Mirai Nagasu's future prospects

[4everchan]

idk, i will always support her while enjoying skating and support other skaters as well.

 

[MK's Winter]

Mirai will always be special to me. I do think she has it in her to do well. She's let all of the critics in her head and tries to please everyone. She just needs to say the hell with everyone it's time to do Mirai for Mirai. I think everything will fall together when she takes the weights off her shoulder. Go Mirai!!

 

[Weathergal]

Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but for some reason I think she connects pretty well with Tom Zakrajsek. He doesn't always strike me as having the most artistic skaters (Rachel Flatt, Brandon Mroz, etc.), but he seems to be a good technical coach, which I think is one of the things she needs. Controlling her nerves is the biggest thing though, of course. I wish her well and applaud her tenacity.

 

[noskates]

I think Mirai is 0 for 3 in match-ups with Polina (2 Nats and US Classic) so Nagasu definitely isn't clearly ahead of Edmunds by any measure.

However.............Polina beat her at Nats 2 years in a row, won 4CCs and did pretty well for herself at the Olympics and Worlds. What has Mirai done lately? I honestly have nothing against Mirai but I just won't expend any emotional angst over whether she still has it in her or not. I don't know what it is about Mirai but she really isn't a lot different than people like Rick Dornbush, or a handful of other skaters that have all the potential in the world and yet never quite seem to live up to it. But as the seasons go on this thread gets longer and longer and people still keep holding out hope that she will miraculously (and it would take a miracle) return to her form when she won Nationals. More power to her if she does - I just don't think it will ever happen.

 

[Jammers]

I have an impression that this third spot is doable for Mirai but given how consistent Polina is. I think maybe she should focus on actually beating Gracie instead.

Gracie would have to have meltdowns like 4CC for Mirai to beat her.

 

[chuckm]

It isn't just Ashley, Gracie and Polina. There's also Karen Chen, who placed third at Nationals this year. She was too young for Worlds 2015, but she won't be too young next year.

Gracie is a good role model for Mirai to aim at beating:
Gracie:
has great speed
has huge jumps
doesn't underrotate
doesn't flutz (she lips, but does only one flip in both programs)
is a great spinner

But what would help Mirai even more would be to emulate Ashley when it comes to presentation. Mirai needs to watch videos of herself skating and focus on her FACE so she can realize that a blank, expressionless face can take major PCS points off the table because it can create the impression in the judges' minds that she isn't fully committed to what she is doing.

 

[yyyskate]

Perhaps Mirai needs to watch little Karen's facial expression as well
that been said, I think Mirai's COR LP performance had really good moments of facial expression.
I still think Mirai just needs to be technically confident again. facial expression will come after. Mirai's golden pond EX still remains one of my fav EX of all time and I think her facial expression there is spot on.
Go Mirai

 

[yyyskate]

also, I think Mirai needs better choreo. some transitions perhaps needs to interpret music better and cleverer. e.g. she does double 3 into her loop jump. it is a difficult entry and GOE getter, but perhaps could be clever with it, let it flows with music better, or perhaps change it into other type of transitions. I think Ashley does that really well.
Mirai, at this stage should skate for herself, and aimed at leave beautiful programs for fan, that is the way to go.

 

[4everchan]

also, I think Mirai needs better choreo. some transitions perhaps needs to interpret music better and cleverer. e.g. she does double 3 into her loop jump. it is a difficult entry and GOE getter, but perhaps could be clever with it, let it flows with music better, or perhaps change it into other type of transitions. I think Ashley does that really well.
Mirai, at this stage should skate for herself, and aimed at leave beautiful programs for fan, that is the way to go.

I haven't followed her career much after 2010.. so many skaters got my attention internationally... but I remember her skating with joy and spring! I hope as you said, that she focuses on her joy of skating, for herself and fans first... I believe that the enormous pressure she has had to deal with is not helpful and that she shouldn't focus on competition with others, but on her own path... Competition comes from latin language... etymologically it means: to aspire, to strive together... I insist on together... I find it sad that nowadays, competitors are more seen as people to knock down or beat... Let's hope Mirai finds peace in the challenges she has seen and skates beautifully... Whether she finishes 10th or 1st, if she skates well, she will be proud of herself forever.

 

[chuckm]

Perhaps Mirai needs to watch little Karen's facial expression as well
that been said, I think Mirai's COR LP performance had really good moments of facial expression.
I still think Mirai just needs to be technically confident again. facial expression will come after. Mirai's golden pond EX still remains one of my fav EX of all time and I think her facial expression there is spot on.
Go Mirai

There are fewer technical elements in an exhibition program and exhibitions are not JUDGED; Mirai does not have worry about executing the elements so she can focus on expressing herself. Apparently she cannot do that in competition---all of her attention is on execution. That is very unfortunate, because other top skaters in competition can and do show expression while they skate, and they get higher PCS scores.

 

[lyndichee]

Mirai, at this stage should skate for herself, and aimed at leave beautiful programs for fan, that is the way to go.

Totally agree with this.

 

[MK's Winter]

Totally agree with this.

Me as well. When she gets everyone's negativity out of her head I think that's when she will be fine. She puts so much pressure on herself to make everyone else happy. Mirai needs to make Mirai happy.

 

[kwanatic]

Despite her less than stellar results, Mirai improved last year. I saw more fight and attack from her than we've seen since 2010. She had an incredibly unlucky break at nationals this year. I really think had she not fallen at the beginning that she'd have skated well enough to stay in the top 5. I guess we'll never know...

I would like to see her continue to skate, at least one more year. I think another season working with Tom Z may yield some better results.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

Despite her less than stellar results, Mirai improved last year. I saw more fight and attack from her than we've seen since 2010.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but I did not see any improvement. Were there any particular performances during the season that stood out to you? I'd like to rewatch and see if I notice more attack.

 

[StitchMonkey]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but I did not see any improvement. Were there any particular performances during the season that stood out to you? I'd like to rewatch and see if I notice more attack.

Well she did start landing her 3S again, which it had been a number of years since she had done so successfully. So that could be seen objectively as improvement.

 

[kwanatic]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but I did not see any improvement. Were there any particular performances during the season that stood out to you? I'd like to rewatch and see if I notice more attack.

For starters...

Well she did start landing her 3S again, which it had been a number of years since she had done so successfully. So that could be seen objectively as improvement.

^^:thumbsup: Mirai hadn't done a 3S since 2009 I think, so for her to reintroduce it and land it several times was an improvement.

Go back and watch her performances. No, she wasn't getting the rotation on the jumps but she went for everything IIRC. She didn't back off but kept attacking and she stood up on just about everything. To me, that's an improvement. She fought and didn't give up, which she used to do the second she missed something.

 

[tommybuffano12]

She got a lot of criticism for moving to Tom Z but I definitely think it paid off. Love Mirai's skating and hope she surprises people in the upcoming season!

 

[karne]

I think there's still quite a large issue as regards her underrotation. The reason I think this is still a problem is because she always looks so shocked when the TES comes up. She doesn't seem to know that she's doing it and seems genuinely shocked when the TES drops due to URs.

 

[drivingmissdaisy]

I think there's still quite a large issue as regards her underrotation. The reason I think this is still a problem is because she always looks so shocked when the TES comes up. She doesn't seem to know that she's doing it and seems genuinely shocked when the TES drops due to URs.

I've noticed that too, and it might be because she almost always lands her triple jumps right at 1/4 turn short, so she might not notice the difference between 89 degrees short and 91 degrees short, although that distinction makes a huge difference in the score.

 

[AC96]

Even though it seldom matters whether Mirai lands her jumps 89 or 91 degrees short, because technical callers tend not to follow the 1/4 turn distinction and go by what they arbitrarily think is underrotated...