朝日新聞高橋大輔 失敗も意味がある

Asahi Shinbun-Daisuke Takahashi: even failures happen for a reason

Daisuke Takahashi said, after the rollercoaster season - having won GPF, while falling to the 7th place at 4CC and 6th at Worlds, that he thinks of this season as a chance to learn from the failures. While a success gives you the satisfaction, failures give you an opportunity to regroup and look into the cause and reasons. He has no regret or anxiety.

This season, he switched from straight blades to ones that are more curved. The curved blades would interact at a point, rather than in a line, with the ice surface. The intention was for this change to to help him further improve upon his strength, the edge work, said Ms. Nagamitsu.  

Takahashi steadily improved during the first half of the season, including the improved success of 4T. However, at 4CC and Worlds, he not only failed his quads but also showed inconsistency on his 3A.

He struggled with both take-offs and landings. They decided that the new blades were a failure. HE went back to the old blades for WTT. He was able to rotate and land a quad, albeit with a hand on ice, on FS, and won the event. The familiar skating sense   came back.

Through this roller-coaster season, he realized that he is not at all a constantly-on-top athlete like Ichiro.  Now that he gave up the notion that he needs to keep winning as Japan’s “ace,” He will be able to focus on his mental game during his last season.

He feels that the prevailing idea in sports – failing is bad and taking a long path to success is a waste – can discourage kids from learning, and also lead to corporal punishment and physical abuse. When he has an opportunity to interact with young skaters and their coaches, he tells them not to expect an immediate result. Even failures  happen for a reason, so there is no need to rush to achieve a success. This is what he feels for his own path as well.

http://www.asahi.com/shimen/articles/TKY201304160618.html