2018-19 Japanese Ladies' figure skating

[yume]

I think many will be tied. Scores will be important. Kaori's total score is good. Mako will have to be close to 70 and 140 to challenge Kaori (and possibly other skaters) if she gets bronze at her 2nd GP.
Personally i would love Mako to be the surprise of the season.

 

[leoleo]

Dang, it's so hard. Mako was great at SC. And I love Kaori, and Satoko too. Why must the GPF only have six spots?

someone has to be sacrificed unfortunately

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

I think many will be tied. Scores will be important. Kaori's total score is good. Mako will have to be close to 70 and 140 to challenge Kaori (and possibly other skaters) if she get bronze at her 2nd GP.
Personally i would love Mako to be the surprise of the season.

I like Mako's skating too, but she doesn't have the fire (yet) that the other Japanese skaters have. She's clean though (other than her flip, and occasional URs). I think she has a shot at bronze, or even silver. at Rostelecom and the GPF would be great experience for her and create some buzz prior to Nationals and put pressure on others.

 

[yume]

someone has to be sacrificed unfortunately

With enough luck maybe none will be sacrificed.

Honestly, for me Japanese nats will be more exciting to watch than GPF this season.

 

[leoleo]

I think many will be tied. Scores will be important. Kaori's total score is good. Mako will have to be close to 70 and 140 to challenge Kaori (and possibly other skaters) if she gets bronze at her 2nd GP.
Personally i would love Mako to be the surprise of the season.

I think even silver is very much achievable for Mako. Sofia will be there too and i think she's her biggest competition. The rest of the girls, Polina unfortunately is not in her best shape right now sad21: ) Eunsoo has yet to skate a clean FS this season, Wakaba i imagine would withdraw (she should) but even if she competes there, she's not in a good shape. Idk if one of the others will just surprise us but Alina - Mako - Sofia is my predicted podium.

 

[rikaquegira]

I think many will be tied. Scores will be important. Kaori's total score is good. Mako will have to be close to 70 and 140 to challenge Kaori (and possibly other skaters) if she gets bronze at her 2nd GP.
Personally i would love Mako to be the surprise of the season.

Me too... if it wasn't for that dreadful SP music...

I don't want to hear that music anymore, one time is too many.

 

[yume]

I think even silver is very much achievable for Mako. Sofia will be there too and i think she's her biggest competition. The rest of the girls, Polina unfortunately is not in her best shape right now sad21: ) Eunsoo has yet to skate a clean FS this season, Wakaba i imagine would withdraw (she should) but even if she competes there, she's not in a good shape. Idk if one of the others will just surprise us but Alina - Mako - Sofia is my predicted podium.

Yes, Samodurova is consistent, but doesn't have a high potential scoring. Though the competition will be in Russia....
I would love Wakaba to medal just to put her name in the mix again before nats, but that's unlikely to happen.

 

[combinationspin]

What else could she do really?

Maybe she could do what Americans call “keeping it real”.
I do appreciate that Hamada always nods at the scores immediately as a a sign of acceptance. I have noticed that many Japanese skaters and their teams tend to do this (e. g. Mao, Yuzuru, Shoma...). But Hamada is really the only one I can think of who always goes all smiley and cheery after the nodding like she puts on a deliberate act. How the performance or the judging went doesn’t matter to her at all because she always does the same routine (e. g. after all of Marin’s programs last season while Marin was always frustrated). I think Yuna has chronical deeply rooted technical issues that won’t be easy to address, unfortunately. Luckily for her, she is not very tall so she can still rotate quite fast.

 

[ioanna]

Maybe she could do what Americans call “keeping it real”.
I do appreciate that Hamada always nods at the scores immediately as a a sign of acceptance. I have noticed that many Japanese skaters and their teams tend to do this (e. g. Mao, Yuzuru, Shoma...). But Hamada is really the only one I can think of who always goes all smiley and cheery after the nodding like she puts on a deliberate act. How the performance or the judging went doesn’t matter to her at all because she always does the same routine (e. g. after all of Marin’s programs last season while Marin was always frustrated). I think Yuna has chronical deeply rooted technical issues that won’t be easy to address, unfortunately. Luckily for her, she is not very tall so she can still rotate quite fast.

I wouldn't go as far as saying that. Just because she's not acting frustrated in the kiss & cry, doesn't mean the performance or judging didn't matter to her. Did any coach ever change anything if they "kept it real" in the kiss & cry?

 

[yume]

Maybe she could do what Americans call “keeping it real”.

I momentarily got a mental image of Ashley Wagner with Mie Hamada together in KnC. Ashley doing her Sochi face while Mie Hamada is smiling and nodding

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

I momentarily got a mental image of Ashley Wagner with Mie Hamada together in KnC. Ashley doing her Sochi face while Mie Hamada is smiling and nodding

Mie Hamada is the happy-go-lucky, positive reinforcement we all wish we had during our worst moments.

 

[ioanna]

From what I've heard so far, Mie Hamada is still a Rafael behind closed doors.

 

[RafaelAstro]

I just can't believe what the judges did to my poor baby Yuna Shiraiwa, its so frustrating that this girl is so overloked, she deserved a medal, she deserved another grand prix assigment to improve her score. See her smile after the score she received gave me tears, she is so cute and beautiful, I don't want to be rude but I would prefer to see Yuna at Rostelecom cup than Yura matsuda

 

[theharleyquinn]

From what I've heard so far, Mie Hamada is still a Rafael behind closed doors.

I'd pay to see Rafael at the rink based on what we see of him in the K&C during scores (and, based on my view at Skate Canada, after the next skater has started their program).

 

[RafaelAstro]

When we will know the score of the fabolous free program of Rika Kihira at the regional competition?

 

[cohkaix]

Order of the competitions in the final day of Western Sectional:
Jr ladies-Sr ladies-Sr men

Kihira will skate in 4th to the last group of ladies.

According to the schedule, it will be in about 5 hrs.

Adding: live results of Sr. ladies will be updated here when the competition starts: https://www.jsfresults.com/National/2018-2019/fs_j/west/data0205.htm

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

From what I've heard so far, Mie Hamada is still a Rafael behind closed doors.

One of my coaches was the opposite -- super fun and cheery during practices, and we'd train hard but still laugh a lot. And then come competition, she was stone-cold serious. But it kinda worked, because it helped me focus. Although, regardless of how I skated, she was nice and supportive and back to her happy-go-lucky self when I'd come off the ice. Competitions can be stressful, and sometimes a skater likes the relief of being done, and having a warm, happy coach (even when you've messed up) is a welcome sight in the KnC. I suppose it differs for every skater, but it seems that the Japanese ladies and coaches are usually always happy with a decent or lights out skate, and if it was a disaster, they're still usually smiling and show respect and support to each other, unlike other coach-skater relationships we see. Mie could silently be seething if her skater messed up or the judges got it wrong, but as many said, it doesn't help the situation, nor does it reflect well on the coach who is supposed to conduct themselves as professionals. Eteri is stone-faced and people criticize her for that, Mie is bubbly and happy and people criticize her for that. There's no winning, lol!

 

[cohkaix]

Now since the ladies' FS at Western sectionals has finished:

Rika's 3A from her SP (GOE 0.00): https://twitter.com/marin_channel/st...74274944286720
At least two ladies challenged two 3As in their FS: Rika Kihira and Ayaka Hosoda. Both landed two (with one 3A in combination).
Ayaka's in her FS: https://twitter.com/marin_channel/st...77418285727750

Protocol of FS (in Japanese, the 1st one is Rika's and the 2nd one Ayaka Hosoda's):https://www.jsfresults.com/National/2018-2019/fs_j/west/data0205.pdf

As for junior ladies', Kinayu Yokoi also attempted 3A, it seems she also landed the jump but it was with 0.00 GOE.

 

[yume]

I just can't believe what the judges did to my poor baby Yuna Shiraiwa, its so frustrating that this girl is so overloked, she deserved a medal, she deserved another grand prix assigment to improve her score. See her smile after the score she received gave me tears, she is so cute and beautiful, I don't want to be rude but I would prefer to see Yuna at Rostelecom cup than Yura matsuda

JSF has to send Yuna to another CS, so she will try to improve her SB and maybe get 2 GPs next season. Yura got 2 GPs thanks to her SB.
Marin have to score well at her 2nd GP, because so far her scores are not high and i don't know if JSF will give her another CS.

 

[leoleo]

"For the first time in the history, during the West Japan Sectional Senior Ladies, SIX 3A have been completed. The first two in the short program, the other four in the free skate (with positive GOE). Thanks to Rika Kihira and Ayaka" cr https://twitter.com/max_ambesi/status/1059009767241367554
Lmao Rika's case is so funny cause she nails the 3A like it's no big deal but then she struggles with the easier jumps. She missed a combo, since she only did a 2T on her 3A combo, she could have added a 3T later but i don't think she thought of it or was too nervous to go for it. She could have added it to the 3F.
She said she did not have to compete at Western Sectionals but she wanted to to build her confidence going into NHK
About her SP, she was happy to be 1st but 73 isn't enough, she's aiming for more than 75. That's easily achievable by the way since she missed a level on spin and step sequence and got 0 GOE for her 3A.

I hope this was a good experience for her, that it will help her calm her nerves a bit going into her first GP.

I'm surprised by how hard japanese judges are with their home events. They are a lot stricter than GP panels, they're literally out for blood