This essay discusses Rika Kihira’s distinctive skating qualities, the recurring features of her successful triple axels, and the ideal approaches to coaching and choreography.
With a strong sense of urgency and expectation, it argues how Japanese figure skating should cultivate a world-class talent and guide her toward the Beijing Olympics.

2019-04-12
As exemplified by Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon,
as the very essence and flowering of Japan, a country where women have long been treasured more than anywhere else in the world,
we must respond to the greatest gift that God has bestowed upon Japan and the world.

Diary.

This is the chapter I published on 2019-03-25 under the title:
Because they have been raised within an extreme ideology in the form of the worst anti-Japanese education in human history.

The chapter I published on 2019-03-23 under the title
They do not understand at all why Rika Kihira shocked the world
ranked eighth in the official hashtag ranking for Mao Asada.

In figure skating, the one who dominates the rink becomes the champion.
Arakawa won the gold medal in Turin because, at that time, she was the one who dominated the rink.
Tara Lipinski won gold in Nagano over Michelle Kwan, who at that time was the best in the world at ruling the rink, because Lipinski sparkled from beginning to end and dominated the rink with a performance riding on speed that clearly surpassed Kwan’s.

Rika Kihira’s coaching team must more deeply recognize that she possesses some of the finest athletic instincts ever seen in figure skating, along with a beautifully balanced physique.
Her beauty as an athlete is of the highest order in history.
That is why they should coach her in a way that allows her always to dominate the rink.

They must understand that Rika Kihira is a figure skater of the highest order, and that mere Spartan discipline is the last thing she needs.
During practice, they should film both her successful and unsuccessful jumps on a smartphone and train her while showing them back to her.
This is an approach that also connects with the training habits of top athletes in other sports who have made effective use of such tools.

What does Kihira possess?

Once, in the concourse of Shin-Osaka Station, I happened to pass Miki Ando at extremely close range.
I felt from her an aura I could never have imagined from seeing only her performances on television.
Perhaps part of it was the strength that had appeared in her after becoming a mother.
But above all, there was something extraordinary in the power of her gaze.

The way she described Rika Kihira, who had burst onto the senior scene and was winning international events one after another, was exactly the same as my own view.
“She was born in every respect to do figure skating. Her physique, her athletic instincts, everything.”
Ando must have understood her own bodily characteristics, and at the same time perceived that Kihira’s body was extraordinarily close to an ideal for the sport.
That is why she could see that Kihira could become an absolute queen.

That same perception was reflected in Patrick Chan’s comment after watching her at the Grand Prix event in Canada.
He said that her skating was supremely beautiful.
That he had become captivated by it.

To return to the point.

There is a repeated pattern when Kihira fails on the triple axel.
And there is a consistent feature when she succeeds.
The time she takes before entering the triple axel is shorter than that of several other triple-axel jumpers.
In other words, she takes off naturally, as though flowing within the current of the program, without overthinking.

When she fails, there is also a repeated pattern.
The time before entering the takeoff becomes longer.
That means there is a problem in the flow of the performance.
When there is even a slight unnecessary pause before the triple axel, she fails with a very high probability.
Her body sinks too deeply, and the angle of her left takeoff leg becomes too steep.
This closely resembles the pattern when Mao Asada would fail.
If there is an unnecessary pause intended only for the triple axel, tension arises even in the greatest genius.

That is why I believe there are two ways for Kihira to succeed with the triple axel in the short program.
First, not to make it a stand-alone triple axel, but to connect it into a two-jump or three-jump sequence.
Second, not to isolate it as a special moment, but to place it naturally within the full flow of the performance.
If this is done, the unnecessary pause created by over-consciousness will not arise, and needless tension will not be produced.
Kihira is a naturally gifted athlete blessed with extraordinary spring in her body.
There is absolutely no need for her to tense up before jumping.

With the current short program, she will continue to make mistakes.
Its level of completion will remain low.
From the beginning of the music to the triple axel, there must be no strange pause.
The axel should not be isolated, but made part of a combination.
That is a necessary condition for making Kihira the overwhelming absolute queen through the Beijing Olympics.

Even if other skaters use lighter bodies to jump quadruples, the beauty of Kihira’s triple axel has a different order of value.
There are very few skaters whose beauty can rival it.
That is how special Kihira is.

The only one who does not understand this is Dixon.
I truly think he represents the extreme of incompetence.
He persistently demands a forced smile from Kihira before entering the triple axel and casually says that she can surely do it.
A forced smile is something any second-rate or third-rate skater can do.
That man understands nothing.
He does not understand at all why Rika Kihira shocked the world.
He is not worthy to coach her.
Most of the skaters he has coached must have been second-rate or third-rate skaters.

For the sake of Japan and the world, and in order to answer the expectations that all figure-skating fans place in Kihira, the federation should remove that coach.
What the world wants to see is the supreme beauty and perfection that has at last appeared.
No one wants to watch second-rate or third-rate tricks such as forced smiling.
It is Dixon’s coaching that interrupts the flow of the performance and creates the needless pause that leads to failure.
The one folly that absolutely must be avoided is to let the self-satisfied and misguided coaching of this man damage the greatest talent the world has been waiting for.

He probably does not understand what Japanese civilization and culture are.
The federation should find a coach who truly understands that Kihira is a once-in-history talent, who also understands that what she embodies is the depth and beauty of Japanese culture, and who holds the highest respect for the beauty she embodies.
To choose such a coach, one who can allow her to continue captivating sports lovers across the world every year as the overwhelming absolute queen while she remains active, is the urgent task laid upon the Japan Skating Federation.

There must be no unnecessary pause before the jumps, including the triple axel.
The music must suit Kihira’s charm.
The structure of the program must flow and continue to dominate the rink.
The performance must be of the highest order, capable of captivating every spectator in the world.
That must be achieved every year.
The federation must select choreographers and program architects who can deliver the finest moments to fans around the world and answer the world’s hopes and dreams.

The people of the Japan Skating Federation must recognize that achieving this is their responsibility and duty in response to the gift granted by God.
Japan is a country where “The Turntable of Civilization” is turning, and a country that must continue to lead the world for the next 170 years.
From long ago, as represented by Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon, Japan has been a country in which women have been treasured more than anywhere else in the world.
To answer the greatest gift God has bestowed upon Japan and the world as the very essence and flowering of that civilization.
That is their duty.

When she succeeds in the triple axel, she truly jumps it lightly and without apparent effort.
That is why it is all the more wonderful, and why it captivated figure-skating fans around the world with overwhelming beauty.

If Kihira is never to fail again,
the gold medal at the coming Beijing Olympics will belong to Rika Kihira.
That is because she is not merely blessed with natural talent.
She also fully understands that this is her mission.
She even chose a correspondence high school.
In other words, she has the absolute strength to understand that turning away from worldly distractions and walking the path of an absolute queen in figure skating is her life.
That single-minded strength, incomprehensible to ordinary people, is the spirit shared by all truly great athletes in every sport.

As for the coach in charge of Kihira’s choreography, why not choose that famous coach who once said, “I’m your fan too. Please give me your autograph”?
Because he surely understands the magnificence of Kihira’s skating and the source of its indescribable beauty.
He likely also holds respect for Japanese culture and civilization.
He would surely never give the foolish sort of instruction that persistently demands a forced smile at the beginning of the short program before the triple axel.
On the contrary, he would coach her only to let everything flow naturally, without tension, skating within the perfect beauty that is a gift from God.
He would guide her with only one thing in mind:
that Kihira’s magnificence should dominate the rink.

He, having openly declared himself her fan, is someone who has lived within the world of figure skating.
To let her dominate the rink would be nothing less than the completion of the charm and dream that figure skating has represented for him.

Japan Skating Federation.
You have wasted seventy years after the war.
Even in the world of figure skating, you have foolishly continued to allow improper outside pressure.
As citizens of Japan, a true great power that must lead the world alongside the United States for the next 170 years, you bear the responsibility to lead the world of figure skating from now on.
And understand as well that this is one of the quickest roads to peace and stability in the world.

You must never again allow yourselves to be slighted by neighboring countries.
If you repeat the tragedy of Mao Asada, then you should know that what awaits you will be the harsh judgment of history.
At international competitions, vigilance toward surrounding movements must never be neglected.
Not even for a moment.
Because on the stage of international sport, tensions outside the competition can affect athletes in unexpected ways.