Hello hello, I am exhausted, but I GOT TO SEE MAO ASADA practice!!!
So yes, Mao landed safely in LA at some point today, and she was there at the ladies' practice tonight!
Oh and before I forget - Japan beat Korea in the World Baseball Classic (also in LA) to defend their championship title!! I DEFINITELY take this as a good sign, since Mao said that she was cheering Japan on and inspired by their performance. Go Japan and GO MAO!
But let's start at the beginning!
My day started with the Japanese ladies' 7:10am practice. As we were heading to the practice rink, we ran into Yu-Na Kim on her way to the practice rink! With Brian Orser and a couple of other people (manager? trainer?). While I was kind of wavering about what to do, my Mom was like, get her autograph!, so I called out to her, but I was all flustered and then my Mom couldn't take a picture on my camera, and oh, it was embarrassing and Yu-Na must've been like, these people are so strange? Yes, it was very nice of Yu-Na to give me an autograph and a picture, but I was definitely intimidated/felt like I was imposing...she doesn't exactly have a friendly air, at least not with her entourage around!
I have to say,
Miki Ando is looking really good. My Mom and I were very impressed. In the evening practice, she was even doing some quads!
She seems to be in really good condition, and she looks very calm.
Yu-Na Kim also looks very good. In the morning practice she was spot-on; if she hurt her shoulder yesterday it didn't bother her at all, and everything looked really easy. In the evening practice she did a run-through of her FS ('Scheherezade'), and she popped a 3Lz and then popped the 2A, which was really bizarre. But the rest of her practice was great. Lots of really nice 3F+3T's.
MenThe Japanese men were on fire!!! In the morning practice we were blown away. Nobu, Mura and Kozu all seemed to be in really good condition. Nobu was landing some quad-triple-triple's (of course, I can't tell if they're UR or not), all their 3A's looked good. Mura, in particular, has a HUGE 3A!
Fumie was sitting in the audience watching the men.
The Canadian men skated after them. Nobuo Sato (Kozu's coach) came back to watch, but I didn't see any of the skaters. Pat-Chan was having trouble with his 3A's in the morning, with a few bad falls.
In the next group, Kevin Van der Perren had some really impressive jumps. Tomas Verner was sort of on and off. I did notice that Carolina Kostner came out to watch them.
The American and Korean men were next. Evan Lysacek was looking really good. Very clean and very prepared. Brandon Mroz was having some problems with his jumps, as was Jeremy Abbott.
A little bit of pairsWith the pairs and the ice dancers, they seem to stop in the middle of their run-through's a lot more. Like the single skaters will leave out their jumps, but they'll mostly go through the choreography. I think every pair/ice dance couple we saw stopped/left out parts of their programs though. Is that normal?
I don't know very much about pair skating at all, but Savchenko and Szolkowy looked very good. They were even in-synch when doing warm-up footwork.
I did really enjoy McLaughlin & Brubaker too.
After that, we headed out for some lunch. First, we went to some diner, but then I decided I didn't want greasy diner food, so we got up and left, and it was a good thing we did, because we ran into Miki Ando and Nobu on the street!!!
So I got autographs and pictures and was really, really excited. They were really nice and even talked to us a little bit (in English.) That was perhaps the highlight of my day (other than seeing Mao, of course).
Ice danceI also don't know very much about ice dancing, but everything that Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir did was really pretty. Some of their lifts were ridiculous!
But they left as soon as their run-through was done (halfway through the practice).
There were several near collisions in the next group with the Russians and the French. A few times the teams actually yelled so that the others would get out of the way.
I was not so impressed with Domnina/Shabalin. They seemed a bit off - are they coming off injuries?
The American teams were all looking great (but I am biased). I was glad to see Ben Agosto healthy, but I was most excited to see Meryl and Charlie, who looked calm and confident.
And so that brings us to..
MAOMichelle Kwan was watching the practice, so when TAT and Mao walked in, they waved to her.
Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to any of the other ladies' in Mao's practice groups, so I missed Miki Ando's quad attempts.
Of all the ladies I saw (which is not all of them), Mao struck me as being very methodical in her practice. I'm sure the other skaters go through some kind of routine to warm-up, and practice their jumps in a certain order, but with Mao you could really see her practice one move, then the next, then the next, in some kind of set order.
She started just by stroking around the ice, then swizzles front and backwards, then shifting her weight from foot to foot (on both feet). Then edge pulls on alternating feet, then cross rolls, then twizzles in both directions, slowly. Then brackets and rockers (? I think?), etc.
Mao didn't go over to talk to TAT and Shanetta very much, but since I was sitting in the front row, I could see Mao look over at them and see them nod or gesture, and then Mao would move on to the next step in her warm-up.
Then she started to jump. First, a waltz jump, then a single axel, then some double axels, all with the same approach in the same place in the rink. She also practiced the 2A from the outside spread-eagle that she does in her SP. All beautiful and so high!
Then it was time for Mao to do her SP run-through. She didn't do any of the jumps, but her spirals elicited 'wow's' from the crowd, as did her spins. The ladies behind me remarked that Mao really seems to float on the ice. I agree!
After her run-through, Mao practiced a few more jumps - some 3Lo, then a 3T from steps, then the 3F, then 3F+2Lo+2Lo (nice!). She did one 3F+3Lo but didn't have much flow out of it. Hmm.
Mao then tried the 3Lz - or rather, she did the approach and then stopped. She went back and did it again but then either popped it or purposely just jumped up without rotating (unclear).
Soo, for the most part Mao looked pretty good, but I am very curious to see how her 3Lz and her 3F+3Lo look tomorrow. I also hope she does some 3A's!
After that, I saw Joannie Rochette and Cynthia Phaneuf, who were not there this morning or yesterday. Joannie looked like she was in pretty good shape.
We checked out the evening Japanese men's practice, but Oda was not there. (I did see him watching the ladies' practice, however).
Phew, well I apologize for the random jumble! Tomorrow's Pairs SP ends around midnight, so I might be too tired to write...but we shall see!
Ganbare Mao-chan!
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Sun Mar 22, 2009 5:49 pm
He looked like he was having some trouble with his jumps though - hands down on the 3A and the 4T, etc.
for the report 
) Will you keep us informed on everything that happens there through the week? Pretty please? 
I'm getting a little bit afraid for her! I wonder,if Tat flying with her?
The Narita Airport crash definitely caught me off guard - hopefully we won't have any more of those for the remainder of the week! 
