TAT has been registered as a official coach by JPN Fed.

In japanese.
http://mainichi.jp/enta/sports/news/20080424k0000m050047000c.html

Although this article does not say whose coach TAT is, I think Mao's

:thumbsup:Great!!!, I hope that yes. Bue TT will go to Japan?, because Mao said that she left to Rafael for the new rink near her house. I don´t bealive it.

Can't wait to hear if that's true!
But didn't Tarasova left Sasha Cohen because she (TAT) had health problems?

As for me, this option would be ideal. If only TAT could visit Japan occasionally instead of Mao going to Russia (which is of course quite unlikely)... (And I definitely don't like the idea of Mao spending a lot of time in Russia - that, imo, would be much more hard for her than living in the USA.)
But okay, let all this first become official. But I should say, a sole idea of Mao and TAT being in the same k-n-c, excites me right through.

Wow, this will be huge news, if it becomes official! And, i like it! I love the results of Mao's collaboration with TAT so far and would love to see Mao keep developing her artistry. With her talent and dedication, sky is the limit!

I had read somewhere that TAT's relationship with the Russian Skating Federation limited her involvement with non-Russian skaters. Is this true? Also, is there a technical coach that TAT regularly works with? Is she a strong jump coach?

When Mao was asked which program she like, Mao named this season's SP and said as it was beautifully choreographed by Tarasova-sensei(teacher or master), she really hoped to be able to skate it perfectly. When asked the reason of this season's success, Mao answered she had improved a lot during the training in Russia with Tarasova-sensei. Looks like Mao really respects Tarasova.

MaoNinja wrote:

When Mao was asked which program she like, Mao named this season's SP and said as it was beautifully choreographed by Tarasova-sensei(teacher or master), she really hoped to be able to skate it perfectly. When asked the reason of this season's success, Mao answered she had improved a lot during the training in Russia with Tarasova-sensei. Looks like Mao really respects Tarasova.

It would be great if Mao could work with TAT. She has a great experience and can really bring out the best in a skater.

I think Mao still could use assistant coaches to hel hel with technical things. Tatiana's health probably will not allow her to be with Mao on the ice for a longer period of time, and she usually just coaches from the rinkside. Plus I don't think she recently worked on fixing any skater's jump technique, because the judges didn't pay much attention to wrong edge take-offs before this season.
I think it would be cool if Mao worked with Lee Barkell on jumps (perhaps while visiting Lori for choreography, or while Lee visits Nobu in Japan) and with Lucinda Ruh on her spins. Lucinda can speak Japanese, so they could communicate well.

sunshine wrote:

Happy to hear that Ms. Tarasova might work with Mao next season. I love her work.
In terms of the location to train, I feel that international travels would be greater strain on Ms. Tarasova than on Mao.

I agree. I think going to Tarasova wouldn't be that bad for Mao - she seems to enjoy Russia. Moreover, training there would give her opportunity to again watch Bolshoi Ballet and practice ballet with Stiepanova. There were skaters who lived away from their main coaches, only visiting them to train several times in a year (Nobu, among others) and they managed just fine. Mao could work on her artistry, steps and overall quality with Tatiana, then go home to polish what she learned and continue working on her jumps/spins, etc.

sunshine wrote:

In terms of the location to train, I feel that international travels would be greater strain on Ms. Tarasova than on Mao.

Yes, probably. But then again, knowing realities of modern Russia/Moscow quite well, I'd say a perspective of Mao staying there for some long time almost scares medoesn't sit with me very well.

sunshine wrote:

Would you mind if I asked you why...?

It's a hard question. I might just say that the problem is in a HUGE cultural gap on everyday level between modern Russia and Japan, but that would explain little. Because if I had, say, a friend going in the opposite direction (i.e. from Russia to Japan, for some long stay there), I wouldn't be worried a bit (only happy for him). Not all yogurtscultural gaps are equally healthy. I think there are only two more or less figure skating-developed countries that in their present stance would make more striking contrast with Japanese culture/life style/everything than Russia. Ukraine and Belorussia.
Firstly, all three are highlyrelatively unsafe. Before going to China last fall I had read a lot of stuff about Chinese unsafety. Well... If I had to draw a visual parallel here, I would depict R/U/B unsafety like a poisonous snake, while Chinese - like a nice looking portion of cherry ice-cream. No, everything isn't that bad in capital cities like Moscow or Saint-Petersburg, but still. It's relatively unsafe.
Secondly, and which is more important, an overall level of culture in routine daily life. I don't mean here culture overall, but a culture that you interact with while, say, going by a street (or across a street)... a feeling of culture that is in the daily air. If you never have been to Russia, it's really hard to explain this everyday culture-factor (maybe the girls from Poland will understand me somewhat better here). It would be hard to explain even if you had been there. You may visit Moscow during some nice summer weekend (or, say, during a couple of nice winter weeks) and everything most likely will be just great, and you won't see anything special. The other thing is to live there.
Thirdly, a huge difference in, well, life-styles.

But then again, there is nothing to be scared about if you are going to visit Moscow/Saint-Petesburg. (But never go to Ukraine. ) Especially if you are American. (Or German. Or Brazilian. Especially if you areOr Papua New Guinean). In this case divide all written above by three.
But if you are Japanese, and you are only 17, and you are going to live there, well, I would advise you to think one more time.

sunshine wrote:

BTW, I love your new avatar. Who is the painter?

Thanks. This is a picture from a manual of one of my favorite pieces of interactive fiction, A Mind Forever Voyaging.

(If you've never dealt with interactive fiction before and would like to try one, I strongly recommend you Photopia. It has a built in IF-tutorial and good for newcomers overall. A few books or movies affected me that much. )

Oh, not at all.