Mao News: Off-Season 2013

josling wrote:

I don't really know where to put it but in The Skating Lesson's newest interview with Jeff Buttle, they're talking about Mao a bit. And Jeff says Mao is "super sweet","dedicated" and "there's not a mean bone in her body"    
He also talks about Liza and that she is really smart and picks up the steps incredibly fast when he's choreographing for her. He also was surprised because he thought she is only a jumping bean...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vr6_rb7iRc&feature=youtu.be
(The part I talked about is around 50:30 but really the whole interview is worth watching!!)

Thanks for this, Josling!
It's a bit interesting hearing his answer when they asked him about MK's Bells and sort of to compare it with Mao's. Seems like he's seen a bit of MK's version. Although I couldn't get enough info from him about Michelle's version as his feed became choppy but it would seem she also used orchestra music like Mao.

TAT's Interview recently:
http://www.sport-express.ru/velena/reviews/34881/

Translated by a user on FSU:

EV: You decided to hold a summer camp in the USA because you were choreographing the LP for Mao Asada there?
TT: Not only. Zhanna Folle works in Chicago, she helped me a lot with the basics working with Asada, now with Kovtun. I trust her as a specialist and Elena Buyanova knows her very well, which is very important, since she is Kovtun's main coach. I'm very satisfied with the way the camp went. We didn't loose a moment. I'm also happy I interested such a choreographer as Petr Tchernyshev to work with Maxim and Adelina Sotnikova. It's not easy letting someone else do what you've been doing your whole life.

EV: Yu Na Kim came back last year and won the worlds quite easily. It seems she is unbeatable if she can stay away from mistakes.
TT: I think she can. Not many realize how Yu Na trains. I saw it many times- starting when she was a junior skater and I was working with Arakawa. That girl trains as a high level athlete. Her speed-strength Korean coach still works with her.
At the time I used to work with such specialists as well: Leonid Raitsin when I was working with Kulik and then Yagudin. I learned a great deal from him. More than that I was making all my plans according to Leonid Moiseevich's plans, because at some point of the preparation the shape was much more important than what we were doing on the ice.
Arakawa haven't done such a work, but she is very strong, she used to run off the ice and she would do several run throughs on the ice - sometimes as many as 10 times in a row, which amazed me. When I started working with Asada the first thing I suggested her mother is to take a Japanese coach for general strength. We had to integrate two 3A into the LP and one 3A into the SP. Asada was never able to do a lutz - she would get the wrong edge and back then such jump wouldn't be counted at all.
I explain her misfortunes in the post olympic season with giving up the shape coach. Later, following my recommendation she started working with him again.

EV: Can Asada beat Kim in Sochi?
TT: Yu Na has a huge talent and experience. Her glides, jumps and spins great. But when I see her skating - she doesn't touch my soul. I don't feel for her, you see? Beating Kim is only possible if there is a skater who will be able to capture the whole crowd and take them with her.

Completely agree with the bolded part.

Thank you so much for posting this.

sapphiresky wrote:

EV: Can Asada beat Kim in Sochi?
TT: Yu Na has a huge talent and experience. Her glides, jumps and spins great. But when I see her skating - she doesn't touch my soul. I don't feel for her, you see? Beating Kim is only possible if there is a skater who will be able to capture the whole crowd and take them with her.

Completely agree with the bolded part.

Regarding the bolded part; completely agree, this is exactly how I feel, TAT explained it perfectly. The only thing I don't agree with TAT is her take on Yuna's spins. IMO they're anything but great, however her jumps on the other hand...if I were her, I'd spent my entire life thanking those coaches who taught her that freaking text book jump technique. Don't get me wrong, but I wish so much Yamada would have done the same to Mao. Triple Axels are great, but what good do they do you, when you loose so much goe on other jumps because the technique isn't good.   Thank God she reworked it.

I honestly believe (and this isn't just wishful thinking on my part) that Mao can beat Yuna, even a clean Yuna, however, Mao must make a strong case for her at the beginning of the season, and MUST skate a clean SP. This is why I wish she'd go for 3-3 in the SP, it's safer, but then this wouldn't be Mao. I don't think she's ever heard for a word "playing it safe". And this is what I love about her, but it's also something that is driving me nuts. I want her to win, because she is one the greats of this sport, but I also want her to be happy, and she clearly isn't happy without the 3A. 

zarinaballerina wrote:

Thank you so much for posting this.

sapphiresky wrote:

EV: Can Asada beat Kim in Sochi?
TT: Yu Na has a huge talent and experience. Her glides, jumps and spins great. But when I see her skating - she doesn't touch my soul. I don't feel for her, you see? Beating Kim is only possible if there is a skater who will be able to capture the whole crowd and take them with her.

Completely agree with the bolded part.

Regarding the bolded part; completely agree, this is exactly how I feel, TAT explained it perfectly. The only thing I don't agree with TAT is her take on Yuna's spins. IMO they're anything but great, however her jumps on the other hand...if I were her, I'd spent my entire life thanking those coaches who taught her that freaking text book jump technique. Don't get me wrong, but I wish so much Yamada would have done the same to Mao. Triple Axels are great, but what good do they do you, when you loose so much goe on other jumps because the technique isn't good.    Thank God she reworked it.

I honestly believe (and this isn't just wishful thinking on my part) that Mao can beat Yuna, even a clean Yuna, however, Mao must make a strong case for her at the beginning of the season, and MUST skate a clean SP. This is why I wish she'd go for 3-3 in the SP, it's safer, but then this wouldn't be Mao. I don't think she's ever heard for a word "playing it safe". And this is what I love about her, but it's also something that is driving me nuts. I want her to win, because she is one the greats of this sport, but I also want her to be happy, and she clearly isn't happy without the 3A. 

ITA with both the bolded part of the interview, and with your comment about Kims spins. The thing with Kims spins is that she often makes it look as if it's on purpose, like the reason why her spins aren't extended, the reason why she doesn't make many position changes in her spins,the reason why she doesn't include new spins, the reason why the spins that require great flexibility in the upper body as well as the lower body often aren't included in kims programs like the biellman or Y-spins.... but she makes it all look like it's all on purpose, as if she is capable of it, but just isn't doing it. the same with her steps, most of the times we can tell when a skater has bad skating skills, is slow, and out of sync with the music just by looking at the step seq. but in Kims case her steps are put together in a way ( that eventhrough her steps often don't carry alot of complexity and details, and in general isn't close to beeing as packed as Mao's and other skaters who receive level 4 on regurlar basis) she just that makes it look like it's on purpose, meaning people who are not figure skating fans and who only have watched Kim a couple of times never would have guessed it, her choreography and music is just set up in a way that perfectly hides her weaknesses. after rewatching some of Kims programs I noticed that in her step seq. she always has this overly dramatic expressions all the way through it, and I can't help but wonder and feel that it's a way to distract the viewers from seeing the lack of details and complexity in her steps.

Kim may not be the perfect skater, but she certainly is the perfect actor on the ice.

[quote="ballerinamao"]

zarinaballerina wrote:

EV: Can Asada beat Kim in Sochi?
TT: Yu Na has a huge talent and experience. Her glides, jumps and spins great. But when I see her skating - she doesn't touch my soul. I don't feel for her, you see? Beating Kim is only possible if there is a skater who will be able to capture the whole crowd and take them with her.

Kim may not be the perfect skater, but she certainly is the perfect actor on the ice.

On the contrary, I think Yuna is a skater with perfect skating skill. But when it comes to acting, she's taught and trained well; but she doesn't own the repertoire of full acting skill to encompass all her audiences. She's not yet been able to touch everyone's soul...

Back to the off-season news:

Mao's new CMs for "Stona" (with Mai):
http://www.stona.jp/cm/

[The lefthand side videos are the new ones; there are two. A third one is the making of the CM<--watch till the end and you get to see Mao recording a phrase of the songs...]

ballerinamao wrote:

Regarding the bolded part; completely agree, this is exactly how I feel, TAT explained it perfectly. The only thing I don't agree with TAT is her take on Yuna's spins. IMO they're anything but great, however her jumps on the other hand...if I were her, I'd spent my entire life thanking those coaches who taught her that freaking text book jump technique. Don't get me wrong, but I wish so much Yamada would have done the same to Mao. Triple Axels are great, but what good do they do you, when you loose so much goe on other jumps because the technique isn't good.    Thank God she reworked it.

I honestly believe (and this isn't just wishful thinking on my part) that Mao can beat Yuna, even a clean Yuna, however, Mao must make a strong case for her at the beginning of the season, and MUST skate a clean SP. This is why I wish she'd go for 3-3 in the SP, it's safer, but then this wouldn't be Mao. I don't think she's ever heard for a word "playing it safe". And this is what I love about her, but it's also something that is driving me nuts. I want her to win, because she is one the greats of this sport, but I also want her to be happy, and she clearly isn't happy without the 3A. 

Thank you so much. You explain it perfectly. I often wonder why so many people are enamored of Yuna's performances, but now I understand the reason. When I first watched her skating, I was also blew away. Her skating makes it seem like she've pulled off something very difficult. When I watched more and more skating, I realized that her spins aren't that great. They are slow and lacks diversity and difficult change in positions. Her step sequence isn't complex either, Caro and Mao and several other skaters all have better footwork than her. People who don't watch much skating think that she's flawless, meanwhile people who appreciate Mao and Caro are often those who've watched a lot of skating. Not to take away from Yuna's greatness, she's excellent but she's certainly not without weakness. Everything in her performances, from choreography, music, expression, footwork, spins are smartly crafted to appeal to the general audience. People often forget that it takes a damned excellent skaters to make it easy and smooth as Caro and Mao.

ballerinamao wrote:

ITA with both the bolded part of the interview, and with your comment about Kims spins. The thing with Kims spins is that she often makes it look as if it's on purpose, like the reason why her spins aren't extended, the reason why she doesn't make many position changes in her spins,the reason why she doesn't include new spins, the reason why the spins that require great flexibility in the upper body as well as the lower body often aren't included in kims programs like the biellman or Y-spins....  but she makes it all look like it's all on purpose,  as if she is capable of it, but just isn't doing it. the same with her steps, most of the times we can tell when a skater has bad skating skills, is slow, and out of sync with the music just by looking at the step seq. but in Kims case her steps are put together in a way ( that eventhrough her steps often don't carry alot of complexity and details, and in general isn't close to beeing as packed as Mao's and other skaters who receive level 4 on regurlar basis) she just that makes it  look like it's on purpose, meaning people who are not figure skating fans and who only have watched Kim a couple of times never would have guessed it, her choreography and music is just set up in a way that perfectly hides her weaknesses. after rewatching some of Kims programs I noticed that in her step seq. she always has this overly dramatic expressions all the way through it, and I can't help but wonder and feel that it's a way to distract the viewers from seeing the lack of details and complexity in her steps.

Kim may not be the perfect skater, but she certainly is the perfect actor on the ice.

ITA! You've explained it perfectly.  And yet, despite everything you've just said about Yuna's steps, spins...she still gets almost the same (only slightly less) freaking goe as Mao.   Now, I'm the first one to admit that COP and I aren't on the best of terms  , but even I can see the unfairmess of this. I'm sorry, but Mao is light years better in step sequence than Yuna. Just because she has an insane jumping technique, it doesn't mean that she's great at everything. I wish someone would explain this to the idiots who are judging at competition.

pearlyriver wrote:

Not to take away from Yuna's greatness, she's excellent but she's certainly not without weakness. Everything in her performances, from choreography, music, expression, footwork, spins are smartly crafted to appeal to the general audience. People often forget that it takes a damned excellent skaters to make it easy and smooth as Caro and Mao.

THIS. 

This interview was broadcasted last night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SiCGu5hIKI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrQzAEJ-2pg

I think someone posted the 1st part of the interview somewhere else, probably under the new program discussion topic. The girl "CHIE" (in purple dress) seems to be a fortune teller. So Mao is asking her all kinds of questions.

(At the beginning of the 1st clip here, the male interviewer asked: is there anything you really want to do the most, other than skating for now? Mao: I want to try different sports, like boxing  )

COHK wrote:

(At the beginning of the 1st clip here, the male interviewer asked: is there anything you really want to do the most, other than skating for now? Mao: I want to try different sports, like boxing  )

Thank you for posting this.
She wants to take up boxing?!  Somehow, I can't imagine our sweet Mao in this type of sport. I'm trying to picture Mao punching someone and it just isn't working.  

Quote :

EV: Can Asada beat Kim in Sochi?
TT: Yu Na has a huge talent and experience. Her glides, jumps and spins great. But when I see her skating - she doesn't touch my soul. I don't feel for her, you see? Beating Kim is only possible if there is a skater who will be able to capture the whole crowd and take them with her.

I felt this way only last season! From all the other programms, Yuna touched my soul! But so did other skaters too..  

zarinaballerina wrote:

COHK wrote:

(At the beginning of the 1st clip here, the male interviewer asked: is there anything you really want to do the most, other than skating for now? Mao: I want to try different sports, like boxing  )

Thank you for posting this.
She wants to take up boxing?!  Somehow, I can't imagine our sweet Mao in this type of sport. I'm trying to picture Mao punching someone and it just isn't working.  

 Mao punching someone?  

Is this video about a girl who was saved by watching Map's performance of Chopin's Ballade?  

pearlyriver wrote:

Is this video about a girl who was saved by watching Map's performance of Chopin's Ballade?  

This is from the documentary "Chopin saved my life". Here's the synopsis:
http://www.channel4.com/info/press/programme-information/chopin-saved-my-life

I think the documentary included part of Mao's performance of Ballade. I'd be interested in watching the whole documentary!

pearlyriver wrote:

Is this video about a girl who was saved by watching Map's performance of Chopin's Ballade?  

beautiful!!!

http://25.media.tumblr.com/7d28ab45ed9af5329257fde62a62ad89/tumblr_mhz7glngez1rm6ftfo1_250.gif

Because this will never get old.  

And a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Tokyo for winning the rights to host the 2020 Olympics  

http://www.japantoday.com/category/sports/view/tokyo-awarded-2020-olympics


Remember how much weight Mao lost and the poor performance she did at 2011 Worlds following the massive earthquake in Japan? Hopefully, her country getting great news will boost Mao's confidence level going into next year's Olympics.

shar wrote:

http://25.media.tumblr.com/7d28ab45ed9af5329257fde62a62ad89/tumblr_mhz7glngez1rm6ftfo1_250.gif

Because this will never get old.  

And a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Tokyo for winning the rights to host the 2020 Olympics   Remember how much weight she lost and poor performance at 2011 Worlds following the massive earthquake in Japan? Hopefully, her country getting great news will boost Mao's confidence level going into next year's Olympics.

HELLS YEAH!!!   

Yuka Sato evaluated Mao's chances in Sochi
http://www.theskatinglesson.com/yuka-sato-on-mao-asadas-chances-in-sochi/
On a side note, Yuka's English is surprisingly good for someone who moved to the US in her late 20s.

pearlyriver wrote:

Yuka Sato evaluated Mao's chances in Sochi
http://www.theskatinglesson.com/yuka-sato-on-mao-asadas-chances-in-sochi/

Thanks for posting this! Hopefully the "well-packaging" factor will be playing advantage to Mao's side. It's great to know that Mao's been doing better and better, little by little. I just can't wait for JO to see her new FS!  

COHK wrote:

pearlyriver wrote:

Yuka Sato evaluated Mao's chances in Sochi
http://www.theskatinglesson.com/yuka-sato-on-mao-asadas-chances-in-sochi/

Thanks for posting this! Hopefully the "well-packaging" factor will be playing advantage to Mao's side. It's great to know that Mao's been doing better and better, little by little. I just can't wait for JO to see her new FS!  

Me too, I really hope that we will see the judges reward her, she really has thé most complete package I have ever seen. I also really look forward to seeing Mao new fs, it's been a really long off season.
After hearing what Yuka said about Mao, I'm getting even more excited to see her compete again. and I'm kind of delighted hearing her talk about Mao's traning, because this for me confirmed that Mao is in good hands and that Sato knows what the main things to prepare were. I also am soo excited to hear that, she could see a difference in Mao's skating in the off-season, because that means her training is progressing well. eventhrough the practice clips looked AMAZING but hearing other people confirm it, is soo assuring.

japan open can not arrive soon enough, I just hope there will be some live streams:yep!:

I had a terrible dream! Mao was getting a 64 on her short program while Yuna almost got 80 points! I mean, good for Yuna, but I don't want Mao to get a 64! I want higher!

^  We are feeling the Olympic season anxiety already and it is showing up in our dreams, I know that feeling as I have had similar dreams before, but I also have happy dreams sometimes where everything goes perfectly for Mao

Mao_Asada_sunrise wrote:

I had a terrible dream! Mao was getting a 64 on her short program while Yuna almost got 80 points! I mean, good for Yuna, but I don't want Mao to get a 64! I want higher!

  Wait, what did Yuna do in your dream? A 3A?!  

I have some serious anxiety issues when it comes to Mao's SP and her 3A. I wish so much she'd go for 3-3 instead, or have a plan B, and do a 3-3 if she makes a mistake on 3A. Under this system and with overscoring of Caro and Yuna, Mao can't afford a mistake in SP. 

zarinaballerina wrote:

Mao_Asada_sunrise wrote:

I had a terrible dream! Mao was getting a 64 on her short program while Yuna almost got 80 points! I mean, good for Yuna, but I don't want Mao to get a 64! I want higher!

  Wait, what did Yuna do in your dream? A 3A?!  

I have some serious anxiety issues when it comes to Mao's SP and her 3A. I wish so much she'd go for 3-3 instead, or have a plan B, and do a 3-3 if she makes a mistake on 3A. Under this system and with overscoring of Caro and Yuna, Mao can't afford a mistake in SP. 

I only remember very little from my dream. The segment of Yuna showed her almost doing a jump. With Mao, she was doing a step sequence in the middle of the program. I think she was wearing a pastel colored dress? It was either blue or pink. I'm not sure. With Yuna, it was a darker color, like brown. With Mao, she did all her jumps without falls I think, but they still scored her a 64. Yuna didn't fall either, but she received close to 80 because her jumps were huge, according to the commentators' thoughts in my dream. However, in reality, if Mao did all of her jumps, she would at least be close to Yuna, right?

zarinaballerina wrote:

Mao_Asada_sunrise wrote:

I had a terrible dream! Mao was getting a 64 on her short program while Yuna almost got 80 points! I mean, good for Yuna, but I don't want Mao to get a 64! I want higher!

  Wait, what did Yuna do in your dream? A 3A?!  

I have some serious anxiety issues when it comes to Mao's SP and her 3A. I wish so much she'd go for 3-3 instead, or have a plan B, and do a 3-3 if she makes a mistake on 3A. Under this system and with overscoring of Caro and Yuna, Mao can't afford a mistake in SP. 

I was on a Yuna mode yesterday and I rewatched all of her programs. Am I the only one to think that her expression and body movement when she was 16-19 were much more genuine and spot on than her current style with pained expres​sion(no offense, it looks like she had a stomachache)? El Tango, The Lark Ascending, Die Fledermaus, Danse Macabre, Scheherazade and of course her two programs at Vancouver were top notch. Her footwork for those programs were also much more intricate as opposed to recent programs when she focussed more on speed. Easy to understand why the crowd fell heads over heels with her.