rockstaryuzu

First impressions were: 1. There he is! He's real! 2. He's smaller and more ordinary than I thought. 3. No wait, look at him move. He's not one bit ordinary. 4. This guy doesn't just love skating, he lives to skate. 5. The habits of a champion are really different from the habits of everyone else. This was really obvious in the practices. 6. He moves SO FAST!!! 7. He's gracious to a fault.

Ay caramba. I can't believe it's been a week since I laid my very own personal eyes on Yuzu IRL, for the first time, at the ACI open practice.

Great recap and an enjoyable read. Thanks for sharing.

Maybe not the schedule, but I'd love to know what kind of workouts they do in a more general way.

I'm sure they do something. Lambiel's group just posted a photo of them on spinning bikes, didn't they? Skating alone probably doesn't give enough volume of cardio work to get the body's energy systems trained properly for competitions. So they've got to put in the work some other way.

@quadaxelwinBrian's said in previous interviews that he believes in 'good, old-fashioned fitness' as part of a skater's regimen so I've no doubt Yuzu does do all those things. Probably does a LOT of box jumps and squats to train those legs for 4A takeoff.

Nothing quite like looking back at the past to appreciate the now. Although the Sochi men's final will always sting just a little...even though I'm Yuzu's fan and know he had the better skate, that whole evening was just a splatfest.

Yeah, he went full-on natural curl at ACI. It was cute. But the man needs better choreography for his FS. SP was great.

Yup. And to tell him when it was time to grow his skills and learn new things.

Agreed, but we do have some promising up-and-comers. And Kevin Reynolds is still giving it the old college try.

The thing that bugs me about Patrick, when you look back, is that all of his issues are problems that could have been corrected by the right coach. But especially in the latter half of his career, it just seemed like none of his coaches were willing to tell him what he needed to hear. And that's a shame, really. But I am going to say it again: in person the guy exudes massive charisma on the ice. You can't get the effect from watching him on TV at all.

If we all do it, do you think it will make our hair-losing sentiments more understandable to him or will he just pretend he doesn't get why we're all

That's assuming he'd keep the 4Lo at the front of the program. 4A, 4Lo would be ridiculously extra, even for him. By my not-so-educated guess, he'd probably let the 4A stand on its own and /or follow it up with something a little smaller, then move the 4Lo to another part of the program or swap it out entirely. If memory serves, he has a 3Lo in there somewhere too, maybe he could convert it? Frankly it seems that the challenge with 4A isn't just landing it but making it fit into a program.

The falls have very distinctive cheering, I noticed. The whole audience goes "Oh!" with a sympathetic dropping intonation, then claps as the skater gets up. It's really nice, like audible kindness. Anyway, after all is said and done, Yuzu does say that audience participation gives him energy to compete, so he'd probably find it strange if the crowd was perfectly calm and composed and didn't scream. Performance (and skating is definitely performance) is always about a give-and-take between the performer and the audience. Yuzu's putting his energy out there for our enjoyment...the least we can do is give it back with energy of our own. About recognizing 4A: I rewatched the programs again and figured out where I think he's likely to put it: at the first gong sound in the Origin music. So if I'm right, Yuzu's first competition 4A will be announced by a gong. No way we could possibly miss it.

I'm sure his plan is to win with the 4A and a raft of other perfect jumps, flawless spins, and a dazzling StSq or two, with a couple or three amazing surprises thrown in for good measure.

You've also got to figure in the fact that the Olympics are a different beast; everyone's pumped up and excited because of all the other hoopla going on. It's not just a normal figure skating competition. Since I've been to all of one figure skating competition so far, I don't want to make predictions, but if the crowd is mostly like the majority of people who attended ACI (really, the rabid fanyus were a small percentage), the screaming will be at appropriate levels and times. Although if 4A makes an appearance, all bets are off. That one will raise the roof, I'm sure.

Pretty sure he counts the beats himself, so all he'd need is the opening few bars. He's so spot on to the music every time, he can't be reacting to hearing it because then he'd be a tiny bit behind (sound travels slowly).

I think the screaming in Pyeongchang could be forgiven as people were basically witnessing a miracle and millions of watchers around the world were probably doing the same thing. At ACI, most of the screaming took place while Yuzu entered the ice or during the applause after the performance, which is reasonable enough.

Actually, my understanding is that he and his parents have a pretty normal parent-child relationship with no problems, at least based on what I've seen in Canadian media. But I didn't watch his retirement speech so who knows. My overall impression of him is that he's a better guy than the unfortunate first impression he gives makes him seem. And I really do urge people to go see him skate live, it's a revelation.

We shouldn't complain, no matter how hard it is on our hearts and hair. That mindset is what makes him the champion after all.

Mine's cuter. : p

Well, he only has 4 minutes and seven jumping passes to get them all in. So the question remains, how? I'm liking the 4Lo though. Something nice and graceful about the way it takes off.

And he even admitted it this time.

@makebelieveup (regarding his scores obsession) Old habits die hard, eh?

You know that's an insane line-up when you think about it. Just punishing. Not only on the joints but also stamina. And let's not forget he's got that hydroblade leap into spin in there too, which will be brutal in itself. ( Leaping sky-high from a contorted crouch position then holding your whole body rigid against centripetal force? Ouch!) No wonder he was saying he needs to train...boy needs some triathlete or marathon-runner physiology, stat! Yuzu why u do dis? Crazy boy.