memae

He truly is something special. Strategically, he's probably better off switching the 3A and combination but he has them where they are because it feels right to him with the music. He could also do other jumps for more points - he is certainly capable. But he makes choices that a right for him and for his feeling of the performance. He transcends this sport in a way no one else does. Anyone bitching about him repeating Chopin again is losing out because they just don't get what he has done here.

I think there's a lot to be said about the Cricket Club coaches. They're excellent coaches and they get results from their athletes that their athletes are able to sustain. You can tell that they're respectful coaches who treat their athletes with compassion and a growth mindset. I used to have a swimming coach who would be cold and furious whenever I had a bad race and tell me about how bad it made him look as a coach for me to perform so badly and then give me the silent treatment until I did better. He was my coach at 13. I'm 30 now. I've never gotten over how terrible he could make me feel on a bad day - or even on a good day, if he so chose. I guarantee that TCC coaches never treat their athletes like that and that they not only know how to treat each individual athlete to bring out their best but that they actually do treat them that way. Yuzu is clearly his own biggest critic but he also just loves skating - I'm sure they know how to help him walk out after a rough training session where nothing came together feeling positive. Zhenya had some tough skates this year but it never once seemed like she was down and out over it - Brian knew exactly what to say to her in K&C. Jason had a horrible start to the season - car accident, scary falls - and there he was flying into that quad attempt at Nationals - they've been building his confidence in the right way for him. He's closer and closer to success (with the quad - he's already successful in general). Actually, so many of them had a rough start to the season but have come through now so you can tell that TCC coaches are always making sure their athletes are looking and working forwards rather than holding their bad events over them. That might work with 15-year-old girls and scary Russian coaches but they're not going to be 15 forever and it's easy to lose motivation when no one is helping you see that your worst moments can be steps towards something better. And then there's coaches who get their athletes to the standard of ' good enough', like Raf with Nathan and Eteri with Zagitova (like I doubt she worked on quads when the others started them even though Eteri knew she would need them to stay relevant in a couple of seasons). Will we ever see Nathan Chen truly reach his potential? Take Jason for example - he doesn't need that quad. He could stop trying for it. But he's going for it. He's pushing himself to be better and better and he has a coaching team who is working with him to get there when they could just keep him where he's at because it's 'enough'. It's a sport so skating at a level of 'good enough' for results is what a lot of coaches are going to aim for with individual athletes. It's sad because we will probably never see so many skaters reach their best simply because they're not working with coaches who will get them there. In short: Thank goodness for the Cricket Club coaches and thank goodness that's where Yuzuru is so he can be the best that he can be.

Plus keeping hydrated (which I consider part of a healthy diet since water is the 6th nutrient) and no sun. Sun destroys skin so bad so I'm sure the fact that he's indoors so much has helped.

Ugh, splitting it into 2 events isn't going to fix this, ISU! Separate the judges. Tech judges and PCS judges so they can focus on one thing and not get too influenced by what they see in the other area (e.g.: consistent quads giving boosts to PCS the way it's currently happening).

Every time I watch this, I'm more and more convinced that you can just catch a glimpse of Yuzu smirking right before he shoots in the other direction and Jordan has to chase after him. Am I the only one who sees this?

So exciting! Of course, my dream skater for Tuxedo Mask is Xinyu but it's nice to see Poje's name pop up again.

I just saw this on Instagram. There's hardly any men doing 4Lo! While the quad race in the ladies is concerning lately with all the 12 year old samborgs and their quads, I'm glad to see someone who isn't a teenager from Russia landing a quad. The only other one who doesn't match the criteria is Tukta with her 4T. It'll be interesting to see what happens now. Those Russian girls sure love their +3Lo on the end of anything so I imagine we'll be getting (a few, perhaps) 4Lo from Russia pretty soon, especially now that they know what Young You's up to.

I love Nobu's insight into everything. That clip of him explaining the difficulty of the H&L step sequence is so excellent. Does he ever do the Japanese commentary? Honestly, I think I'd learn Japanese just to be able to listen to him

Of all the reasons for that gorgeous sequence (in the general sense, not the technical skating term) of jumps. Just because he thought it would be cool. Shaking my head at our boy and his mind

In a random sort of coincidence, still on the topic of this whole RPatz vs Yuzu Twitter thing, I spent today at Bran Castle (it snowed all day!), which is otherwise known as Dracula Castle because of Bram Stoker's novel, while Yuzuru was breaking his world record again. And while Edward Cullen is no Count Dracula, a vampire is a vampire. Rob Pattinson seems like a pretty chill, humble guy. I bet he probably has the decency to be flattered about even being mentioned in the same conversation as Yuzu if/once he knows who he is.

Personally, I find Rob Pattinson handsome (and usually with red head guys I'm very ... repulsed is a bit harsh but I don't know what to say otherwise... because as a redhead myself I see them as long lost cousins) , but not nearly as handsome as Yuzuru or a bunch of other men (the one who plays Rafael on Jane the Virgin, for example, is very handsome in my eyes). I also very much appreciated that there was someone on that Twitter thread who brought up how any "most attractive' title is always given to someone white, as though white beauty standards and tastes are the pinnacle of looks for the world. And, I have used this Twitter silliness to convert my bestie to our (meme)lord and saviour's cause and after some H&L goodness she's going to tune in for the 4CC men's short. As a muso she will also very much appreciate the Chopin, so I think we've won her over already, even before he skates.

I love that he's so open about his ambition to land 4A and his pursual of it even though he hasn't yet and he might not. It takes a lot of guts to let the world in on what you're trying to achieve when there's a possibility you won't get there. I don't say this with any doubt that he will actually land it or anything. I just think it's huge that he's invited everyone along on his journey to land it, knowing the scrutiny that comes with it.

You guys, I was so sad about missing 4CC once I knew Yuzu was going to do Chopin and Seimei (I'd expected him to be there though) and the only thing that could possibly make me feel any better about it is happening right now. Even better than pyramids (got sidetracked by Europe and I haven't made it to Egypt yet lol). I'm in pretty Brasov and it's SNOWING. (I'm just inside charging my camera). It's so pretty that I even smiled despite how sad my poor heart is about missing Seimei.

I'd love to go straight to PhD but I wasn't able to because I didn't do undergrad research, hence the current thesis at Masters level. I also thought about 'skating English' as a focus of study. Like, if you think of rinks like TCC where the coaches are English speakers but their skaters are from all over the world... English has to act as some sort of lingua franca or pidgin. Yuzu's English wasn't bad before going to TCC (there's a press conference from before he moved where he's laughing at something someone says in English without it being interpreted for him) but he's not the only foreign skater there. I wonder how much of an English vocabulary is needed for the day-to-day training (or any language - remember when we were all wondering if Shoma would go to Eteri?)

I'm a teacher but my background is in linguistics (and I'm still slowly working my way through post grad to eventually do a PhD in it) so I live for these kinds of discussions. Maybe I should do my thesis on the semantics of Yuzu's translated interviews. Then I legitimately get to justify all the time I spend watching his interviews as 'research'. My proposal is due in a month and I still haven't come up with a topic Yuzu to the rescue maybe!

The difference to me is that gloom carries an emotional heaviness that murky doesn't. Murky gives the feeling of uncertainty, where gloom has a sadness or despair to it.

I love that at times we get to see the 3A acting their age. The top of the ladies have been so young for so long now but they're always treated and held to the same standards (in their behaviour and how they present themselves, etc) as the top of the men's field, who are usually at least 4 years older and actual adults.

If he does do LGC, I will be completely inconsolable over not going.

That grin on his face when he pauses before he begins the choreo. In Otonal he sometimes smirks, but here he just looked happy. He loves the power he has over the audience haha Ah, watching this has made be so much happier he's gone back to Seimei. (Just keep the Origin hair though, thanks Zu)

I've seen this a million times already but since it's right there, I'm going to go ahead and watch it again lol Thanks

This is the hope I'm holding onto. Whenever the time comes, I hope he is able to step into his future happy with what he's accomplished and still as fond of the sport as he always has been.

I'm getting uneasy about next season now, with the 4A at Worlds talk along with this 'skating for himself' mentality leading to the program change. I don't want it to happen, and you know I'm not talking about 4A.

At the end of the day, he's an athlete and training is work that he spends a lot of time on. He's going to wear what's most comfortable, regardless of brand unless he a reason (e.g.: ethics or whatever). As a swimmer, I spent years training in the exact same cut of the same brand of swimsuit because it was what was most comfortable. I don't know how many new suits and different colours I went through over the years, but they were all exactly the same brand and make.

Thanks for the translation. Oh, that poor, sweet man. It must be exhausting to be him.

Looking back, do you think perhaps part of why he was SO exhausted at JNats might be because he was training 4 programs? Like, he was training O&O just to get through that half of the season but he'd already decided after GPF that he was switching so he'd started getting back into Chopin and Seimei already? He might have gone into GPF with the idea that if the 5-quad layout didn't work for him and if the judging was still dodge that he'd go back to Chopin and Seimei. Like, we know he loves chaos but he also loves crunching those numbers and strategising. He might have even had this in the back of his mind as a possibility since Saitama. Or do you think he just got fed up and decided to go back to his good vibe programs to re-calibrate and refresh?