Thoughts on RD at Japanese Nats?

[gsk8]

Defending champions Komatsubara and Koleto lead in ice dance at Japanese Nationals

Two-time and defending champions Misato Komatsubara and Timothy Koleto took the lead in the Rhythm Dance on Saturday at the 2020-21 Japanese National

www.goldenskate.com

What are your thoughts on RD at this event?

 

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Earlier, Muramoto and Takahashi, who are competing in their second event of their first season, had an accident during practice in which their feet got caught and Muramoto went down. The team was concerned whether or not they would be able to deliver and Takahashi grew nervous.

“I panicked!” said Takahashi. “At least she was able to get up on her own, so that calmed me down a little bit.”

I'm wondering if I should me more concerned about Muramoto or Dice He's got a lot of ground to cover.

 

[gsk8]

Koleto was happy to be able to compete for the first time as a Japanese at this event. He is now known as Takeru Komatsubara.

 

[mikeko666]

Sorry for posting this late. Most of the video of this year's Japanese Nats have been either deleted or are now private. I only found Dai and Kana's one among RD.

All teams did good jobs.
Kana and Dai showed a lot of improvement since NHK Trophy despite of her injury. He looked more confident and himself.
I love Kiria and Aru's performance. They were very playful and knew how to sell the program. Their coach Rie Arikawa (who was Kenji Miyamoto's partner) said "That's low" when they saw the score, and apparently they were not happy about it.
Takeru tweeted later he vomited before RD because he was so nervous, but they gave a very confident and solid performance. I'm not sure if they will get level 4 on Finnstep at an international competition, though. This twitter post argued that it could be level 2 or 1. Does anyone have a thought?

 

[synesthesia]

Takeru tweeted later he vomited before RD because he was so nervous, but they gave a very confident and solid performance. I'm not sure if they will get level 4 on Finnstep at an international competition, though. This twitter post argued that it could be level 2 or 1. Does anyone have a thought?

Tim/Takeru could be heard saying in the K&C he didn't think he fulfilled the requirements for the second (his first) keypoint. This was extensively discussed in the Flutzes & Waxels podcast too (from around the 4 minute mark). However, that's not to harp on them. They were clearly the strongest team and would have easily run away with the title, even if their Finnstep had been awarded level 1 or 2.

Currently team KoKo are the benchmark for the rest of the Japanese ice dance field thanks to their experience and unison. But while they are the strongest team, I think Kana is the strongest all-around individual ice dancer and if Dai can catch up with regard to his weak points they can challenge them – Marina gave them a FD with the corresponding complexity; the components are already basically on par. Now if Utana and Shingo with upgraded senior level difficulty are added to the mix, Japan will have a truly competitive field, even though it doesn't look like they will move up before the season after next.

In any case I hope that the increasing competitiveness in ice dance will shine the long overdue spotlight on the discipline and that – should Worlds be held – Misato and Tim can improve on their previous placement. Snatching that 2nd id slot for team Japan seems like a long shot, but who knows – they might just do it! I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[mikeko666]

Tim/Takeru could be heard saying in the K&C he didn't think he fulfilled the requirements for the second (his first) keypoint. This was extensively discussed in the Flutzes & Waxels podcast too (from around the 4 minute mark). However, that's not to harp on them. They were clearly the strongest team and would have easily run away with the title, even if their Finnstep had been awarded level 1 or 2.

Currently team KoKo are the benchmark for the rest of the Japanese ice dance field thanks to their experience and unison. But while they are the strongest team, I think Kana is the strongest all-around individual ice dancer and if Dai can catch up with regard to his weak points they can challenge them – Marina gave them a FD with the corresponding complexity; the components are already basically on par. Now if Utana and Shingo with upgraded senior level difficulty are added to the mix, Japan will have a truly competitive field, even though it doesn't look like they will move up before the season after next.

In any case I hope that the increasing competitiveness in ice dance will shine the long overdue spotlight on the discipline and that – should Worlds be held – Misato and Tim can improve on their previous placement. Snatching that 2nd id slot for team Japan seems like a long shot, but who knows – they might just do it! I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

The hosts of Flutzes and Waxels seem to have little respect to or expectation from Kana and Dai (or specifically Dai) , as in their post on NHK Trophy (as if they claimed like they knew about ice dance more than Marina Zueva did). Utana and Shigo don't intend to move up to seniors next season as they have said their next season's objective is to medal in JGPS, so they won't unless JSF force them to. The federation shouldn't if they care about their long term career. Their lifts are still simple (only SlLi and RoLi) and presentation look juniorish. If they remain in juniors until Utana ages out, they can medal in JGPS and possibly at Junior Worlds. But I know there are people who want to see Utana and Shingo beat Misato and Tim just for their own entertainment.

 

[synesthesia]

The hosts of Flutzes and Waxels seem to have little respect to or expectation from Kana and Dai (or specifically Dai) , as in their post on NHK Trophy (as if they claimed like they knew about ice dance more than Marina Zueva did). Utana and Shigo don't intend to move up to seniors next season as they have said their next season's objective is to medal in JGPS, so they won't unless JSF force them to. The federation shouldn't if they care about their long term career. Their lifts are still simple (only SlLi and RoLi) and presentation look juniorish. If they remain in juniors until Utana ages out, they can medal in JGPS and possibly at Junior Worlds. But I know there are people who want to see Utana and Shingo beat Misato and Tim just for their own entertainment.

Yeah, they are quite outspoken. I disagree with them on several points in this episode in particular (and a few in their NHK recap). What I like about them is that they discuss more in depth than other English speaking fs podcasters. Unfortunately there aren't many to choose from – I'm no fan of TSL, to say the least, and IceTalk has become pretty superficial in terms of competition analyses since its recent overhaul. Dylan Moscovitch and Asher Hill are quickly becoming my favourites for their constructive criticism, but they haven't done a recap of JNats yet. I hope they will! I'd be grateful for other recommendations!

Back to F&W – I haven't listened to them enough to judge, if they are generally trying to be objective. I'm sure they have their favourites and bias as we all do. It sounds like they are fans of Utana and Shingo, which I can't fault them for. They are very promising and have the potential to go far in the context of what Japanese id teams have been able to achieve internationally up to this point. For now Utana's (and Shingo's?) ambition to make it to the JGPF next season is a realistic goal and a good way to gain experience, build up the complexity of their programs (I agree with you on their lifts; they don't do a SlLi though – I suppose you mean the curve lift?) and their reputation before turning senior.

The more teams with high ambitions, the better – it will help the entire field to gradually level up.

Sorry for kinda straying off-topic!

 

[mikeko666]

Yeah, they are quite outspoken. I disagree with them on several points in this episode in particular (and a few in their NHK recap). What I like about them is that they discuss more in depth than other English speaking fs podcasters. Unfortunately there aren't many to choose from – I'm no fan of TSL, to say the least, and IceTalk has become pretty superficial in terms of competition analyses since its recent overhaul. Dylan Moscovitch and Asher Hill are quickly becoming my favourites for their constructive criticism, but they haven't done a recap of JNats yet. I hope they will! I'd be grateful for other recommendations!

Back to F&W – I haven't listened to them enough to judge, if they are generally trying to be objective. I'm sure they have their favourites and bias as we all do. It sounds like they are fans of Utana and Shingo, which I can't fault them for. They are very promising and have the potential to go far in the context of what Japanese id teams have been able to achieve internationally up to this point. For now Utana's (and Shingo's?) ambition to make it to the JGPF next season is a realistic goal and a good way to gain experience, build up the complexity of their programs (I agree with you on their lifts; they don't do a SlLi though – I suppose you mean the curve lift?) and their reputation before turning senior.

The more teams with high ambitions, the better – it will help the entire field to gradually level up.

Sorry for kinda straying off-topic!

Sorry, Utana and Shingo's lifts are CuLi and RoLi.

I liked Dylan and Asher's review on NHK Trophy too. They are both former elite skaters and Asher must know how difficult Finnstep is.

In Japanese, I heard an interview article of Akiyuki Kido, who represented Japan at Turin WOG (he and Dai share the room at the Olympic village) and now works as a coach, by Asahi Newspaper was good, but you have to subscribe the newspaper to access it, so I haven't read it.