micaelis

I've had a couple of responses to my contention that Yuzu would want something spectacular to set the pace for next season, thinking it might be a command of all six quads. The responses basically said that Yuzu's holding of two Olympic golds, two World Championships and sundry others were enough to make the case for him. My own reasoning was based on the fact that he wanted PC to be a 'landslide', he wanted to bury his opponents in much the same way he had done so in NHK and GPF 2015, and indeed I think his choice of Seimei and Chopin, his two most successful programs, was for him a means to precipitate such a desired landslide. It didn't happen that way and while Yuzu's public statements afterward said he was satisfied with the result (who wouldn't be, after all, he won it, didn't he?) I think inside he wasn't satisfied. I remember statements he made on more than one occasion some time ago where he talked of being the 'absolute champion'. I think of those and I am personally convinced that Yuzu is consciously pursuing becoming the GOAT (though not telling anyone about it). With that in mind, and this season almost history, I am thinking that Yuzu likely feels he has to do something from the very beginning of the upcoming season to establish himself as King of the Mountain once again, since he has been essentially a monarch in absentia this season. A command of all six quads would certainly make the statement, but I admit there are probably other things he could do to achieve the same effect, double quad combinations being my second choice. However he does it, I am really convinced that Yuzu psychologically needs something, in his eyes at least, to regain the momentum he essentially lost this season. He won the Olympics, but he wasn't even in the GPF this year, so his fifth straight GPF was out of reach and he didn't do Worlds this year because of the persistent problems with his ankle. Thus my reasoning is not based on how the world views his achievements but on his own personal (and very private) assessment, an opinion I based on public statements he made both in regards to being 'absolute champion' in the past and wanting to win with a landslide in PC. He had only a half-landslide there, that in the SP, but the FS was flawed, much as it had been in Sochi after a perfect SP and a flawed FS. Nobody doubts that Yuzu is a perfectionist, a perfectionist who thrives on reaching higher goals than others make for themselves and doing so as perfectly as possible. Johnny Weir said it perfectly one time when commenting that 'he skates against himself - what's harder than that?' In a certain sense Yuzu is a tenth judge assessing every skate he does, the one judge who stays with him from competition to competition and it is that judge he wants most to satisfy. Yuzu got the gold in PC but he didn't get the skate he wanted there nor did he get the season he wanted there. The season he wants is what he had the last season he skated on the Junior level, when, in the words of one commentator, I'm not sure who, 'he won everything in sight'. He hasn't had a season like that since. I really think that that is what he needs to validate to himself that he is the 'absolute champion', and taking into account Yuzu's penchant for strategizing I think he feels he has to do something spectacular from day one in his first competition this upcoming season to intimidate his opposition and having them playing catch-up the entire season. There are those who say that Yuzu doesn't have to prove himself to the world, based on his record. He doesn't have to prove anything to the world, I'll admit, but that tenth judge demands a higher standard of proof.

He's going to have to learn it eventually and probably the sooner the better. I think he'd very much like to be the first skater to have all six quads in his personal armory. Don't forget, Shoma's already got the quad flip in his repertoire, as does 13 year old Stephen. Yuzu's stated that the 4A is his immediate objective (after getting well and fully operational). But this last season was essentially non-existent for Yuzu. He missed more competitions than he skated in. He needs something to really recapture the spotlight come this autumn. You can only go so far on a big win. You need more wins to make sure it's not seen as just a fluke. Yuzu was concerned about that in Sochi so it was fortunate that he captured the World Championship as well as having taken the GPF before Sochi. With those three golds in hand he stood as the undoubted number one male skater. Yuzu doesn't have that luxury this time. This autumn he has to prove himself which means he has to come up with something that is far above what any other skaters are doing. A 4A would be a good starter but not a guarantee. A SP and FS which in combination use all six quads would be sufficient to make a dazzling statement. Another route might be to come up with a couple quad/quad combinations. I think however having all six quads would once again make Yuzu as not only the one to beat but the one who probablyl won't be beaten.

I think it would not be particularly surprising if Yuzu has actually been working on the 4A off and on for the last several years, probably during the summer break. The thing is, Yuzu is the Axel King, the one whose 3A is the benchmark for that particular jump. With his trademark entry and his choice of exits from it he can figure that he'll get maximum GOEs whenever he does it, plus a bit of a boost in the judges' PCS sentiments. I remember seeing a conversation amongst some skating commentators, can't remember precisely which network, when they were speculating about the elusive 4A and all of those involved said it would be Yuzu who would be the first to achieve it, their opinions I surmise based on his almost superhuman command of the 3A. I would not be surprised if Yuzu premieres the 4A in the upcoming season. He has already stated that the 4A is his top priority right now and I feel intuitively that he would not have said that without being close to achieving it already. Perhaps before the fall last autumn he already was doing it on the training ice, just not confident enough about it to insert it into competition. It would not surprise me if he was using his working on the 4Lz to mask his more important work on the 4A. That would keep the hordes of speculators distracted. With his missing the WC this year I have a feeling he wants to do something spectacular to capture the spotlight as he returns to the ice as a fully recovered competitor, and what would be more spectacular than to put forward a pair of programs in which ALL six of the quad jumps are utilized? That would certainly tell the figure skating world that Yuzuru Hanyu is back and once again in charge.

I think he'll probably leave the quints to Stephen Gogolev. Quad Axel is his current objective and I would imagine the remaining quads (only quad flip is left, isn't it?). Then onto the next big project - quad/quad combinations, particularly those leading with a quad Axel. Yuzu has the height and speed to do those, if anyone can.

New program? Old program remodeled? As much as there are some programs from the past, sometimes distant past, that I'd very much like to see again, I think considering the time shortening and jump limiting, Yuzu would do better to go with a pair of completely new programs. Since he often does the music editing himself I think the very act of doing the mixing for a shortened program will get his creative juices focused on the positive aspects of the new duration, particularly since, according to him, he is often laying out a broad choreographic structure of his own before consulting with a choreographer. Kurt Browning, in a remark he made one day about choreographing Yuzu, said that Yuzu is good because he actually listens to what the choreographer has in mind, which implies that Yuzu already has done a lot of work in sketching out a sequence of moves. I think for Yuzu working with a choreographer involves initially letting the choreographer know what his thoughts are and then the choreographer shows and tells him the possibilities Yuzu's ideas have for further development. It becomes a back-and-forth cooperation. That is I think why Yuzu's programs are so good. They aren't so much constructed as they are evolved. As for another reason to go for the new, I think Yuzu has to see himself as starting afresh. We're now into a new Olympic cycle. If he's going for a threepeat he needs to focus on the future rather than the past. He did not recycle any of his pre-Sochi or Sochi programs after 2013/14. He started afresh with Chopin and Phantom. He needs to do the same here. Exactly what kind he should do, I think at this point he should look for somethings non-Japanese, in order to put the past to rest. That doesn't mean he won't do anything Japanese in later seasons, but he has to clearly differentiate what he's doing now from what he's done in the past, particularly the most recent past. The problem for Yuzu though is that his programs' musical styles are so broad that it will be hard to come up with music that one can't say 'been there, done that' in terms of style. I do think I'd like to see for his long program something over the top in drama, like RJ1 or Phantom. Seimei's virtues are it's elegance and understatement. He doesn't need that so soon again. He needs something violently passionate. Movies offer plenty of musical opportunites. I wish he were into Tolkien. There's lots of good music in LOTR. But that's my own inclination. There have to have been movies (specifically non-Japanese movies) he's really gotten into. He should go to those since he's already 'invested' emotionally into them. I think, though, that it is necessary that he gets music that's off the beaten path, since if the music is well known the audience might already have expectations of how he should skate to it. He needs the audience to 'discover' the music through him, rather than remember it through him. What is particularly hopeful to me, though, is that his treatment and rehab means that he will have to be doing a lot more thinking about what he has to do before he gets out on the ice and starts doing it. We have to remember that the rehab does not involve total absence from the ice, but rather a gradual working up to full training mode, how gradual being dependent on how his ankle is coping. Slight signs of trouble - slow down or pull back. No problem showing - move to the next level. What this means is that as things evolve to the point where Yuzu is not simply training, but actually starting to practice specific programs for competition, he will be doing so with a full sense of what the programs need to accomplish. One thing working to Yuzu's advantage if he should decide to go to Beijing is the fact he's already been through TWO Olympic cycles. Nobody currently alive has ever entered an Olympic cycle with two consecutive gold medal cycles already under his belt. For Yuzu it is definitely a case of 'been there, done that, time to do it again'.

I don't think anybody has mentioned this in regards to the health and injury issue facing Yuzu, - Should he or shouldn't he compete at Milan? There is one incident Yuzu experienced several years ago that I think might have great influence with Yuzu as he makes his decision, and that is the literally last-minute withdrawal and forced retirement from competition by Yuzu's idol, Yevgeny Plushenko, due to severe back problems, just as the short program competition was about to begin at Sochi. He was there. He saw it all, and the fact that Plushenko was his idol made it even more meaningful. That incident, I feel, might have a decisive influence on Yuzu as he does not want to suffer the same fate. Not that it would necessarily happen in Milan, but in aggravating his current injury he might be laying the groundwork for a similar experience for him in the future.

I've said much the same before but it bears repeating. Yuzu, with a few additional inches and with training started early, would be a world-class ballet dancer today. I see him in the same class as Nureyev and Baryshnikov, both of whom I've seen in performance. He has the memory for movement, the musicality and the dedication. It's that musicality which is not merely icing on the cake, as with so many others who mechanically react to the music, it's the cake itself. Some years ago I was working on a novel which had as its lead a young, uber-talented ballet dancer who was dancing professionally at the age of fourteen. He's taking his driver's test on his sixteenth birthday and he says to the examiner while gesturing down the length of his body, "I want my body to sing." That is precisely what Yuzu is doing at his best. The only skater today who approaches Yuzu in that respect is Shoma, but Shoma's range is limited. Yuzu can do rock and classical, piano and symphonic, in short his versatility is across the musical board. If you look at the range of things he's done over the years you can see that Yuzuru is not only a skater, not only a dancer, but like a highly-skilled actor he can handle any kind of choreographic role he's handed. Similar remarks have been made about highly talented inidividuals in other fields, sometimes inappropriately, but with Yuzu it is absolutely appropriate - Yuzu is a skater's skater.

In looking at Yuzu and Stephen at TCC we should not forget that both of them began training there at roughly the same time. True, they were definitely different ages but they were both essentially strangers in a strange land (I'm not sure exactly when Stephen's family moved from Russia to Canada, but Stephen was seven years old when he began training with Brian). So the two of them, wildly disparate in age, were united by the fact that they were from cultures different from that which they found in Toronto. Since they were working at different levels when they arrived - Stephen, we must remember, was only seven but I also think he must have shown something very very special for Brian to undertake training him at such a young age - in any case we have to realize that Yuzu and Stephen have been part of each other's lives since they first arrived at TCC. I doubt there was ever any really close relationship at first but as Stephen moved into competition and began moving up in terms of the levels at which he was competing, I would not be surprised if he didn't start seeking out Yuzu for advice on how to handle things, and by that I don't mean skating skills, but coping with situations as they arrive. We should not forget that Yuzu was very much a prodigy as he rose on the international circuit. He was just fifteen years of age when he won the World Junior Championship, as also the Junior Grand Prix and everything else he was in that season. Stephen is also a prodigy and if he needs anybody to give him advice and reassurance and to do so from having been through all of that himself, I can't think he'd find anybody better than Yuzu, particularly taking into account Yuzu's essential generosity. Basically I see Yuzu reacting to Stephen's example as a goad not to match him in jumping but to make Yuzu work hard on other aspects of his skating. A quad Axel might be his apparent goal, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind getting a PCS of 50.00 or 100.00 and if anybody is ever going to do that my money would be on Yuzu. That is the core of what I think Stephen's presence will have in affecting Yuzu. Thinking that because his age is taking a greater toll on his body he just can't keep up with a jumper like Stephen he'll pursue a strategy of making himself into a perfect Complete Skater, maxing his GOEs and PCS, making himself the Absolute Champion he once was talking about.

I've basically given up on trying to keep up on this thread. When I come to it nowadays I just go back three or four pages and scan what's current, so I don't know if anybody has brought up this topic - What is Yuzu going to do without Javi to train with and against? My feeling is that with Javi retiring (at least as far as I understand he IS retiring) Yuzu no longer has that training partner to goad him on to evermore excellence. Will that impact his skating? I don't know but I can see a new arrangement forming. Javi will be replaced by Stephen Gogolev, that young 13 year old kid who according to Brian is doing all five rear-entry quads. With Stephen moving into Junior level competition and with the fact that he becomes eligible for senior competition in 2020/21 Stephen is by my reckoning the 'coming thing' and would probably be amongst Yuzu's main competitors, if not THE main competitor, in Beijing if Yuzu hangs on long enough to compete there for a threepeat. I've looked at all of Stephen's available vids on YouTube and I come away with this sense of things. First, the boy is incredible in his jumping. I do not think that Yuzu could ever hope to match the kid jump for jump. The jumping machines Boyang and Nathan are the ones who have much to worry about here since at age 13 Stephen appears to be in position already to out-jump them. Secondly, and this is relevant to Yuzu, Stephen is NOT a complete skater. I don't know whether it's the choreographic weakness of his programs or some other factor but I've watched his programs and have not been impressed, so I'm ambivalent as to his potential on the PCS side of things. Third, Stephen needs a lot of work in bringing up his GOEs. I realize, of course, that he's still young and has time to work on these things. Which brings up a critical issue. Stephen is a growing boy. What kind of impact is all this jumping having on him physically? I remember that at this age Yuzu was also doing a great deal of jumping (although not quads, though he was trying to work towards them) and we might be seeing with his current problems the long-term effects of that jumping finally manifesting themselves. A factor we should also think about is that Yuzu might not be the only one physically affected by 'quadmania', that Nathan and Boyang may be looking at problems coming along because of their jumping. We know already that Boyang missed out on some competition this season because of injury, the exact nature of which I'm not aware (was it ever announced publicly?). Also lurking in the future for Stephen is the 'growth-spurt syndrome'. Remember what a growth-spurt did to Nam a while back. When the body suddenly reorganizes itself a skater loses his sense of self, his sense of how the various parts relate to each other. In the end I would have to say that Stephen's route to possible Olympic gold is not a done-deal. There is still the factor of who and what Yuzuru Hanyu is. The Yuzuru Hanyu we have today, even in his injured form, is still the number one skater on the planet. Remember that it is not simply his skating skills competing skaters have to deal with. There is still Yuzu's incredible charisma. As Kurt Browning once said, Yuzu is the only skater he knows who can have the audience's attention riveted on him even when he's just standing in the middle of the ice 'doing absolutely nothing'. All those competing against Yuzu have to deal with the fact that he is one of the most charismatic athletes ever to exist. Charisma, it should be noted, is not something that can be learned. You either have or you don't have it. Yuzu has it in spades. The other thing Yuzu has in spades, which is something the other elites have attempted to counter, is that Yuzu's skating skills are across the board. He is a jumper, he is a glider, he is a spinner, and he is above all a strategist. As far as strategizing goes, Yuzu is playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers. It shows. I think, then, that Stephen Gogolev's presence at TCC will become for Yuzu the tangible presence that goads him forward. Javi may be gone but his replacement is on hand. The person who will be most challenged by this situation, though, will be Brian. Yet he knows how to handle it. If he didn't, he wouldn't have had two of his skaters standing next to each other on the Olympic podium last month.

As the oldest of seven I had both baby brothers and sisters. Those closest to me in age I didn't have any frustrations over. We first three were very young together. Generally the frustrations were by our parents. Sixteen years between me and my youngest sister, and thirteen years between me and the second youngest. I did have frustrations there, particularly when I was the one of us three older ones to do the baby-sitting. Yes, younger siblings can be very frustrating but they can also be equally enchanting and at times actually comforting when it seemed the whole world was against me Andrea and Corine might take pains to make me feel better. So it goes both ways, ranging from the desire to spank them to the desire to hug them. I pity those who were only children. I think life might have been lonely for them. As for Yuzu, my reaction if he is going is very ambivalent. I think he might be motivated by the need to have this be more than a single gold medal season, to have this be more than a single event season (I know he was in ACI and Rostelecom, but those seem aeons ago). I can sympathize with him there. The one thing I can hope is that if the doctors told him he might worsen the situation badly he decides to sit worlds out. On the other hand if they say he may only aggravate it slightly, then I'd like to see him go. I think in some ways psychologically Yuzu might need Milan if only to make the summer recess after it feel more routine. Mentally he might need to feel going into summer that he was leaving behind a full season. The one thing that will be most critical for Yuzu in making his decision is would he have a chance to get a third gold. If he feels that attaining that might involve a greater threat to his physical well-being then I think he'll stay out. The bottom line is he'll go to Milan if he thinks that physically he can get away with it.

Seeing the controversy about Yuzu and the earthquake, his experience with it shows exactly why I would never live in earthquake country. I remember some years ago where I worked a fellow started working there who was from southern California. The first time we had a tornado watch (I live in Nebraska which along with some neighboring states is called Tornado Alley), any ways the first time we had a watch he was fit to be tied. All the rest of us shrugged and he was wondering why. I told him the difference between a watch and warning. A watch means that conditions are favorable for the formation of tornadoes. A warning means there's actually one in the area so best take cover. When you live in this part of America you learn to live with such things. I did make the point, however, when I told the guy, "I'd rather live where tornadoes are the main threat. Unlike an earthquake, at least you can see most tornadoes coming. I imagine that with the Japanese with earthquakes so frequent (but mostly minor), the Japanese take it in stride. On the other hand I can see how they also have an awareness of how bad an earthquake is, just like there are different strengths of tornadoes. Most tornadoes are fairly small with winds generally around seventy to a hundred miles an hour, just like most earthquakes are weak, just enough, if they are felt at all, to rattle a few dishes and such. What I have learned, though, is that the longer an earthquake lasts the more severe it is near the epicenter. The 2011 quake lasted more than five minutes, so that those Japanese who were distant from the quake and felt only minor shaking knew that this was a really bad one. It ended up being pegged at 9 points on the Richter Scale. Tornadoes have a rating system also and an F-5 tornado is the strongest, with winds of around 300 miles an hour (roughly 500 kilometers an hour). The closest I've ever been to a tornado of that magnitude was nearly fifteen years ago, when a monster tornado (it was a world record 2 1/2 miles across at times) flattened a town about 35 miles southwest of where I lived. I will say that the weather where I was was very ominous that evening and I was listening carefully and ready to take cover if the sirens sounded. What I want to say here basically is that I can thoroughly understand what Yuzu was feeling when he was fleeing that ice-rink. Even though I've never experienced such violence personally I've been close enough to it on several occasions to know people who were victims. There is no way you can fake having been through something like that. It's transformative. The point I want to make is that direct experience of a particularly severe natural disaster (or even a man-made one) is almost always deeply traumatic because when it happens a person's sense of reality is greatly challenged. Suddenly the world is not the orderly place one is accustomed to. It leaves scars that basically are permanent. The world returns to its customary order but there is always that awareness that things can get very violent very quickly and one can no longer take for granted the serenity of the day-to-day world. As far as Yuzu and those accusations being made, my sense is that those are very vile accusations and I can't help but feel for him if he's aware of them because they question what for Yuzu is probably the defining experience of his life. I once observed that Yuzu almost certainly sees his life as before the quake and after it. Yuzu faced the possibility of death at the time and that is not the sort of thing one falsifies. I have no doubt that those skaters whose fans are engaging in such defamations are feeling badly for Yuzu and I can see that they are probably right now thinking what actions they can take to rectify the situation. The best thing those skaters can do is to thoroughly and definitively and publicly rebuke those fans of theirs, telling them that if they are going to act in such a manner they should not consider themselves as being their fans, that they don't need fans like them. The one thing I am sure of in all this is that Yuzu in no way blames those other skaters for the actions of their fans. That is not Yuzu's way of looking at things.

I have to agree that getting himself into fully functional condition is his primary objective. Then he starts dealing with what he has stated is his new objective - a quad axel. I think by now he's already thinking about long term objectives. In a formal sense I think he might try to concentrate on finishing his schooling. Since he's distance-learning he's able to work his schooling around his training regimen and competition schedule. Will he compete next season. I hope he does and he should look at the experience that Patrick had when coming back after just a season off. It was not good for Patrick as so much had changed in that year. He was forever playing catch-up on his return. Yuzu, even though he stands right now as the world's number one male skater cannot coast on his record forever, even though his record as it stands would make it difficult for anybody to claim that spot, especially if Yuzu is still competing. He owns the record--books and as current world champion (although that will be changing shortly) and Olympic champion he definitely is the one to beat. But I'm pretty sure that next season he will put a priority on a fifth GPF win, a first 4CC win, and a third world title. The new scoring protocol is going to be a game-changer in some ways though in exactly what way we won't know until worlds are approaching. Yuzu, though, is a master of gaming the system. I'm sure that he's already planning what he has to do to make the new system work for him. As for a more distant future, life after competition, I'm seeing mixed singles from him. It's clear he likes doing ice shows and he'll be able to name his price when making himself available. Yuzu's name on the marquee is a guaranteed sell-out, not only in Japan but almost anyplace else. I don't think, however, and my thinking on this issue has evolved in the last couple months, that Yuzu wants to spend his post-retirement years in the shows. What he's studying at university and in one documentary I saw how he's adapting some of the things he studying to skating techniques makes me think he's planning on coaching, and with Brian as his mentor, coaching in a big way. He might serve an apprenticeship under Brian, learning not only coaching techniques but also the business aspects of TCC and the coaching business in general, doing that until he's gotten his sea-legs. Then I think it'll be back to Japan to open up his own place. Sendai would seem to be for him a place to situate himself because it is, after all, home, but he might contemplate some other place. Northern Japan would be preferable over southern Japan, because there the annual experience of winter makes people more cognizant of winter sports. It's hard to be thinking about skating in a place where palm trees are growing but in places where snow is inevitable on a multiple times a year basis winter sports are seen automatically as something to pursue. All this, though, is mere conjecture. With Yuzu we might find we have to take things season by season. Unless he comes out and says he wants a third OG, he's probably not going to telegraph his future in any detail. I do think, however, he is assessing his future and the challenges he might face with the idea of retiring while he's ahead of the game. Patrick is a skater who is just fading away. He didn't know when to quit. Javi, on the other hand, decided it was best to leave competition while he was at the top of his form, realizing that maintaining that form was increasingly counter-productive. So Olympic medal in hand, he heads into the sunset. I think Yuzu will probably exit in the same manner. This coming season may truly be his last, particularly if he takes gold in the three competitions I mentioned above. Actually, the ideal situation would be for him to do next season unbeaten. That would have him retiring in a blaze of glory. I remember an early competition, the 2009 Junior Worlds, where the British Eurosport team was commenting, and conjecturing about the future, saying the fourteen year old Yuzuru Hanyu they were watching was the future, that he would be on the world podium some day. For Yuzu the future is something he sees several times a week, a thirteen year old boy who's doing all five non-axel quads. Yuzu's no fool. He realizes nothing lasts forever, so in a very real way I think he's measuring his future in terms of leaving it when Stephen Gogolev is ready to take in hand the torch of World Number One. That might be sooner than anyone (except Yuzu himself) expects. PS - Another option for a future Yuzu has just suggested itself to me, and that is Yuzu doing choreography rather than coaching. We know how he does much of his music mixing and how he is ready to be involved with highly complex choreography for his programs. A further thought, perhaps he might combine coaching and choregraphy, as was the case with his previous coach, where she did both training and choregraphy. Just more conjecture here. The only certainty we can have as far as Yuzu's future is that he is not going to do anything more either in shows or competitions until he can get out on the ice and skate at his max without a single painkiller in his system.

I know this might seem a bit off-topic for this thread but I've just been doing some online research about Brian's Wunderkind, Stephen Gogolev. Amongst the various things I learned was Stephen was born just days after Yuzu turned 10 and he has been working with Brian since age seven, meaning two things - one, Brian is primarily responsible for the Stephen Gogolev we see today and two, Stephen started working with Brian at just about the same time Yuzu did. That means that Stephen has been working almost alongside two of the world's premier men's skaters for the better part of a decade, an ideal situation for seeing what can be done and what can't (with Yuzu there's a great deal of the former and only a little of the latter). Just like young toddlers start accomplishing things at an earlier age if they have siblings only a year or two older than them, I think Stephen is accomplishing things earlier because he's had Yuzu and Javi close at hand. Also, knowing Yuzu's fondness for children and also his generosity, I can't imagine that Yuzu has been sparing in giving advice when Stephen may have asked him. One article I read about Stephen indicated that he had scores that would have qualified him for the world SENIOR championships the previous season, even though he would have just turned twelve that season. In short, we're seeing a new Yuzu (at least on the technical level). There are a number of videos of Stephen on YouTube, so you can get a sense of what he's capable of doing. He still has a lot to learn on the PCS side of things and here he can really learn from Yuzu, but just as Yuzu has dominated men's skating this decade I think it quite possible that Stephen will be the dominant force in the 20s. That's it as far as my discussion of Stephen on this thread. Anything else I have to say will be on the General Skating Thread although I do have a suggestion, and that is to start a thread dealing with Brian's other skaters, not only those he's currently training but also those from the past.

Brian deserves a month off. How often does a coach get TWO of his athletes on the same Olympic podium?

I think right now Yuzu's main objective in terms of relationships with other Team Japan skaters is to keep what seems to me to be a budding relationship with Shoma, who while younger has already been competing with and against Yuzu for three seasons. I've watched their interactions over time and have seen of late an increasing number of 'big brotherly' actions by Yuzu toward Shoma, who seems to me to be quite shy and uncomfortable in unscripted situations. Javi is gone and I think now Yuzu might be seeming to make Shoma his new Javi. Of course they won't be training together but that is not as important as the fact that with Shoma coming in silver to Yuzu's gold and Shoma now hardly new on the senior circuit, Yuzu might be putting Shoma in a situation where he shares Yuzu's seniority and thus can treat Yuzu with a casualness that, if the information I've read here is correct, would not be seen as appropriate for younger skaters. Why Yuzu is strengthening the bonds between himself and Shoma I can't really say, although I have a suspicion it comes from a desire to have somebody at competitions with whom he can act as himself rather than Japan's superstar skating legend. Remember again, Javi is no longer there. Shoma, one of the several elites in the senior men's ranks, can be assumed to be there at least in the big competitions. All this, of course, is being framed by Yuzu in a ways that does not offend Japanese hierarchies of politeness. In some ways I think Yuzu has been somewhat liberated by his residing in Toronto, where he sees people interacting in ways that are substantially different from Japanese custom. Yet he never forgets his Japanese roots and when in a purely Japanese situation he acts just as if he'd never left Sendai. The one unavoidable situation Yuzu has to deal with vis a vis Japanese custom is that his place in the hierarchy is now framed by more than figure skating. He is a major Japanese cultural figure, a person whose reputation, while foundationed by figure skating, is viewed in the context of Japanese culture as a whole. As such he is probably fortunate he is in Toronto rather than Sendai because I think he might be finding life at the top in Japan not wholly to his liking.

I just watched a fancam in the post above here and I really think that they should avoid having white for Yuzu's costume tops. There are times that it looks like his head is disembodied and floating a foot or so above the rest of his body. It's really weird.

But Yuzu is different from others, no bias. I feel like Yuzu is born to be the best, its fate. This is my true feelings Things could be very different by Beijing time. Those who make the skating rules seem to be wanting to rebalance the TES and PCS scores. Any moves to make the PCS more comparable to the TES can only work to Yuzu's advantage. He should still have access to his array of quads which might even include the axel. His future advantage can come because his innate musicality and the elegance and expressiveness of his general skating skills are still light years ahead of the others. I realize that they are working to build up the PCS but the thing is that as far as those elements that comprise the PCS are concerned there is much that depends on simple raw talent and that raw talent is something Yuzu has in spades compared to even the best of his current challengers (I would put Shoma at the top of that list). Yuzu has learned about how to trust his training, and how to trust his programs. Now he has to learn how to trust his inborn talent. The fact is that Yuzu right now is the only male skater out there who can reliably rack up 10's in his component score. They're still rare but if he plans programs and gets the choreography to highlight PCS aspects of his skating he can still win and he can do so without going quad to quad against his challengers. He doesn't need to have six quads or five quads to grab the gold. In the TES he can wrack up GOEs on his spins (he's number one in the world there, and is ranked first because his spins are centered, complex and rapid), also on his step sequences and choreographic sequences and even if he doesn't have as many quads as others he can collect GOEs on those he does do because of the difficulty of his takeoffs and landings. A major reason he has his number one ranking is that he goes into jumps far more often than others without telegraphing a jump is coming. Even his triple axel is achieved with a simple turn to skating forward and without touching his other blade to the ice launching himself into those 3 1/2 rotations while airborne and landing straight into a spread-eagle or some other fancy landing. I've felt for some time that Yuzu's been blessed with great choreographers and I've noticed that his programs are far more detailed than those of the other men out there. Part of that might be the fact that he does much of the musical editing for his programs, something very rare amongst skaters (as far as I know). That means that as he's working out the music he'll skate to he's also getting a rough sense of what he'll be doing to that music. With that much in hand he then meets with his choreographer to fill in all the details, and according to what he said in one interview, he wants his motion to match the music every second of the way. He doesn't want any blank spaces in what he's doing out there. That means that his programs have real density and that he enters a skate with what almost might be described as a higher base value on his PCS points. Not a bad situation to be in, particularly if he knows the limitations of those whom he's competing against. All in all I think Yuzu has what it takes to take on the world's best in 2022. Much depends on what the authorities do to equalize the TES and PCS scores but any move to bolster the importance of the PCS side of the equation can only work to Yuzu's advantage.

It's called 'turnout' and it's required for all five basic positions. It's a position where the feet are essentially at a 180 degree angle from each other and where the alignment is from the hips. A person has to have the right pelvic design to be able to do it (that means it's in the genes). Trying to achieve turnout any other way can wreck the legs, particularly the knees. Yuzu has the pelvis for it. I've never seen him do any of the five basic positions but in the disastrous fall last year he essentially did a full split when landing. That there was no mention of any injury or damage in the pelvic region indicated to me that he has the necessary genetic makeup to handle ballet turnout. I've said this before but it bears repeating, that if Yuzu were closer to six feet in height (he's only 5 ft 7) and had begun training in ballet rather than skating from age five or six) he'd be a world class ballet dancer today. He has the inborn talent and the genes and the determination to have made such an achievement.

I've been thinking about Yuzu's future but also about the future of his reputation. Despite the fact that he has fans in all parts of the world, up to now the bulk of his fans have been Japanese or skating fans. I think that's about to change. Why? Blame it on Pooh. The Poohvalanches have been mentioned in virtually all the articles and shown in virtually all the news videos, but what's important here is that to those unfamiliar with figure skating all those Poohs descending onto the ice make Yuzu instantly memorable. There is no other athlete in any sport who gets that treatment from the fans out there. Pooh makes Yuzu also instantly COOL (and I'm not talking about ice here). I have a strong feeling that there are legions of new fans of Yuzu hitting the internet to find out all they can about Yuzu. It doesn't hurt that according to one commentator Yuzu has boy-band good looks. Nor does it hurt that Yuzu has through the years had some bad hurts of the body and also one dramatic hurt of the soul, his experience of the earthquake, setbacks that make his life memorable. Add to this the fact that those researchers are also learning that Yuzu may be the the greatest skater ever. The result is that Yuzu has a biography tailor-made for a bio-pic. With the expansion of his fan-base that's ongoing I'm sure there must be some Hollywood or Japanese producers looking at Yuzu's life and thinking it would do well on the multiplex screen. I can see such a film being made, beginning with his experience of the earthquake and ending with the second Olympic gold achieved with the high drama of coming back from a serious injury and the Olympics being his first competition in nearly four months. I wouldn't be surprised to see Yuzu's face on the cover of People. He's certainly photogenic enough and the breadth and passion of his fans make Yuzu more than a sports phenomenon, actually more like a rockstar. The American teenage girls magazines might also show interest (although Yuzu will probably need to shed his shirt for some of the photos}. In short, I think we are seeing Yuzu's reputation transitioning from a Japanese and figure skating context to a global celebrity context. It doesn't hurt that virtually all of Yuzu's competitions are available on YouTube, many with several different commentators. He's got far more YouTube coverage than any other figure skater. All in all I think Yuzu's days of relative obscurity in Toronto might be coming to an end. Yuzu's just been put on the paparazzi hit list. One final comment - I think it quite possible that when Yuzu retires the skating rink in Sendai he started out with will be renamed after him.

I don't think he will be doing many shows this year. He's already said in interviews that his top priority is to get his ankle back to where it should be. That's the reason he's not doing Worlds this year (at least as far as we know - has there been any official word on that?). He needs to get things back to where he can pursue his next challenge (according to him), a quad axel. I also think a fifth GPF, a first 4CC, another Japan National win, and a third World title might be on his agenda. I think basically he might be looking at picking up where things went awry this season and doing in the upcoming season all the stuff he didn't get done this time around. If he does all that he'll retain his number one world ranking and perhaps also feel ready to decide whether he'll go for a threepeat. After all, Beijing 2022 is not unrealistic. He'll be only 27, hardly ancient and the whole scene might be quite different from what we see today. One less jumping pass in the upcoming rules and what else might they come up with to equalize TES and PCS? The fact is that if the rules are reconstituted to balance the athletic and aesthetic aspects of the sport that can only work to Yuzu's advantage. He's the one who's getting the ten scores from the judges nowadays. Patrick Chan is history and the one skater amongst all the men on top today who really rakes in the PCS points is Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan. I would say, however, that Shoma is definitely getting better there, also, as also Boyang. But none of them have the innate musicality and the gifted choreographers working with them as Yuzu does.

Ditto! This also shows why he's so formidable in competition. I don't even think the much vaunted Patrick Chan can equal the artistry here. Yuzu, the motion and the music are one.

There is a term for that - workaholic. In some of the short vids I've been seeing here lately where he's just fooling around with the other skaters we are able to see Yuzu FINALLY just enjoying himself. The main task is done. Now it's time to just put the competition behind him and clear his head before addressing the decisions awaiting him - Should he retire? Should he have just one more season to finally get a 4CC gold, reclaim the GPF and Japanese National and World titles? In short have one more season as a sort of victory lap for his Olympic gold. And then there's that other awesome question, should he keep going until he gets an Olympic threepeat?

How about Yuzuesque? Or maybe YuPoohish? Perhaps Swanking? Finally, Yuniqueness? I could come up with more but I've got to continue catching up on this thread. It's adding pages so fast that the magic 3000 is probably only a couple weeks (perhaps even just a few days) away.

In the ice shows Yuzu is always introduced last. I guess they're taking the hint from the ice shows and saving the best for last.

Except he doesn't know how to swim.