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09.25.2009 Nikkei Shinbun Step! Step! Step! vol.2: Part 2"Oh, he is bad." Nagamitsu grimaced when he jumped for the first time in May. It's because not only he backed away due to fear but also the knee position has changed through rehab. A former Olympic athlete Takeshi Honda, who worked with him as a coach for jump says "The correction of knee makes him able to take off straight. But this straightness is different from previous one. If he jumps with previous feeling, he goes to wrong direction."
Takeoff, speed, curve preceding jump, timing. These are essentials of jump. Timing should be thought as a more important factor for Takahashi who has injury but jumping with his previous sense would go wrong. He started from single jumps and spent much time for double jumps. Honda showed examples of how to keep his weight and move his feet on the ice and Takahashi arranged it and captured his own new sense. They repeated those. It took two month to get 3A back.
He changed the way of jumping one of six kinds of jumps, toe-loop, which he does as the most dynamic element, 4 toe-loop. He curves the same all the time and lands after completing rotation. From the beginning of August until recently he spent time to complete quadruple rotations in tight position without thinking about landing. The current jump isn’t as high as previous jump but has good rotation speed and is compact. “Good quality jumps which would get additional points.”, says Makoto Okazaki who is a ISU technical specialist.
His body has changed through rehab and his technical skill has also improved. However rare people can do such things. A trainer of JSF Osamu Kato is impressed, saying “It’s not easy to change one’s body and even more, if a person has grown up, it’s hard to increase one’s flexibility. ” Takahashi who has rich expressiveness, was described as “sensitive” and the same thing can be said about his body itself. Easy to react to stimulation and “He can immediately make what he is told into shape.”(Nagamitsu) His way of walking is more beautiful now.
His body absorbs various things naturally. As a common characteristic to such a genius, Takahashi's technical explanation is somewhat unclear. For him, how to spin is like this, “It’s like catching speed and centrifugal force and then ヒュークイツ.(<- sounds like ‘Hue-quit’ ???
)” He doesn’t remember well how he learned skating, though he remembers a girl who he liked at that time. He mastered technique and expression by observing other skater and “expanding the images in my head.”
He used to sense the atmosphere around him but he is trying not to do so much. In his words, “I became brazen.” He moved around from place to place, Fukuoka, Chukyo Univ. and Korea in August. Due to coyness he couldn’t play his own music before when he joined other skaters’ practice but now he can. He also keeps the comfortable place for himself in locker room immediately. He determines priority order for each things spontaneously. “Caring about things around is what I should do after I accomplish what is required. Thanks to that, I’m spending days with clear mind.”
Whenever he has spare time, he massages his right knee and stretches his body which becomes stiff easily. It takes two hours when he does those carefully before practice. Nagamitsu says “He avoids fat food which he likes and he stays home though he used to say like ‘I have a good feeling after I go out and paly.’ It won’t last unless he keeps himself in shape. I think he realized a sense of contentment from productive practice.” Takahashi says avoiding eye contact “Perhaps I will be better than before.” It seems he broke out of his shell.Finlandia Trophy where he can convince himself of it, is just two weeks away.
Written by Makiko Hara
The support system is being prepared steadily.The support system is ready for comeback. In addition to Nagamitsu and Honda, ISU technical specialist Makoto Okazaki visits in order to check the level of programs once a month. Besides the existing physical trainer, Takahashi signed with Ajinomoto General Foods which supplies supplement and nutritional guidance to him. Ajinomoto doesn’t help him only daily menu but also its nutritional instructor taught him how to select food menu by visiting restaurants together. He became interested in cooking. Now he often cooks by himself and prepares a lunch box.
As for financial support, it is determined that he is going to appear in commercials as JOC’s symbol athlete.