Fresca

His Notte Stellata program also goes well with [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x55doVYxwbQ]Des'ree's Kissing You[/link]. If I had the skills I would create a MAD so people could see how pretty they are together :love:

Aww I read this before and rereading this again, it is still a very touching documentary. :crybaby: I was shocked the first time when I read that he had thought about to quit skating right after that. Thank god he did not. The world and especially us fans would've been deprived of him. It also reminds me why I love his Hana Ni Nare program...his message, "If you don’t give up, tomorrow will come with hope.” :s_thumbsup If you can watch from the bilibili website, the "Yuzu x cat" moment is around 05:30 of the video :love: (meow~) Thanks for the video link! Yuzu is such a genuinely lovely and inspiring person. And Yuzu and the kitty are so adorable :love:. If he does get a pet cat, this would be the only possible competition of Pooh in his heart hahaha. Which one will get more pats and huggles??

EDIT: Sorry I thought I had found the video of Yuzu and cat but the video's been made private. You can still find the translation [link=https://sportymags.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/yuzuru-hanyu-bringing-the-world-together/]here[/link] but I can't find another video link.

Blast from the past while looking for that video clip with Yuzu and the cat. [link=http://nicoviewer.net/sm11585666]Yuzu at 15 playing baseball.[/link] He's got an arm! :bow:

:rofl2: Eteri's girls would steal that Yuzu banner from you!

Yes, Yuzu would definitely understand what Tetsuya Kamakawa was talking about because Yuzu does the exact same thing as Mr. Kumakawa when he fixes his jumps. Yuzu's uncanny sense of balance and alignment, like a cat, is what differentiates him from the rest of the pack. Even if his alignment is not quite right, he knows how to make the right adjustments in his body to fix it in the air or to fix it in his landing position. For example, [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne7Z8Z5fDEI&t=373s]his 4Lo in his NHK 2016 FS[/link]. Even if his position in the air is too tilted forward, he manages to fix it when he opens up by simultaneously putting his landing foot forward and his upper torso back using a torso contraction to land with his foot under his center of gravity. Amazing. :bow:

Aiiiii!! So sweet!! Such a pretty cat :love:

Yes, it's definitely one of the better ones along with the Ghana one and the last one he wore to the JSF event with Marin which makes me even sadder when I see how big it is At least his sleeves here don't go past his wrists and the jacket length is ok. Yes, he's a cat person. [link=https://m.facebook.com/groups/1610393525875114?view=permalink&id=1767166246864507]Here's[/link] the Ghana interview where he mentions that he wants a pet cat but can't have one because of his asthma. The picture of Yuzu with the cat is from a TV feature where he went to visit some tsunami victims and the house of the couple he visited had a pet cat. It was so cute when Yuzu said hi to the cat with some head and ear scratches. I will look for the clip later when I have time.

Yuzu's suit is too big while Shohei Otani's suit fits him so well!!! :sadPooh: :sadPooh: :sadPooh: Yuzu, where is your competitive spirit when it comes to suits?? :cry: Look at that perfect sleeve length which shows just the right amount of shirt cuff, the construction and seaming of the jacket at the shoulders, the fit of the arms, the straight fall of the pants with the right length to give it a slight break and I love the narrow blue pinstripe. You can tell it's well made not just by the fit but also by the way the tailor was careful to make sure the spacing of the stripes is symmetrical on both sides and tried to match the stripes as much as possible at the shoulders and in the darting/pockets of the jackets to give the illusion of continuous stripes even if the fabric is cut/seamed. Shohei, please send Yuzu to your tailor! To be clear, I don't work in fashion but I have quite a few friends who do and they have taught me to notice these things :yes:

They never seem to be his size :sadPooh: although over time the mismatch has gotten rather cute Yeah, I should have said "a tux or suit that fits him". Though even with the wrong size of suit he looks cute :devil: If it's a costume, the probability that the suit will fit him is high. The man who did his Prince costumes is a good tailor. The fit of those waistcoats was yum :love:

[link=https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-22cuafSsWgw/VGTOg4upqAI/AAAAAAAAA1k/AxNaaZzSs30/s1600/shf-tuxedo-mask-mamoru.jpg]But he'd look so good.[/link] :sadPooh:

I also think the head rolling is scary and I don't think his mummy arms look very nice either (I find Yuzu's air position with arms in jazz 1st and neutral head is so much prettier) but I can't fault his alignment. Maybe, but I am talking more about the way he unwraps his free leg. It does not necessarily mean that it is wrong though, it just bothers me but I can't explain why :p Maybe fresca can explain better Yes, Nathan lands unbalanced. When he lands he doesn't quite get his foot under his center of gravity so he opens his hip and swings his free leg to the side and back and uses that to wrench his upper body to move his center of gravity so it is over his foot to balance himself. It's an alignment issue and bad for his hips. The hips should stay square and the movement of the free leg back should not be circular to the side (which means the hip is being raised) but under (more front to back). ETA: realised I missed some wording...I was half asleep when I wrote it.

Yes, it's fixable. It's not easy but it's more straightforward than alignment issues. Soft knees begin with the feet. In dance, good plie requires articulate strong feet that roll from the toe to the heel when landing jumps to cushion the impact and transfer it in a controlled manner from the foot to the ankle to the knee. Then, good plie requires strong leg, butt and core muscles to control the bending and straightening of the knee so the movement is smooth and continuous. In dance, to remedy this, you would be at the barre doing many, many repetitions of [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unv8TS3JO6U&t=33s]releve[/link] and [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeSVHYSMItg&t=27s]tendu[/link] to strengthen the feet, [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrBhcopjDZQ&t=27s]plie[/link] to strengthen the muscles and practice control of the knees, and basic jumps ([link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB-OsU0wfT4]saute[/link], [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEg0HJn8lQ8&t=50s]temps leve[/link]) to practice landing jumps with the right feet and plie. Boyang could do similar exercises for off-ice training but I guess the skating equivalent would be stroking exercises and simple jumps with difficult transitions out to ensure he has good control of his skates going out of jumps. Fixing balance and alignment is much trickier because it requires you to develop an understanding of what muscles to engage and adjust to keep yourself in balance/alignment. A teacher can tell you how to position yourself or even move you into the correct position but remembering what that position feels like so you can move into it again or adjust yourself to maintain it is a different matter. To explain, [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCWsIXxcLLw&t=1094s]here is ballet dancer Tetsuya Kumakawa describing to Dai this adjustment.[/link]

That's Baby Rothbart when he was still half-white before he succumbed fully to darkness. I love that costume :love: And [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rJoB7y6Ncs&t=1720s]this[/link] is the full blown black swan.

Maybe Yuzu will appear as Tuxedo Mask :rofl2: I have to go back to respond to some quotes (sorry, crap at work and it's finals time so it's insane right now). But yeah, there is already multiple fanart of him as tuxedo mask. Don't put it past anyone, lol. :rofl2: :rofl2: What fanart?? Links please! I must see this! This needs to happen! This can be his new POTO costume! :rofl2: And most importantly, he'd finally have a suit that would fit him!!! :sadPooh: :sadPooh: :sadPooh: *Pooh tears of joy*

All this music talk makes me appreciate Nanami's choices for his 2011-2012 season even more. Dramatic crowd pleasers but not conventional ones to get him that PCS. I don't think anyone skated to Etude or Craig Armstrong's R&J before Yuzu. My dream music for his FS is actually the Gladiator OST, specifically including cuts from the latter part of [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUmIELyNGrU&t=233s]this orchestral suite version[/link]. I'm happy to know I'm not the only one :pbow: :pbow: :pbow: If only it were not so strongly associated with Yagudin. Not sure if it's the best idea to set yourself up for a direct comparison with Yagudin even if you are Yuzuru Hanyu.

I do agree with you that Boyang has less control over his landings but from what I see, I don't think the problem is with his alignment. I think Boyang has beautiful alignment in the air (better than Patrick or Javi in my opinion) and when he lands, he generally lands with proper alignment too (foot under the center of gravity, knee over foot, hips and shoulders square). I think the problem is not with his alignment but with his feet and his knees. He needs better plie (softer knees) and I don't think he rolls his foot to push down to his skates then to the ice properly to control the momentum and direction of his skating well after the jump. These are also not good and may lead to their own set of injuries so Boyang, please strengthen your feet and knees! Then again, I'm not a skater but a dancer so perhaps many things are being "lost in translation" so to speak from dancing to skating. There are times when I see Shoma have bad alignment even in his air position. I cannot imagine what stress his body is going through in order to adjust to complete the rotations and then balance himself on the landing.

When the announcement that he was filming a new Bathclin CM came out last year, people got excited about the new CM and were speculating how much skin would be revealed. When the CM did come out, [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbf2VgV23ps]we got his head and 2 small strips of nekkid shoulder skin.[/link] :space: Then someone in the YHIFG on FB used said head and shoulders in a [link=https://yuzusorbet.tumblr.com/post/156403226007/flower-calendar-so-beautiful-and-poetic-and]flower calender[/link]. All the months are lovely :bow: but Yuzu casually chilling in a hot spring with an ape takes the cake :rofl2:

Who is saying these things? I just watched NHK 2015 Seimei and Worlds 2017 H&L back to back as well and H&L is definitely more complicated. Not just in terms of the tech but the choreography is more complicated too. Shae gave him more dynamic torso and arm movements, more changes of levels into and out of the ice (this means more bending down and hopping up), more changes of direction of movement. There was no sacrificing of choreography/artistry at all to add another quad. Maybe these people don't have any understanding of what choregraphy or artistry is.

For potential new costumes, what about something like [link=https://68.media.tumblr.com/80a8f129377ce9e18e9662b0c8bf15ab/tumblr_opi7la3z9I1r3c4mxo1_1280.jpg]this[/link] one? General Yuzu skating to war music like [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DFsF_0tfiM&t=15s]Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture[/link]? The breeches could become the new Pants of Sin. :acceptable: The idea was kicked around before of having Yuzu in a more traditional outfit but with a bit of bling to prevent it from being too boring and I thought of [link=http://princeyuzu.weebly.com/uploads/4/6/5/0/46508213/6029141_orig.jpg]this version[/link] of his [link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3th5CFvoOY]The Final Time Traveler costume from Fantasy on Ice[/link]. He looks great in it but I personally feel it looks generic. Maybe if it were all black with gold beading instead. OMG this is awful. Truly awful. The face and the pose also make it as unflattering as possible. Looks like Neanderthal on Ice...sorry Mura... :rofl2: :rofl2: :rofl2:

Me too. I am only very much speculating but maybe, just maybe his pie-in-the-sky dream would be to lead Sendai's skating program and turn it into a powerhouse like Nagoya or Kansai.

This is so interesting. I guess it means that until this last season he was able to up his BV in a measured way to get the GOE and PCS but the added complexity + the Boston LP disappointment means upping the tech may not have paid off as much last season. I'm sure Yuzu has done all these stats himself too so he can determine how much he wants to up his tech. I also think something like R&J 1 would be ideal. R&J 1 was dramatic, easy storytelling with familiar music (Des'ree's Kissing You) and generally well-liked but not a stereotypical warhorse. On warhorses, although I would prefer more original music, I'm not against them if Yuzu finds something he and the choreographer connect to. They are warhorses for a reason. However, for Yuzu, I have a feeling if he picks a warhorse and doesn't deliver, he runs the risk of underwhelming the judges even more and being entirely forgettable. On the other hand, if he does deliver with a performance he can be proud of backed by a warhorse, he'll own the piece forever. Every time someone skates to this warhorse, they will do so under the shadow of Yuzuru Hanyu. It will help with the legend building. So it will either be brilliant or a disaster- nothing in between.

Can't agree more. Little late to this discussion. I also agree that Yuzu's ability to train hard and have discipline is not just a product of Asian (Japanaese) culture---it's intrinsic to him. Having raised two kids in Japan, I can attest to the fact that there are too many different personalities to describe Asians by the "hard-working, never question authority" stereotype :nono: , especially nowadays (and even before). I think it is true that kids may not question authority as much as in some Western countries, but when they are talking with their friends and maybe their parents, there's lots of debating. His attitude towards skating and training is a combination of discipline, love, obsession and ambition. Amazing ava btw!!!

Great stats. The upward trend in scores is not surprising because of all the tech he's added. What would be interesting to see as welll is stats on margin of victory (i.e. indication of dominance in the field). If he won gold, by how many points vs silver and bronze? If he won silver by how many points did he miss out on gold and win over bronze? Any noticeable trends on the margins? Another interesting stat to see would be increase in average score vs. BV. How much of the increase was from tech and how much from average better execution?

Sorry if what I wrote was misleading but I wasn't so fortunate as to see those Etude performances live. :cry: I only meant I watched them on Youtube about 5 minutes before writing my commentary on them. :smile: Yes, he's much stronger and polished now- better skating skills, more graceful fingers, softer elbows and arms, more refinement and variety in the dynamics of his movements- but there's nothing wrong with his "posture" in Etude, nothing at all. :yes: