Skaters on Team Japan | Page 3 | Golden Skate

Skaters on Team Japan

Thanks for the lovely Team Japan links!

My two cents on Marin. I watched a couple of videos and her jumps look solid and most of all, she looks comfortable and at ease. I'll be an old grandma by then but I can't wait for her to turn senior. She's only 12 with a lot of potential. Of course, there is always the puberty monster... can anyone explain to me as to why girls tend to lose their jumps after filling out? I would think with more mass meant more energy and muscle but it seems not to be the case here.
 
lbc2138 said:
Of course, there is always the puberty monster... can anyone explain to me as to why girls tend to lose their jumps after filling out? I would think with more mass meant more energy and muscle but it seems not to be the case here.
Click to expand...
I'm not an expert and I hope somebody who actually knows this stuff will give you a better answer, but basically filling out tends to affect your rotational speed in air as well as your centre of gravity.

Not only you get more muscle mass, but increased oestrogen production basically means more body fat (eg. boobs, although of course individual variation is great: many girls/women are naturally flat-chested, and in general, sex&growth hormone levels and their effect on bone maturation&growth and skeletal structures and the formation&distribution of muscle&fat tissue and so on varies a lot from individual to individual). When you get more body mass and its distribution pattern changes, that's going to affect you when your sport deals with things like gravity and mass moment of inertia of a rotating object etc.

Think about those skinny little girls who get only little height in their jumps, but because they are able to rotate fast, they can land their triples consistently and without UR. If puberty and accompanying changes in body shape result in changes in skater's biomechanics, that may make it impossible to execute the jumps succesfully using the old technique that worked for their "old" body. Since the way you used to do things isn' t working for your body any more, you have to adjust your technique. Having the muscle power isn't enough, it's a long and difficult process to retrain your muscle memory: you've taught your body to do things in a certain way, now you have to go against your "instincts" in trying to get your body do things in a new and unfamiliar way. That results in technical instability and a lot of splats, and possibly injuries that make things even more difficult.

(I hope I got things more or less right...)
 
nimi said:
I'm not an expert and I hope somebody who actually knows this stuff will give you a better answer, but basically filling out tends to affect your rotational speed in air as well as your centre of gravity.

Not only you get more muscle mass, but increased oestrogen production basically means more body fat (eg. boobs, although of course individual variation is great: many girls/women are naturally flat-chested, and in general, sex&growth hormone levels and their effect on bone maturation&growth and skeletal structures and the formation&distribution of muscle&fat tissue and so on varies a lot from individual to individual). When you get more body mass and its distribution pattern changes, that's going to affect you when your sport deals with things like gravity and mass moment of inertia of a rotating object etc.

Think about those skinny little girls who get only little height in their jumps, but because they are able to rotate fast, they can land their triples consistently and without UR. If puberty and accompanying changes in body shape result in changes in skater's biomechanics, that may make it impossible to execute the jumps succesfully using the old technique that worked for their "old" body. Since the way you used to do things isn' t working for your body any more, you have to adjust your technique. Having the muscle power isn't enough, it's a long and difficult process to retrain your muscle memory: you've taught your body to do things in a certain way, now you have to go against your "instincts" in trying to get your body do things in a new and unfamiliar way. That results in technical instability and a lot of splats, and possibly injuries that make things even more difficult.

(I hope I got things more or less right...)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the answer! Sounds about right. Thought it does seem to affect female skaters more so than male skaters (so not faiiir). I was just curious because as a former pole vaulter, putting on weight/muscle was a good thing even though we had to go flying through the air, but I guess that involved more of the mechanics in the pole as well as speed and power rather than rotation in the body.

I guess puberty is only more obvious when you start the sport before going through it as opposed to after... let's hope for a good shift in skaters for Japan in the upcoming years and for Pyeongchang. :)
 
lbc2138 said:
Thanks for the answer! Sounds about right. Thought it does seem to affect female skaters more so than male skaters (so not faiiir). I was just curious because as a former pole vaulter, putting on weight/muscle was a good thing even though we had to go flying through the air, but I guess that involved more of the mechanics in the pole as well as speed and power rather than rotation in the body.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I guess pole vaulters don't have to deal with rotation, at least not the same kind quick rotation around the axis of their body. Also, aren't most top level pole vaulters fairly tall? At least TV commentators often describe Lavillenie as pretty short for his sport (1.76 m according to Wikipedia, so around the same height as Lambiel and many other not-that-short male skaters). The mechanics of those two sports just seem to favor different body types, although there is some overlap, and things like coordination and core strength play an important part in both. Aside from rotational ability, skating favors a relatively low centre of gravity to keep you stable while you're balancing on thin blades on slippery ice landing jumps and doing complicated choreo - ahh, that made me think of Dai's gorgeous step seqs :love: and Oda's wonderfully bendy knees... Whereas with pole vault you're supposed to shift your centre of gravity vertically as high as possible in order not to drop that bar, right? So I presume long, strong arms are an advantage, and long arms tend to come with long legs.

Disclaimer: I've never felt any inclination doing anything partcularly athletic&acrobatic, especially if it involves heights, so my insights to pole vaulting and big triple jumps come from a long experience as a couch potato. :p
 
nimi said:
Yeah, I guess pole vaulters don't have to deal with rotation, at least not the same kind quick rotation around the axis of their body. Also, aren't most top level pole vaulters fairly tall? At least TV commentators often describe Lavillenie as pretty short for his sport (1.76 m according to Wikipedia, so around the same height as Lambiel and many other not-that-short male skaters). The mechanics of those two sports just seem to favor different body types, although there is some overlap, and things like coordination and core strength play an important part in both. Aside from rotational ability, skating favors a relatively low centre of gravity to keep you stable while you're balancing on thin blades on slippery ice landing jumps and doing complicated choreo - ahh, that made me think of Dai's gorgeous step seqs :love: and Oda's wonderfully bendy knees... Whereas with pole vault you're supposed to shift your centre of gravity vertically as high as possible in order not to drop that bar, right? So I presume long, strong arms are an advantage, and long arms tend to come with long legs.

Disclaimer: I've never felt any inclination doing anything partcularly athletic&acrobatic, especially if it involves heights, so my insights to pole vaulting and big triple jumps come from a long experience as a couch potato. :p
Click to expand...

You definitely know more than most people I've talked to when I mention the sport!

Body type does play very crucially in sports as fickle as figure skating where the smaller/leaner is better when it comes to getting those rotations in...

And you're right about the low center of gravity. I think there was an article floating in the Yuzuru fanfest where Brian Orser was approached and asked why the best figure skaters are seemingly of Asian descent and he said something about low center of mass and small hips, which could credit to the general successes of Dai, Oda and the others :)
 
lbc2138 said:
And you're right about the low center of gravity. I think there was an article floating in the Yuzuru fanfest where Brian Orser was approached and asked why the best figure skaters are seemingly of Asian descent and he said something about low center of mass and small hips, which could credit to the general successes of Dai, Oda and the others :)
Click to expand...
Plushy has smaller hip than Yagudin, he is also leaner. Maybe that is the reason Plushy was a better jumper than Yagudin? :biggrin: Timothy Goebel, who was a good jumper, also has small hip. ;)
Then I hope Yuzuru will develop into a better jumper and even more consistent than Plushy!! Go Yuzuru!:yay:

Anyways, Midori Ito is not thin at all, her hip is not small, yet she ws an excellent jumper, except for the leg wrap. Tonya Harding also has the same built as Midori Ito, they were both very good at 3A. So I guess it's different with ladies.:biggrin:
 
From magical eggplant with wings Tumblr blog:

"Dai, Nobu & Tatsuki Q&A from the Kansai Univ. honor ceremony

I’m retranslating this from a Chinese fan blog; sorry if there are any mistakes! Thanks to the original translator~

Q: If you weren’t a skater, what job would you want to have?
Dai: Architect, makeup artist, dancer, lots of other things…
Nobu: Civil servant. Because it’s stable.
Tatsuki: A doctor.

Q: What you want right now is…?
Nobu: A house, for my family…
Tatsuki: [Academic] credits. This month was really busy, sometimes I had to take a plane from Tokyo to go to school.
Dai: A [romantic] partner, I haven’t had one for years…sleeping alone at night is so lonely.

Q: Favorite song?
Dai: ONE OK ROCK, TVXQ. I like gloomy songs.
Nobu: Yesterday I went to see a Fukuyama Masaharu concert. At karaoke I often sing Remioromen and Ketsumeishi.

Q: How will you spend the holidays?
Nobu: See movies with my family.
Tatsuki: Don’t want to see people during the holidays, I’ll mostly stay home.
Dai: I don’t like staying home during the holidays, I’ll probably hang around in Umeda. Or Chayamachi or Grand Front.

Q: What animal would you compare yourself to?
Nobu: A monkey or gorilla.
Tatsuki: A cat.
Dai: People always say I’m like a dog, I don’t know why. Maybe because I can never stop moving.
Nobu: So cute~
Dai: Thanks (lol)

Do you like any of the school’s cafeteria food?
Tatsuki: (with a very serious expression) Regarding the cafeteria, I’d like to suggest something. Because I’m not the same age as the other students, I always study and eat alone and go home alone. But the cafeteria only has tables with 4-5 seats, it’s hard for students to sit alone. I’d like for there to be some tables for one person."

http://magicaleggplant.tumblr.com/post/83548433807/dai-nobu-tatsuki-q-a-from-the-kansai-univ-honor

Oh Tatsuki, why so seemingly self-sufficient? His holidays comment is Garbo esque!

Now I understand the reason behind the simian pose of Nobunari with Kanako.

As for Daisuke, methinks he'll soon need a screening committee for women applying to be his partner.
 
Maria Victoria said:
Q: Favorite song?
Dai: ONE OK ROCK, TVXQ. I like gloomy songs.
Nobu: Yesterday I went to see a Fukuyama Masaharu concert. At karaoke I often sing Remioromen and Ketsumeishi.
Click to expand...
Maria Victoria thank you for translation! I love Dai's and Nobu's choice of music :D I'm a die hard fan of ONE OK ROCK and I like TVXQ (didn't expect Dai to listen to k-pop xD) and I really appreciate songs of Remioromen.
 
^^ @MariaVictoria re: Tatsuki
Awww...But being a bit of a hermit must be an advantage if you're an elite skater who is also a serious student. As a bit of a hermit myself, the cafeteria proposal made me chuckle. "It's hard for students to sit alone... and that really needs to be addressed. Against enforced socializing! " *shakes fist*

re: Dai &Nobu
my thoughts exactly!
 
@nimi: I agree that being a bit of a hermit helps an elite skater. (In another thread, Mao was described as "monk like" and Yuzuru has admitted having practically a non existent social life in Toronto;).) Anyway I'm really glad that Tatsuki is part of Team Japan. If nothing else, his more exuberant teammates can draw him out of his shell. :)

@Poice and Pamina: Translation is by ms. eggplant :)
 
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