State of Japanese Skaters 2014-2015

[malo42]

I'm looking forward to Shoma's senior debut. I'm hoping he'll be able to make an impact. I'm going to worlds next year so with only two spots I'd like to see them go to Shoma and Yuzuru. As for Sota I'd like to see him continue to progress next year. Since last year I've been impressed with his jumps and I figured it wouldn't be long before he had a full arsenal, honestly his 3A has taken a little longer than I thought it would so I hope during the summer he'll be able to cement that and also start working on quads for next season. I'd really like to see two Japanese champions at Jr Worlds next year even though it'll be hard.

 

[LRK]

I did add Petrov! I didn't have him originally cause he's mainly competed as a junior, but I added him at the end of the season.

Yay! (though his early season was better... sigh)

Sorry for being so OT - back to the Japanese skaters!

@Newbiespctator - Are you planning to do a post for ladies also? Not that I mean to rush you, just curious - I actually like to have something to look forward to; it's a long off-season after all. Oh, and I don't mean to make it sound as if I took your doing one for the ladies as well for granted! - only if you were planning to do so in any case of course! - just demanding more would be a fine way to thank you for all your work, indeed!

 

[Interspectator]

Yay! (though his early season was better... sigh)

Sorry for being so OT - back to the Japanese skaters!

@Newbiespctator - Are you planning to do a post for ladies also? Not that I mean to rush you, just curious - I actually like to have something to look forward to; it's a long off-season after all. Oh, and I don't mean to make it sound as if I took your doing one for the ladies as well for granted! - only if you were planning to do so in any case of course! - just demanding more would be a fine way to thank you for all your work, indeed!

I'm getting the data together today.

 

[LRK]

I'm getting the data together today.

Great! :thumbsup:

 

[Interspectator]

2014-2015 Season Bests for the top 10 Japanese Ladies (Satoko, Rika, Kanako, Wakaba, Yuka, Miyabi, Riona, Rin, Miyu )
If you find any discrepancies, please comment.

Total Segment Scores
193.60 Satoko Miyahara (WC)
185.57 Wakaba Higuchi (JWC)
184.58 Rika Hongo (WC)
179.66 Kanako Murakami (WC)
172.34 Yuka Nagai (JGPF)
168.38 Riyona Kato (NHK)
166.56 Mai Mihara (SGT Jr.)
166.25 Kaori Sakamoto (JWC)
160.64 Miyu Nakashio (JGP Tal)
159.58 Rin Niyata(25th GST)
----------
157.97 Haruka Imai (SA)
155.68 Miyabi Oba (19thCON)
EDIT: Added Mai and Kaori to this list. That drops Harkua and Miyabi off the top 10.

SP Total
67.02 Satoko (WC)
65.48 Kanako (WC)
62.99 Yuka (JGPF)
62.17 Rika (WC)
61.55 Riona (U.S.IFSC)
61.27 Wakaba (JW)
58.89 Rin (JGP Cour)
58.72 Kaori (Junior Worlds)
57.89 Miyu (TEB)
54.72 Haruka (TEB)
--------------------------
52.67 Mai (GST)
49.71 Miyabi (WU)

SP TES
37.19 Satoko (WC)
36.34 Yuka (JGPF)
35.86 Wakaba (WJC)
35.31 Kanako (WC)
34.87 Rin (AO FST)
34.69 Rika (WC)
33.12 Kaori (Junior Worlds)
33.07 Miyu (TriglavTrophy)
31.19 Mai (GST)
28.07 Riona (NHK)
-----------------------------
27.23 Myabi (WU)
27.14 Haruka (SA)

SP PCS
31.00 Kanako (NHK)
30.25 Satoko (WTT)
27.97 Rika (4CC)
27.65 Haruka (SA)
26.88 Riona (U.S.IFSC)
26.65 Wakaba (JGPF)
26.65 Yuka (JGPF)
25.60 Kaori (Junior Worlds)
24.78 Miyabi (COR)
24.91 Rin (JGP Tal)
---------------------------------
24.82 Miyu (Triglav Trophy)
22.48 Mai (GST)

FS Total
129.12 Satoko (WTT)
124.30 Wakaba (JWC)
122.41 Rika (WC)
117.51 Riona (NHK)
114.89 Mai (Gardena Spring Trophy)
114.18 Kanako (WC)
110.56 Rin (25th GST)
111.15 Yuka (4CC)
109.11 Miyabi (19thCON)
108.83 Miyu (JGP Tal)
----------------------------------
107.53 Kaori (Junior Worlds)
104.18 Haruka (SA)

FS TES
69.50 Wakaba (JWC)
68.02 Satoko (LomT)
65.24 Rin (25th GST)
64.70 Mai (GST)
63.75 Riona (NHK)
61.83 Rika (WC)
59.38 Yuka (4CC)
57.41 Kaori (Junior Worlds)
57.23 Miyabi (COR)
56.56 Miyu (JGP Tal)
---------------------------------
52.48 Kanako (WC)
51.53 Haruka (SA)

FS PCS
62.19 Satoko (WTT)
61.20 Kanako (NHK)
60.58 Rika (WC)
54.80 Wakaba (JWC)
54.22 Haruka (SA)
53.76 Riona (NHK)
53.03 Yuka (JGPF)
50.88 Miyabi (19thCON)
52.27 Miyu (JGP Tal)
51.12 Kaori (Junior Worlds)
-----------------------------------------
49.19 Mai (GST)
48.39 Rin (JGP Tal)

Season Summary: As with the men, 2 of the brightest stars of Japanese figure skating decided to retire at the end of the 2013-14 season; Miki and Akiko. Mao took the year off to consider her future plans. Without them, the field was wide open for the many up-and-coming junior skaters as well as for the remaining senior skaters like Kanako and Haruka.

Early Season Highlights:
Wakaba, Yuka and Miyu made it into the JGPF, qualifying behind 3 Russian competitors.
With a shocking win at COR that no one was expecting, Rika also made it into the Senior GPF when Gracie Gold withdrew due to injury.
Satoko began the season with a win at the Lombardia Trophy, and also collected two bronze medals at her GP assignments.

Mid Season Highlights:
Wakaba, still only 13 years old, won the bronze at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Barcelona. She then went on to win the bronze at Japan Nationals as well.
In December, Satoko became the National Champion of Japan and Rika Hongo continued to skate consistently and won the silver.

At the 4 Continents Championship, Satoko and Rika shared the podium yet again with Silver and Bronze medals respectively. Satoko was suffering from an ankle injury at that time.

Late Season Highlights:
At the World Championships, Satoko and Rika scored new over all personal bests and Satoko won the silver medal and Rika placed 6th in their first appearance at the World Championships. Kanako placed 7th. With these placements, the ladies retained 3 spots for Japan at the next World Championships.

At the World Team Trophy held in Tokyo, Satoko placed third in the Free Skate with a new personal best score of 129.12.

Looking at the scores for this past season, Satoko is the clear leader of the Senior ladies field. Just behind her, however, the scores are extremely close.
Rika was the surprise of the season with her consistency, but her TES and PCS needs to be raised if she wants to compete for the 'big' medals.
Who will go to seniors next year?
Who will you be looking forward to next season? Will Kanako be able to pull her TES to the level it was a few seasons back?
Wakaba seems determined to win everything in the Juniors next year...who will be her main rival?
Let's Discuss!

 

[ArcticMonkeys]

Good job Newbiespectator!

I think Mai Mihara and Kaori Sakamoto could also be in the season's best list. Mai scored 166.56 in the Gradena Spring Trophy (in Juniors) and Kaori's season's best is 166.25 (Junior Worlds).

Kaori Sakamoto
Best SP: 58.72 (Junior Worlds) Best TES: 33.12 (Junior Worlds) Best PCS: 25.60 (Junior Worlds)
Best FS: 107.53 (Junior Worlds) Best TES: 57.41 (Junior Worlds) Best PCS: 51.12 (Junior Worlds)

Mai Mihara
Best SP: 52.67 (Gardena Spring Trophy) Best TES: 31.19 (GST) Best PCS: 22.48 (GST)
Best FS: 114.89 (Gardena Spring Trophy) Best TES: 64.70 (GST) Best PCS: 49.19 (GST)

 

[Interspectator]

Good job Newbiespectator!

I think Mai Mihara and Kaori Sakamoto could also be in the season's best list. Mai scored 166.56 in the Gradena Spring Trophy (in Juniors) and Kaori's season's best is 166,25 (Junior Worlds).

Wow. So many juniors to keep track of! I'll add them to the list.

 

[matmuh]

thanks a lot Newbiespectator!
for the men, i just wish them a healthy season, one way or another most of them had injuries during the season :hopelessness:

satoko!! my tiny princess, i hope she will improve her jumps more and have 2 great programs once again, according to this article Tom Dickson will choreograph her new SP and Lori Nichol will choreograph her LP (it was the other way around this season right? lori did the SP and tom FP?? )

i am really interested in Riona Kato, she was amazing at NHK, not so good at SP but her FP was really good, and she has really good biellman! again i hope she will have better programs and she will improve her PCS and presentation and her lutz

and my dear Haruka, i really really love her, i hope she will get GP assignment(s), and show us that she has it

 

[Interspectator]

Good job Newbiespectator!

I think Mai Mihara and Kaori Sakamoto could also be in the season's best list. Mai scored 166.56 in the Gradena Spring Trophy (in Juniors) and Kaori's season's best is 166.25 (Junior Worlds).

Kaori Sakamoto
Best SP: 58.72 (Junior Worlds) Best TES: 33.12 (Junior Worlds) Best PCS: 25.60 (Junior Worlds)
Best FS: 107.53 (Junior Worlds) Best TES: 57.41 (Junior Worlds) Best PCS: 51.12 (Junior Worlds)

Mai Mihara
Best SP: 52.67 (Gardena Spring Trophy) Best TES: 31.19 (GST) Best PCS: 22.48 (GST)
Best FS: 114.89 (Gardena Spring Trophy) Best TES: 64.70 (GST) Best PCS: 49.19 (GST)

Thanks for these, I updated the list, and fixed some mistakes.
I feel for Kanako and Imai. Their TES is way at the bottom of the list for the FS. It's going to be tough for them to compete against the young girls coming up-- not that they aren't still quite young themselves.

 

[Interspectator]

I've done some Average Scores for the top 7 men. Why 7? Because the drop-off after 7 is so sharp and I didn't have the concentration for more than that. B-Competitions and National Championships are also included. -But not Sectionals. (JFS can again weep for the loss of Machida)

AVERAGE SCORES FOR the TOP 7 JAPANESE MEN

Average Overall Scores
267.005 Yuzuru Hanyu
241.392 Tatsuki Machida
236.592 Takahito Mura
232.488 Shoma Uno
225.204 Daisuke Murakami
221.208 Takahiko Kozuka
206.062 Sota Yamamoto

Average SP Scores
90.145 Hanyu
90.017 Machida
79.842 Mura
79.215 Uno
77.116 Murakami
75.384 Kozuka
68.868 Yamamoto

Average LP Scores
176.86 Hanyu
156.75 Mura
153.56 Uno
151.37 Machida
148.09 Murakami
145.82 Kozuka
137.19 Yamamoto

Some Notes on the Above Info
I made this so that it would be easier to compare Japan and US and Russian skaters better, and in hard numbers. -When someone says something like 'Kovtun is better than Murakami'....I can actually go and check the averages and see if this is the case. Could a member please collect the averages for Russian men? Pretty Please?
Right, so, personal Observations from the stats I collected.

Yuzu wins handily in the top scores and in the averages...as most surmised would be the case. -He skated a total of 6 competitions and his scores were best at GPF, Japan Nationals and WTT. This has been his pattern for the past 3 seasons. -A slow start, peaking and GPF and JN -catastrophic injury- battling through and keeping form somehow till the end of the season.

Machida's season also followed the trend of the 2 seasons before. A strong showing at the beginning of the season and faltering at the GPF...though we couldn't see if he could peak again at Worlds due to his retirement. He skated only 4 competitions this season. His SP average is only a hair below Yuzu's and he was certainly the most consistent skater in his SP...though again, only in 4 competitions.

Mura's Season was up and down and even looking at his previous seasons, no peaking pattern emerges. A plus for him was getting into GPF this year and recovering well for the WTT. The spread of his scores in the SP was not too big if we discount his epic bombing at WC, but the spread was a bit more for his LP. Mura skated in a total of 9 competitions this season.

Shoma has skated in over 8 competitions this year. His scores for the SP this season have a definite upward trend peaking at important competitions like GPF, JN, 4CC etc. His FS scores were a bit more spread out, peaking at GPF, JN, and 4CC. -A promising sign that Shoma can 'keep it together' when it counts.

Murakami showed some incredible improvement this season bettering his personal bests by a huge margin at NHK and again at 4CC. With the exception of Japan Nationals, his scores rose steadily and peaked at 4CC. He skated around 7 competitons this season.

Kozuka...there are no words. Really, I can't make any sense of why he'll do brilliantly once in a while, and the rest of the time he's bombing. Injury, lack of confidence, scholarly pursuits maybe. -But we still love to watch him.

Sota Mr. stability award goes to him this year. There have been no major bombings from Sota this year as he has gone about the task of getting a tirple axel and making it into the top 6 of Japanese men. His scores spread is the smallest amongst the guys because he is not yet attempting the quad and his triples have all been stable.
His scores peak at JGPF, Japan Natonals and Junior Worlds. --Hopefully the start of a good trend for him.
Sota has skated in over 8 competitions this year.

 

[silverfoxes]

Thank you for compiling that info, Newbiespectator. Yuzuru is clearly in a class of his own - just imagine his average if he hadn't been injured all season. Aside from him, though, I tend to think that the Japanese, American, & Russian men are all more or less around the same level...with vastly different strengths and weaknesses, of course - but just in terms of scoring potential & general consistency (or lack thereof ). Next season will be very interesting indeed.

 

[deedee1]

From the Reeds' blog, JSF seems to have had ice dance try-outs at CHukyo rink today and Chathy and Chris helped them with some demonstrations. http://ameblo.jp/reed-icedance-blog/entry-12019450637.html

I wonder if Haruka Imai has any interests in ice dance. She has pretty much good skating skills and still young. Considering the depth of ladies skaters in Japan, it might be a good option for her to switch to ice dance at this point. She can be a good match with Chris, not only height-wise and weight-wise (Chris has been struggling with knee injuries), but because of her lovely 'flowery' skating style, I think.

 

[Interspectator]

From the Reeds' blog, JSF seems to have had ice dance try-outs at CHukyo rink today and Chathy and Chris helped them with some demonstrations. http://ameblo.jp/reed-icedance-blog/entry-12019450637.html

I wonder if Haruka Imai has any interests in ice dance. She has pretty much good skating skills and still young. Considering the depth of ladies skaters in Japan, it might be a good option for her to switch to ice dance at this point. She can be a good match with Chris, not only height-wise and weight-wise (Chris has been struggling with knee injuries), but because of her lovely 'flowery' skating style, I think.

I think that's a wonderful idea! Imai has some long-standing injuries of her own too. What if they both took the year off to rest and begin training together. -One can dream.

 

[deedee1]

omg. Omg. OMG. Is it true Charlie is going to choreograph a competitive program for Takahito Mura next season? Can someone please confirm this wonderful info, pretty please!

 

[matmuh]

omg. Omg. OMG. Is it true Charlie is going to choreograph a competitive program for Takahito Mura next season? Can someone please confirm this wonderful info, pretty please!

yup, shared the article in previous page

Japan’s Takahito Mura plans to work with two new choreographers next season. Charlie White has signed on to craft a new short program and Jeffrey Buttle will design the free program.

 

[deedee1]

thanks a million, matmuh!!!

Japan’s Takahito Mura plans to work with two new choreographers next season. Charlie White has signed on to craft a new short program and Jeffrey Buttle will design the free program.

And Jeff? really?! i am over the moon!

 

[matmuh]

thanks a million, matmuh!!!



And Jeff? really?! i am over the moon!

me too! after reading that jeff is gonna make exibition number for satoko

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Jeff and Charlie choreo'ing Mura's programs... that should be awesome. I've always thought Mura has the goods to skate beautifully but never had the right programs to do so. Good news!

 

[blue_ice]

Can't wait to see Mura's new program

 

[chloepoco]

Has Charlie White ever done any choreography for other single skaters?