Xen

okay, it's back. My fingers were waiting to make a mai mihara cheer thread....too bad now.

uh, did the team japan title just change to team Uno? XD or is my net messed up.

All things considered, I think you are looking at the wrong forum if you want to find extreme dislike of Shoma as a skater or a person. Also, a lot of that drama rama is coming from japanese media, not fans. There are quite a few hanyu fans who like Shoma for what qualities he does bring, intensity is not always hated ya know.

I'm kind of curious what kind of cake he's getting for his birthday this time. Or is Ghana going to magically fly one over from Japan? First time in a while that he's not competing on his Birthday. Maybe a proper party for once? Or does mister Training demon decide to ditch that too?

Probably going to go burn incense at the local temple now, for me. Not sure what momentum she would lose? She needs to be in good shape for Olys, and frankly, she is still the scarier one between her and Alina.

Only your teeth fell out? I felt sick watching that sugar pile. Would you like more sugar with that cup of sugar, Yuzu?

you forgot the smile, that usually works in one hit, without needing extra blade tracings...

Cannot be just a bench, unless preexisting injuries existed, it cannot aggrevate it that far. I wish Russian fed would just come out and say based on her past season results, she would have a spot. Really, no one would raise eyebrows at that, and that ensures their biggest oly hopeful actually gets rest.

Put it on replay and learn to just accept that a certain feathery being has taken your heart and soul. Life is a lot easier once you do that.

I honestly wasn't even thinking about jinxes. I just thought it was fitting since he won Helsinki. But yeah, "We Will Rock You" would be an awesome end piece for a gala. Bohemian Rhapsody already has been skated to by other skaters, with various music edits. Though Yuzu could always consider doing another Prince piece, or maybe go with David Bowie.

hmm, well if he is not sprinting yet....probably on a plane this tuesday or wednesday then, since it would be ten days give aday or two buffer for extra safety? we are the champions?

Imagine he still has some checkups he needs to do in Japan before he goes back to training in Canada. Also, I lowkey don't want any film or media reports of him arriving in Toronto-that's a bit too much pressure while he is recovering, and if he still has crutches to walk at a pace slower than a sprint I doubt he wants.to be caught by the media.

It's kind of amusing that all 3 examples given would probably get 8.75+ these days. Have to also "lol" at the video saying "We could not find very good body movements during transitions." So instead, have some step sequences. Kind of makes you appreciate the skaters we have today.

Well it depends on how Gaby and Karen do, and both are the types that build up steam later in the series. For all we know it could go Gaby-->Karen-->Ashley/Polina. Stranger things have happened so far... *Sigh* No twitter courtesy of the Great Firewall, but I hope Wakaba is feeling alright. She has won over so many hearts already this season! Neither she nor Mai got easy picks, and the judges sure are not going easy on the Japanese ladies this season.

It is possible that he has three versions to pull out depending on what he needs, but in my opinion, which Yuzu does not know of, he just needs the 4Lo in SP. But maybe he is also practicing to get used to the differences between loop and lutz, since linking them in the long seems to be his main issue. okay, so Shoma might be the most symmetrical? Yuzu in these photos scare me.

There's also a series of pretty good posts on Tumblr by the-real-xmonster, with gifs to illustrate stuff. I think she's stickied it. http://the-real-xmonster.tumblr.com/ Probably also one of the few places that tries to explain spin levels.

@Murieleirum, @fireovertheice: I'm not surprised, and if he does the 4Lz in the SP I can't do anything other than support him. But at this point, if I look at the points other men are getting in the SP, I would say he needs at most the 4Lo, not necessarily the 4Lz yet. If he skates well with the 4Lo, he should still be able to net 109+, probably 110+. If he skates clean, his PCS should still be in the 46-47+ range. Skating clean, if the judges are generous enough, we will probably get a new WR. The goal of the SP is to skate clean, that is most important, and ensure that either he's No. 1 heading into the long, or very very close behind- and considering the no 5 to no 1 switch he did at WC2017, I don't think any guy on top of him can sleep easy that night. As for the long, I think the 4Lz might be here to stay. Since he's got more jumping passes in the long, it's wiser to do the risky move here. In fact, I'm kind of curious if him and his team would consider the 4Lz as the second jump. As for why-I think based on how he practiced the 4Lz in the OP, the 4Lz is a jump that he kind of has to "warm up" to. He's got enough stamina for the jump, but it's not a "natural" jump for him- he needs a jump that can help him get his axis and bearings stable before he goes into the 4Lz. In this case, a 4Lo as the first jump might help calm him, and help him get his axis correct for the second jump. As for his training and timing issue. Well if Brian's words are true, that Yuzu was competition condition by Mid July, if we consider when FaOI ended, that could mean that in decent healthy condition, Yuzu could hit good physical, peak condition in about 3 weeks of training. Then if that's the case, between JNATs and Olys, he's got plenty of time, over a month actually. Not to mention he also has the training built up before from JNats practice. As for JNats, I don't think he needs to go all out- at most just the 4Lo, and maybe even only a 4 Quad layout in the long would be sufficient. And that would be a huge comeback (and if the media thinks not, well the media can go sc**w themselves really). If he manages to go clean even, I think the other guys would be quivering in their boots. As for the hard ice vs soft ice: hmm, there are 2 rinks here where I live, one is definitely hard ice, and kept like that for hockey all the time. One is softer. I skate on both. The hard ice, I'm not a huge fan of. It's easier to slip off of edges when taking off for edge jumps, toe picks can also slip more easily when picking. I do find it possible to get more height and distance, but sometimes it's not as easy to control as on the softer ice. I also find spins a bit more scratchy. The rink with the softer ice, I find it has a natural cushion of sorts when I land, and edge jumps are easier to control. But probably because it holds my edges longer, I don't get quite as much height as the hard ice-but usually, I can control my height/distance more. Also, softer ice is a bit kinder to my blades. =)

Not really no. I'm thinking some of the Japanese skaters do not, since Wakaba isn't getting the points even with clean skates. That's where the reputation scoring is a problem. In order to get to the top, you have to get the PCS first, which means you have to be super squeaky clean to get the reputation for the PCS, which kind of depends on the reputation you have going in-a la "you mean for my first job I have to have previous job experience?" type of logic

Again, awesome chart. So question, now looking at this chart, it seems that the scores are not what critics are saying. a) I was reading again and again, about the continuity thing, and part of me wondered if that would create problems for programs that had more "miming" of any sort. Guess which school gets criticized for that? Now with the scores though, I'm not sure how to interpret this. It does seem that they are penalizing her when she falls, which is a bit different than what critics like to say. b) It seems that Alina has the lowest crossovers count, and if we actually compare her TR and SS scores, despite what others say, could we make an argument that she might be underscored? Her TR does seem relatively low given what she does.

unless difficulty and variety are removed, continuity on ice should be about the general flow, speed, quality and cleansiness that a skater maintains between transitional steps. It means crossovers are allowed, but should not automatically give a pass to crossover heavy programs. At least that is how I would read it.

break the canadian silver streak?

Timing wise lean towards SkA and NHK.

Hmm...I think Yuzu's pimples must be gone by now. Last week, I randomly started sprouting pimples, on my forehead, roughly where Yuzu's legendary pimples were located. But this morning, they are suddenly gone. I get sympathy pain and symptoms, but did it have to be pimples?!

The most dangerous thing is not an ignorant person, but a person who only knows part of it and just assumes that they now know it all. Now, that psycho drama I mentioned in the main thread between Media and Yuzu, well I didn't plan on bringing in more media personalities, but I think a certain person will now make it in. My plot bunnies are now getting all quivering with their bushy tails to get a persona written. The high quality crossovers comment-I'm sorry, but when you are a professional skater skating in ISU senior events, I hope your crossovers are of high quality, otherwise I have no idea what you are doing there. And not to mention someone completely missed the point about too many crossovers-there is a variety aspect to the TR score, and if you are doing so many crossovers, which are considered easy, it should detract from the variety aspect of the score, in addition to the difficulty aspect. I get the idea around pointless meaningless transitions being an eyesore, but other than TR scores reflecting that, people forgot that it can be reduced in the IN and PE score, since a distracting transition and has no tie to the music. Same if you don't like the constant Tanoing and Rippon'ing. People also sometimes seem to be penalizing skaters not because the skater is wrong to do that, but because of some principle such as outright objection against something. Fully backloaded programs? Automatically penalize on principle, just because "I'm against abusing the extra scores/backloading per se" regardless of the skater's actual performance (which seems to be the reason in another certain forum where Alina Zagitova's program is concerened). Tano-ing and Rippons? Objection! Not because it actually does not look good, but because on principle constant tano-ing and rippon-ing is too much. Med gets this all the time, so does Zagitova, but I would at least beg to differ on Zagitova because she is skating to a ballet piece, and her entire costume makes it pretty clear she does want to go for a fairly ballet feel. The rippon jumps are fairly good, and helps elogate her, and does remind me more of jumps and leaps in ballet than straight out skating. So personally I'm okay with that (your milage may vary). The issue is not IJS per se, but rather that so far there has been no concrete plan to address 2 major things: a) ensuring the application of the IJS is consistent and roughly correct; b) reputation scoring, which is an overarching issue and the cause of the inconsistency in GOE and PCS scoring. This is partially why I'm quite against people going for TES penalties, reducing second half bonuses etc. Because that would make the 2 problems above even worse especially for the lesser known skaters (we go back to 6.0 system where they had no chance). At least skaters now can see where they stack up, somewhat objectively in one part (TES). Sometimes, I wonder if complainers seriously want to do a system where skaters just perform compulsory figures set to music-scary part is I think some would really prefer that since they think that all skaters suck at basics now (minus a couple noteable exceptions like Pchiddy). And then conveniently forget that many of the compulsory figures footwork (loops etc) have made it in as footwork. Also, the guys who have less edge issues on jumps, probably can do well in compulsory figures as they can hold an edge well. /end rant

....when his daughter introduces her new boyfriend to Dad Yuzu, will he threaten the boy to be good with a hissing pooh? *hug*