Miho's favorites

Skating Competition is mostly like a mind game , and it’s like who has the most mind toughness ,most successful for their mind setting. Exceptional example of this may be Plushenko.  Most skaters can be inconsistent depending on the situation and I can really see how difficult it is to keep winning. Once a skater wins, he/she gets high expectation from audience, and gets high pressure for next competition. And many can not handle the pressure and nerves.  A skater who has less expectation from audience may be more relaxed and show their best at every competition. Also even small things can bother a skater’s mind, such as ice condition , blade problem , personal life issue , health condition etc.. Some skaters are stronger at SP than FP, and after SP, I always think it’s one of the most important times for mind-setting which influences the final result. Some are weak at SP, and might get less expectation from audience, and that makes them less pressure and make...

Whoa !  So many things have been in my mind since my last blog , but finally, I got to write about my impression of Skate America. This season I may not be able to spend much time for my hobby though I will try to take a time for it. I thought it won’t be shown in the US broadcast for all the GPS competitions anymore except for ladies LP, but somehow, Ray happened to turn on the TV on Sunday afternoon, and found a Japanese skater Kozuka had just finished his FP. And we were able to see Johnny’s FP in NBC broadcast. They often change the schedule, so we may need to constantly check the info about it to watch it. During the live competitions, I was at my computer with nerve , and after seeing the result of Johnny and placed in behind Kozuka , I had a bad feeling , … really bad feeling.. But after seeing Lysacek’s result, suddenly my feeling became much better. Yes ! 1. Takahiko Kozuka - Gold 2. Johnny Weir - Silver 3. Evan Lysacek - Bronze Takahiko Kozuka I onl...

Since I started watching figure skating competitions, I found it’s fun to make predictions for the medallists every event besides enjoy watching all the performances. It’s a game. People always make predictions based on the past results. But this is also a skater’s mind toughness competition, besides things are often changing every season, every event, so anything can happen, Also judging system changed some parts since this season again, so it’s more difficult to predict. I think there is always no sure prediction. It’s just prediction. It’s also scary to predict for my favorite skater Johnny Weir since I seriously wish him to be on the top of the podium every event from bottom of my heart. I get so nervous whenever he is at COP. And from my analysis , when many people were expecting him to win, it didn’t happen. Now I feel more scary since I saw many people are predicting him to win. So I try not to think about it. Here is the list of skaters for Skate America, Men...

It’s really a shame to hear Lambiel's retirement… I still can not get it in my mind, and it will surely hit me and will miss him when COP starts especially in Skate Canada. Lambiel is always one of my second favorite skaters who gave me fun and excitement since 2006 Worlds. My favorite is his Dralion he did in worlds 2006. His unique creative artistic dance in it inspired me a lot , I call it the Lambiel dance. Even though I was guessing he may not be in next Olympics seeing his health condition in past two years, when the time came, and have to face and accept the reality, it’s sad. Hope he will have a great life and hopefully will have an opportunity to see his skating again. There was also an article about " Brian Joubert speaks about Stephane's retirement: The french skater has an idea about the reasons that pushed Lambiel to stop. "Since his second world title, he was not well anymore mentaly" said Joubert, who also pointed out a physical problem. ...

Johnny’s new teleconference with U.S. media is up, and he sounds like very well focused and fired-up for this season ! And his training sounds going well. ( Article ) “ I work every day in Russian which is a foreign language for me,” he said. “For Soviet and Russian sportsmen there was always a sense of determination and need that people felt through sport, so if you were not the best you would not achieve very much in life,” Weir said. “The Russian coaches, especially of those of Galina’s era, all teach in a very Soviet way and if you are not doing the maximum to achieve a result you may as well stop training. “Of course, sometimes it is a little stressful training in the Russian system because they have a very different way of teaching and communicating than it was with my American coach. But, I am thriving under the system and I hope to continue to grow and keep getting better and better. “In America people have the chance to be lazy because we have never had to sacrifice one a...

Seems like Stephane Lambiel is going to have a press conference for his new announcement “ crucial change” in Switzerland on Thursday and people are worrying he may retire or take a season off . And According to GPS lists in Skate Canada and TEB, He has been crossed off for both of the events SC and TEB. It means that it’s surely he is not going to compete in GPS this season. I won’t miss Jeffrey Buttle’s skating much, but Lambiel is my second favorite skater who often gave me fun with his unique creative artistic speedy skating, so surely I will miss his skating. It also hurts to watch him being placed in lower place with his disappointed face, struggling with his injury though. .. His injury sounded bad and even though his mind wants to compete, his body doesn’t want to. When we got injury or felt pain or had illness, I’ve read that it’s a sign to take a break. And is doing something wrong, unbalancing and it also may come from stress. Hopefully Johnny is fine. My ideal podium i...

It’s already autumn here in Tucson. After Spring, Autumn is my next favorite season. Autumn in New England   From the words autumn, colorful leaves in a park always come to my mind. Then light coat, brown & yellow & red colors, couples. And love to listen to George Winston’s autumn, Ryuichi Sakamoto ‘s classic music , or Chopin with some books. However, since we moved here, that image of scenery is like another world. It’s still sunny outside , and I feel only air is autumn. Autumn in Tucson It was Columbus day yesterday, so most of the stores were closed , and my feeling was wanting to take some nature photos. It was a beautiful day ! People here is still wearing short sleeves T-shirts, but I felt cold .. so was wearing long sleeve shirt. No one was at the pool already. Very quiet, and peaceful. I love to take nature photos but also I'm hoping to take a good skating photos of Johnny, Navka and Sandhu someday. I did take some photos...

I found news about Stephane Lambiel’s most recent situation at ice network.com. According to the article, it sounds like Lambiel is still struggling with his injury after he re- started his training in NJ. And he may withdraw from Skate Canada. Johnny says that they are not training together anymore because it’s close to competitions. He also said that "Viktor is away doing shows, so Galina and Nina [Petrenko] are taking care of both of us right now. In the morning, I practice from 9:30 to 10:30, and then he gets on just as I'm finishing. Same thing in the afternoon. “ I’m surprised to hear that it means Johnny is training only 2 hours a day on ice ??? One hour training in the morning and one hour in the afternoon ?? I wonder that it’s enough training for him ?? His training until last season seems like 90 minutes in the morning and 90 minutes in the afternoon. So I guess his training time on ice was changed ... Total of losing one hour training time sounds p...

I’m still looking for Sandhu’s final audition for “ So You think You can dance “ on YouTube and haven’t seen it yet. But when I saw the top 20 dancers list , Sandhu’s name was not there. According to the article, “ After the judges had made their decisions, Emanuel Sandhu was first on stage. The judges said they debated his fate more than any other dancer as they loved his tricks and his ballet training, but in the end thought his transitions just weren't there. Even still, he was optimistic and trusted that there was something else out there for him. “ Sounds like Sandhu’s dance was not what they were looking for and was not fit with their theme. I saw the top 20 dancers who passed the audition, some parts of performances, but I was not so impressed with any of them. It reminds me of many dancers in the movie " Chorus line ". I used to like the movie , not the story but it was fun to watch many dancers in it. I watched for each dancer’s every detail of m...

Many successful people often say these quotes, " Nothing is impossible. Never give up !" While I was checking Tatiana Navka / Roman Kostomorv ’s official site, I found Navka’s favorite quotes are those words. First, I thought it’s very simple quotes , not so unique, so I was wondering why ? I also saw Jeremy Wariner said those quote in interview. Also many other successful Olympic athletes, Successful Hollywood actresses, musicians and business owners. But when I was re- thinking those quotes deeply, suddenly I realized that it’s very powerful words and gave me fire and high energy. They all believed they can do it with burning desire and well balanced focus , thinking only one thing. And that got successful result. But once successful people achieved their goal , often the burning fire is gone. Keep winning is not easy. Once they won it, or got huge hit, no starving mind left anymore , easy to become lazy. Also high pressure appears from public expectatio...

Emanuel Sandhu is always one of my favorite artistic skater s , as well as Johnny Weir and Tatiana Navka . Since Sandhu stopped competing , I missed his skating a lot. I found his incredibly dancing skill when I saw his tango performance in 2004 worlds. He fell on most of his jumps in it, but his dancing was amazing. I thought he became a completely different person on ice and Tango’s Sandhu looked so cool. And his beautiful each detailed line of movements was so magical. I look more for whole performance than each element, I don’t only sort to watch how footwork was , spins were , jumps were , and choreography was. For competitions, to check scores, I need to watch that way, but as an entertainment, I usually don’t. I thought Sandhu and Johnny both are far above, in a class of their own in artistry because of their beautiful artistic line of movements, natural expression, with deep emotion. According to the latest Sandhu’s news, he has just passed his first audition for ...

Seems like Japanese Johnny fans voted for what they want Johnny to perform in COI and the result was The Swan won. The Swan is always Johnny’s most popular program in his fans , so I’m not surprised for the result. It must be breathtaking and surely it made all his Japanese fans happy. Johnny is so sweet to listen to his fan’s request. I wonder that if Rondo would win it, he would perform it with the Rondo costume ? I’ve also heard that Johnny was not planning to perform same numbers as he did in DOI Japan and he performed The swan ( EX version ) and Danse Mon Esmeralda ( new ). and Esmeralda is a part of his new FP ? Someone was saying that Johnny was wearing Ave Maria costume for Esmeralda number. I also saw that one part of opening scene on YouTube and it looked like Johnny was wearing black with red line design costume which he was using in his practice and he was performing with Shizuka in it. Looked like Miki Ando and Shizuka Arakawa were queens of the opening show. ...