Rika Kihira

[Lunalovesskating]

Well as she trained those in the video at Colorado with altitude they probably will look much better on ground.

 

[rikaquegira]

Well as she trained those in the video at Colorado with altitude they probably will look much better on ground.

I’m sure it will get better with time, no doubt about that. Rika would never settle for those imperfect quads. She has the whole quadrennial to dominate the technique for the 4T and 4S. Focus on Beijing.

 

[leoleo]

I'm pretty surprised by some of the comments here, considering the usual suspects aren't even here yet Her toe jumps are fine. Lutz and Flip have good toepick and edge and the toeloop is clearly a toepick assisted jump, she doesn’t use the full blade to vault up. Can someone please enlighten me about where exactly it is you see the excessive prerotation on her 4T? Idk i seem to have missed that. The level of PR seems totally fine tbh but...well...the quads are underrotated, but let’s not spread lies about her technique at least...

Let's remember that she said she'd "like to have a quad ready for next season" and "she's working on getting them better". She's neither rushing to add them to her layout just yet nor did she say they're already perfect so let's calm down. We'll see what they look like when they're ready and if next season she starts landing quads with terrible technique and getting positive GOEs for that, then we can get mad!

 

[lzxnl]

I’m sure it will get better with time, no doubt about that. Rika would never settle for those imperfect quads. She has the whole quadrennial to dominate the technique for the 4T and 4S. Focus on Beijing.

The main issue for Rika is the height. She simply does not quite have enough height for a comfortable 4T or 4S right now, unfortunately, and I reckon Hamada is going to make her work on this in the off-season. She's certainly made progress on jump height though; I compared some of her 3S attempts at the start of the season in her Fantasy on Ice performances, and they were so much lower than what she does now, so I have hope that she'll get the height sorted out pretty quickly. Plus, she has about another two months until Worlds gala to show us a quad, right?

 

[lzxnl]

I'm pretty surprised by some of the comments here, considering the usual suspects aren't even here yet Her toe jumps are fine. Lutz and Flip have good toepick and edge and the toeloop is clearly a toepick assisted jump, she doesn’t use the full blade to vault up. Can someone please enlighten me about where exactly it is you see the excessive prerotation on her 4T? Idk i seem to have missed that. The level of PR seems totally fine tbh but...well...the quads are underrotated, but let’s not spread lies about her technique at least...

Let's remember that she said she'd "like to have a quad ready for next season" and "she's working on getting them better". She's neither rushing to add them to her layout just yet nor did she say they're already perfect so let's calm down. We'll see what they look like when they're ready and if next season she starts landing quads with terrible technique and getting positive GOEs for that, then we can get mad!

If you slow the video down enough, you see that Rika turns her body and jumps forwards, exactly what a triple toe axel would be, and exactly what people criticise Sasha's 4T for. We're all hoping that Hamada notices this issue and fixes it before competition.

If you look at Rika's 3T in general, it actually has a similar issue with prerotation. Her GPF 3F-3T, upon slow motion, was actually severely UR. Her 3F was fine; clearly in the air by a half turn, but her 3T is problematic in that her toepick stays on the ice for almost a full turn before leaving the ice. The 3T is a little variable in that her NHK 3T was better; only half turn prerotated. Indeed, the fact that she's gone from prerotating almost a full turn to only half a turn on the 4T is progress to me.

Her 3Lz, now that I look at it, is marginally ok in that she's also clearly in the air by a half turn, but her toepick is still on the ice at a quarter turn.

 

[leoleo]

do you know what jumping FORWARDS means? forwards? that makes no sense. You're just making stuff up here aren't you? Sasha's 4T has always been her better quad to me, only her 4Lz has ever been problematic in my opinion.

I have no gif of Rika's 4T footage yet (hopefully someone will gif that soon) but you used Sasha's 4T as an example saying Rika's technique is similar and as problematic so i'm posting a gif of Sasha's 4T here, please tell me how this is a forward takeoff, i must have lost my sight during the night because that is not what i'm seeing here https://66.media.tumblr.com/673272b830e47404c7052221d04c90f1/tumblr_inline_p764pbDeM81sax4ax_540.gif

 

[Shanshani]

I mean, it’s not as though Rika’s technique is worse than other quad-landing ladies (and some men *cough*). The quads are still a work in progress. I’m sure they’ll get better as she learns to jump higher.

 

[MarinHondas]

Toe loop always takes off almost forwards. Impossible not to. Rika has nice technique on both jumps....

 

[rikaquegira]

I'm pretty surprised by some of the comments here, considering the usual suspects aren't even here yet Her toe jumps are fine. Lutz and Flip have good toepick and edge and the toeloop is clearly a toepick assisted jump, she doesn’t use the full blade to vault up. Can someone please enlighten me about where exactly it is you see the excessive prerotation on her 4T? Idk i seem to have missed that. The level of PR seems totally fine tbh but...well...the quads are underrotated, but let’s not spread lies about her technique at least...

Let's remember that she said she'd "like to have a quad ready for next season" and "she's working on getting them better". She's neither rushing to add them to her layout just yet nor did she say they're already perfect so let's calm down. We'll see what they look like when they're ready and if next season she starts landing quads with terrible technique and getting positive GOEs for that, then we can get mad!

Hey @leoleo! Long time no see!

If you slow down the video to 0.5 speed you’ll see she does about a half a turn on the toe pick, that to me is excessive. But what worried me more is how she’s using her upper body to get into rotating the jump.

I agree her toepick technique is fine, I have share my thoughts on it here more than once. Basically, Rika tends to have very good technique on her solo toe jumps(flip and lutz) but when it’s the second jump of a combination(like in her 3A3T or 3F3T) she tends to rely on pre-rotation more to get the jump done. Nonetheless, it’s still pretty good. Is it perfect? No. But it’s good enough.

Now, looking at her 4T, I have to say her toepicking is just not good, it does not look like a “full blade” kind of technique though.
Of course it’s difficult to analyse it because the quality of the video is poor.

Anyway, I’m sure she’ll keep working on it and by the next time we see it it will look much better.

I also think training both 4S and 4T will help with her height and distance on those triples so I’m excited to see if there’ll be any difference already by the time of 4CC and later at Worlds.

 

[Logirl]

Confused

The main issue for Rika is the height. She simply does not quite have enough height for a comfortable 4T or 4S right now, unfortunately, and I reckon Hamada is going to make her work on this in the off-season. She's certainly made progress on jump height though; I compared some of her 3S attempts at the start of the season in her Fantasy on Ice performances, and they were so much lower than what she does now, so I have hope that she'll get the height sorted out pretty quickly. Plus, she has about another two months until Worlds gala to show us a quad, right?

Doug Haw says there is no difference in the height of a triple and a quad. He said you do not change the height. He also says every jump has prerotation and when you say it you need to distinguish as to feet or shoulders. Also he says shoulders is due to not controlling the head and that does not make the jump easier it makes it more difficult.

 

[doublequad]

Hey @leoleo! Long time no see!

If you slow down the video to 0.5 speed you’ll see she does about a half a turn on the toe pick, that to me is excessive. But what worried me more is how she’s using her upper body to get into rotating the jump.

I agree her toepick technique is fine, I have share my thoughts on it here more than once. Basically, Rika tends to have very good technique on her solo toe jumps(flip and lutz) but when it’s the second jump of a combination(like in her 3A3T or 3F3T) she tends to rely on pre-rotation more to get the jump done. Nonetheless, it’s still pretty good. Is it perfect? No. But it’s good enough.

Now, looking at her 4T, I have to say her toepicking is just not good, it does not look like a “full blade” kind of technique though.
Of course it’s difficult to analyse it because the quality of the video is poor.

Anyway, I’m sure she’ll keep working on it and by the next time we see it it will look much better.

I also think training both 4S and 4T will help with her height and distance on those triples so I’m excited to see if there’ll be any difference already by the time of 4CC and later at Worlds.

prerotation is supposed to be 180 degrees on toeloop. looks like more than that in that clip however
fullblade is not something that the isu addresses (on paper maybe but definitely not in reality)

 

[lzxnl]

do you know what jumping FORWARDS means? forwards? that makes no sense. You're just making stuff up here aren't you? Sasha's 4T has always been her better quad to me, only her 4Lz has ever been problematic in my opinion.

I have no gif of Rika's 4T footage yet (hopefully someone will gif that soon) but you used Sasha's 4T as an example saying Rika's technique is similar and as problematic so i'm posting a gif of Sasha's 4T here, please tell me how this is a forward takeoff, i must have lost my sight during the night because that is not what i'm seeing here https://66.media.tumblr.com/673272b830e47404c7052221d04c90f1/tumblr_inline_p764pbDeM81sax4ax_540.gif

I know what I'm saying. If you slow down a video of Sasha at JWC 2018, you'll see that her 4T takes off forwards, or that she's facing forwards before her toe gets off the ice. It's pretty hard to see in real time, which is why it's not deducted. As rikaquegira summarises, Rika's first jumps are generally ok, but the toe jump second has been prerotated quite some bit too. Look at her GPF SP 3F+3T, sloe it down and see when her foot leaves the ice for the 3T.

Doug Haw says there is no difference in the height of a triple and a quad. He said you do not change the height. He also says every jump has prerotation and when you say it you need to distinguish as to feet or shoulders. Also he says shoulders is due to not controlling the head and that does not make the jump easier it makes it more difficult.

Sure, every jump is prerotated. Nathan and Boyang have the best 4Lz in the world and that's prerotated by 90 degrees or less. That's still miles better than the current norm. Yuzuru and Yuna are/were capable of jumping toe loops with a similar amount of prerotation and they never seemed like relying on their upper body in their jumps. That's what we're hoping from Rika.

Making a jump harder does not make it commendable. It's still the wrong technique that should be fixed.

As for quads not needing more height, you can definitely do them with the same height as a triple, but your margin for error decreases dramatically. It becomes so easy to UR a low jump. Rika's triples were not known for being very high to begin with, except her 3A. More height on her triples and quads would only be beneficial.

Toe loop always takes off almost forwards. Impossible not to. Rika has nice technique on both jumps....

2018 GPF SP 3F+3T, she jumps the 3T after almost a full revolution of prerotation. She can do better than that.
Yuzuru and Yuna (I haven't scrutinised Nathan's toe loops yet) are known for having sideways takeoffs for their toe loops and the result is beautiful.

 

[malya]

It's amazing how Rika is working on upping her BV during the season already when she has the most complex elements already.

What's with the negative attitude about the quads? Even if they do not work out next season, she has 3 freaking 3A!! I've also seen videos of her jumping -3Lo combinations too, so I doubt she has anything to worry about even if she does not suceed with the quads

From the videos, I could see her get that 4T!

(Considering where she went to train them: just please, please don't put cronically UR quads into your programs... She does not need them to compete for gold! )

Doug Haw says there is no difference in the height of a triple and a quad. He said you do not change the height. He also says every jump has prerotation and when you say it you need to distinguish as to feet or shoulders. Also he says shoulders is due to not controlling the head and that does not make the jump easier it makes it more difficult.

Sorry, but this is plain wrong. Watch the russian quad girls jump quads vs triples - you can see them jump both 3/4 Lz and T in their FS for comparison. I'm not sure how accurate it is but a fan tried to 'measure' their jump heights to compare and they got about 20 cm difference... You can see it's a different level quad vs triples, that's for sure.

 

[lzxnl]

It's amazing how Rika is working on upping her BV during the season already when she has the most complex elements already.

What's with the negative attitude about the quads? Even if they do not work out next season, she has 3 freaking 3A!! I've also seen videos of her jumping -3Lo combinations too, so I doubt she has anything to worry about even if she does not suceed with the quads

From the videos, I could see her get that 4T!

(Considering where she went to train them: just please, please don't put cronically UR quads into your programs... She does not need them to compete for gold! )



Sorry, but this is plain wrong. Watch the russian quad girls jump quads vs triples - you can see them jump both 3/4 Lz and T in their FS for comparison. I'm not sure how accurate it is but a fan tried to 'measure' their jump heights to compare and they got about 20 cm difference... You can see it's a different level quad vs triples, that's for sure.

I don't think it's s negative attitude as such. We know Rika can do better and are highlighting how possible improvements could be made, like as you said, jumping higher, or not prerotating as much. We all admire Rika for her willingness to push herself technically and we want to see those technical advances done safely, properly and sustainably.

 

[lusterfan]

Although criticism should be accepted and not completely shut down, from the way the comments sound, it seems like she's competing the quads tomorrow or something. We should remember that it's still very early. She's not adding the quads this season, so she will eventually have time to focus on the quads -- not now. It will be worrisome if she makes no effort to change some issues you all have pointed out though, so hopefully she and her coach don't overlook them!

 

[Xen]

This is truly amusing. How do you manage to toe-axel a 3A while Pre-rotating 180 degrees without face-planting onto the ice?

In general, many females do rely on tucking into rotation faster to get the 3A, but this is pre-rotation of the upper body being slightly ahead of the legs/feet. And you need slow-mo to spot it, normal speed it's not visible. However, that usually does not mean PR of the feet. Rika so far, is pretty good on her jump technique.

(on another note, are people that scared she's a threat to Russian ladies dominance that they really have to go down the road of accusing her 3A of stuff that does not exist?)

 

[chopinskate]

I'm excited she's going for quads next season. Give them all a run for their money, and maybe be the first senior woman to land a quad. Stay healthy Rika!

 

[lzxnl]

This is truly amusing. How do you manage to toe-axel a 3A while Pre-rotating 180 degrees without face-planting onto the ice?

In general, many females do rely on tucking into rotation faster to get the 3A, but this is pre-rotation of the upper body being slightly ahead of the legs/feet. And you need slow-mo to spot it, normal speed it's not visible. However, that usually does not mean PR of the feet. Rika so far, is pretty good on her jump technique.

(on another note, are people that scared she's a threat to Russian ladies dominance that they really have to go down the road of accusing her 3A of stuff that does not exist?)

I haven't seen comments of people accusing her of toe-axeling a 3A. I don't know if that's even possible or what that even means. What I refer to as a toe-axel is when she goes for a 3/4T, prerotates to face forwards and takes off then. The takeoff is off the left toe pick facing forwards, which is essentially an axel. Rika's 3A is fine from my perspective.

 

[Xen]

If by that standard, then almost all the female single skaters are toe-axeling. A toe-loop you should be going off your bottom toe-pick, not the blade. As for PR, checking multiple times, she's well within 180 per the rules of ISU (she's actually well under 150) when her blade leaves. And there are plenty of ladies who PR more than her on a 3T.

As for toe-axeling, her body and torso/hips are pretty square throughout, she doesn't take off with her entire weight going forwards (which is the toe-axel). So I'm not sure how you are spotting toe-axels, or if somehow the definition of a toe-axel has changed.

 

[chopinskate]

So I'm not sure how you are spotting toe-axels, or if somehow the definition of a toe-axel has changed.

Based off a certain YT channel, it has. I would ignore anyone who says any woman currently has a toe axel. No relevant competitor has done a toe axel since Mao in her junior days.