The followings are Mrs. Nagamitsu's comments right after NHK Trophy.
reminder: not 'fully-trustworthy' translation by deedee...as usual.
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-How do you see/evaluate this competition? Your thoughts?
"Still lots of issues we have to cope with. However, considering Takahashi's bad appearance at CoC due to his losing jumps, it was good for him to be able to adjust it to a certain degree in two weeks and had that result, it was a good competition overall to help us review for further developments/improvements, I think."
"As for his Free skate tonight...well, <laugh>...a long way to get through, I would say, but he got better a bit by bit at each official practices during NHK. So we would rather see it as a meaningful/fruitful process going into the Final."
-His condition is upswinging, isn't it?
"Yes. His physical condition's improving as the season deepens. The next step is to practice more quads, I mean, putting the 2nd quad into his program and he needs to get used to it by trying over and over again."
-About the changes made in his programs:
"We decided to go back to the original(ly-choreographed) ones, then put minor changes as needed. As for the order of jumps in his Free at NHK, especially in the second half, it was the same as the original. As I watched him skate this time, I personally felt relieved and trusting him more, so I think this jump layout will be better than the one at CoC."
-Been a while for us (= the media) to see both you and Mr. Morozov work as a team to instruct Takahashi.
"How many years was it since the last time? <everyone laughs
> I can not tell you exactly how many years, but it was when Daisuke skated to the Swan Lake, right? That season coincidentally he also competed at NHK Trophy in Sendai, and that was the last season we worked together...well, now Nikolai stands by my side at the board while Dai skating, and he gets into Dai's performance so much, <with jestures> by responding/reacting to every moves of Dai, you know. It is encouraging not for Daisuke but also for myself, because it makes me sort of feel half-worried and a bit more relaxed watching him skates, thanks to the presence of Nikolai."
-Both you and Mr. Morozov looked very pleased after Takahashi's Free, didn't you?
"Yes. Takahashi was in a very bad condition in jump-wise during CoC, actually. We were not so sure whether he could advance to the Final back then, so it was a big assignment for our team to 'qualify' to the Final as we went into NHK. He had a good enough showing here and made it to the Final. One achievement. Not the best result we had hoped for, but one good achievement."
-How do you see Takahashi this season so far?
"Going into the new season, he was in a very good condition; unlike his usual-self early in the past seasons, you know, so we all had a good feeling. However, his skating boots did not fit well just before COC and the result indicated he did poorly there, on the contrary.
We are in a very important pre-Olympic season. We had to admit something proper/necessary must have been missing somewhere. One more lesson for all of us to have to learn from this, in order for our team to prepare for this season's Worlds and for the Olympic season next year."
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(end)
Hope his skating boots problem has been fixed by now. Best of luck to Daisuke at the Final! :yay:
To buy it, or not to buy it, that is the question...
It's always a wonder and forever a mystery to me ('cause I don't skate myself) that how top-skaters can lean so deep and never lose their balance/control on the ice.
