Henni147

I never thought, I would see Sailor Moon, Ash Ketchum, Team Rocket and Yuzuru Hanyu in the same clip. Well, here we go https://mobile.twitter.com/yuuuuuzuwu/status/1235079831542321153 #Footnote: Yuzu singing the Yo-Kai Watch song full force and doing arm choreo in the first row is such a mood

Let's be honest: How many skaters had 6 different short and 8 different free programs throughout their senior career? And how many different styles of music did Yuzu cover with his 14 different senior programs in total? I think, he earned his right to choose and remaster whatever he likes. He doesn't owe anyone anything, especially not his antis and those ungrateful judges. Apart from that: If Yuzu comes up with a new music piece, people will mock him that it's the same style as before. If it's an entirely new style, they will bash him for closing his eyes and looking down all the time. If he opens his eyes, they will criticise that his eyes are open. This mockery will never end as long as he puts a foot on the ice. No need to waste a single second on the opinion of these annoying and vicious idiots. Yuzu said himself: Chopin is like good old wine and cheese that needs its time to mature. Personally, I prefer one or two masterpieces to 20 sloppy throw-away programs anytime. And Yuzu created at least 10 masterpieces throughout his career. We as fans really can't complain. He blessed us with a huge pool of epic performances that we love to watch, rewatch and watch again. But no need to worry. He promised new programs for the next season and Yuzuru Hanyu is a man of his word.

This. Makes. Me. So. Sad. Imagine Yuzu performing Notte Stellata live with Il Volo at FaOI in a few weeks... It was really planned... I pray that they get a second chance. Somewhere... Sometime...

In my personal opinion, Hope and Legacy is not as calm as many people say it is. It's a powerful music piece with multiple crescendos and more impulsive than Notte imo. Also, I could feel a difference between H&L in Helsinki and Seoul. At Worlds there was this tension in the air to land all the quads, while at the 4CC gala he could dive completely into the performance. Therefore Yuzu appeared more angelic to me in the gala than in competition. This shouldn't minor his achievement in Helsinki at all. It was an incredible performance with the right balance of angel and boss mode. I strongly believe that you need this certain power and strength of a mountain to conquer so many quads. I cannot imagine that Notte with 4 quads would work. A little swan is not meant to jump such monsters.

I think, Yuzu shows this magic beautifully in his exhibition galas. The first performance I've seen from him was Notte Stellata at the Grand Prix Final 2016 and it was love at first sight particularly because every single move was so light and beautifully extended. He was really gliding and flying across the ice like a swan. I've never seen anything angelic and ethereal like this before. Truthfully, Notte Stellata is so peaceful and intimate that I always feel like an intruder while watching it I don't think that the judges would evaluate a program like Notte or Haru Yo Koi any worse than Chopin or Otonal. I think, the main reason why Yuzu rarely skates to that type of music in competition, is that it's difficult to implement big quad jumps into a calm and tender performance like this. Imagine Notte Stellata with 4S, 4T+3T and 3A layout. Not to mention a freeskate with 5 quads, big combos and everything. That would completely kill the atmosphere of the program imo. Yuzu would turn from an angelic swan into a scary eagle

In other words: Even if he is not the winner, he is still the winner. The thing is: Yuzuru Hanyu is beatable on the scoresheet, but not on the ice. Even if he makes mistakes or finishes second, the magic moment is his. Wherever he competes, the biggest attention, expectation and pressure is on him. Always. He is the most anticipated and celebrated competitor in every event. That makes him the most dominant skater of his era.

Honestly speaking. When +90% of every official press conference is yours, you are definitely the most dominant skater. And Yuzuru Hanyu hasn't missed any medalists' press conference since NHK 2014. Just saying.

Considering the technical explosion and demographic change in single skating... it's very likely that Yuzu will hold the record for oldest no. 1 for quite a while. Especially, if he manages to keep his no. 1 spot in the world standings next season.

In fact, the first three pictures could have been shot within the same 60 seconds, because the single hairs on the top of his head stick out the same way

What an irony that would be. The majority of the field recycles and recyking Yuzuru Hanyu comes up with two brand new programs

Well, if you didn't know that Yuzu got injured at COC, you would never believe it, because his freeskate at the Grand Prix Final was (nearly) flawless and the epitome of strength and confidence. Considering what ridiculous scores some performances get nowadays, that brilliant freeskate was really underrated imo. For me, personally, that POTO was superior to the WTT performance. The fall on the final Lutz was one of the most charming falls in figure skating history. EDIT: I'd like to expand that list to my personal top 10 (the order may change depending on my daily mood): Footnote: it's crazy that a program like OLY Parisienne Walkways didn't make it to Yuzu's Top 5. Other skaters wait for a masterpiece like that their entire career. It's also fascinating that Yuzu's programs don't have to be perfectly clean to be epic and memorable. He can sell them even with wobbles or falls.

Unfortunately I couldn't upload it on YouTube, because LGC would have caused a total copyrightocalypse and my poor channel would have been deleted after 0.1 seconds. So I uploaded the clip on my GDrive. This link should direct you to the player https://planethanyu.com/video/view/1506-yuzuru-hanyus-encore-performances/

Brian: "Just go do the Yuzu excercise." TCC skaters: Break out in sweat and tears. Disapparate from the rink as fast as they can. Cannot be found for two weeks. Game over. Yuzu:

What a final. Two epic comeback performances after two very tough periods in Yuzu's career 2017: Career threatning ankle injury. ---> Chopin 3.0 in Korea 2018: I'm back! 2019: Painful defeats and struggles with his tribute programs. ---> Chopin 4.0 in Korea 2020: This is me! This makes me teary

Yes. The injury at COR, Nathan's consistency and the crazy scoring forced Yuzu into most of those layout changes. The other thing is that Origin was created in a period, where Yuzu was in that zen-mode and didn't care about points and stuff that much. It was hard to turn Origin into a competition winner afterwards. Now things are different. Yuzu is back to competition-mode and knows more or less what Nathan, the judges and the rest of the field are capable of. He can costruct his new programs on that basis. About his old programs: I'm sure that he practiced multiple recovery layouts to be prepared for all scenarios, but it was clear after 2-3 competitions what the final form of R&J, POTO or H&L was meant to be. Origin is still a big mystery and I wonder, if Yuzu knows himself, how its final form should have looked like. I think, the GPF layout was the closest so far (despite its craziness).

Sorry, I was a bit unclear in my last post. The big difference between Origin and other freeskates is the following: Until 2016/17 Yuzu used one core layout for his freeskates. Yes, he had multiple recovery options in the bag, but in most cases he sticked to the same planned layout within a season (the one he submitted to the ISU before the competition). If you go back until 2010/11, you will find very few exceptions. For Hope & Legacy the planned content didn't change at all. It stayed the same over 7 competitions from ACI to the World Team Trophy: 4Lo 4S 3F *4S+3T *4T *3A+2T *3A+1Lo+3S *3Lz In Origin on the other hand the planned layout changed a lot. In fact, there is no jump element in Origin except the 4Lo that stayed the same from the debut at ACI 2018 to GPF 2019 (and I'm sure, he wanted to upgrade the 4Lo later to a 4A as well, so...). That's a very big difference to the programs before 2017. Here is a list of planned Origin layouts (not what he actually did on the ice, but what he wanted to do, if he had skated clean). I marked all jumps in yellow that Yuzu planned to do only once or twice in these two seasons: Beat me, but I don't think that he did himself any favor with these changes. It's okay to upgrade the technical content a little, but you need a core of three or four jumping passes that stays the same. If you want to skate clean, there must be automatisms you can rely on, so that you can focus on the crucial elements. Origin didn't really have a core like that and that made it twice as hard for Yuzu to skate it perfectly clean. That's my guess at least.

I'm sure, from now on Yuzu will only pick music pieces that 100% suit his style and are competition-friendly. That means: (1) The music matches the timing and rhythm of EVERY technical element and transition. (2) The choreography has an ideal balance of power sections and breathing rooms. (3) The program highlights Yuzu's strengths in technique and style. In his case everything stands and falls with (1). Literally. As long as there is a single mismatch between a jump and the music, the probability of making a mistake increases by 60-70%. We could see that in recent performances. Hence it's very risky and difficult for him to change the jump layout mid season. There is no quad that resembles another in its entry rhythm, speed or character and can't be switched that easily. It's either the provisional layout that won't fit the music or the final version (or both). I think, this is one of the reasons why Yuzu struggled with Origin. In 9 competitions he changed the layout 7 times and attempted four new jump elements in two seasons. This massive technical upgrade and permanent layout change made it pretty much impossible for him to shape and practice Origin in its final form. Another dilemma: Origin couldn't leave the cocoon stage as long as the quad Axel was not ready. A deadlock. My opinion: the new program should be designed with a final form that is in realistic reach, so that he can work on it from the beginning. It's okay to have one watered down version in reserve, but not more. It's a waste of time and energy to work on multiple temporary layouts that are meant to be discarded anyway.

From a quality point of view Otonal in Seimei is my favorite encore, too. If you ask me, this is the one figure skating performance, where it's pointless to measure the 1-foot/2-foot ratio, because Yuzu only has both feet on the ice at the beginning, one eagle and the ending pose. The rest is either 1-foot or 0-foot skating. In other words: he is flying. That insane height on the stag leap... My overall favorite encore program is still the Crazy Swan and Yuzu has to do something really superhuman in the future to top that Favorite costume swap for me is PW in Etude at CiONTU. That was criminally good However, Origin in Haru Yo Koi had something very illegal, too Beat me, but my wish for the future is LGC encore in H&L costume. In short: The Crazy Legacy.

Well, this is one of my favorite compilations up to date. It just never gets old

Initially I wanted to add all performances from CiONTU (also From Russia With Love, Mission Impossible and Sing, Sing, Sing), but then I realized that including all his junior encores would have expanded the video by +8 minutes and that would have killed my editor @sweetwater Thanks for the other Lotte footage. I didn't know that before. It has a smell of... Seimei?

Oh dear. There's a clip of MOI 2012 and I didn't know... And aye, this is awesome. It's sad that so many clips from Japanese broadcasts are geoblocked or hidden on YT... I'm sure, I missed so many great things because of these annoying restrictions... PS: My fav will always be the Crazy Swan

What can you do, if you are forced to stay at home and have no WLAN/internet for nearly a week. Well, I took the time to see what I've stored on my harddrive since 2016... This inspired me to edit this little (!) +22 minutes long clip of Yuzu's senior encore programs and costume swaps! PS: Sorry for the unusually poor video quality. Originally I recorded it in 1080p, but there was not enough storage on my GDrive, so I had to convert it to 720p, but I hope, it's enjoyable nevertheless. There are some real beauties in this collection and a VERY special bonus round at the end. I think, you will love it And now it's your turn: Which encore performance from Yuzu is your absolute favorite? Which costume swap is your favorite? Which encore programs or costume swaps do you wish Yuzu to do in the future?

I agree that "cheater" is a very problematic and often inappropriate label in figure skating and sport in general. Especially, if you as an athlete don't violate any rules. You are not a cheater, just because you have less transitions than others in your program. So, how are you supposed to react, if you still get 9.50 for TR? - Include the hardest transitions of all time in the next competition and terribly mess up the whole program? - Speak up in the press conference that you don't deserve 9.50 for this program and wish to be scored accurately next time? - Retire from skating? All three solutions would be an own goal for the skater and I have my doubts that it would put an end to the corruption and bias in the long term. Maybe a spectacular retirement could cause some temporary change, but after one cycle ISU would return to 'business as usual'. I bet my money on that. Also, you cannot expect a skater to sacrifice his or her career to save the sport. This would be too much of an ask.

Yuzu's career is so special, because everything came together: 1. Talent and dedication: Yuzu is gifted with an incredible talent as a skater and that lovestory between him and Ice-chan is unprecedented. Skating is his life and fate and baby and everything. Like he said himself: he was born to skate. 2. Convenient timing of his career: Yuzu was in the lucky situation that he could grow in parallel to the technical explosion. He wasn't forced to jump multiple quads in his junior and early senior seasons, so he could bear the physical strain of practice and competitions for more than a decade. I have my doubts that Yuzu would be still competing, if he had to jump five quads in the free from the beginning. #Footnote: Actually it didn't have much to do with luck. Most of the drastic changes in men's skating happened, because the field couldn't beat Yuzu with conservative methods, aye? 3. Opportunity to combine highest technical difficulties with mature adult skating: However, these circumstances put Yuzu in the exclusive situation that he could continuously develop his technical and artistic abilities side by side over 10 senior seasons and become a skater who now can perform mature adult programs with multiple quads AND highest artistic quality as a grown man. I don't think that any of the current juniors will reach his competitive peak at the age of 25. They might be still competing, but not for medals anymore. I hope that I'm wrong, but that's my fear. 4. Diversity among his rivals: Different rivals with entirely different strengths (Patrick - skating skills, Javi - performance, Nathan - jumping) pushed Yuzu to his limits in all departments to become the most versatile and complete skater in history. I don't say that Yuzu couldn't have become a total package without them, but I'm sure, the diversity among his rivals played a key role in Yuzu's balanced and universal growth as a skater. 5. No candies: He managed to succeed in three Olympic cycles and two different judging systems with no backing from his federation. This is quite something. It's cruel on the one hand, but retrospectively the best thing that could happen to him. He earned all his titles rightfully with quality skating and nobody can take that away from him. He is not brandmarked as an overscored cheater, who needed the support of his fed to win. At the same time the unfairness that happened to him, forced him to evolve and go beyond his limits. That makes him even more popular and a champion to be respected.

I can't believe it. ISU managed to write an article about Yuzu without mentioning NC. Hands down.