KatjaThera

And the other is Team Cricket ^_^ (I recognized that one first, I'm ashamed to say) I'm a bit surprised he went by plane, though. I admit Canadian geography is a total mistery to me, but a week ago or so, Javi had a "going to Montreal" instastory and that was on a train, so I kind of expected that... But plane is faster, so...

On top of the arguments already given, I think Yuzu would be the last person in the World to underestimate his rivals, including Shoma. He's the one who pretty much predicted the quad craze and has spent years preparing for it. So I don't think it's overconfidence, but just confidence that he has good weapons to fight with. It's not really like he waltzed in and said "OGM is mine!" (although some think choosing Seimei is kind of like that, just because it's such an awesome program). In the end, though, Yuzu's biggest rival is still himself, because of the mental side if nothing else. And any competition, regardless of the external rival, is good practice, IMO. I'm stressing, too, but Yuzu's confidence and Brian's confidence are making me lean towards being positive ^_^

I'm flying with ANA on the way back from Japan... can I have Yuzu as a flight attendant as compensation for not getting NHK tickets? (And no, I didn't pick an ANA flight on purpose, not at all >_>)

While I'm sure there's a lot of unnecessary drama in these titles, what I'm actually getting out of it is... how much confidence he must have to tackle this program again... Though in a way we've known this lol I'm also pretty sure the SHOCKING TRUTH won't be shocking for us lol But for those who don't follow him so closely... Also I'm pretty sure his injury was already there then, although it did get worse later. It just wasn't diagnosed yet... Which, yes, does make everything much more impressive...

It could be worse... last year, there was an F1 driver who announced his retirement, and then in the last race, which was also his home race, he retired after a crash and everyone got really emotional as he walked around, greeting fans, with a flag and everyone was crying and then a few months later, there was a spot available in his team again, so he decided not to retire after all. That was really headdesk moment - though also kind of funny. I'm happy for Misha staying around, he seems like an interesting and fun guy and why not have some fun still, if he can? Plus, he's one of the people Yuzu usually has fun and relaxes with, that's always a plus. Anyway, it could be he only does competitions now and then without getting into the really serious ones (GPS, Worlds etc.). We'll see, I guess

Thank you for sharing! I'll take a more proper look tomorrow, though. I'm sure deciding to go to Canada was extremely hard for him. It's sad to hear that at least on a personal level, he didn't want to go... Personally, I think going to Canada was definitely the best thing for him, for multiple reasons. Not just the skating improvements, but also I think he was able to find a safe place and a quiet place where he could just focus on skating. I'm not sure how much he was able to do that in Sendai, with the area still recovering and constant reminders, plus the media attention and the pressure/responsibility of being the top skater at his rink. And then as his popularity grew and he won the Olympics, Canada sheltered him from even more media attention, and increasingly more fans and of course, the politics. In Canada, he can just skate. So yeah, I'm pretty sure he quickly learned it was worth it... (sorry for the rant, I've long been thinking about this and this was a great opportunity to let it out lol)

I was catching up a bit, too. I think this season will see a lot of discussions and drama, probably more off the ice, among fans, than on it. I like to think at TCC they saw this coming and aren't really reacting in any way. Surely they know the records will fall this season. It's not that unexpected this season is picking up where the previous left off, I think, though it is frustrating. But I'm sure they saw it coming. Yuzu with his crazy foresight and planning skills surely saw it coming. I guess we'll see if this is a trend next week... And keep in mind, they still haven't beaten Chopin 2.0 and Seimei 1.0.

That would explain why I don't remember it, then. Thank you anyway!

Was he royally pissed? I, personally, got more of a "WTF just happened?!" feeling... And though I'm sure Brian had it really tough then, as well, I am also quite sure he would not have let Yuzu skate if he didn't think he was reasonably ok (well, didn't have a concussion, since that was the biggest issue), no matter how much Yuzu dug his heels in. Even though, when asked later, Brian did say Yuzu really wanted to skate, I'm sure that wouldn't have been enough if he'd shown signs of concussion. But, all in all, I agree with @¯\_(ツ)_/¯, not skating wasn't a viable option.

Really? I had never heard that before. Was the interview a video one? I've seen a few but either not the right one or I just missed that bit of information.

For me, CoC is kind of both... I only watched it in retrospect, as well, so I guess the fear wasn't as great, but it was painful to see him struggle like that. And I agree it was reckless, but I also understand why he did it, and I think it would have been a lot harder to get back on the ice if he hadn't done it THEN. In the footage from Japanese TV you can see he was already having a bit of a panic attack (Brian's "Don't worry about breathing in, just breathe out, foo, foo, foo" seems super cute in a way, but I've actually adopted it for my own panic attacks). Imagine if he'd let that fear stew inside of him for 2-3 weeks. I think NHK would have been much, much harder than it already was. On top of that, athletes live for their sport. Like musicians live for their music. Their sport, their art is the most important thing to them, usually far more important than physical well-being. Of course, once they see the bigger picture, they realize that health is a great advantage to have. But if something medical can be postponed for the sake of the immediate sport event, it usually will be. Like Yuzu postponing surgery for after Nationals in 2014, despite , despite an infection and an open wound. Like that, which was done after talking to doctors, I think none of his decisions have been quite as reckless as they seem... maybe. It's just his priorities are different. Or used to be. Maybe for our collective sanity, he's seen the bigger picture. Anyway, my point was that I understand why he did it and admire him for having the strength to pull it off. And as someone who was often told to grit her teeth and bear with some pain, I guess I can't help admiring him for doing that which I never quite managed to do. But in the same time, I do wish he'd generally take more pity on his body. ^_^; I don't think his mom had any word to say in him deciding to do CoC. I don't think she got anywhere near him during the whole bandaging thing and it always seemed to me like things happened pretty quickly. I don't think anyone had time to call her or anything like that. The decision was Yuzu's and Brian's, supported by the American doctors and Kikuchi, I think. (Though, in a way, I believe the decision was mostly Brian's, because I think if Brian had thought it was too dangerous, Yuzu would have been shipped off to the hospital, kicking and screaming, if necessary. But who knows.)

While I agree with you, I also tend to think he might be more prone to injury than others naturally, even leaving aside overtraining. He's definitely made some stupid choices and I think he knows that now and has learned from it. However, this also reminds me of the scandal after COC '14, and people fearing more skaters would skate around with such injuries. And admittedly that, as well as other skaters taking Yuzu's bad example of ignoring his injuries, is a possibility. However, I don't think it's likely to be a regular thing because I'm not sure how many people actually could do it. Different people experience pain in different ways and, like I said, Yuzu seems to have a very high pain threshold. So I think it'd be only people with a similarly high pain threshold that could do what he does. Of course, it's entirely possible that includes most skaters, since falling is a part of their sport and getting hurt is kind of a daily thing. But it's not a given that if he did it, anyone can do it. Best news today so far!

Well, if the Boston stuff is anything to go by, he said he was frustrated by his injury, that his body didn't move as he wanted it to and that the painkillers didn't work, so he was still in pain. I think he probably has a very high threshold for pain, so pain itself doesn't bother him that much, he can more or less live with it. (And in all fairness, as an athlete, it's probably better to live with the pain than take enough painkillers to mask it, because pain is there for a reason and if you mask it, the chances of getting even more injured are even greater. That goes for everyone, but I think especially for athletes.) But when pain combined with other things interferes and he can't block it out, that's when he talks about weakness. I think if it were just pain, with the adrenaline effect and such, he'd be able to block it out and still do well. Worlds 2012, 2014 GPF and Japan Nationals, and I think likely even NHK 2015 and GPF 2015 are all proof of it. But when there's added stuff, additional stress and overthinking, that's when what he calls 'mental weakness' comes into play. At NHK 2014 he was probably frustrated by the physical limitation of his still not fully healed body. Plus probably dealing with some psychological trauma from the crash. (He did mention feeling afraid, but I'm not sure he'd ever use the word trauma.)

I remember I once read a chronicle of all the health issues he's had over the years, and the issues themselves are still in my mind, but sometimes I fail to relate them to the skating events they took place around, so I end up surprised as well. Now seeing those excerpts, I remember having read about that before, I just didn't realize when it was. In a way, all this makes him even more incredible. It's not just that he's crazy talented and a skating genius by many people's opinions, it's not just that he survived the disaster in Tohoku and was able to pick himself up and carry on, despite who knows what trauma, and he it's not just that he's been battling asthma for 20 years, but he also gets injured a lot and never complains, never uses it as an excuse and keeps putting in amazing performances, despite what must be considerable amounts of pain. Alien indeed...

It was 2013 Worlds, not 2012. I didn't look up the kanji to see exactly what the problem was, but I think he actually had issues with both legs. I'll have to look it up properly when I get home, but I'm pretty sure it was 2013 (since I was surprised and kind of like "again??" ^_^; )

Sorry to be going back to a less fun topic, but something dawned on me the other evening and it was only last night, right before falling asleep that I had time to check. Under spoiler for everyone not in the mood to read about Boston again ^_^;

Maybe these CMs are actually small steps in getting Yuzu used to living like a grown up man (I understand why he still has his mom around, but it should be time to let her go back home to her husband soon...) And pretty much all CMs always seem forced, anyway. At least he's cute LOL

Yes. In a way it's one of his trademarks lol That's why I had to laugh when Yuzu basically said the same thing And I confess, I'm kind of happy I only really care about Yuzu and Javi in FS, or I would go nuts with all that stuff... Yuzu has already almost completely taken over my life

I personally hadn't seen this before, so thank you for sharing! However this: "it is the Japanese Fed decision if Yuzu is allowed to talk about it" has me quite I don't want anyone but Yuzu himself to make this kind of decision...

While the rule changes suggestion is beyond stupid - I also wonder how exactly having an athletic competition only is supposed to help keep skaters healthy - and I agree that this is simply ignoring the actual problems of the sport, I have full confidence that IF Yuzu decides to continue under some of these rule changes, he will do his best to get the best results under them, in ways that will not leave anyone much room to comment. Like my favorite F1 driver always says about the eternally - and sometimes not much less stupidly - changing rules in his sport - and like Yuzu has actually said about FS in the past, too - the rules are the same for everyone. (That they're not always applied in the same way is another issue, but as we know, Yuzu will never bemoan that, he will instead strive to be even better not to give people a chance to mistreat him.) But it is entirely possible he'll decide not to continue. However, as far as I can tell, the more stupid of these aren't likely to take shape until close to the next Olympics, if not after it, so it might not be an issue for Yuzu anyway. (Not sure when the quad BV decrease is aimed for, though...) However, this also made me think again about the now and the judging issues. I think Brian's comments about the GOE and PCS Yuzu deserves was a way of saying "I know he deserves that, you know he deserves that, everyone knows he deserves that, and if they didn't know, I just told them. If you still insist on not giving him the scoring he deserves, no problem. We'll find other ways." And by other ways, I'm thinking of upping the technical difficulty. There's been talk that Yuzu might wait with the 4Lz until he sees what his rivals are doing. I'm thinking maybe he'll be waiting to see how his rivals get scored. Because if judges keep going PCS happy on the simple presence of quads, then adding the 4Lz will definitely be a worthwhile risk. And if there's major overscoring of some of the more quad happy kids at some important event, maybe throw in a 4A for good measure. Maybe Brian oh so casually mentioning Yuzu has been training those is a way of saying: "We have 'secret weapons', don't mess with us. And if necessary, we'll bring them out." I'm sure Brian is aware of the scoring issues and in the same time, he is so confident... feels like they have some aces up their sleeves... Or at least I hope they do ^_^;

I like to think he popped it on purpose. If the whole didn't jump any 3Lz over the two days thing is true...

It was a popped lutz, unless I misremember.

I'm sure it wasn't the best runthrough he did those two days, yeah. It should be online soon.

It was a full runthrough, but Yuzu's a tease so he basically only did the jumps and a few steps and spins here and there

The one leaning over the stove was Joey Russell, but the cooking might have been a team effort lol As for the earthquake, I think @Hydroblade posted a comment here shortly after it happened, on another topic, which I took as a quiet sign she is ok... but I could be wrong as today was crazy for me and I might have messed up the timeline. I do hope she and everyone in the area is ok, though.