Thanks again for the links, gotoschool. This has been done to death already but my view is that Mao's jumps in 2010 had nowhere to go but down. Moreover, if you look at her Olympic and World skates, her spins were getting a bit slower and her skating in general looked a bit labored compared to 2007 or 2014. But back to jumps. Her 3-3 started having rotation issues in 2008-09. I would have given credit for the 3-3 in her 2008 GPF SP but all the ones she did that season were near-underrotated and they were nowhere near her 2006 3F-3Lo combos in quality. Her flip itself declined to the point that she had to tweak it with Nagakubo before 2009 Nationals. She got it back to land 10 out of 12 triple flip attempts in the next 4 competitions, but the way she was doing it, she'd never have been able to tack a 3Loop on there again. Her 3A was at its peak in 2008-2010 consistency-wise but they weren't getting GOE because of the wobbly landing edge and poor distance/flow out. Her 3Axel in 2013 and 2014 was less consistent, but it had a solid running edge out and both height and distance. Her solo 3Loop didn't really need changes, but she was also trying to get a 3Lo-3Lo for 2010-11, so I understand why she would make changes there. The solo 3Toe was gone forever from her programs though she had to change her 2A to accommodate a 2A-3T. Her Salchow and Lutz obviously needed work as she neglected them for the 2009-10 season. In 2010-11 she initially was doing her old telegraphed Lutz where she'd peek back then flutz, then she worked on it so that it was more like her 2008-09 Lutz which would only get ! (this got worse later though).
I knew it would take time to rework her jumps, but I didn't realize how awful her GP outing would be in 2010. She actually pulled herself together somewhat by 2010 Nationals, a virtual miracle. By 2011 4CC I was already on board with her decision. A lot of improvements (in jumps, mainly) were already showing by then, but she had two major setbacks in the form of the 2011 earthquake, which interrupted her training and caused a change in the timing/location of Worlds, and her mother passing away. She lost her 3A for about 2 full years, but even during this time she was working on her speed and SS, getting back her 3-3 (landing it in shows and in practice in 2012), and improving her 2A-3T. It must have taken incredible patience and determination (and coaching, thank you Mr. Sato) to do all this reworking considering everything really only began to come together in 2013; take into account further improvements and getting over her nagging back pain and she only put out her best in 2014. Had she not done all this rebuilding, she would've maybe kept consistent 3Axel, 3Flip, 3Loop, 3Toe, and 2A, i.e. her Vancouver jumps, all very high but with little flow or distance so she couldn't up her BV through 3-3 or 2A-3 combinations or get the GOE she needed. She could have maybe added the 3Sal and 3Lutz but she wouldn't have had anywhere to put them in the LP (anywhere worth it at least). Going to Nagakubo in 2010 was possibly a mistake as Sato apparently disagreed with a bunch of his changes, but that's the only outright problem I see with her coaching choices post-Vancouver. Sato also made sure she improved her overall skating and the speed in her spins. In my opinion, changing her jumps was absolutely the right decision, and I only regret that she didn't have one more year to maintain and show herself at her 2014 peak.
I'm worried....it's extremely difficult to change old habits. Even Mao after working on her techniques for more than an entire season still reverted back to a lot of her old habits. I'm hoping Yulia will come out of this okay.
