Will Mao make the Oly team? | Page 9 | Golden Skate

Will Mao make the Oly team?

You mean she wasn't fast and slender with huge jumps when she did a 7 triple FS in 07-08 Cup Of Russia?

IMO it's all about transition. Back in 07, the only difficult entry she had was Ina Bauer into her last double axel. Now, she has difficult entry and/or exit moves into pretty much every jumping pass. It was probably the most she could do to challenge herself technically given her inconsistency with loop. Her long program from TEB really amazed me. She had so much ease with every element it was not even funny. Even non-fs-fan friends of mine could tell the quality of her execution was on another level from the others.

But I do wonder whether IJS is going too much in one direction. Transitions are nice, but..
 
IMO it's all about transition. Back in 07, the only difficult entry she had was Ina Bauer into her last double axel. Now, she has difficult entry and/or exit moves into pretty much every jumping pass. It was probably the most she could do to challenge herself technically given her inconsistency with loop. Her long program from TEB really amazed me. She had so much ease with every element it was not even funny. Even non-fs-fan friends of mine could tell the quality of her execution was on another level from the others.

Exactly. Plus, if Mao continues to pop her all her 3As and can't do a lutz, Miki continues to abandon her 3-3, Joannie continues to land more doubles than triples, and the European ladies continue to perform inconsistently, Yuna does not really need 7 triples to win.

Plus I found out when I asked before, Yuna only attempts 6 triples because she is uncomfortable with the 3loop. She has a 3-3 though and a 2a-3t so those have high base values then when you add in her huge GOEs her technical score may be even higher than if she attempted 7 triples, especially because the loop is the one jump she could get negative GOEs on
 
Don't have time to read through the whole thread, but JFS already confirmed that Miki and Mao are locked for the Olympic team, so are Oda and Takahashi.
 
You are right I was just wondering. Plus her combos are difficult, doing both a 3lz-3t and a 2a-3t in the FS. The 2a-3t is in the second half too so it has a base value of 8.25 which is more than a 3lz-2t or a 3t-3t. I just thought it would be cool is Yuna did 7 triples in the FS and broke 220 or something insane like that :love:

She can replace the thrid 2A add the second 3S as '3S+2T+2Lo' or something like that. That way she was 7 triples program: 3Lz+3T, 3F,2A,3Lz,2A+3T,3S,3S+2T+2Lo . Maybe she is not consistent with 3S as well (but more consistent than the 3Lo), as she had one fall and one pop jump last season.
 
Don't have time to read through the whole thread, but JFS already confirmed that Miki and Mao are locked for the Olympic team, so are Oda and Takahashi.
Where did you get that info ??
All we know is that Miki and Nobu are locked, and the JSF criteria for determining the slots left. (cf: my post #123 in this thread)
 
She can replace the thrid 2A add the second 3S as '3S+2T+2Lo' or something like that. That way she was 7 triples program: 3Lz+3T, 3F,2A,3Lz,2A+3T,3S,3S+2T+2Lo . Maybe she is not consistent with 3S as well (but more consistent than the 3Lo), as she had one fall and one pop jump last season.

You are only allowed to repeat two of your triples and with the above layout she repeats three: 3lutz, 3toe, 3sal. The only way Yuna can do 7 triples in her freeskate is if she does a 3loop as her 7th triple.
 
She stated that she is going to make adjustments in her spiral sequence to get a level 4.
She's smiling now and her practices are getting better :)

Thanks for translating :) :bow:

I hope she gets that level 4, she such beautiful spiral positions, that is one thing most of us agree she does better than Yu-na.
 
Thanks for translating :) :bow:

I hope she gets that level 4, she such beautiful spiral positions, that is one thing most of us agree she does better than Yu-na.

I like Yuna's spirals. They have gotten a LOT better since 2007. Plus she moves so fast you almost don't pay attention to the position her leg is in. All her positions are gorgeous but I suppose her arabesque spiral could have higher extension, but at least the leg is stretched and turned out now as opposed to before.
 
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Thanks for the latest news clip & the translation, much appreciated. :)

Who's the lady with the big dark sunglasses & the mysterious air about her? and what's she saying?:think:
 
Thanks for the latest news clip & the translation, much appreciated. :)

Who's the lady with the big dark sunglasses & the mysterious air about her? and what's she saying?:think:
Oh, she is her ex-coach Machiko Yamada. She has coached Midori, Yukari, Mai, and Kanako Murakami.

She says:
- She is seeing Mao almost everyday at her rink.
- Mao has good days and bad days.
- She kind of wonders how clean Mao's jumps may look. Currently, it is extremely important to land a jump cleanly. The evaluation also depends on judges' eyes. But she somewhat feels that that the situation so far might not have seemed to be in favor of Mao.
- She tells Mao that she is luckier than Midori. Today Japan has other brilliant skaters than Mao. But at Midori's time, she was the ONE, which made Midori suffer a lot. Mao can just walk her own way without being crushed under pressures.
- (Being asked what the audience should be looking forward to seeing at the Japanese Nationals) Now things can be puzzling. Say, the audience may find, "Wow this girl was wonderful" and then the scores of the two programs are combined, "Oh, that girl won!" So it is a bit difficult to figure out (for the lay audience). But each skater prepares for this event and perhaps the audience should be looking forward to seeing how each of them tries.

Mao herself basically repeats herself. Almost exactly the same as what she has been saying so far. No updates.:p Oh, she uses a newer expression. She wants to be good friends with 3A. She also looks happier than before.

Mai says:
Mao may have been stressed having been abroad for a long time. But now she has her own pace of life back home. Her coach is visiting her, too (Is she referring to the assistant coach, perhaps?). So she would be fine.

------------------------------------------------

I wonder if Machiko can be her coach again. She seems a very humane, mature person with a balanced outlook and perceptive, relaxed interpersonal communicative styles (see how often she smiles and laughes; despite talking about sensitive issues, the way she talks sounds very relaxed, calm, and optimistic). She seems a little bit like a mother in downtown. She seems very down to earth. These could balance out Mao's determined mind. I feel that this could work better than TAT's toughness. Flexibility is greatly important under the CoP. Besides, Mai sounds that Mao is happier back in Japan.

Daisuke is doing fine with his long-term coach alone. His coach, Utako, does not have international reputation. But it does not affect his PCS. Machiko is an internationally well-known coach.
 
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I have a question, Mao doesn`t get lv 4 (spirals) just because she is not enough fast ?
 
I like Yuna's spirals. They have gotten a LOT better since 2007. Plus she moves so fast you almost don't pay attention to the position her leg is in. All her positions are gorgeous but I suppose her arabesque spiral could have higher extension, but at least the leg is stretched and turned out now as opposed to before.

Kim has always had "troubles" with spirals because, to quote her father, "she isn't naturally flexible." She had to work arduously to master the positions she has now. Some people dislike her spirals because they're used to seeing the beautiful, innovative spirals of the 6.0 period, the so called "golden age" of skating. The current system, however, doesn't exactly really reward the positions people usually consider "gorgeous" (please correct me if I'm wrong) so Kim has no need to go out of her way to perfect them (which will probably be more difficult than, say, perfecting her jumps). Kim's Dream Team understands the CoP system in and out, and they probably know that form is not so much of a factor in points now. It has more to do with other things, such as how long a skater holds her position. That's why Mao's spirals, although more pleasant to the eye, garners fewer points: they're beautiful, but they don't quite conform to the CoP (one of the biggest flaws to the scoring system, I think).
 
Mao's spiral

As to Mao's spirals not considered satisfying the enough duration, some say that it is because she is too sensitive to the music. She moves feeling the music too much that she cannot help moving forward when the music begins to change. If so, I wonder why the coreographer sees to it that there is enough time to keep the spiral position long enough.
They say there will be a surprise as to Mao's program in the Nationals. We cannot wait to see it.
 
Kim has always had "troubles" with spirals because, to quote her father, "she isn't naturally flexible." She had to work arduously to master the positions she has now. Some people dislike her spirals because they're used to seeing the beautiful, innovative spirals of the 6.0 period, the so called "golden age" of skating. The current system, however, doesn't exactly really reward the positions people usually consider "gorgeous" (please correct me if I'm wrong) so Kim has no need to go out of her way to perfect them (which will probably be more difficult than, say, perfecting her jumps). Kim's Dream Team understands the CoP system in and out, and they probably know that form is not so much of a factor in points now. It has more to do with other things, such as how long a skater holds her position. That's why Mao's spirals, although more pleasant to the eye, garners fewer points: they're beautiful, but they don't quite conform to the CoP (one of the biggest flaws to the scoring system, I think).

Exactly, in CoP, you can get a level 4 on your spiral sequence even if your leg position is not good. For example, at Skate America, Sarah Hecken got a level 4 for her spiral sequence in the LP even though her positions show no flexibility. She got 0 as her GOE, but the level 4 spiral sequence has a base value of 3.4 points vs. the 3.1 points for a level 3 spiral sequence. At Skate America, Mirai only got a level 3 for her beautiful spiral sequence in the LP, presumably because she didn't hold the positions long enough. Because her leg position was so good, she got a 0.6 GOE for it, but in the end Mirai ends up with a 3.7 for her spiral sequence which is only 0.3 points higher than the 3.4 Sarah got a SA. So really the positions only affect the GOE and not the level received, even Alissa got a level 3 (with a 0.8 GOE) for her spiral sequence in the LP at SC.

Caroline at SC got a level 4 for her spiral sequence in the long and got a 1.80 GOE for it, so she got 5.2 points for that element which is worth more than a triple loop jump. Yuna at SA though also got a level 4 for her spiral sequence and a 1.40 GOE for it, probably because she is so fast, so even though Mao, Mirai, Alissa have more flexible positions in the spirals, it doesn't really make a difference because less flexible skaters can do better.
 
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