lo instead of her 3lz-

---repeats 3lz---
3a+3t 12.2
3a 8
2a 3.3
2a 3.3
3lz+3lo 10.8
3lz 5.9
3f+eu+3s 10.1
TOTAL: 53.6

---repeats 3lo---
3a+3t 12.2
3a 8
2a 3.3
2a 3.3
3lz+3lo 10.8
3s 4.3
3f+3lo+2lo 11.9
TOTAL: 53.8

Arbitrary · Dec 3, 2018

Is it so necessary to have two 2A when doing also two 3A? Why not 3Lz and/or 3F instead of those 2A?

leoleo · Dec 3, 2018

Arbitrary said:
Is it so necessary to have two 2A when doing also two 3A? Why not 3Lz and/or 3F instead of those 2A?

2 2As is pointless indeed. 2 3lzs definitely get higher GOEs. Judges don't tend to give high GOEs on 2As in general probably because it's not a jump as impressive as a 3lz. I rarely ever see 2As get more than +1 in GOE. I mean if Wakaba's 2A or Tsurskaya's huge back counter + spiral exit 2A cannot get over +1...
I think her free skate's layout is perfect as is. She had one perfect skate at NHK, another near perfect one at Ondrej Nepela with just a minor issue on the 3s landing + a pretty good skate again at IDF despite her issues with jetlag. She seems to be comfortable with that program and she just needs to keep skating it clean or almost clean, that way her PCS score can go up.

I believe the SP is where she can upgrade the layout when she finally gets comfortable with that program. She could maybe move the combo in the second half or do a 3f-3lo or 3lz-3lo as her combo, that would definitely score above 80 if clean. But as i've already said before, the most important for her this season is to try to be consistent, not go for harder layouts that could mess up everything she's been achieving so far this senior season.

This user on twitter posted more than 100 pictures of Rika at IDF :luv17: https://twitter.com/Phantom_Kabocha/status/1068977497520390144

lzxnl · Dec 3, 2018

Indeed, her current layout is fine as it is. All she needs is to land those triple axels cleanly; there aren't any problems with her other jumps as it is (that 3Lz-3T< was probably because she had to emergency 3T due to the inability to combo 3T to 3A).

I can't imagine much of an upgrade this season, though next season if she puts in 4T, she can do 3Lz-3Lo instead of 3Lz-2T and do solo 4T instead of solo 3Lo, essentially replacing 2T with 4T (that's +8.4 BV or something). Then she can try 3Lz-Eu-3S instead of 3Lz-2T-2Lo and replace solo 3S with solo 4S, which basically replaces 2T-2Lo with 4S, Eu (+7.6 BV). Two quads could get her +16 BV, almost how much the quads themselves are worth. I'm already excited to see if she'll do this next season.

Vilord · Dec 3, 2018

lzxnl said:
Indeed, her current layout is fine as it is. All she needs is to land those triple axels cleanly; there aren't any problems with her other jumps as it is (that 3Lz-3T< was probably because she had to emergency 3T due to the inability to combo 3T to 3A).

I can't imagine much of an upgrade this season, though next season if she puts in 4T, she can do 3Lz-3Lo instead of 3Lz-2T and do solo 4T instead of solo 3Lo, essentially replacing 2T with 4T (that's +8.4 BV or something). Then she can try 3Lz-Eu-3S instead of 3Lz-2T-2Lo and replace solo 3S with solo 4S, which basically replaces 2T-2Lo with 4S, Eu (+7.6 BV). Two quads could get her +16 BV, almost how much the quads themselves are worth. I'm already excited to see if she'll do this next season.

While this certinly is possible. It will be verry hard to complete a layout with 2 3A and 2 quads. I personaly dont think she really needs quads since her 3A is so good. Even when it comes down to compete against eteris quadsters 2 3A should be fine, but I think upgrading her layout as I and mattabc suggested will be nesecsary because Eteris girls always have maxed out BV

leoleo · Dec 3, 2018

Vilord said:
While this certinly is possible. It will be verry hard to complete a layout with 2 3A and 2 quads. I personaly dont think she really needs quads since her 3A is so good. Even when it comes down to compete against eteris quadsters 2 3A should be fine, but I think upgrading her layout as I and mattabc suggested will be nesecsary because Eteris girls always have maxed out BV

I think since she's been working on quads for so long, they're definitely not planning to drop the idea of her doing them. Hamada said she doesn't want her to attempt them this season in competition cause she has to improve her artistic side, her competitive spirit and consistency but since she went to Ghislain this summer to work on them and said her 4T especially is getting better, i believe it's still very much in the plans. For next season she does not need to do 2 quads + 2 3As, it's too dangerous and i really have a hard time imagining a female skater pulling off such a layout. She could do 4T (since it's apparently her better quad) and 3A-3T then do two 3lzs and two 3fs or maybe a quad and 2 3As if we're really going there.
Quads are not necessary for ladies but it is the way the sport goes, it's only normal that more coaches are going for them especially Rika considering she already has solid 6 triples. Look at how Eteri girl attempt 2-3quads per program, it is definitely unnecessary cause they don't even need them to win but i guess someone always has to push the sport forward.

Since japanese media has been so obsessed with her recently, i hope they can sneak into her practice sessions again and capture her practicing quads just so we can judge how much they have improved.

It is geoblocked but her FS video from NHK has reached 1million and 200K views on NHK's official youtube channel :eeking:

leoleo · Dec 3, 2018

Rika and the other japanese ladies have already arrived in Vancouver, it is monday morning there, nice.
Good luck to all of them

https://twitter.com/shiro_12170326/status/1069546530967678976

Arbitrary · Dec 3, 2018

leoleo said:
Look at how Eteri girl attempt 2-3quads per program, it is definitely unnecessary cause they don't even need them to win but i guess someone always has to push the sport forward.

I think being older (well, speaking of political correctness, more and more senior) it's easier to keep well done 3A than well done quads.
Even Tuktamisheva could do her 3A (may be two) with some degree of success and she's the senior of seniors those days.

lzxnl · Dec 3, 2018

leoleo said:
I think since she's been working on quads for so long, they're definitely not planning to drop the idea of her doing them. Hamada said she doesn't want her to attempt them this season in competition cause she has to improve her artistic side, her competitive spirit and consistency but since she went to Ghislain this summer to work on them and said her 4T especially is getting better, i believe it's still very much in the plans. For next season she does not need to do 2 quads + 2 3As, it's too dangerous and i really have a hard time imagining a female skater pulling off such a layout. She could do 4T (since it's apparently her better quad) and 3A-3T then do two 3lzs and two 3fs or maybe a quad and 2 3As if we're really going there.
Quads are not necessary for ladies but it is the way the sport goes, it's only normal that more coaches are going for them especially Rika considering she already has solid 6 triples. Look at how Eteri girl attempt 2-3quads per program, it is definitely unnecessary cause they don't even need them to win but i guess someone always has to push the sport forward.

Since japanese media has been so obsessed with her recently, i hope they can sneak into her practice sessions again and capture her practicing quads just so we can judge how much they have improved.

It is geoblocked but her FS video from NHK has reached 1million and 200K views on NHK's official youtube channel :eeking:

The way I see it is this. Rika obviously has much stronger jumping technique than any of Eteri's juniors; her lutz is a true lutz, for instance. Given that she's had a 3A for so long, I would say it's reasonable that if she were to land a quad consistently, she'd have a decent chance of keeping it for a while. Now I don't know how long Eteri's girls will keep their quads, but the fact is that if you're going up against a three (maybe even four...unlikely for now) quad Trusova, you'll need at least one quad to stay competitive. Trusova's BV with two 4Lz and a 4T is pretty nuts and one quad at least is needed to match that, given Rika's 3As. Having two quads just means Rika doesn't need any doubles. A third quad produces less benefits as now you're replacing a triple for it.

Fluture · Dec 3, 2018

Am I being pessimistic when I say I just want Rika to skate her current layout clean (especially the SP) on a fairly consistent level (as much as you can be consistent with 3 3As at least) before even thinking about adding a quad? I mean, I want her to be competitive with the Russian juniors coming up, she‘s my favourite Japanese lady next to Satoko. But what I admired about Hamada‘s approach was that she stated clearly that they are working on BOTH aspects of the spectrum equally - jumps and artistry. They want her to have good skating skills, solid technique on her jumps, interpretation and maturity and consistency before they move to include more ultra-c elements. I don‘t want to place too high expectations on Rika right now as from what I‘ve heard she was pretty inconsistent in juniors (even though she reached JGPF and was pretty good there. No idea about Worlds or Nationals, though) so how far she‘s come this season is already a great step in my eyes. I’m only a new fan of hers so I might not know every single detail but she definitely impressed me this year with what she has shown. I hope she can do her best at the GPF and get a medal. Then we‘ll see what the next step will be. Nationals, Worlds... If she is able to consistently pull of her 3A layout - yep, get those quads next season. But if she isn‘t... better not risk it.

lzxnl · Dec 3, 2018

Fluture said:
Am I being pessimistic when I say I just want Rika to skate her current layout clean (especially the SP) on a fairly consistent level (as much as you can be consistent with 3 3As at least) before even thinking about adding a quad? I mean, I want her to be competitive with the Russian juniors coming up, she‘s my favourite Japanese lady next to Satoko. But what I admired about Hamada‘s approach was that she stated clearly that they are working on BOTH aspects of the spectrum equally - jumps and artistry. They want her to have good skating skills, solid technique on her jumps, interpretation and maturity and consistency before they move to include more ultra-c elements. I don‘t want to place too high expectations on Rika right now as from what I‘ve heard she was pretty inconsistent in juniors (even though she reached JGPF and was pretty good there. No idea about Worlds or Nationals, though) so how far she‘s come this season is already a great step in my eyes. I’m only a new fan of hers so I might not know every single detail but she definitely impressed me this year with what she has shown. I hope she can do her best at the GPF and get a medal. Then we‘ll see what the next step will be. Nationals, Worlds... If she is able to consistently pull of her 3A layout - yep, get those quads next season. But if she isn‘t... better not risk it.

Her consistency has already improved a lot. She was known for absolutely collapsing in her junior seasons; this season, pretty much the only major issue with her skating is her triple axel. Now, I agree that she shouldn't add any quads this season; her current layout for this year is fine. Next season is a long way away though; worlds is in March and the new season starts several months later, so hopefully she'll have time. It's not like she hasn't landed a 4T before anyway.

Rika Kihira

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