Lyyli

The spins of Deniss are great and no wonder because Stephane was one of the best spinners and still is. Don´t know is there any other coach than him who is able to skate the competitions programs of his pupil, maybe not the quads but everything else. In Chopin3 I think it is good that the two spins are there in the middle of the program one after another. It like doubles the effect of his fast spinning and the breathtaking moves he makes with his hands. Still they remain clearly as two different elements as the first spin is a camel with some calm arm moves upwards and the second one sit spin with lots of different fiery hand moves. One more thing, I don´t know where to put this question, maybe here better than to the other general thread. Does anyone know how many people work for Yuzu outside the Cricket club and is everything including his finance managed by the JSF or is it his private thing? Does Ms Shirota work in JSF or privatly for Yuzu? There is Mr Kikuchi and I believe his mother also works for him full time and is paid for that. Some people also give him advice, they were present in the meeting he had with Brian. Does anyone know who they are?

The piece of Elizabeth´s SP is Carmen Fantasie by David Garrett. He´s a pop/crossover violinist and has made his own interpretation of the piece. Now there are two Carmens gliding on the ice of the Cricket club.

I don´t follow social media that much, so I don´t know if there has been inappropriate comments about Yuzu using Chopin and Seimi. I have not seen any so far, but GS is the site I´ve read. Fans do discuss about recycling the programs no matter who is recycling. So they discuss also about Yuzu´s choices. If they call his programs recycled and old, I don´t see that as insult. He´s not starting the process from the beginning and that is what recycling is about. He said himself there´s no time for new programs. There will be changes in his programs and they will be gorgeous for sure, but anyway imo it is not unfair to call them recycled. If Shoma didn´t get as much critic as Yuzu it´s probably because his SP is new and he´s doing Turandot for the second, not third time.

It would be nice to know what is the difference regarding clean runthroughs between last season and this season. It´s probably huge. Last season two new programs and the injury delayed everything. Now the situation is very different. He´s in good shape and so able to go clean. I believe top shape is the best source of confidence.

Brian and Yuzu talked about the current stamina training during the media days. At the moment Yuzu is increasing his stamina only by doing lots of runthroughs. He said he has not done any physical training except the them. Good for his consistency. I bet he´s already doing mainly clean programs.

I am looking forward to Rika´s FS a lot. It´s interesting to see in what way the character and the dramatic life of Frida Kahlo is pointed out there. Also love the music a lot. The start was not a good one for Rika but I do wish her a great season.

I think this is a big question for the whole field of figure skating. How would this sport change in general if more and more skaters start to keep and polish their programs for several years during the Oly period. Twice is usual already but three times, the whole period? I don´t think Yuzu is the first one with this idea but as an outstanding skater with an extremely analytical mind he is taking everything to a new level.

I think the swan theme suits Kaetlyn very well. Her posture and lines actually remind me of a swan and Jeffrey´s choreo is as gorgeous as La Boheme last season. SP´s choreo is great too. The only thing that bothers me a bit is the music, I think I have heard Summertime too many times. Happy to see her training a new combo. I hope she (or someone else) could seriously challenge Med during the season. To do that she needs much more scores especially from the FS. And that means upgrading the layout. She was very strong last season and I wish she could go even further. She must be happy to be able to skate like that after the injury.

It was The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha they did together. It happens to be Javi´s FS music this season, choreo of course by DW.

Just donated via GFM. Did you get it? I hope it is safe. I´ve never before used GFM or anything like that.

ID is a great discipline because the artistry is so important there. Bolero is clearly a piece of art. It is a dance where the moves flow from one to another and match perfectly with the music from the beginning to the end. Nothing there to break the atmosphere of the performance. It looks clearly different from today´s FDs, no twizzles, steps look different, also lifts and spins look shorter.

I found an article where he said after FS Helsinki that he had the 5th quad in his mind but did not have the strength for it. He also said that his legs felt tired during the warm-up. The article is in Finnish and it was published in a newspaper called Aamulehti. I wonder did he speak about it at the Press conference or maybe he was interviewed for this particular newspaper. I´ll check that later.

I agree. You might be right with your view. I hope that too. And I believe as they are both professionals and have worked together for long they have found a balance regarding their views. I am not sure. Someone will surely confirm this. (In Helsinki he did 4L, 4S, 4S3T, 4T)

It is very possible he meant the 5th quad, you are right. He said also after WTT that he needs more strength to be able to do it.

Their discussion at K&C has remained in my mind too. That´s an interesting point of view. I understood the lack of energy and intensity as two different matters. Like he felt lack of energy because of mental reasons related to SP and because he was probably skating with an empty stomach. And being mentally a bit tired prevented him from overthinking during the program so he was calmer and could focus only on skating. These are really details, maybe even not worth of mentioning, but sometimes some words become important and stay in mind for long. And yes, Yuzu seems to coach himself more and more now that he´s an adult and studying things related to the mental side of sports.

Thanks for the details! I´ve not read the book, only watched the film a long ago. I am gonna try to find it. So much interesting happens there in the skating life so it would be great if more skaters write their memoirs. Actually I have not seen any. There are books about Yuzu but if someone knows any other books it would be nice to know. Figure skating is not the most popular sport here. There are never any news about the foreign skaters off-season, only during the biggest competitions. For example Mao´s r****ment was not in the news here.

I don´t know about the throws nor the twists much, but the twist, it was a split one, so maybe that´s why it looked different or changed her position in the air. This is a program from the long era of Russian pairs dominating the pairs discipline (maybe from the late 60´s till at least early 90´s). I would call this program a classic Russian pairs program. Katia and Sergei were great skaters and always very consistent though in this program they had some mistakes. They were teenagers when they started in Seniors but from the beginning they won their competitions. I guess more experimental pairs skating was started much later by Aliona and Robin. I don´t remember anyone else before them. I think it is great that today there are pairs from different countries and styles on top in pairs. There is also a documentary film of Katia and Sergei called My Sergei. It´s based on the book she wrote. I checked it is still in Youtube. There is a footage of Katia´s first solo skate after Sergei had passed away. And as far as I remember also a footage of a competition where they were asked to stop skating in the middle of their program because of some boot problem but they didn´t realize it and continued till the end though the music was turned off by the judges.

I remember Yuna saying that her coach told her and her parents right after she had started to skate that she has a perfect body structure and muscles for figure skating. That is so obvious. She is a dream to watch. Her co-operation with DW worked very well and imo Yuna could deliver his choreos to the fullest. This Vancouver FS is magical and had a happy well-deserved ending, she got her coronation like the commentator said. From her programs I like most SP Send in the Clowns from Sochi Oly season because of the lovely choreo and her soft way of skating.

I just found out that it is not Cohen´s original but Jeff Buckley´s version of Hallelujah. So it is a very different kind of Hallelujah than I thought.

Thanks for reminding me of Dear Prudence, I had already forgotten it (oh dear!). I was thinking that songs like Dust in the Wind suit Patrick well because there is the same kind of flow in the melody as he´s got in his skating. He is able to use his strengths like his edges there a lot. At first I thought is Hallelujah too similar, but there is a difference imo, stronger beat and not that much flow in the melody. I like these choices a lot. All figure skating music does not have to be bombastic. I feel gentle music like these pieces and also H&L can fill even the biggest skating arenas.

This is what I was thinking too. I like acoustic and folk rock/pop type of music a lot and it is not often used in figure skating. Happy especially about his SP music. Same kind of a song like last season´s SP Blackbird.

I also remember John Curry, and Toller Cranston as well, from my childhood. Actually they are the first male skaters that have stayed in my mind. Don´t remember much about their programs or music choices but their artistic style made an unforgettable impression on me. Even as a child I could notice the difference. There were no adults interested in figure skating around me talking about them or about the figure skating overall. And yes, Yuzu is continuing their artistic legacy in a beautiful way. Your discussion about the attitudes towards the gay skaters brought to my mind the same type of debate concerning the siblings in ID and pairs. I have heard quite many comments about how there is a lack of chemistry between them and how it shows in their programs in a negative way. I don´t agree with them.

Sorry if this is shared already. I didn´t know this: Gabrielle Daleman SP Carmen. Source @rockerskating.

So sorry, my mistake: Gabrielle is from Canada.

This was not yet here?: Gabrielle Daleman SP Carmen. Source @rockerskating.