The irrepressible, exasperating Mirai Nagasu, part II

[berthesghost]

Which is why I said I hope she finds a better training situation. And as to the 4 hour commute-how long is she going to rely on her mom? She's a young adult now-19 years old in April. She needs to start taking responsibility for herself some time. It's a burden on her mom I am sure to take 4 hours out of her day to drive Mirai. She's not a little kid anymore. I just hope Mirai makes some hard, thoughtful decisions to the benefit of herself, and her family very soon.

Well, that's on the days they actually go.

When all else fails, and she and her mom don't feel much like driving, she skates at a newly opened rink in Pasadena.

I think they're getting a lot of mileage out of that 4 hr commute story :wink :wink

[victoriaheidi]

Really? Sweet! In Pennsylvania I recall I had to take a written test, then a separate road test. I failed the road test the first time (I was told to turn at 20mph without putting my foot on the brake-yeah, I put my foot on the brake! I passed it the second time.

My nephews in Florida (16/18) told me they have to take some kind of mandatory drug/alcohol class nowadays, as well as a written test/road test.

We have a written test for the permit and a driving test for the license.

When my cousins were teenagers (20-ish years ago), their state (MI) had a written permit test and that was it-no driving test!

My failures were dumb: first time, I failed because I was in a left-turn lane and made the left turn once the light was red because I couldn't see over the car in the left-turn lane opposite me. The second time, I stopped in an intersection-I had a stop sign, the perpendicular street didn't. I looked left-right-left, thought I could go...couldn't, though, because a car came at me, 60 mph in a residential zone, with a cigarette in one hand and a cell phone in the other, trying to make a u-turn around me! And I'm the one who failed on that.

[sadya]

When I was 18, I failed about 2 times. I didn't retry, I was married off at the time and husband wanted me to join him. As the test was in Holland and husband lived in France, it was impossible to try again.

But in 1999-2000 I was taking driving lessons again, had been back in Holland. Guess what? I actually managed to fail about 4 times! During lessons everything was fine, but the nerves always beated me during driving tests. :-( I didn't really like driving anyway. If my parents didn't make me, I never would have taken driving lessons anyway. They didn't want to be the parents of the only daughter who doesn't drive cars.

I think I'm the only person in our family who failed a driving test about 6 time in total. I hope this make you all feel better who only fail once or twice. ;-)

[os168]

Wow Mirai passed her exam on the first go! Congrats! Now she can drive to her own coaching, totally liberating and empowering! And less work for mummy.

Surprised there's not more news about Mirai about her next steps, even from Phil! In a way it is good, less pressure for her to perform next time, however exasperating for the fans may be.

[kirkbiggestfan]

If Mirai and Frank ended up splitting, his phone would start ringing instantly. There are a lot of top skaters out there wanting to work with him. He would be perfect to package Gracie Gold better and work on her weaknesses.

[berthesghost]

I know that frank is said to be constantly busy with lots of b and c list skaters, but I don't think Americans ever bought into the idea of the "champion maker". It seemed like ilia was barely out the door before yags was beggin to be signed up, but frank produces the first us ogm in like forever and the us guys are like "nah, I'll stay where I am and stubbornly insist I'm right as I plummet in the standings"

[agalisgv]

He's probably speechless. All of the reports said Mirai had been kicking @$$ in practice leading up to both the SP and LP. She just got out there and blanked out. During the warm-up before the LP, she was hitting jump after jump (including a gorgeous 2a-3t). From outward appearances, she was ready. It just got down to it and she froze up again.

I doubt if there's anything Frank can say at this point...mentally, she checked out.

There were reports of those who saw her practice sessions prior to Nats, and the reports were less than spectacular. So I don't know how ready she was (and Mirai indicated there were readiness questions in her interview just prior to Nats).

[kwanatic]

There were reports of those who saw her practice sessions prior to Nats, and the reports were less than spectacular. So I don't know how ready she was (and Mirai indicated there were readiness questions in her interview just prior to Nats).

All of the reports I read said she was looking good and landing her jumps. In the warm-ups prior to both of her programs she was looking good as well.

I don't recall hearing about any where they said she was looking particularly bad; do you have links to any of those?

[agalisgv]

These weren't during Nats, but in the weeks leading up to Nats. I believe they were in the previous Mirai thread. I'll see if I can find it.

ETA: Found it--but I misremembered the report. It was actually about Zhang, not Nagasu. My bad

[Anita18]

Not clear if she also passed the road test just yet, but if so she can drive HERSELF to the rink/s from now on!

I passed my driving test with barely no errors (got a little awkward changing lanes) and I wouldn't dare have driven freeways and mountain roads 2 hours at at a time back then. It was probably after 5 years of driving that I felt comfortable with it. I've now been driving for 10 years and 5 hours on the freeway no longer fazes me.

I remember my legs would tense up MAJORLY when driving freeways the first year or so I had my license. That's probably not the best warmup for skating!

[Sasha'sSpins]

Wow Mirai passed her exam on the first go! Congrats! Now she can drive to her own coaching, totally liberating and empowering! And less work for mummy.

Surprised there's not more news about Mirai about her next steps, even from Phil! In a way it is good, less pressure for her to perform next time, however exasperating for the fans may be.

Pretty much what I said in a nutshell!

IIRC I think the only truly concerning reports were that Mirai's training environment seemed unstable-4 hour drives when training with Frank (and only training with her primary coach twice a week I believe) the rest of the time going from one rink to the other, training with Arturian and even training by herself (NOT good imo). Even Mirai seemed to say in interviews that her current training situation was not ideal.

I think an elite athlete should be training with their primary coach far more than just twice a week-at least 5 or 6 days a out of the week imo. And I don't think someone like Mirai who apparently has some motivation/discipline issues should be training by herself. Twice a week-4 hour drives appear to be all the Nagasu's can handle-and who can blame them? I do hope a better scenario can be worked out for Mirai-and soon.

[modern_muslimah]

I passed my driving test with barely no errors (got a little awkward changing lanes) and I wouldn't dare have driven freeways and mountain roads 2 hours at at a time back then. It was probably after 5 years of driving that I felt comfortable with it. I've now been driving for 10 years and 5 hours on the freeway no longer fazes me.

I remember my legs would tense up MAJORLY when driving freeways the first year or so I had my license.

I wonder if it depends on when you get your license. I got my license less than a year ago and I had no problem making a two hour drive on the Ohio Turnpike only a few weeks after getting my license. One of the reasons why I wanted to get my license was so that I would be more free to make highway excursions if I wanted to.

However, I spoke to a friend a while ago and she said that she was afraid of driving alone at all when she first got her license and she also got her license as a teenager.

I guess it ultimately comes down to comfort level.

[berthesghost]

I think it's personality driven. I got my lic at 17 and have never shied away from driving: long trips, storms, foreign counties, etc... My husband got his at 30 and although he tends to get out of driving if he can, he has driven long trips trips, in foreign places,etc... A cousin got her lic at 16 and has never once driven since. Not once. And she's 26!

I will say this, mirai is almost 19 and is just getting her lic now, so if I had to venture a guess, I'd bet she's not gonna be jumping at the chance to drive much. But who knows.

[icellist]

just wondering, can anybody find Mirai's SP at Skate America 2008?

[UGG]

When was the last time Caroline Zhang placed ahead of Mirai when they went head to head? had to be at least 4 seasons right?

[Anita18]

I wonder if it depends on when you get your license. I got my license less than a year ago and I had no problem making a two hour drive on the Ohio Turnpike only a few weeks after getting my license. One of the reasons why I wanted to get my license was so that I would be more free to make highway excursions if I wanted to.

However, I spoke to a friend a while ago and she said that she was afraid of driving alone at all when she first got her license and she also got her license as a teenager.

I guess it ultimately comes down to comfort level.

You also aren't driving in California. I got my license at 18, which is a little late but not extraordinarily late. The fear of being in control of a deadly machine scared me most, frankly.

I wasn't very comfortable driving on freeways until two weeks into having to drive to classes off-campus on LA freeways. I'm a pro at it now. But I certainly wouldn't recommend it to a completely new driver! There's a lot of psychology you have to work out when driving here, because there's a lot of fast cars and not everyone uses their turn signal. My sister readily drives in the Bay Area and she haaates having to navigate the freeways down south.

[chipso1]

When was the last time Caroline Zhang placed ahead of Mirai when they went head to head? had to be at least 4 seasons right?

I believe the last time was 2009 U.S. Nationals when Caroline was 3rd and Mirai 5th. That was the year Mirai's injuries and growth spurts seemed to affect her the most, but I'll always remember her FS that year when she started like and ended like .

[FiveRinger]

I was in Los Angeles a few years ago and the highway traffic freaked me out. I wasn't even driving. I say this as someone who has a drivers license gor 25+ years. There is no way in hell I would want a new driver with no experience out there

[Anita18]

It's hilarious - the last time my sister was here, I was talking her through some of the thinking I have to do to drive on the freeways here. "See how this guy on the right is speeding up? He'll probably cut in front of me, so I'll leave him some room....When you want to change lanes and it's crowded, use your signal and let it click 3-5x at most, but not to ask. You're basically TELLING them that you're gonna go in if there's physically room. If you start to merge and there's no room, obviously go back to your lane, but usually people will let you in if you assert yourself. (This part is scary!) And don't leave the signal on too long, otherwise people will think you forgot about it!"

It's all automatic for me now, but I remember when I was a new driver, there were SO many things I needed to keep in mind, I couldn't handle all that driver psychology on top of that! You have to be comfortable with driving first, THEN you can add all the other stuff on top.

And for teen drivers who are overly confident in their abilities? Well, there ARE lots of accidents and fender benders that occur here around the clock.

[IceAlisa]

Hmmm, I am from the Bay Area where I drive a lot and I don't recall being aware about anything different when I drove in LA.

There were reports of those who saw her practice sessions prior to Nats, and the reports were less than spectacular. So I don't know how ready she was (and Mirai indicated there were readiness questions in her interview just prior to Nats).

Really? Where are these reports? I've seen all Mirai's practices but one.