2015 Japan Open | Page 36 | Golden Skate

2015 Japan Open

May I add that I have never and will never believe that Gracie will go clean in the free no matter how many clean practices she has until I see it with my very two eyes in competition. The girl worries me. Ugh
 
When I was watching it, she seemed slow. I usually look at the boards to see the speed. But otherwise, her interpretation is on a different level. Speed can come later.
 
btw I wish there was both SP & LP performed
Liza's & Ade's I love way more than LPs

Still, at least her programs are weird now, instead of boring.
being boring is the worst imo


still no Liza vid:scowl:
 
Last edited:
I loved Mao's performance. It reminds me of Liebestraum a little. Her triple lutz is much better and she was great at holding on to that big triple axel landing. Her rink coverage all the way to the boards is outstanding and her smooth lyrical flow has a great dynamic of power mixed in with profound expression. Few crossovers to build speed and wonderful rhythmic dance movements transferring her weight from one skate to the other and the position of her body from one side to the next. Elegant and aesthetic spins and spiral positions. Marvelous!

I also liked Satoko. She was also lyrical and rhythmic with good expression and nice spirals and spins. But, I wish she could just get bigger jumps. Still she is nice to watch as well.
 
Last edited:
wowowie Mao!!!! so smooth! Beautiful 3A and fixed lutz edge! Hmm, scores are kinda wild! the american girls I feel should have received a little higher than what they got? presentation-wise they were sophisticated and lovely to watch. :) Happy for Mao! go for 4th world crown please!!!!! :)
 
Mao's 2axel-3toe loop got +2GOE from most of the judges! :cheer: I wonder why it's not in the second-half of the program?

And her lutz got !... I hope she will soon get no deduction. It seems realistic (now) to hope for that.

And she actually left a alot of points on the table because she didn't do 2loop-2loop, especially.
 
Heh.. it is always interesting reading protocals and speculate the which federation judges gave these marks and can be NEVER WRONG. Just like the judges can NEVER BE WRONG with their biases, as long it doesn't venture too much outside the corridor, thanks to anonymity.

http://www.jsfresults.com/InterNational/2015-2016/jo/data0205.pdf

Ahem Russian/European judge #2 and #8 for Sot? Wonder who is judge #1? So brave... Putin will have a word with you soon!

LOL 6.5 for Liza's transition score! Brovo! (May be only compare to Osmond perhaps :laugh2:)
 
Last edited:
As much as I love Mao, I was slightly disappointed. The program never seemed to fulfill its promise of a true climax. There are some lovely moments within it, but I feel there are some rather obvious moments in the music that are wasted. For me, Miyahara had the performance of the event, the placing of the elements was beautiful, and she had a clear understanding of the dynamics of the music.
 
When I was watching it, she seemed slow. I usually look at the boards to see the speed. But otherwise, her interpretation is on a different level. Speed can come later.

I had the same feeling. Kinda reminded me of worlds 2013 FS where she seemed cautious and tentative in the first half but came alive later in the program.

Then I remembered that this is her first competition in 533 days (well the caption on top right corner reminded me) and that she just landed a ratified 3A and 2A3T and 5 other triples. And then I looked at videos of her previous Japan Open outings (which were quite meh). Really helped put it all into perspective and led me to the conclusion that she is a legend.
 
Finally got to see Mao! Love the program and the smooth flow and ease that she carries herself with. She honestly looks to be capable of reaching and maybe even surpassing her former level before the year off. Not surprised one bit.

I do however think her jumps looked very borderline and she may run into some trouble with UR if she continues to be so close. I think 130-135 would be a more realistic score but hey...it's Japan Open and the return of a great champion so who cares if it's a bit generous.

Even with the jump issues all seems well so we're in for a good season ahead I think. I'm looking forward to it.

Good to see ZamboniStep back posting too :yay:
 
Brian: seems like he has the same dress designer as Adelina. Though I like his version better, since it's more refinded and less immature.

Murakami: Good for him and also great improvement on SS :)

Javi: I've gotten over expecting somehting new from him and just enjoy his funny/jazzy style. I don't understand why everyone is so surprised at his PCS - it's not notably higher than last season. But I agree that in general Javi's PCS are too high for him.

Shoma: Wow what a breakthrough into the senior ranks! I don't fully agree with his high PCS since his SS are good but not that good, his choreo is good but not that good and his expression is good, but not that good - you get my point. But I have the utmost respect for him to put the quad combo at the second half.

Ashley: I'm really annoyed that she's treated like a second tier skater even though she's the reigning national champion. She definetly got dinged in PCS. Having said that I don't think it was a good idea to keep that LP from last season. Love her red haircolor - at first I didn't get it, but it fits fantastically with her red dress and LP.

Gracie: How can she still get higher PCS than Ashley after that performance? I'm annoyed at her getting PCS and fluff pieces based on her looks and not her skating. Unfortunatly that's a common tactics for federation favourites - if they have a bad performance still give them high PCs (undeserved). If they get it together even one time, then give them sky-rocketing pcs. And everyone agrees with it because those pcs are higher than before, forgetting that her PCS are too high to begin with.

Adelina: does she still have back problems? If so I'm astonished by her Bielman position. Her spins definetly looks better than at russian test skates. I'm no fan of her je suis malade programm and still think that her PCS were a tad overscored but not so much as Gracies. I hope she get's scored fairly in the upcoming competitons, since we have seen that being held up didn't do her any favour.

Satoko: She's great musicality and maturity but jumps are too tiny and too prerotated. The technical panel today was really lenient on her. I'm always trying to look at how the skaters expresses something and even though she doesn't have the long lines or a tall body, she actually has good control and expressivnes which should be (and was) rewarded.

Mao: She's such a butterfly on ice. Great to see her comeback being successful and hoping she can teach the youngsters a lesson or two. She did seem a little cautious but still was the best overall skater today.

Liza: Too bad she didn't land that 3 axel. Her packaging is unique and terrible at the same time but I like it on her :) If this is her style then I say, OK, let's pull it through ^^ I expect her jumps to get more consistent as the season progresses.
 
She was not slow. You need to look at how much ice she was covering and you'll see she was not slow AT ALL. Mao moves so effortlessly on the ice she tends to look all floaty anyways, and I thought that today, she was just very slightly cautious in her body movements. Understandable. It was her first competition in nearly 2 years.

But her jumps have improved, her spins have improved, her skating has improved!!

You are right. Her speed is deceptive because she quickly floats across the ice while appearing to put less effort into gaining speed with fewer straight crossovers and a lot of transferring weight from one skate to another which are elements in PCS scoring, besides being highly aesthetic compared to a lot of two footed skating. Though Mao has very good speed, the focus is figure skating not straight speed skating after all.
 
Last edited:
Mao was marvellous. I'm almost grateful for those little flaws in this LP, so she has something to work on during the season. Being perfect so early in the season would be too much. I haven't seen Liza yet, but even with a 3A she will have a hard time trying to beat her.

Gracie needs to change her coach, and she needs to do it now, before it's too late. Her frustrated looks in the K&C were almost scary, seems like she is about to lose her self-confidence for good.
 
Obviously, a great fist come back skate from Mao and I can't wait how she is going to hold up throughout the season. But leaving TES scores aside, and given the fact that this was in Japan, I was more interested how the PCS scores are distributed. It seems like at the year-end international competitions, Tukt and Sot will score about on the same level with Mao, perhaps a 1-1.5 point difference. So it will come down who skates cleanest in the end. And IMO, it is not going to be easy for all of them, there is no longer big cushion to afford edges calls, pops and falls.

It looks like we can discard, Myahara, Radio, Lip, and Medvedeva out of the picture.
 
Back
Top