She does the two-footed salchow (instead of letting the free leg simply "sweep" the ice), which can come across as a variant of the 3Lo or 3T. Goebel got into a fuss over this. ISU counts it, though. Purists don't.
Huh? Mao's jumps have many problems, but this is not one of them. Her blade (free leg) barely brushes the ice on the take-off. Her 3S is similar to Michelle's or Joannie's.
3S @GPF 2008:
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/6725/mao3sgpf08.gif
3S in practice:
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/3048/mao3spractice.gif
I went back to rewatch Mao's LP from JO 2010 and NHK 2010 to see if maybe Mao changed something about her take-off, but it doesn't look as the technique was modified, which is perhaps why she managed not to fall or pop the jump in both competitions. (The camera angles in the actual competitons were not quite helpful, but the replays at CBC showed 3S in slowmo).
As for 3T - I don't think Mao has problems with this jjump (as a solo jump) anymore. She had it in her LP for the last two seasons in the second half and out of steps, and I think the only time she missed it was when she tripped on the steps leading into the jump (Olympics). She even did it in her exhibitions once or twice. It's not planned in her LP right now as a solo jump, because she wants to do it as the second part of a combination (and she landed it at JO, although it got downgraded).
I hope her overhaul process addresses the developing mule-kick. It's gotten worse.
I don't think it got "worse" - it's better than late in the 08-09 season where her free leg went nearly over her head.
And yes, she's working on fixing it. In the practice clips aired around Japan Open she was doing 3F/3Lz with no hammer toe and improved approach (she wasn't leaning so much to the inside on the take-off - an issue that makes it difficult to achieve an outside edge on 3Lz).
Here's a clip of her 3F in practice:
http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/3412/mao3fnag01slowmo.gif
The clip pauses at the moment the free leg is at its highest point (no hammer toe) and the take-off.
Mao mentioned that her jumps are 50% along - there are days when she can jump without problems, but there are days when she can't help reverting to the old technique. Sadly, at NHK she happened to have those bad days, but she said that she's "not falling to pieces", and that she had started reworking her jumps with the knowledge that it might take a season or two and will cause her jumps to be unstable at first.
Oh, and on a related note: Nobuo Sato mentioned that Mao will not withdraw from TEB. The competitions are a part of the learning process - Mao needs to learn to jump under the pressure of performing in front of the audience. Her practices are already fairly strong.
which is why I'm glad Mao's reworking her jumps. Once you hit rock bottom, the only place left to go is up. I'm sure Mao will emerge even stronger because of this difficult period. Kudos to her and Sato for making such a difficult decision.
