As for finding new coach for Mao Asada, it seems not to be advancing yet.

[Akira Andrea]

This is an article in “Daily Sports” in Japan.
Translation into English.
As for finding new coach for Mao Asada, it seems not to be advancing yet.
May 29th, 2010 JST.

In May 29th, Mao Asada (Chukyo University) who is the silver medalist of Ladies in Vancouver Olympics revealed that the choice of new coach is not advancing while saying, "I have not found anybody yet" as for the decision of new coach who takes the place of Tarasova, Russian, whom she had canceled the contract of the exclusive coach for just this season.
She is recruiting the new coach mainly from Japanese coaches because she regards the coaching ability for technical aspect as important.

In this day, Asada who has participated to an event in Tokyo metropolitan area plans to go to Russia for choreography of new program in May 30th and to participate to an ice show in Seoul in the beginning of June.

The article：
As for finding new coach for Mao Asada, it seems not to be advancing yet.
http://www.daily.co.jp/newsflash/201...03035358.shtml

[Kwantumleap]

She could jump on the Frank Carroll bandwagon.

[matti]

Machiko Yamada?

[FrouFrou]

Thanks for the update.

She could jump on the Frank Carroll bandwagon.

Really can't see that happening. He's devoted to Mirai. She's a great up & comer. It's hard for two top-tier athletes you deem as a rival or a threat to share a coach because you want all the focus to be on you. I think Carolina might have stuck it out with Carroll longer had Mirai not showed up

Machiko Yamada?

I actually saw a video on YouTube during Japanese Nationals where they were hugging each other. Didn't know what they're saying, but there seems to be no bad blood between them. So who knows. I just hope she doesn't go to Sato. His pupil's skating are kinda blah to me.

[pinky166]

Really can't see that happening. He's devoted to Mirai. She's a great up & comer. It's hard for two top-tier athletes you deem as a rival or a threat to share a coach because you want all the focus to be on you. I think Carolina might have stuck it out with Carroll longer had Mirai not showed up

Oh I don't know, Orser is currently coaching Gao and Kwak and Carsarsa who are all roughly the same age and ability level and that's on top of Yuna and Adam his star pupils. I think if two skaters are competitors but they don't represent the same country than it's fine, Kiri Baga and Kate Charbonneau have the same coach, so do Rachael, Alexe, and Agnes and they all do represent the same country. I don't think it's really a huge issue.

[tangerine_dream]

Mirai will have to decide which nationality she keeps at age 20, so at that point she may decide to represent Japan, who knows. Probably not since Japan has a much deeper field and the USFS has been great to her, but still we don't know what Mirai will decide in the future.

I think possibly Mao has had enough of foreign coaches, sometimes you just feel better training in your primary language and in your own country. The quote says literally that she's looking for "a Japanese coach with a focus on great technical ability". It specifically says she's looking only at Japanese coaches. Japan has a lot of great coaches, even some unknown ones, so hopefully she'll find what she needs.

[bardtoob]

Machiko Yamada?

Been there, done that, got the 3A.

She could jump on the Frank Carroll bandwagon.

Then she can help Evan with his 3A.

[Akira Andrea]

Mao leaves for Russia for making a new program.


This is an article in “Sankei Sports” in Japan.
Translation into English.
May 30th, 2010 JST.

Mao Asada (19, Chukyo University), the silver medalist of Ladies of Vancouver Olympics, leaves for Russia for making a new program in May 30th. She makes the program for SP by choreography of Russian Tatiana Tarasova who was her exclusive coach till last season and participates to an ice show in Seoul in June 5-6. In the middle of June, she is going to make a program for FS complete by Lori Nichole in Canada.

In this day, Mao participated to an event in Tokyo metropolitan area.
She took the advice as for how to train etc from Tomomi Okazaki (38, Fuji Express) who participated together with her to the event, and was Japanese representative of speed skating in Vancouver Olympics. Under stimulus of her, she said, “I would like to get to be able to enjoy the strain like Tomomi”.

The Article:
Mao leaves for Russia for making a new program.
http://www.sanspo.com/sports/news/10...0502000-n1.htm

[FrouFrou]

Dang. It's gonna be crunch time for Mao the next couple of weeks. Be careful what you wish for. Also thanks, Akira Andrea. I'm gonna be keeping up with your updates 'til we find out who Mao's coach is going to be.

Oh I don't know, Orser is currently coaching Gao and Kwak and Carsarsa who are all roughly the same age and ability level and that's on top of Yuna and Adam his star pupils. I think if two skaters are competitors but they don't represent the same country than it's fine, Kiri Baga and Kate Charbonneau have the same coach, so do Rachael, Alexe, and Agnes and they all do represent the same country. I don't think it's really a huge issue.

I don't know who Carsarsa is, but Gao and Kwak are still not established as of yet. Gao showed great potential at Worlds and Kwak has nice qualities to her skating too. However, I would compare their rivalry with that of Mirai and Ellie Kawamura. Gao and Mirai being a notch ahead of their (future? idk if they've begun training already) teammates respectively. Rachael, Alexe, and Agnes are good skaters but they don't have the glimpses of brilliance that stick out like a Mirai or Gao right now, so I don't think things will get that heated between them as of yet. I would love to see how Gilles' and Agnes' skating develop over the next few years. If and when they are pitted against each other constantly, I think one of them will eventually leave Tom. Just look at past skating history. Skaters like to play ring-around-the-coaches, but they definitely don't like to share their coach's time with a rival competitor and would leave their coaching situation in a snap if they feel they're not top priority.

[pinky166]

I don't know who Carsarsa is, but Gao and Kwak are still not established as of yet. Gao showed great potential at Worlds and Kwak has nice qualities to her skating too. However, I would compare their rivalry with that of Mirai and Ellie Kawamura. Gao and Mirai being a notch ahead of their (future? idk if they've begun training already) teammates respectively. Rachael, Alexe, and Agnes are good skaters but they don't have the glimpses of brilliance that stick out like a Mirai or Gao right now, so I don't think things will get that heated between them as of yet. I would love to see how Gilles' and Agnes' skating develop over the next few years. If and when they are pitted against each other constantly, I think one of them will eventually leave Tom. Just look at past skating history. Skaters like to play ring-around-the-coaches, but they definitely don't like to share their coach's time with a rival competitor and would leave their coaching situation in a snap if they feel they're not top priority.

Casarsa was the Canadian Junior Bronze medalist in 2009, 9th in seniors this year, she's a hope for Canada's future and considering the lack of depth in that field she actually has a good shot at making a name for herself in Canada. Anyways....

Where Alexe and Agnes were both US junior champions and Rachael was 2 time US silver medalist, junior world champion, and is the current US senior ladies champion, I think they all arguably have "glimpses of brilliance" or at least must Tom certainly think they all do. So I mean yeah at this point Rachael has accomplished more than Alexe or Agnes but they are still competitors that train together and I don't think Rachael is Tom's main priority or anything like that. And there don't seem to be any issues in sharing Tom either.

Mirai and Ellie is different because Frank has so many students and has always had so many students, you could exchange Ellie with Bebe or Laney or several other high level Frank students. Frank, like Tom, seems to coach a lot of skaters and isn't super selective as some coaches. Orser maybe seems a little more selective but that may just be because of Yuna who is such a big deal.

Kiri Baga and Kate Charbonneau are most definitely competitors who are at very comparable skating levels right now and likely have equally bright futures in figure skating for their respective countries (Kiri is maybe a bit better but the US field is also much deeper than the Canadian one). As far as I know the girls are good friends and it isn't a problem.

I don't think Mao will go to Frank Carroll but I don't think it should be a problem if she wants a coach who already is coaching a or several talented skaters. I mean if she wants to go to Yamada and train with Kanako, I don't see any problems arising from it.

[Akira Andrea]

Mao learned “the secret of longevity” from Tomomi of her senior as player.

This is an article in “Sports Hochi” in Japan.
Translation into English.
Mao learned “the secret of longevity in player’s life” from Tomomi of her senior as player.
May 30th, 2010 JST.

Mao Asada (19, Chukyo University), silver medalist in Vancouver Olympics and gold medalist in Worlds, participated to an event in Tokyo metropolitan area and got advice as for strengthening the lower half of the body from Tomomi Okazaki (38, Fuji Express) who participated together with her to the event, and is a veteran player of Ladies in speed skating.
Mao learned that "the secret to continuing the player's life for long time" is in "way to lift the hip up", from Okazaki who participated to five Olympics consecutively.
Referring to how to make a beautiful hip in Tomomi's way, Mao swore still more level-up from next season.

Mao learned the secret of “the monster”, too, from Okazaki whom she respects, while saying, “I think that she is great”.

She actually felt the profundity as for "the way to enjoy the Olympics" which the veteran player who had tasted the sweets and bitters of Olympics, points out.　What became a harvest above all, too, is the way of training in Okazaki's way.　 "Because we are same skater, I asked her what training I should do to do stable skating" said Mao.　
Okazaki explained as for the detail which Mao did not explain.
Okazaki revealed it with saying, "I advised as for the body making which the axis doesn't become unstable, namely, the reinforcement of the hips and legs, which is the secret way to skate for long time".

According to Okazaki, Mao seems to be doing the body improvement, aiming at making the new program of next season. Therefore, what Okazaki gave instruction to her is way to lift hip up in the Tomomi's way.
As for Okazaki, the size of the hips became 4 centimeters big and was 96 centimeters in front of the 38 year-old birthday (September 7th) last year and she faced Vancouver Olympics in February with the past best hip.
The very strong woman like iron said, “The basics are the hips and legs. I wish she make a beautiful gluteus maximus muscl in the degree which is not sturdy because the visual is valuable as for the player of the figure skating. I think that it is better to try at the various angles because she is the player who has a spirit of inquiry”.

Because the base value of jumps ,such as "triple-Axel", the pronoun of Mao, increases in the new rule revision in next season, the technique to lift the hip up in Tomomi's way must become reference for her.
In May 30th, Mao goes to Russia to have Tarasova coach the choreography of new program for next season.
In Russia, Tatiana Tarasova who is same as last season takes charge of short program. After having participated to an ice show in Korea in the middle of June, she goes to Canada and ties up with Lori Nichole after an interval of two seasons as for the choreography of the program for free skating. She finished recharging her battery in mind with having enough of her off-season in Hawaii. She declares, "I would like to achieve consecutive victory for two seasons running in Worlds in next season". What there is at the end of the sight is to get the gold medal in Sochi Olympics in 2014, of course. She will walk aiming at there with a rising tendency.

The photo:
Tomomi Okazaki (left) and Mao Asada (right) who participated to the event.
http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/photo/201...515803-1-L.jpg

The article:
Mao learned “the secret of longevity” from Tomomi of her senior as player.
http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/wi...OHT1T00005.htm

[pinky166]

I'm actually going to correct myself, it actually does seem like Rachael is Tom's top priority, I was just noticing how often Alexe and Ryan bring Becky Calvin with them on competitions instead of Tom, but Tom is always at all of Rachael's competitions so maybe she is his main focus, which is understandable because of all her accomplishments.

[FrouFrou]

Where Alexe and Agnes were both US junior champions and Rachael was 2 time US silver medalist, junior world champion, and is the current US senior ladies champion, I think they all arguably have "glimpses of brilliance" or at least must Tom certainly think they all do. So I mean yeah at this point Rachael has accomplished more than Alexe or Agnes but they are still competitors that train together and I don't think Rachael is Tom's main priority or anything like that. And there don't seem to be any issues in sharing Tom either.

I don't think Mao will go to Frank Carroll but I don't think it should be a problem if she wants a coach who already is coaching a or several talented skaters. I mean if she wants to go to Yamada and train with Kanako, I don't see any problems arising from it.

I'm actually going to correct myself, it actually does seem like Rachael is Tom's top priority, I was just noticing how often Alexe and Ryan bring Becky Calvin with them on competitions instead of Tom, but Tom is always at all of Rachael's competitions so maybe she is his main focus, which is understandable because of all her accomplishments.

I don't think it'd be a problem if Mao would want to go train with other skaters that are talented, but I doubt she would want to train with a person she views as a threat. And Mirai in next few seasons will get up there unless she turns out to be like Tiffany Chen or NNN.

And yes, you could argue that all three girl- Gilles, Agnes, and Rachael have "glimpses of brilliance" based on the titles they've won, but I don't automatically equate titles to the "it" factor that I was trying to imply to. I think that has to do more with consistency. This is all subjective matter & you could argue either which way but I definitely think that Mirai has an "it" factor that the other girls don't have right now.

It'll be interesting to see what Rachael decides to do. She's at a crossroads in her skating career. Academics is obviously very important to her and I think Tom is very excited about the prospects of Agnes' future.

I wish she make a beautiful big buttocks muscle in the degree which is not sturdy because the visual is valuable as for the player of the figure skating.

So that translates to: "Develop the gluteus maximus, but only to a jellow-like consistency because how you look is a big factor in figure skating and you don't want to be looking too butch."

[VIETgrlTerifa]

What about Hiroshi Nagakubo? I know that he coaches Akiko Suzuki, but how long is Suzuki planning on staying competitive? Even so, maybe Mao and Akiko could benefit from being training partners even if they are competitors.

[piano18]

Oh I don't like Lori programs. I think Mao really excels at primarily one style of music, so she picked Lori Nichol for this season to win..oh well. But Mao has skills!

Also, I hope she invests in a coach to work on the toe-loop among many things.