Xen

I wish my dainty little toeloop looked that cute. Though I guess this proves he can do single jumps if he tries-just have to be airy, light and cute about it.

Really? The timing is perfect, right before a giant national holiday for me, I have a perfect excuse to take time off. The location makes me wonder if we will get all the TCC boys and girls there. =) Edit: should we start a thread now or wait till May? Would it divert our nerves away from what will happen in about a week? I have an odd feeling this might be one city I might need help navigating.

I use McDavid knee pads, the hex pad type. Don't use elbow pads or wrist ones.

@Hydroblade Thank you for the new banner and theme! It's lovely, with totally appropriate murderface. he won a marriage contest again? Now he's like the national husband of Japan.

Guys, the translation of NNN documentary is up. Thanks @gladi

Heh-When Brian had more hair, and when the stuffed toys and gifts were few enough that they could carry them away in bags.

Normally I wear knee pads so it won't hurt as much if I fail jumps. Then one day, I thought hmm, haven't fell in about a month, should be fine. Don't wear my pads, and boom, I fall and hit my knee on when I trip over someone's lutz entry toe-markings on a spiral. *sigh* It's the doe eyes-the eyes that make you cave in and say "Anything and everything for you."

Yes, he comes with a giant warning label: Extra Security needed-just trust us, you don't want to know. But I also think Yuzu fans are kind of...polite? He did get sighted several times at the airport after ACI, but most fans kept their distance, even if filming. It's kind of well known that he probably won't sign anything or take a photo etc, so why even bother?

I think it should be alright? Had rinkmates who went to COC this year, and the one group they could never approach was Team Japan. According to them, team japan always walked in a formation where the skaters were protected on all sides. And Zu has a knack for magicking himself in and out of rinks. At ACI, we had all gathered because someone said he arrived-a giant gathering at the stairs and rink front doors, waiting for him. We see Brian, we see a JSF person, photographers...15 minutes pass, crickets start chirping, no Yuzu. Then suddenly someone says actually he's already inside, proven true within minutes cause TrollZu shows up rinkside doing his image training. We got trolled-HARD. And I think everyone is aware of his fame, so I imagine security around him will be even tighter, with extra body guards ready at any time. He's in good hands. Also, I would feel for those sasaengs-if they even make a move, most of the devote Yuzu fans would probably full body tackle them down.

I never get dizzy when doing rotations for jumps though... Masochism and figure skating go together- otherwise why would you consider the risk of dizziness, risk of kneecaps hurting, thighs hurting, ankles hurting all in a good day of practice?

Um, not really? I think you just get used to it, and the dizziness is less if you manage to center your spin-that's actually my way of checking if I centered my spins. Very Dizzy-didn't center. Not dizzy or only slightly dizzy-centered the spin. Better explained here:

You need to show us, I forgot who but someone was asking for a tanoed or ripponed jump at some point. =D Did I ever mention, I hate backspins? rinkmate kept on telling me I was doing it wrong, until I entered nearly flinging myself out in the process of finding my right toepick spin point. >_<

Only with Yuzuru are bus stops a legit communication device. Now to see if Yuzu actually replies with a bus stop communication of his own.

Might be the angle. He just looks like they caught him straight after practice, or super early in the morning. He just looks deer in headlights, slightly tired. But guess ninja mode gone.

No, his head and body is leaning too forward and downward (his head did look more down than straight and up), not projecting outward. The stiffer knees don't help since his edge is not as sure, and he doesn't...glide as much. Nate is fine as a jumper, and skating skills wise he's alright. I get the rush to do well at Olys, but I wish there was a little less rush.

Well it'll be interesting come 2022....I wonder what CCTV and the various Chinese online broadcasters will do and how NBC will handle it. I don't recall 2008 summer olympics being that good for US viewers, since China tends to cater to the domestic base, especially pairs and men's (since we have Boyang-man now). 2022 Chinese New Year's is Feb 1st, so Chinese broadcasters will want things to be later in the day (early morning North American times and midday for Europeans) since most people in China will be working starting midway through the Olympics. Other than the men's, I think the schedule in PC is absolutely brutal for the pairs skaters. If they fall or anything, there's less time to rest and recuperate. @micaelis: he'll have a good chinese fan base tuning in. It's Chinese New Year's week for us, and we get to watch him on TV while folding dumplings or waiting for other things to stew. I imagine my family needs to keep me away from sharp objects or delicate objects (like porcelain plates). My dumplings will be totally folded wrong. As for the ballet training, I agree that people tend to confuse two elements of artistry on ice-posture/carriage and musicality. Ballet can help with posture/carriage, but not musicality. But then again, almost any type of traditional dance discipline could help with posture and carriage. Musicality is another matter. I think in Asaichi interview, Yuzu said they did some ballet training in the off season, but he's never done it long term. His main advantages are his musicality, and his superior skating skills that allow him to execute to express his musicality. Also, I find it funny that most of the people I know who have had more systemic dance training (ballet or traditional chinese here), have very little to complain about his posture and carriage.

I thought we were the light. Congrats, you made me snort my coffee. I now have an image of Yuzu in a water aerobics class with a group of old ladies, with a floaty tube around his waist, being hollered by an instructor to "Liffft! And Streetccch!" While trying to fend off old ladies wanting to pinch his cheeks, and advising him to eat more. >_<

Oh it was jaw-dropping alright. Like a train wreck you can't take your eyes off of, shaking your head with a disbelieving grin and wondering "am I seriously seeing this live?" I think the only one he could kind of do cold turkey is his SP, especially if he sticks with the ACI layout. But I am inclined to agree with you that his new Seimei layout isn't going to be that good cold turkey. Ideally, he can acclimate and test stuff out in the team event. Rostelcom might be more equivalent to SC2015 if we only count GPF events, maybe team would be NHK2015, and hopefully individual is GPF2015-well here's to praying. >_>

I looked up NBC's page, and it still hasn't been edited. o_O I'm not sure what to think.

Wonder how Shoma feels, since he doesn't like being called "kawaii". And then remember how Yuzu doesn't like being called a prince.

I seriously should only predict ladies-only one where most of the ones I've picked were on the podium. For the men's-usually my instinct says one thing, but I then dream of a different order (and that gets broken).

Actually there are a couple North American coaches who no longer have super competitive skaters-John Nicks being one of them, and Doug Leigh (Brian's own coach) is still around. Wonder if it's actually John Nicks, wasn't Sasha Cohen a fairly opinionated skater as well? Sharing notes on how to manage intense, perfectionist skaters.

Yes, at 197.48 it is the highest so far. And scary if you consider that so far, don't think any of the top 6 from Helsinki have gone back to back clean at a GP event. o_O

We need to send stress balls to TCC, as well as cookies, hot chocolate, everything to help destress. But the coach they asked didn't say anything, and what he said about Orser's strategy being wise, does sound like a polite "stuff it please" to the media. It's a pretty good indication that media can pry all they want but nothing is coming out any time soon. Which is good for Yuzu-who is now the personification of the silent asian bellcurve destroyer. As for why media is so curious- well, if Yuzu's status has no updates, there's no drama for the media to spin. He's different from Plushenko, because Plushy was out of competition for a long time while Evan was gathering steam. Yuna isn't a direct parallel either because she stopped for a while before going back to competition mode-and even then she was mostly doing Senior B types no? So even if Yuzu hasn't been perfect all season, none of the issues other than the injury, has been out of pattern-plus I'm sure somewhere the fact he won the Free in Rostel still unnerves people (it shows even imperfect he's not out of the game). Also, if the media harps on about him having an injury and he comes back and skates clean-I'm sorry, that is just what heroic drama stories are made of-that's just PR material that others wish they had, so don't underestimate the candies that can be generated from this alone.

I would like to think it's the latter- the kuyashii fire so strong it whipped down to NBC land and a poor guy got hit to alter the stats before hitting publish. But honestly, a part of me thinks from a story/narrative perspective, we haven't had back to back golds in such a long time, it might actually happen.