Moria Polonius

I've never seen any Hanyu fan not giving Nanami-sensei proper appreciation. She has always been held in very high esteem, just as she deserves.

I can't imagine TCC shortchanging Boyang, tbh. Yes, Evgenia is going to be a point of honor, to prove they can kerp her at the top. But next Olympics is in China and Boyang is China's chance of podium or even gold. The pressure on TCC is going to be ON. Still Evgenia, lol. So... Wilson for Jason Brown? I hope it doesn't kill Jason's originality. That Hamilton SP was an inspired music choice, I'm not sure Wilson is capable of such inspiration. On the other hand, Jason is a pretty artistic skater, so maybe? I'm more concerned about the Wilson/Evgenia match. Evgenia seems to have her own mind, though, if all that miming has bern indeed her own idea, so perhaps she'll be able to put her own stamp on the Wilson choreo. After all, Wilson did commit that wonderful SP for Junhwan and the Chaplin for Javi. But for Boyang, I'm hoping no more Lori Nichol - Shae-Lynn might suit him. More skaters shouldcreach to Misha Ge, actually. As much as Lilbet was a lackluster Carmen due to her appearance, the choreo was pretty great, and his program for Pogo was really nice too.

Totally off-topic: Guys, I just turned off 310 ad and data-mining permissions on Tumblr.One by one because of course they won't give you a "select all" button. 310. Holy cow.

Was this discussed? (Via FSUniverse) Now, if they only defined "serious errors". Were Yuzu's bad landings at Olys serious errors or not? (FSUniverse makes it sound like "serious errors" it might be more for the Dance benefit.). Also, the use of the word "should".

Actually, I think the percentage system is MUCH easier to explain to a casual fan. Each element has a certain number of points. If you're awesome and get grade 5 on it (in my country, 5 is the highest school mark, lol, it would be really simple here to understand), you get 50% extra, if you're ok and get a 2, you get 20% extra, if you mess up and get -3, they take away 30%.

Yeah, there's a 2.1 point increase between a 3Lz and 3A and only 1pt increase between 4Lz and 4A. The only reason for that, that I can see, tbh, is to specifically disadvantage Yuzu, just in case he manages to get that 4A. I bet the gap will increase the day Yuzu announces his retirement, though. Other changes though, if judges apply the GOE even half-correctly, seem beneficial for Yuzu. That "steps required before a solo jump" was a dead regulation anyway, at least they stopped pretending they care about that. Altogether, seeing those base values etc, I'm suddenly for "no quad repetition" and "bonus for all type of jumps completed cleanly" as well.

It probably makes sense, lots of athletes need to decide whether to take a break or not, whether to retire or not post Olympics.

Nah, I think it's mostly American. Polish media don't cover FS at all, but at the Olympics time some info popped up and there was nothing about Nathan, just "will defend the gold, not done in 66 years", "record holder" and "injured a day before a major competition" and "expect Winnie the Poohs". Eh, let Americans be Americans. I think if my country had a gold pretender they'd be just the same.

I just realized than like Yuzu, Boyang is not a seeded skater. The order will be, SkAm, SC, CoC, NHK, Rostelecom, IdF. I'm assuming no top 3 will get back to back assignments. So, Skate America will take Nathan. Rostelecom will get Kolyada. CoC will take Boyang and they'll have to take one of the top 3 seeds, I'm thinking Kolyada. They won't want Nathan. NHK ... now's the question. Shoma or Yuzu? Unlikely they'll take both. But maybe it's finally Shoma's turn, especially if it's his choice. They won't take Nathan. SC will take Shoma if Shoma's gets NHK too. IdF will take Nathan. So, if Shoma gets NHK and SC ( omg) Yuzu's most likely options will be CoC and IdF/Rostelecom, I'm thinking IdF because Russian Fed might not want Yuzu this time because Kolyada might actually win this one if he's alone. If NHK still opts for Yuzu then Shoma will probably get IdF and SC. So it'll leave... SkAm for Yuzu. SkAm: Nathan, Boyang SC: Shoma CoC: Boyang, Kolyada, Yuzu NHK: Shoma Rostelecom: Kolyada IdF: Nathan, Yuzu OR SkAm: Nathan, Yuzu SC: Shoma CoC: Boyang, Nathan, Kolyada NHK: Yuzu Rostelecom: Kolyada IdF: Shoma Lol, either way, my crystal ball says Yuzu vs. Nathan.

I don't follow pairs closely, does it seem like a good change? Trankov's got bad reputation because of his mouth and, I believe, no reputation as a coach, right?

Eslecially the Buble version, lol, I feel like it's bern done to death. It seems especially popular on the junior circuit.

I would love Yuzu to do a sassy SP to Sway. It'd be a departure from what he's done so far but still something he could pull off. Deniss was amazing on the Sway part, especially at Worlds, but I think Yuzu could put his own spin on it.

And goes to TAT. Top that for drama.

Okay, so now we know why Evgenia deleted her pics with Yuzu... lol. Omg, there won't be just shipping this time, there will be tinhatting if I know fandom.

In hindsight, it almost serms like Yuzu was paying the price for his first Sochi gold. The great number of summer shows he did and other obligations were due to his being a new hottest commodity in the country. Yuzu either felt he couldn't say no or was just grateful for support and didn't want to say no, but either way it screwed up with his training schedule. He was behind, Orser reportedly had something to say to the JFS. When he came back to Toronto, he overtrained in order to make up, thus injuring his back. Then withdrawal from Finlandia, so at CoC he might have been undertrained as well. Then the accident, the results, the controversy, the NHK. Then the bright spot of GPF, then Nationals and the bad luck of some freak congenital condition and surgery. So after the surgery he lost training again and might have overtrained again, in order to make up for the lost time, thus twisting his ankle and skating injured at Worlds. It kinda all looks like a chain reaction. What's worse, I think, is that the situation after Sochi was a far cry from today's. He got a lot of critcism for winning Sochi with two-fall FS. Not nearly as much hate as Adelina, because he was considered the backup champion in case Patrick screwed up, but still. That year Yuzu was trying to prove that he was a worthy Olympic champion, and that's why he didn't withdraw from CoC or NHK. It must have been extremely hard to swallow the Worlds silver too. All in all it was a horror season from start to finish, but also a major learning curve. Who knows whether he would have defeated the odds of Pyeongchang without that experience.

How would the Beauty and the Beast be going out of his comfort zone? It's as traditional as it gets, lol. Not that much different from PotO. I wouldn't mind if he did something new / out of his comfort zone though. Cough*heavy metal*cough

I think it'd be great if Boyang developed under Orser like Yuzuru did, and I wouldn't mind if he became a top gold contender, or if he became major threat to Yuzuru. Yuzuru's greatness lies in his ability to constantly improve himself, and relying on his own strengths and not on others' weaknesses, in his becoming better than his opponents even when they themselves become better. Frankly, now that Javi and so many others have retired, Yuzu remains one of the very few who are able to merge the jumping exteavaganza with the non-jump content to present a truly engaging program. I'd love Boyang to become one of those, I'd love it if judges noticed that and rewarded him, perhaps that would set the skating on a better course. Other than that, Boyang training at TCC might motivate Yuzu, like training alongside Javi did. Observing Boyang's 4Lz might help Yuzu. It won't make Yuzu any more prone to quad-packed programs than he already is, that would be Nathan's doing. I really see no downside of Boyang working with Orser.

Testing ground

We made 200 000 posts! https://imgur.com/a/sRcRl

I've been reading this for a couple of weeks now, and while not everything is funny, the relationship between the long-suffering confused misanthrope Shoma and talkative overprotective machiavellan Yuzuru is my favorite thing about it.

Lol, I hit the submit button by mistake way too early, I have a long-winded explanation after it.

I actually think the no-quad-repetition rule might benefit Yuzu. It will probably force him to go back to 4Lz and this one might prove to be unstable, but it will mean 4 quads in the FS, which might increase his consistency. And a clean/ish Yuzu is a king of GOEs, and with new values on those, they could be his greatest advantage. No more than 4 quads may also still leave room for the 4A in terms of stamina and concentration. Other multi quadsters may also become cleaner, but, despite the GOE overscoring and underscoring, they still won't be able to gain as much as Yuzu. The gap in quality is just that big. And the no-repetition rule handicaps Yuzu's rivals just as much as Yuzu: Yata's analysis on Nathan's BV. Shoma may be forced to do 4S, Nathan and Boyang 4Lo - and those may prove as unstable or more than Yuzu's 4Lz (or 4A!)

So perhaps he'd still have Rafael occassionally, during summer and breaks, maybe as an overseejng coach, and cooperate with some others closer by? Huh. If Nathan was accepted into Yale, he probably would have been accepted into other prestigous schools in the west coast as well. I wonder why he didn't opt for that. Maybe Yale did agree on some concessions in order to have an Olympian on the student list?

Apparently Nathan enrolled at Yale. He put Yale ' 22 on his instagram description, which I take means his plan is to graduate within 4 years. From what I read, Yale's requirements for graduation are very strict, he'd have to attend the great majority of the courses. So, how will he be able to study and do elite training at the same time? Will Yale do some concessions for him? How does it tie-in with being coached by Rafael whose base is in California?