Will Shunsuke Nagasaki Bounce Back?

[PizzaKing57]

I created this poll to see whether you think Shunsuke Nagasaki will bounce back and have a good run left in him, as he's been falling into a downward slump after 33, when he failed the Flying Bar twice in the 3rd Stage, then unexpectedly failed the Spider Walk twice in the 2nd Stage and then worst of all, failed the 1st Stage three consecutive times in a row.

I voted yes, as he's only 33 and still got time left for him to turn things around, I understand that he may not be training that much hard for SASUKE anymore because of family and work reasons, which contributed to his three 1st Stage fails but I think that if he trains a little harder, he might be able to do it and I personally would like to see him return to the Cliffhanger once more before his retirement.

At least he hasn't said anything about wanting to retire yet and even plans to compete with his baby brother Takamasa again, which will be very exciting but that all determines as to whether Takamasa is healthy enough to do so or not, considering he fell into that stroke last month and is unable to drive for a couple of years.

[tns8597]

I'm not sure personally.

His head's clearly not in the game anymore which has resulted in a pretty clear gradual decline in his performances. In 32 and 33 he reached Stage 3 and was ranked among the top competitors of the time along with Drew and Morimoto, but the last 5 competitions have all given me the impression that his head wasn't really screwed on and that he clearly didn't prioritize it as much as he did before. I got this impression as all of these recent fails included an air of not taking account for a particular aspect of an obstacle, such as him not making sure his footing was stable in 34 before mounting the Spider Walk, or going into the Fishbone in 37 without working out a rhythm to avoid being hit; he just went into the obstacle, realised he'd screwed up the timing, then while hesitating just got hit by one of the poles.

Also, it seems as though as his responsibilities in other areas have increased, such as becoming a father, working long hours for a removals firm, and his brother's stroke, his performances have seen a gradual decline so it can definitely be attributed to his mind being set on other, more important things. He even posted on Instagram a video of him training the Cliffhanger 180 jump, saying that it was the first time he'd trained in 6 months, which sort of speaks for itself.

I personally wouldn't be surprised if he failed Stage 1 a couple more times, most likely in the form of a mental error on the Dragon Glider or an equivalently do-or-die obstacle, and then just retired for good to focus on his family and career. The reason I'm holding out for him though is because his period and extent of decline isn't quite as bad as, say, Hitoshi Kanno who's been screwed by constant injuries and not having cleared Stage 1 for more than 5 years now: if it was to that level then I'd definitely go with no. But he's still only 3 Stage 1 fails deep (which given his past consistency is still pretty bad but we've seen redemption runs following worse streaks) and clearly has the potential to do well if his performances from 29-33 are anything to go by. Even in 35, he was only one of 8 to clear a revamped Stage 1 so the skill is still there. He just needs to get his head back into the Sasuke game and train more frequently with his comrades if he wants to improve on his recent performances, which I can totally understand if he doesn't want to or doesn't have the time to, but that's what's required to do well at Sasuke. You can't have it all.