rockstaryuzu

Same. Particularly the Seimei-style side lunge...it just didn't work. It would have been better to put a different step there. So when I say Yuzu should sometimes leave his favorites out instead of trying to force them to all fit into every program, this is the kind of thing I mean. I'm not saying he should stop doing his favorites altogether. I'm saying he should pick and choose and add new things in instead. For example, if he could learn that sliding backwards lunge thingy that Kevin Aymoz does, that would add a cool new element to his repertoire. By now, we all know a Yuzu program is going to have a certain set of moves in it no matter what. That's a strength but also a weakness because he runs the danger of becoming too predictable. I don't want him to ever become predictable.

This is what I was thinking too. And Nathan took his costume inspiration from Patrick. Or maybe straight up borrowed the shirt. 😃

Isn't Keegan still doing Singing in the Rain? I know he kept Chaplin. I'd love to see Yuzu do this kind of a program though.

don't you think that's a little mean? After all, Nathan is five years younger than Yuzu and still learning...maybe we should cut the kid some slack.

About 'artistry': I think Nathan has a long way to go before he's at Yuzu's level, but his Skate America SP did indeed have a level of artistry that was similar to some of Yuzu's programs. One 'artistic' program does not an artist make. The difference between Yuzu and a lot of other skaters is that Yuzu has internalized 'artistry'. The art in his programs comes from within himself. It's not something imposed on him by the choreographer from outside.

The thing is, when Yuzu puts all of his favorite elements in every competition program he makes, every single time, after a while all the programs start looking similar to each other. It would be good for him to have variety, add new things in, sometimes leave other things out, just to keep his programs fresh.

If I were a figure skater, this would so be me. People would have to cover their kids' ears because of the language.

This. We can speculate all we want but at the end of the day he's going to do whatever his kuyashii heart desires. However, I agree that the opening gong in Origin is actually the most likely place for Nessie to make her appearance. Putting it in place of the long SE in Otonal is merely a possible alternative. And there's no reason he can't combo the 4S in the SP to make room for a solo 4A. It must be exhausting for a skater to sort out program layout. First you have to come up with the idea, then try it and see if it works, try it with the music, fit all the pieces together, lather, rinse, repeat...no wonder skaters take weeks or months to get programs together.

Kurt really specializes in the funny/sexy though - he's the one who did Super Javi for Javi. H, ILY has that sassy sensibility, it's not just about the sex appeal, it's about light-heartedness and fun. I'd love to see what he would make for Yuzu now, but TBH I think Jeffrey's already stolen that march with LGC.

Kurt sounds like Forrest Gump saying that...comparing Yuzu to a box of chocolates... ....kind of fits, considering how sweet he is and his Lotte sponsorship.

I don't see why he doesn't do a piece by One OK Rock or Bump of Chicken, or whatever it is he's listening to before he goes on the ice. He seems to really feel that music and it looks like fun.

About that: the risks from having an instability in it are so high, that even once Yuzu debuts it in competition, I'm guessing that he probably will only attempt it when all the stars align to give a good landing. We'll probably see a LOT of popped jumps once 4A is a reality.

Certainly I can see how he's improved over the years as a skater. Go back and compare PW to LGC or even PC Ballade and you can see how his skating has become more fluid and his programs more complex over time. But rather than his skating per se, I think Yuzu's biggest weakness for his competition programs lies in his tendency to get attached to certain things. He has his 'darlings' - the side lunge, the hydroblade, the pancake spin, the bielman and the Ina Bauer - that he likes to put into every single program. Likewise, his taste slants strongly in a certain direction in terms of music and costuming. Any time he's done something different in that regard, it's usually been at someone else's suggestion. So if there is an area where he can still improve, I'd say it's that - to keep trying new things and to recognize when the old favorites aren't going to serve him well. That's not to say I want to see him drop old favorites entirely. I just would like for him to realize that not every single competition program needs all the tricks in his bag in it.

My first instinct is to say 4A. But to give you a more serious answer, I'll have to go re-watch Otonal and give it some thought. I mean, it's right smack dab in the middle of the program and takes the whole length of the rink going by the judges. What would a kuyashii boy put there, if not a showcase item?

Maybe Joseph got elected club photographer/instagrammer this year. (and Yuzu is class president 😃)

Even so, he's giving up, what, about 5 or 6 seconds, maybe more, to an element that doesn't garner any score, in a 2min 30s program...that seems like a lot to me. It's not exactly efficient use of time. I wonder if it'll stay.

He's said in a couple of interviews that he had to give up everything to win the Olympics, including his intended program layouts. I wonder if that's a sore spot for him. IMO part of his kuyashii is that he's still chasing his mythical perfect skate. I think he wants to win with a program that hits all the good spots - artistically beautiful, athletically demanding, and scores high. So while I could see him swapping out elements for higher point ones, I think he'll strive to maintain his artistic integrity too. That being said, the long spread eagle down the length of the rink in Otonal still makes no sense to me. I wonder if it was just a placeholder for an as-yet-undecided element. It's a LOT of time to throw away not getting points in a competitive SP.

Aww, that's so cute. I'd say they helped him to a perfectly wonderful accent. I love his English.

How old is he there? About 6? 7? And even so, his fashion sensibility for massively oversized off-ice clothing is already firmly established. It doesn't look like he's changed all that much...😃

Well, there's no harm in trying.

So I was just eating dinner, minding my own business, with my mind wandering... suddenly I realized I was thinking of Yuzu videos on YouTube. And not just any videos, no. I was imagining myself a year from now, re-watching YouTube videos of Yuzu landing his 4A in spectacularly perfect fashion in Origin. I don't know whether to be embarrassed or impressed that I've got 4A on the brain so much that I'm actually (and unconsciously (!)) doing image training of watching Yuzu having succeeded at it....Oy Vey.

This is very true.

As fun as that would be, even Yuzu can't get away with giving that many people heart attacks all at the same time. Spare a thought for the poor volunteer first-aiders who'd have to attend to all the dead fanyus in the arena after something like that... I think he's being a gentleman by giving us fair warning. In that moment, Brian was all of us.

Considering that the posts of mine you're responding to are between three weeks and a month old, and buried deeply in the thread and that the rest of the discussion has moved on from there, I'm quite surprised you've taken so much time out of your day to write this response now. I don't want to drag the rest of the forum discussion back there, so rather than address your points, I'll say this: when I read a post and respond to it, I'm responding to the actual words that appear on the page, because I can't guess at what a writer may have actually meant by their words. If you think I'm misunderstanding you all the time, then maybe your words aren't accurately reflecting what you mean to say. One of the mods here told me that the Planet forums are set up so that everyone sees them in their own language. That's wonderful, but it could cause a poster's meanings to be lost in translation. Since I'm a native English speaker, and a writer at that, I see many layers of nuance and meaning in the things people say here, and I often forget that the original post might not even have been written in English. Therefore I sometimes find that other posters have said things they may not have meant to say. I don't know if this is the case for you, but if so, then I will try to keep it in mind in the future when I read your posts.

Of course it'll be sexy, it's Yuzu. With apologies to J. Fernandez