Thursday, April 29, 2010

Pic of the Week

Coaching Changes are abound! Several of my blogging contemporaries have filled you in on Samuelson and Bates' intention to train with the power duo Igor Shpilband and Marina Zoueva. We also caught wind a couple of weeks ago that Denis Ten will make the move to L.A. to train with Frank Carroll.

Nobunari Oda, too, it seems is making a switch too...or rather a return. Oda is going back to Lee Barkell", who coached him as a young'in and was Oda's coach as he debuted on the Senior level.

This season has been a complete head scratcher as far as Nobunari is concerned. Brilliant start at Trophy Eric Bompard and continued great performances all the way through until his Olympic Free Skate where he had to stop mid program, breaking that great Charlie Chaplin character and ending with an uninspiring finish. Then at worlds he popped every single jump in his short and failed to even qualify for the free skate...ouch.

Sometimes you just need a change. It's hard to say that Morozov, who coached Oda the past several seasons, is at fault with this poor season finish. Up until that Olympic Free Skate Oda was on a roll. I think it is just a shake-up that one has to go through to refocus themselves...get out of the comfort zone if you will.

He has his sights set on Sochi, fully committing himself to compete for the next four years training in both Japan and Canada. Time will tell if Oda can finally put all the pieces together.

1 comment:

JYKang said...

If you think about how long his wife had been pregnant for, it means he found out about the pregnancy during Olympics, which must have been a shocker!
I think he just has a lot on his mind right now besides figure skating. He just needs some quite time, and I'm sure he'll be back rolling again.
I'm gald that he's back working with Barkell. Hopefully he'll also go back to David Wilson for his choreography? I loved Charlie Chaplin but wasn't crazy about his other programs by Morozov.