What Mao needs in order to be competitive with Yuna
- Thread starter ks777
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2003
She already is competitive with Yu-Na.
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2007
I doubt that Mao and Yu-na deal will excite the same kind of interest that the Brians did back in 80's.
I don't know about US, but in Canada, it wasn't just Brian Orser that made figure skating worth watching. Liz Manley's comeback was such a big deal, too.
IMO, the reason that the rivalry of Mao and Yu-na is not bringing the fans back in North America is partly because they are neither Canadian or American. The battle of Brians drew the interest of North American followers, however, probably it went under the raider in the rest of the worlds. I grew up in South Korea back in 1980's, and didn't recall figure skating aired on TV. Then a decade later, with the rise of Yu-na, we see a truck load of Korean fans frequenting Internet forums like Golden skates.
Canadians aren't any different than Koreans in the sense that they will turn on TV to watch figure skating when they see a big name from the Great White North dominating the competitions again. The latest must have been Elvis Stojko. And we are still waiting for our next Mr. Godot.
Lack of TV coverage also contributes to the near death of interest in figure skating.
I don't know about US, but in Canada, it wasn't just Brian Orser that made figure skating worth watching. Liz Manley's comeback was such a big deal, too.
IMO, the reason that the rivalry of Mao and Yu-na is not bringing the fans back in North America is partly because they are neither Canadian or American. The battle of Brians drew the interest of North American followers, however, probably it went under the raider in the rest of the worlds. I grew up in South Korea back in 1980's, and didn't recall figure skating aired on TV. Then a decade later, with the rise of Yu-na, we see a truck load of Korean fans frequenting Internet forums like Golden skates.
Canadians aren't any different than Koreans in the sense that they will turn on TV to watch figure skating when they see a big name from the Great White North dominating the competitions again. The latest must have been Elvis Stojko. And we are still waiting for our next Mr. Godot.
Lack of TV coverage also contributes to the near death of interest in figure skating.
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2007
What does Mao need to do?
*Skate with more emotion.
This is probably going to be the hardest for her because it's something you mostly either have or you don't and she may not have it.
On the technical side:
*Keep working on her toeloop technique. The 3Flip/3Toe she did at GPF would have been downgraded by a real caller.
*Replace the 3Flutz in the SP with a 3Axel.
*Skate with more emotion.
This is probably going to be the hardest for her because it's something you mostly either have or you don't and she may not have it.
On the technical side:
*Keep working on her toeloop technique. The 3Flip/3Toe she did at GPF would have been downgraded by a real caller.
*Replace the 3Flutz in the SP with a 3Axel.
She has it. If you can see her gala performances, it's there with a superb quality.
I also enjoyed her elegant expressions in her LP performance at Canada in which she had great connectedness with music. But she seems to have been too nervous to do so in her GPF performances.
Besides, Mao's style is more to do with the understated elegance. Although I prefer such style very much, people who prefer dramatic performances may not appreciate it.
I agree. She indeed two-foots the jumps that she tends to slightly underrorate, but she doesn't do so with the ones she is better at.
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- Joined
- Oct 22, 2005
Mao does what she's told choreographically, not anything natural about it. I agree with the poster who said if you turn the sound off on the video, she could be skating to any random piece of music. Her GPF program was certainly one where she turned everything off to concentrate on the elements. It worked, though, other than the 2 footed jumps, so I guess it's a tactic...
Generally, she could clean up her jumps, but that's easier said than done...
Generally, she could clean up her jumps, but that's easier said than done...
I wouldn't call it a tactic. In her SP, she made huge mistakes two in row. She would have been very upset. It's indeed admirable that she still pulled herself together to do excellent in her steps. In her LP, she seemed to have made full efforts to concentrate on elements after the disastrous SP. If she could, she would have wanted to demonstrate her musicality better, as she did at Skate Canada. She had focused on improving artistry throughout the summer. But the triple axel, two triple-triples, nerves, pressures, the media, jet lag, and exhaustion of competitions.... It's not easy to do everything perfectly as you would have known as a skater. Still, I think it was such an elegant performance with great flow with the music, even though it was not her best artistically. Your random music example sounds a bit exaggerated to me.
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I think that Mao also lets her nerves get to her in one phase or another of an event -- usually the SP (although at SA last season, it was the FS). What happened to her in the GPF is the same thing that happened to her at Worlds -- but at Worlds, it cost her the gold. She also needs to learn how to hold it together in both phases.
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2003
Mao also needs to work on her english! Yuna speaks pretty good english.
I found a video of how japanese learn english in Japan.. very interesting. Maybe Mao should watch this video and learn english!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W1VY4b9IQQ
I found a video of how japanese learn english in Japan.. very interesting. Maybe Mao should watch this video and learn english!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W1VY4b9IQQ
If so, then question should be:
"What does Caroline Zhang need in order to be competitive with Yuna and Mao",
no?
Actually, what figure skating fans need to is work on their Japanese! Cause Japan is now becoming a major force in international figure skating and it would be great for us fans to be able to read articles about our favorite skaters in Japanese as well as listen to their interviews with the Japanese media;-)
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2005
I AM a skater, even at my ripe old age. I know it is very difficult to concentrate on both the artistic and technical side simultaneously, especially when you are putting elements in the program at the edge of your ability that require you to think instead of just do, where the muscle memory isn't as good.
My point was, the performance aspect of her LP was neglected so that she could skate a better technical performance than she did in the short. It IS a tactic. I HAVE used it personally to skate clean programs in competition. It can work, but then the second mark suffers (and it should) in comparision to the tech mark when you choose that tactic. She needs to be able to do both. I felt the long program was very forced in terms of presentation. Move arm NOW!
I don't think I exaggerated too much that you could have put any random pretty music on in the background to this program and it would have looked the same. I feel that way in relation to a lot of ladies' programs these days, though, so it's not just directed at Mao.
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2005
I have to agree. It does seem right now that Mao's jump problems does give YuNa an advantage going into Worlds and I am not sure that that can be corrected before Worlds but on the other hand I have not counted Mao out for gold.
I keep remembering last season when Mao was pre-ordained by the press, skating fans and practically the whole skating community to take gold at Worlds and that did not happen. It does seem like both of these ladies do have a lock on 1-2 podium finish.
JMO
ETA: After Japanese Nationals I have changed my mind about the 1-2 podium finish for Mao and YuNa we now have a rejuvenated Ando in the mix.
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I know that you are a skater because you gave me advice before on lutz corner (thanks again). That's why I said that you would know how it is if you have been a skater. But we really don't know if it was an intentional choice for Mao to focus mostly on technical side of it as I understand you might have done so. One of her main focuses throughout summer seems to have been enhancing artistry. So I don't think that she would have intentionally wanted to throw it away. But I guess that it was her best at that event under such difficult circumstances.
Random music example is your personal view which I acknowledge and respect. It just sounded to me a bit harsh so that I was a little surprised by the kind of language used. But I did not intend to deny the way you see performances.
After comparing Mao's performances at Skate Canada and GPF, I was thinking how difficult it is to do both artistry and technical sides at high levels. Nevertheless I was really moved to see all the atheletic qualities and good efforts in artistry that she presented at GPF, even though it might not have been her best. It would be really cool if she could put both artistry and technical excellence together at Worlds:agree:
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