caterpillar

I like to think that tribute or not, this program will be the definitive "Otoñal" long after jw's is forgotten. That makes me feel a bit better about it

You just made me realize I had also forgotten Masquerade, and I had to abandon the whole list because it clearly belongs in the top ten but I have no idea where. I'm not sure I could even rank just the exhibitions on their own, I love so many of them so so much.

Thank you for putting this together! I'm so impressed by all the stuff you do for this community

I'm not sure how to include tweets but I found this translation. I'm actually crying, his kindness is just above and beyond. https://twitter.com/806coco/status/1346561168652034048?s=20 This post has been tagged by yuzuangel as [NEWS].

Ugh, yes. I'm really worried for Mai: I have a family member with the same disease, and we were told getting covid could trigger a flare-up. I don't want her to fall ill again when she's just gone into remission. But yeah, I'm also so glad Yuzu is staying far away from all of that.

This honestly made me laugh out loud, I have never seen anything so transparent. Incredible.

Haha, don't worry! In the article, he only says that "Should Yuzu win again, the GOAT (greatest of all time) question will be settled.” If Yuzu was his pick to win I would be worried too.

This is a pretty good article, but always bugs me when people say "If Yuzuru does X, he will be the greatest of all time." Mostly because it's a stupid arbitrary title comparing skaters from time periods different enough that it might as well be different sports, with no established measurements (concistency? longevity? completeness? astounding performances? popularity?) which makes the whole thing mostly about what "feels" right. And to be honest, who cares anyway? But also, the goalpost is constantly being moved out of Yuzuru's reach. People have been calling him the GOAT or one of the GOATs since at least 2015, and up until the 2018 Olympics people were saying that if he could only repeat as Olympic champion his status as GOAT would be established. Now he suddenly needs yet another medal? I don't doubt that even if he were to re-repeat as olympic champion, making him the most decorated modern olympic figure skater, people would find a way to move the goal further again. I don't know why I would expect better of Philip Hersh, but it still annoys me whenever I see it.

This is probably a stupid question, but what's the difference between 'ore', 'boku' and 'watashi'? I tried googling it but the answers were a bit contradictory

This will probably be overly long and incoherent because that’s just the kind of person I am. I didn’t really watch any figure skating this year, except briefly dipping my toes into the new season at the Russian test skates and being thoroughly scared off. I didn’t even watch 4CC (which feels like a different year entirely), because after the GPF and nationals last year I was so tired and discouraged by seeing Yuzu so exhausted. This has been an incredibly shitty year for me, as for most people, and I expect it has been for Yuzu as well. But seeling him skating at Japanese nationals, not only performing extraordinarily well but also seemingly so much healthier and more spirited than a year ago, having found a way through the difficulties step by step, trial and error; it made me so happy. A few days ago I was looking for an old interview and stumbled into the golden skate archives, the thread for the 2012-2013 season. Yuzuru had just changed coaching teams, and I was surprised to see how many people saying he should go back to Japan because TCC would burn him out. And I’ve only been an fs fan since 2017, but I remembered reading how hard the beginning of that season was, how he bombed his free at Skate America and lost a lot of weight and was struggling with his asthma. I understand how hard and dispiriting that must have been for fans. Seeing that thread made me realize, or rather remember, that people have at times been counting Yuzuru out since he was seventeen. And over and over he has come back, moved forward, found a way through his struggles and achieved so much more than I think anyone could imagine in 2012. He’s probably the most inspirational person I know. And I’m not Yuzuru, with the fire of genius burning so brightly within that it’s almost hard to look straight at him sometimes. But I want to try to emulate that aspect of him a bit more going forward. Thank’s for everything you have written here this year, it is always a joy to read. For 2021, let’s find ways through the difficulties somehow. Hopefully, for us and for Yuzu, there will be fewer struggles to battle. Happy new year!

The world is finally right again

it’s from this video, behind the scenes for the pillow commercial he was filming

While this is true, if I recall correctly Yuzu originally wanted to recycle Let’s go Crazy for the Olympic season for this reason, but was advised to choose Chopin instead. So I actually think all three of these instances can be explained with the fact that it was the Olympics, and Yuzu wanted these significant programs for that season.

The audacity... And “inconsistencies in judging of several of our athletes” - they’re not even pretending to care about fair judging here, only angry that for once the tech panel kind of did its job in regards to their skaters. And not only was every single one of those calls justified, but their skaters still finished one and two! God I’m so angry, what is this fucking sport?

Very much this, but also, I feel like Yuzu sets a good example. If you’ve followed him for a while, you know he’s always cheering for other skaters and being adamant that they get the attention when they start to skate, and I think as a fanyu you try to take after that, both out of respect for the skaters and for Yuzu.

I don’t really think this has been studied enough to decisively determine what technique causes more injuries. I’m all for correct technique, but I actually think it has developed based around what’s most beautiful rather than what’s safest. Plainly harmful/dangerous techniques have of course been disallowed/not gained popularity in the first place, but prerotation isn’t that kind of issue. The long term effect on hips and joints isn’t something that really becomes relevant until you’re jumping triples and quads, and the correct techniques were established before that. And while I do think that pre-rotation is more linked to under-rotation, so is delay in rotation, which is basically the opposite, and I haven’t seen anyone argue that that should result in a deduction. Additionally, I think it’s hard to say more generally which kind of technique is more difficult, since it probably varies from skater to skater based on personal preference and what kind of basic technique they’ve been taught. Yuzu finds it harder to jump a lutz with pre-rotation than without, but I think Shoma would say the opposite about the 4F. I have a few friends who are doing or used to do figure skating (they’re all from the same rink, so this is basically the worst sample size), and they all learnt their flips and lutzes by starting from the loop and adjusting the toe from there. So I think in some parts of the world there is a notion that the pre-rotated version (often more loop-like) is easier at least as a starting point, but this is far from a general consensus. What I think it comes down to is that these six kinds of jumps have specific textbook techniques, and jumping differently means that you haven’t been able to master one of these techniques. That sounds a bit harsh, but going back to the loop-method of learning harder toe jumps: of the people I know who learnt that way, one has a very clean toepick and minimal prerotation for the lutz and flip, while the others don’t. Clearly, she mastered the transition from loop to toe jump much better than the others, so I feel it’s fair to reward her higher than the people who are basically still using loop-technique on lutz jumps. This is basically what Ambesi was talking about at the Olympics, and someone linked to a thread on twitter earlier talking about how a pre-rotated lutz actually doesn’t have the characteristic lutz ice mark, making it more similar to a flutz than anything else. Taking the very obvious example of the toe axel: I have no idea if it’s harmful for the skaters, and while it’s easier to do for the skaters who have this technique issue, I actually think a lot of skaters with proper toe loops would struggle with it. Still, it’s not a toe loop, and the skater is deducted for it because they haven’t mastered (or aren’t displaying that they have mastered) the proper technique. Properly being able to master the very different techniques for the different jumps is hard, and that’s why variety is rewarded. I don’t know if pre-rotation on it’s own is harder or easier, but never learning lutz technique and instead relying on flip/loop technique with different decoration, shouldn’t earn you points for a lutz. That being said, I am in no way a professional. This is just my understanding.

Reading this makes me so mad. This is the problem when people say than over-/underscoring isn’t a big deal. It’s not just about the way it keeps rewarded skaters from developing their weak points, or the concrete loss of confidence, exposure and opportunities, even though all of those factors are certainly bad enough. It stagnates the sport in all areas except one. Not to be dramatic, but we’ll never know what beautiful transitions and creative entries we might have had right now across the field if all innovation and quality was appropriately rewarded. While skaters might stick to choreographically easier layouts, I’m sure many skaters would challenge themselves more if they felt it was worth it. Right now, though, it generally just isn’t. To think that the judging almost made Yuzu feel he was forced to compromise one of the most unique and remarkable parts of his skating is disgusting, it makes me want to punch something.

Haha, sorry, I thought “anywhere but the air” sounded as if there was more than one other option

Is there any other alternatives, except in air or on ice? But yes, that makes sense. I was just afraid I was projecting my own opinion on prerotation onto his words.

This might be an irrelevant question, but what does he mean by rotating a jump “below”? Is he saying that he’s having a hard time finishing rotation when landing the jump, or is he talking about prerotation? Or something different? I don’t want to read it as being about prerotation without being sure.

This is a really interesting take. I maybe wouldn't call Nathan a dancer, because I have several friends that are professional dancers and Nathan doesn't really compare (which makes a lot of sense and is not a criticism of Nathan, since he isn't a professional dancer). But I do agree that the choreography is like dancing in the sense that it doesn't utilize the ice as a medium all that much: you could do the Caravan choreo on the ground and it wouldn't really suffer. (For comparison, I'm thinking about something like the Otoñal spread eagle, which wouldn't work anywhere else, or for that matter the wonderful bit of choreography in Étude after the first spin). But I really think this analysis is exactly why I tend to enjoy Nathan's short programs at first and then grow increasingly more weary of them. This was especially true for Nemesis but I feel the same about Caravan as well. When we first saw it it was new and fresh, and Nathan seemed to be having fun with it and was entertaining to watch. But while I'm sure Nathan genuinely likes Caravan (and liked Nemesis, which is clearly the superior program), it doesn't seem like he has much of a connection to it beyond that. He's skating this particular program because it was choreographed for him and because it gets the job done. So as time goes by and the novelty disappears, the interpretation starts to feel a bit shallow. Both this year and last, by the end of the season Nathan reminded me of an actor who has played the same part too many times, just going through the familiar motions and expressions. Meanwhile in LGC Yuzu is a rockstar, and it's about the relationship between the audience and the performer, and from the unusual jump entries to the detailed spins to the crazy step sequence, there's just a lot more to it. You can tell how invested Yuzu is in the program any time he performs it, and that goes for all the programs I've ever seen him skate. So instead of wearing out as he settles into it, it grows and transforms and becomes better and better and better. I feel like I'm just reiterating this in a lot more words, but I basically very much agree. Nathan is an entertaining performer and Yuzu is an artist, and it's impossible to compare the two.

Thank you for clearing that up! That makes a lot of sense.

I see... So who is it that is selling the right to name these stars? Is there a universal register? I’ve never heard of this before...

Oh, I love that, that’s amazing! But isn’t the name of stars decided by the IAU, can you actually buy the right to name a star?

It sort of seems like most of Yuzu’s earphones already come with cases included, so maybe a case wouldn’t be all that useful. But perhaps it would be meant as more of a symbol anyway?