aka Some Guy at the Chicago Tribune talks about the women...
I am bored at work. Therefore, random article!
Will Asada's struggles lead her to Orser after all?
The Chicago Tribune: Globetrotting - Philip Hersh - 10/28/10
I'm still getting used to the idea of not having Skate America as the wakeup call for the new figure skating season.
Until last year, the U.S. event began the Grand Prix Series. The schedule change left me sort of asleep at the switch when the 2010 Grand Prix opened last weekend in Japan. (Skate America, Nov. 12-14 in Portland, Ore., now is the fourth event in the series.)
A year ago, with the Olympics looming, it was easier to focus on the approach of the new skating season. And the post-Olympic season always has a tendency to be a little soporific, at least at the outset.
By the end of the last post-Olympic year (2007), though, the sport had regained substantial dynamism, as the two eventual 2010 Olympic champions, Evan Lysacek of the United States and Kim Yuna of South Korea, both made dramatic statements -- Lysacek with his technically stunning free skate at the U.S. Championships, Kim with her breathtaking short program and bronze medal in her senior world debut.
Perhaps this season -- with the worlds back in Tokyo, where they took place in 2007 -- will produce similar revelations.
For now, though, a few observations on what has already happened and what to look for among the women:
*Maybe Mao Asada should have picked Brian Orser as her new coach.
Asada, reigning world champion and Olympic silver medalist, has been an utter disaster in her first two competitions this fall.
At the Oct. 2 Japan Open, she gave the worst free skate performance since her senior debut in 2005. Last week, at the NHK Trophy, she was even poorer: eighth in the short program and eighth in a free skate when she fell twice and had her worst overall score in a senior international event. Asada even botched two jumps in the NHK exhibition.
At age 20, she clearly feels growing pains in adapting to her new coach, Nobuo Sato. She left Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova for good after last season. According to Orser, someone in Asada's camp had approached him after worlds about the possibility coaching her, to which he said no. That flirtation apparently was a factor in Kim's decision not to keep working with Orser.
This is what Asada said after the NHK disaster, according to Kyodo news service:
``I spoke with my coach (Sato) last night about this event and about training from now on, and he said he was worried after my performance at the Japan Open but a little more at ease having looked at the overall picture from this event and my practice. He said it will be hard but we can build things up.''
Given her record last year, it would be wrong to write off Asada. She struggled badly in every international event before delivering a landmark performance at the Olympics and winning the world title.
But if Asada doesn't get it together, that Orser idea will begin looking pretty good.
*One can only hope a coaching change to another Sato -- 1994 world champion Yuka, daughter of Nobuo Sato -- will bear substantial fruit for Alissa Czisny, the 2009 U.S. champion, who finally realized something had to change in her skating. Czisny, still only 23, seemed delusional when she said last year that she was putting out ``much more consistent programs.'' Soon thereafter, she finished 10th at the 2010 nationals.
Czisny opens her Grand Prix season Friday against a weak field at Skate Canada. She remains the most elegant performer in competitive skating but has yet to show the technical consistency to turn her ethereal qualities on the ice into overall excellence.
*Props to Italy's Carolina Kostner , the NHK winner, for not needing to be propped up.
Three-time European champin Kostner had turned into a human Zamboni over the past two seasons, beginning with her pathetic free skate (one fall, no clean triple jumps) at the 2009 worlds and ending with an even more pathetic free skate (three falls, one clean triple jump) at the 2010 Olympics.
That led Kostner, also just 23, to end her one-year U.S. coaching experiment with Frank Carroll and Christa Fassi and return to her old coach, Michael Huth, in Oberstdorf, Germany. She still struggled with some jumps at NHK, losing the free skate to Rachael Flatt of the United States, but stayed upright in both programs.
*Agnes Zawadzki, who left Des Plaines, Ill., for Colorado Springs three seasons ago, makes a much- anticipated senior international debut this weekend at Skate Canada. Zawadzki, 16, won the U.S. junior title and world junior bronze medal last season.
*Also much anticipated: Mirai Nagasu's season debut at next week's Cup of China. Nagasu, the leading
U.S. finisher at the 2010 Olympics (4th) and worlds (7th), missed a month of training in late summer because of a stress fracture in her right foot, which she uses for takeoffs on her lutz and flip jumps.
Her coach, Frank Carroll, told me Thursday by telephone that the injury has healed to the point where her lutz and flip are fine. Carroll said the U.S. Figure Skating international committee gave Nagasu the go-ahead for China after monitoring her last week.
A couple weeks earlier, Carroll had what he called a ``knockdown, drag-out'' with the skater because he didn't think she was working hard enough. ``It's never easy with Mirai,'' he said.
The irrepressible Nagasu would agree -- and did, more or less, in a tweet last week: ``I told my mom my legs are worth gold. . .she told me that it's unfortunate my brain doesn't have the same value.''
(Source)
Will Asada's struggles lead her to Orser after all?
The Chicago Tribune: Globetrotting - Philip Hersh - 10/28/10
I'm still getting used to the idea of not having Skate America as the wakeup call for the new figure skating season.
Until last year, the U.S. event began the Grand Prix Series. The schedule change left me sort of asleep at the switch when the 2010 Grand Prix opened last weekend in Japan. (Skate America, Nov. 12-14 in Portland, Ore., now is the fourth event in the series.)
A year ago, with the Olympics looming, it was easier to focus on the approach of the new skating season. And the post-Olympic season always has a tendency to be a little soporific, at least at the outset.
By the end of the last post-Olympic year (2007), though, the sport had regained substantial dynamism, as the two eventual 2010 Olympic champions, Evan Lysacek of the United States and Kim Yuna of South Korea, both made dramatic statements -- Lysacek with his technically stunning free skate at the U.S. Championships, Kim with her breathtaking short program and bronze medal in her senior world debut.
Perhaps this season -- with the worlds back in Tokyo, where they took place in 2007 -- will produce similar revelations.
For now, though, a few observations on what has already happened and what to look for among the women:
*Maybe Mao Asada should have picked Brian Orser as her new coach.
Asada, reigning world champion and Olympic silver medalist, has been an utter disaster in her first two competitions this fall.
At the Oct. 2 Japan Open, she gave the worst free skate performance since her senior debut in 2005. Last week, at the NHK Trophy, she was even poorer: eighth in the short program and eighth in a free skate when she fell twice and had her worst overall score in a senior international event. Asada even botched two jumps in the NHK exhibition.
At age 20, she clearly feels growing pains in adapting to her new coach, Nobuo Sato. She left Russian coach Tatiana Tarasova for good after last season. According to Orser, someone in Asada's camp had approached him after worlds about the possibility coaching her, to which he said no. That flirtation apparently was a factor in Kim's decision not to keep working with Orser.
This is what Asada said after the NHK disaster, according to Kyodo news service:
``I spoke with my coach (Sato) last night about this event and about training from now on, and he said he was worried after my performance at the Japan Open but a little more at ease having looked at the overall picture from this event and my practice. He said it will be hard but we can build things up.''
Given her record last year, it would be wrong to write off Asada. She struggled badly in every international event before delivering a landmark performance at the Olympics and winning the world title.
But if Asada doesn't get it together, that Orser idea will begin looking pretty good.
*One can only hope a coaching change to another Sato -- 1994 world champion Yuka, daughter of Nobuo Sato -- will bear substantial fruit for Alissa Czisny, the 2009 U.S. champion, who finally realized something had to change in her skating. Czisny, still only 23, seemed delusional when she said last year that she was putting out ``much more consistent programs.'' Soon thereafter, she finished 10th at the 2010 nationals.
Czisny opens her Grand Prix season Friday against a weak field at Skate Canada. She remains the most elegant performer in competitive skating but has yet to show the technical consistency to turn her ethereal qualities on the ice into overall excellence.
*Props to Italy's Carolina Kostner , the NHK winner, for not needing to be propped up.
Three-time European champin Kostner had turned into a human Zamboni over the past two seasons, beginning with her pathetic free skate (one fall, no clean triple jumps) at the 2009 worlds and ending with an even more pathetic free skate (three falls, one clean triple jump) at the 2010 Olympics.
That led Kostner, also just 23, to end her one-year U.S. coaching experiment with Frank Carroll and Christa Fassi and return to her old coach, Michael Huth, in Oberstdorf, Germany. She still struggled with some jumps at NHK, losing the free skate to Rachael Flatt of the United States, but stayed upright in both programs.
*Agnes Zawadzki, who left Des Plaines, Ill., for Colorado Springs three seasons ago, makes a much- anticipated senior international debut this weekend at Skate Canada. Zawadzki, 16, won the U.S. junior title and world junior bronze medal last season.
*Also much anticipated: Mirai Nagasu's season debut at next week's Cup of China. Nagasu, the leading
U.S. finisher at the 2010 Olympics (4th) and worlds (7th), missed a month of training in late summer because of a stress fracture in her right foot, which she uses for takeoffs on her lutz and flip jumps.
Her coach, Frank Carroll, told me Thursday by telephone that the injury has healed to the point where her lutz and flip are fine. Carroll said the U.S. Figure Skating international committee gave Nagasu the go-ahead for China after monitoring her last week.
A couple weeks earlier, Carroll had what he called a ``knockdown, drag-out'' with the skater because he didn't think she was working hard enough. ``It's never easy with Mirai,'' he said.
The irrepressible Nagasu would agree -- and did, more or less, in a tweet last week: ``I told my mom my legs are worth gold. . .she told me that it's unfortunate my brain doesn't have the same value.''
(Source)