- Joined
- Mar 5, 2014
I also noticed that Mao's jumps were beautiful and powerful in the 2nd group warmup. But in the link to the interviews with Mao I have posted above, she clearly said that her timing felt off in the warmup and that she lacked consistency in daily practice to give her the proper mindset. Most importantly, Mao said that she had been very successful with her jumps practiced outside of runthoughs as in the warmup, but that she was more inconsistent when performing them within the context of her programs in practice. I think it was a combination of this and having flu like symptoms that together made it very difficult for Mao to perform up to her usual standard.
Flu causes both the body and mind to become fatigued easily; therefore, once Mao began the program I think she probably had more difficulty handling the stress in her weakened condition and had a lack of endurance.
Information about the effects of the flu: the flood of illness-related chemicals in someone's head disturbs mental performance, specifically alertness and reaction time and leads to problems with psychomotor functions, such as coordination, strength, speed, and balance.
I think the use of the word "flood" is important because it is the surge of adrenalin that comes at the beginning of a performance that would most likely set off the disturbances to psychomotor function such as lack of speed and balance, which would explain why Mao would suddenly not be able to perform the triple axel effectively in either program. Flu also creates a pessimistic state of mind, which is contrary to the confidence needed in a performance.
In my view, Coach Sato comes close to saying that Mao had something similar to the flu.
In addition to saying that Mao's physical condition was not good at NHK, Coach Sato also said that "skaters over 20 years old cannot recover from fatigue easily, and sometimes something inconvenient can come up gradually." Coach Sato handles talking about the physical side and Mao talks about her mental side.
Studies indicate that sudden fatigue is one of the earliest signs of the flu or that prolonged fatigue often leads to flu like systems. : possibly the "inconvenient something" that follows fatigue which Coach Sato mentioned.
Mao has never mentioned when she had physical problems, so this seems to be an indirect way of saying it. it just seemed obvious to me as it did to the CBC commentators, if you read their commentary above, that Mao was ill: pale face, sweating heavily, unsteady when she stood up at the end, losing some of her composure as when she sat back on the ice and shook her head with labored, unsteady movements when leaving the ice, finally the audible sigh in the Kiss & Cry. Mao definitely endured a difficult time, and performed admirably given the circumstances.
I honestly thought Mao shouldn't have skated when I saw poorly she must have felt, but then she wouldn't have qualified for Nationals.
I poured out a whole heap of sympathy for Mao after seeing her at the end of her LP. I hope she makes a rapid recovery and can, in her own words, get her jump elements as solid in runthroughs as they are in warmups where they are spectacular.
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