View Full Version : Shizuka Arakawa at Tokyo Regionals
I attended the final day (freeskate) of Tokyo Regionals to see how Shizuka is doing. You know, it's not the happening Chubu Regionals with the triple axels, but this was held only 30 minutes away from home so why not?
Looked like Shizuka got off to a nice start of the season. Skating to the soundtrack Titanic (don't worry, it's beautifully edited and not at all annoying like typical soundtracks would be), she hit every jump along with quality in-betweens to win here again (last season she beat Fumie) . The jumps were (not necessarily in this order): 2axel, 3sal/3loop (underrotated), 3lutz/2loop, 3flip, 3loop, 3lutz, 3toe. Spins were as varied as ever (beautiful "donut" spin, etc.), Ina Bauer was there, and every turn I thought was done with deep edges. And this one part that looked like a straight line footwork section (I was working on my camera and distracted) was actually done with some attitude, which is great, cuz what shee needs the most is some ATTITUDE!
The program itself was nice, but not as appealing as last season's Turandott. Turandott really accentuated each element well and also showcased here flexibility, whereas Titanic just kinda melts, which requires some more character to sell.
Overall a great start! Too bad Fumie wasn't competing.
Marco
10-14-2002, 10:06 AM
Thanks Yuk for the report!
What? Fumie not competing? Is it an injury? or sickness? I hope this doesn't mean she has retired or turned pro?!
Anyways it is nice to hear that Shizuka is skating so well so early in the season! I hope she can keep this up in the GPs and her other later competitions! I hope she kept some surprisingly nice elements from last season though: like the forward catch spiral into 3loop, the ina bauer into 3toe3toe (!) and the serpentine steps! And early succuess at the 3sal3loop so I say good for her! I am sure she will ace it as she practices it more.
But why is the reigning Japanese silver medalist at regionals?
Hi Marco,
No no, I didn't mean Fumie's not competing at all this season. She just wasn't skating at the event.
As far as the jump entries go, I wasn't taking notes so don't remember... But I have this feeling that she entered every jump in an ordinary manner (i.e. crossovers); otherwise I would remember... I guess:?: You'll know for sure soon!
Do you think Fumie-if she was skating her best would have won ie do you think this will be the champ of the future.?
Fumie's best (say her Worlds' LP) I think would still beat what Shizuka did last night I think. While I think she could (actually she should!) beat Fumie, the international judges don't seem to appreciate Shizuka very much.
Look what happened to her at Skate America last year. Only a couple (GER and JPN, I remember?) of judges rewarded her fairly with a technical mark of 5.5-ish, and that with all seven triples including 3sal/3loop and pure lutzes, most of which were entered with variety of moves. And those of you who've seen her Turandott know she had a lot more to offer than just the jumps. She has a lot of depth in her skating with good edge work and flexibility in her body. She simply does a lot of stuff in between her jumps, and even just a fan like I can see that.
Fumie, as consistent as she is, I think is more of a "sophisticated performer" than a "skater" with profound techniques. She nowadays has the presence of her senior Yuka Sato on ice, in how she "takes her time," her I'm-feeling-a-lot facial expression, the way she moves, and most noticably (and this is outstanding), how smoothly and fast she strokes. But if you look closer, say her "footwork" section at the very end of her Moonlight Sonata, you can see she's pretty "flat." She's actually just running real fast to the music rather than actually doing complicated footwork like Yuka could do. Her jumps are all entered from crossovers, a couple of which are fluzes. Her eaglish move (what's it called that looks like a really short eagle leaning both backward and forward:?: ) is there but what's leaning is her body, not her blades. Her spins and spirals are smartly placed in the program but don't necessarily present flexibility. IMO Shizuka's got better techniques in a lot of elements, hence better marks (which haven't been the case at all).
Presentation, on the other hand, I understand why Fumie would get higher marks. She has flaws, but she seems to know exactly what her attributes are, and she presents her strengths maximally while trying to obviate her weaknesses as much as possible. She's a perfect Lori Nichol pupil!! And she gives you a big impression with the huge jumps and fast strokes/spins. Shizuka's jumps are not as big, and she's a very calm ice queen 8) which sometimes can appear as blank.
Anyway, my point is, I personally think Shizuka is a better skater but Fumie will probably win! My gosh, I reeeeally hope she can go to Worlds this season though. We have 3 tickets but you never know what'll happen with Onda, Nakano, and so on!
liljimeo
10-16-2002, 09:43 PM
I don't understand why international judges are so tuff with her either! I guess it has something to do with her up and down career. Owell.
She does have something Fumie is yet to premeir.. and thats triple-triples and even triple-triple-doubles. She's got 3sal/3loop's, 3toe-3toes, etc. I think Shizuka is respected more nationally. A clean Arakawa would beat a clean Suguri in Japan.. But a clean Suguri could be at least 10 placements ahead of a clean Arakawa at Worlds.
Marco
10-17-2002, 05:14 AM
Shizuka also landed a 3lutz3toe at the Nagano Olympics in the short!
Anyways I wish Shuzuka would project herself or her music more. She always has rather beautiful and difficult programs but she never really sells them. Too focused I think.
I would also like her to work on her posture, her line and her spinning.
miki_tan
10-17-2002, 07:19 AM
She was on radio show yesterday evening.
It was broadcasted via Internet. It was almost TV.
You can see from archive. 24min program.
http://www.impress.tv/im/article/bbn.htm
You can see by clicking below "ON DEMAND"
10XXX16XXXXX
line.
It include video clip of last season's Tokyo Regionals Short Program.
She talks about: (sometimes repeating same subject)
radio studio, Nagano Olympics(at age 16), SLC, her University
(Waseda, department of education), training, home rink(Meiji
Jingu Gaien), starting figure skating(at age 5 due to costume),
blades, Olympics, Midori Ito(is great/god), weight control(isn't
for numbers but for for body moves feeling), training hour
(max 3-4h/d, 8-9h/d at elementary school era), jumps, eating,
Next Olympics(at age 24), competitions(seeded to Nationals for
last years placement, but competed regionals two days ago),
skating music, video clip of last season's Tokyo regionals
short program, costume(made by her mother), spin is dizzy,
element is changed through season, off season training, target is
year by year, international competion(is decided by Nationals
palcement), keeping high level is tough, did also swimming(at
age 3-7), figure skating is costly, imitation for laugh.
Johou arigato, miki_tan!
It's nice to see her being her college-gal self:lol: Gosh I had no idea she was so funny and edgy!
Marco, I hear ya about her posture. And she does need to sell her programs... Sometimes it almost seems like she's just getting one element done after another without feeling the music. Oh well, that part has a lot to do with one's personality, and I'm not too confident she'll ever "learn" to sell the programs...
Interesting comment on her spins. I for one think spins are one of her strengthes?
Pic I took at the competition (Yamato and Shizuka chatting):
http://www.number7.jp/bbs/image/nishippy_144700685.jpg
If you can't load the pic, it might help to re-load once. Otherwise, sorry!
Marco
10-17-2002, 09:02 PM
Yuk, I like Shizuka's style, but she must learn to let go of herself a bit and be more involved with the music. This is precisely one of the resons why I prefer Fumie to her.
Regarding the spins, I think her spins are generally quite pretty except she never displays too much control or variations of positions in them.
miki_tan
10-19-2002, 12:46 PM
She is now competing other local competition.
Kanto University Student Championship
1 Shizuka ARAKAWA (WASEDA Univ)
5.6 5.6 5.4 5.5 5.8
5.7 5.6 5.5 5.6 5.8
1 1 1 1 1
Like Tokyo regional, SP score is very good.
Good choreographied program by Nikolai Morozov.
Reportedly she wore another costume than Tokyo regional
was also white and more gentle.
michele
10-21-2002, 05:55 PM
Thanks for the info everyone! I wish Shizuka the best of luck this season, although there are so many good Japanese ladies now that I don't know who to root for to make Worlds. :D
miki_tan
10-23-2002, 09:17 AM
Her Fan site (by Seiichi TAMAI) is updated today.
Now it have last weekend competion video clip.
http://skate.cx/shi-chan/index.html(Japanese page)
http://skate.cx/shi-chan/index_e.html(English page)
http://skate.jp/shi-chan/gallery/movie_e.shtml(movie page)
40th Kanto College (Higashi-Yamato City, Tokyo)
Oct. 19, 2002 Short Program 3Lz-2T 3F 2A
training wear
Oct. 20, 2002 Free Skating 3Lz-2T 3S 3F 3Lz 3T-2T 2A
last season's costume
Her free skating was so-so. Not great as Tokyo regionals.
Marco
10-24-2002, 04:58 AM
Thanks mini_tan for the url to the clips!
What's with Shizuka and modernised classical music? :twisted:
Anyways I like the first and last minute of her freeskate but not the middle bit where there were generic Titanic music. It seemed liek she didn't really care for the music though. Not as intricate and catchy as last year's free program.
Like the Swan Lake program but hate the music cuts that keep on repeating. Also I would advice Shizuka to lose some Swan arm moves because they are a bit excessive.
But wow! Hasn't she improved! I take back what I said about her spins. This year her spins are beautiful, fast and held. It's nice that she is holding the donut spin much much longer than she used to. Loved the arms flicking that went with the spin. Speed and jumps seem to be better and much more powerful. Very nice footwork and spirals. Now the only thing left is line and carriage!
adrianchew
10-24-2002, 10:17 AM
Is it me or did Arakawa change the freeskate content betwee Tokyo Regionals (based on the description provided here) and the video clip I'm seeing of Kanto?
Eg. no 3-lutz/3-loop at Kanto, its a 3-lutz/2-toe?
miki_tan
10-24-2002, 02:30 PM
Oct 13 Tokyo regional FS
3Lz-2Lp 3S-3Lp 3F 3Lz 3S 3T 2A
Oct 20 Kanto College FS
3Lz-2T 3S 3F 3Lz 3T-2T 2A
Someone said her 2A was actually 3A attempt.
It was doubled and rotated on ice after landing.
>What's with Shizuka and modernised classical music?
I heard this music was played by "KRYZLER&KOMPANY".
http://www.ein-a.com/t-hakase/discography/disco_kk.htm
adrianchew
10-24-2002, 02:35 PM
Thanks Miki for her jump info at the events.
Originally posted by Marco
Thanks mini_tan for the url to the clips!
But wow! Hasn't she improved! I take back what I said about her spins. This year her spins are beautiful, fast and held. It's nice that she is holding the donut spin much much longer than she used to. Loved the arms flicking that went with the spin. Speed and jumps seem to be better and much more powerful. Very nice footwork and spirals. Now the only thing left is line and carriage!
See?:mrgreen: Told ya! ;)
I wish:
-she held her spirals a LOT longer
-her straightline footwork were more complicated (but still love the fact she's using that move to highlight the program at all!)
-she actually CARED about the music, let alone feeling and expressing it...
Arigato Miki_tan for the link to the video clips!
miki_tan
11-21-2002, 08:13 AM
Finally, her fan site have video clips of this competition!
(Unfortunetly English page don't have link to this file yet.)
http://skate.jp/shi-chan/gallery/movie.shtml
# Webmaster wrote "please do not link to a picture directly".
Breakdown787
11-21-2002, 06:19 PM
I really like her SP, it has flair and generally better flow than before. The footwork section is great (compare with all the easy and shallow footwork done by the ladies this year) and her spins have improve. The spirals needs to be improve and she needs to hold her moves alittle longer. Her FP is nice and the music choice wasn't that shabby, however it did not live up to Turandot.
Her Turandot programs was one of my favorite last year, it was more entricate, difficult, and intresting overall. I feel like she was just bouncing from one jump to the next in the Titanic program howeve the Turandot programs had more connecting moves and flow. I also miss her spiral into the T.Flip and the Ina Bauer into the T.toe-T.toe combo. The program overall reflected better of Arakawa strength interpetation of the music while Titanic left me kinda empty.
icyboid
11-22-2002, 07:19 PM
Wow, what an improvement! I hope she does well at Worlds this year and takes home a medal.
Does Shizuka have a triple axel? That axel she did at the Tokyo competition looked like a double axel with an extra rotation done entirely on the ice, lol.
Marco
11-22-2002, 08:24 PM
I don't know if that was intended to be a 3axel - I mean, she did it last in her program with 15 seconds to go, and she didn't even have a lot of speed going into it.
icyboid
11-27-2002, 02:52 AM
Well, it was the cleanest/smoothest overrotation (is that too much of a contradiction? :lol: ) I've ever seen.
miki_tan
11-27-2002, 02:55 AM
deleted because of link didn't work
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