meoima

58 minutes ago, xeyra said:

But doesn't every top skater get big PCS even with mistakes? 

None of them got personal best PCS with mistakes... 

I have to say, watching live, Carolina does have amazing body carriage. She has really good phrasing in each of her body movement. Should I give her higher PCS than other ladies if she's clean? Yes. But I am not sure how she gets huge PCS when she makes mistakes. 

12 hours ago, fireovertheice said:

Maybe you have already seen this: https://twitter.com/rockerskating/status/930106084257337349

 

Please read also the comments and observations of @Lys, @Joey and Chibura and others (I do not know if she/he ever signed on this forum) and the answers of Jackie Wong to them.

 

Personally I would like to ask him (but I am not on twitter) or to who can/want answer how to recognise this "high quality" crossovers (the charachteristics) and what is the differences in the crossovers of Chen (quoted as example of high quality crossovers) and of the other top 10 men: please, can someone explain to me...?

People sent him asks and feedbacks but he doesn’t seem to get those. Sadly so. The more scary is that he is the reporter for FS, one among well known ones. Ughhh

4 minutes ago, wpisces said:

No, i believe if he had have been able to skate, he would had competed. At that time, he had no choice but to withdraw. 

Nah I am sure had NHK this time were the Olympic, he would have skated.

He WD mainly because his aim is the Olympic, and he should not sacrifice 2 competitions he has won several times for the competition he wants the most.  

5 minutes ago, Xen said:

 

@meoima: have you seen Plushenko's interview on TSL? https://youtu.be/W4JDStBAufw It's kind of amusing that there, when interviewing with a US source, he said that his picks for podium were "Yuzu, Shoma, Nathan" or "Yuzu, Nathan, Shoma." No need to ask whom he favors. He does give honorable mention to Javi and Boyang, but poor Patrick is forgotten. Plus, his suggestion to someone to be an "angel of plushenko" makes me laugh each time, as I imagine someone twirling around in a white tutu on ice. 

2

I guess Plushenko did want to give a note to Japanese fans... after all he gains more from ice shows in Japan. Practical move. But as long as Yuzuru feels good with that, there is nothing for me to complain.

19 minutes ago, GreatLakesGal said:

 

There is no way the Rock Star of Figure Skating will be able to escape the media craziness that is the Olympics. I hope he can find a way to handle it.

 

Yuzu seems to me to have become more anxious over the past few years, not less. Perhaps because I'm a former psychiatric nurse it's easy for me to see it in his facial expressions and body language. Another more obvious sign is that Brian finds it necessary now to coach Javi in a separate rink from Yuzu. The tension at TCC must be through the roof.

 

Actually, Yuzuru has become much more mature over the years. His pattern remains the same, but the way he accepts his situation has improved. He accepted to WD from NHK, it's HUGE. Yuzuru in 2014 would never do that. But Yuzuru in 2017 agreed to do that. He has grown. All these changes will be useful for the Olympics.  

The media is already writing him off already if you read FS articles nowadays. Ask Phil Hersh or Jackie Wong. Of course, they will pay attention to him, but he will not be the only guy who gets the only hype. Other guys will get that too. I have seen Kwan messed up her Olympic, I also saw Plushenko messed up his first Olympic too. So yes... The Olympic hype is like nothing else.

Olympic pressure makes you do something uncharacteristic the most, if you're a psychiatric nurse you know that.

4 hours ago, getsurenka said:

But do you think that the less pressure Yuzu has from not going into Olympics as reigning GPF winner will be offset by the pressure he is under now with everyone expecting he will make a comeback at PyeongChang? Like, now many people (many fans included) are hoping and expecting he will do very well in PC because of the angst and the "kuyashii" feeling he accumulates from being injured and missing out a chance of defending his GPF title for the fifth time, sort of like how he made a comeback after SP at WC 2017. Will that expectation create a potentially greater pressure onto him, perhaps even worse than the pressure of a reigning GPF champion, since Yuzu is probably exerting the same kind of pressure onto himself? Also, if he wins over Uno at Japan Nationals in December, can it simulates the same kind of pressure as if winning GPF?

 

I am sorry if my words are jumbled- my brain is taking a break right now.

 

I think at this point international judges don't care much about the Japan Nationals. They have 2 contenders, that's all judges know.

International judges did not care when Yagudin never won Russian Nationals anyway. International judges did not care when Adelina won Russian nationals as well, Yulia won European that season. One more thing, had Yulia skated clean at the individual event, they might have chosen Yulia.

US National will be hyped as their PR machine will focus on it so much like every year. So yeap, Nathan will get A LOT of hype and attention. And with Yuzuru sit out of GP, in Japan Shoma will get a lot of hype and attention for GPF and Olympic as well. 

Skaters who go under the radar actually still have very good chances for the Olympic. I don't rule out that we will see Yuzuru as gold, Patrick as silver and Javi as bronze at the Olympic. Uncle podium can happen. 

Anway, Yuzuru has Olympic team event to lash out his pressure. I am sure he will want to participate in that. Kohei Uchimura made mistakes at the qualification event before the finals at Rio when he did well enough to keep his title.

PS: among all these guys, Yuzuru has got used to pressure in the last 4 years, I think when it comes to the highest pressure, he has more experience than all.

55 minutes ago, Forcefield said:

 

Yep, I agree. Just saying people will discuss many things using past examples to predict on whether Yuzu will get or lose ogm in PC, and tbh I get some relief knowing how differently things can go, but well at the end if the day it all depends on Yuzu and the skaters (as well as the judges). 

No, it will all depend on Yuzuru. 

Yuna won Vancouver not because she won the first half of that season, she won because she skated her best there. By that time she was already the WC and GPF champion several times. She needed no more reputation. She got huge score ala 150 due to her first half of the season, yes. But even without the momentum of that season, her performances at Vancouver deserve to win that night alone. 

As I said, the first half of the season does not need to mean a lot to Yuzuru's situation currently. He is no longer the kid who won no big before GPF 2013. To 19 years old Yuzuru, proving himself was important, winning GPF 2013 was important to elevate his PCS and GOE. And even with that, he was not the clear favorite at Sochi, it was Patrick. Had Patrick skated cleanly the SP, it would be Patrick to lead the SP, then the LP. Yuzuru at Sochi was just the 2nd favorite. Patrick definitely would have won if he did not mess up that badly. If you look at GOE for Patrick, you see that judges favored Patrick more. In fact, Patrick's strategy at Sochi was correct, he just did not carry out that strategy so well. 

The current Yuzuru does not need to prove himself like what Yuzuru in GPF 2013 needed anymore. His PCS and GOE, his reputation have been established. All he needs is to concentrate on himself and skate cleanly as much as he can. His current BV is already insane and the second highest BV. Plushenko is right that Yuzuru should just focus on himself.

1 hour ago, Forcefield said:

 

I think it's so interesting in that there are so many different narratives to fit the situation at hand. To some people it may have already been decided last year already with the men's curse that the worlds winner won't win ogm unless you're dick button or smth, for some it's what yuzu did prior to sochi in that the person with the momentum from gpf will win ogm, for others its the youngsters with quads as higher bvs that will cushion lower pcs and splats. I don't know much about figure skating history so it's always interesting to read, thank you.

 

Also I also think Plushy is doing a lot of pr for himself in Japan (not so much for him in russia and their dark horse), but it's also pr for yuzu and maybe inspires him so well I'll take it.

It is not about whether you won WC the year before Olympic or not, it is the human mentality. When you win the biggest events right before the Olympic, you suffer the hype and the expectation from the media and your whole country if you're the star. 

Usually, the reigning WCs or the GPF winners get a lot of hype before Olympic. Everyone expected them to do well at the Olympics, the attention can be over the top. In my opinion, that kind of attention and hype were not ideal.

Evan was the reigning WC and GPF was an exception as the risk of a high BV layout plays a huge part as well. Evan did not jump quad at Vancouver, so the chance to mess up was very low. So overall the hype and attention on Evan were low... overall the less hype the better. 

Attention and hype can be a double-edged sword. Too much pressure is very harmful. Yuzuru clearly felt that at Boston. And the Russian commentators at GPF 2015 nailed it so well, the God mentality (the pressure to repeat WR) is not easy to handle. People praised Yuna for her Vancouver performance, but not many people remember how she bombed totally at WC 2010 one month after that. People praised Yuna for skating clean at WS 2013 and Sochi (tight landings whatever) but in my opinion, avoiding GP was one of the reasons. At Sochi, even though under pressure as the reigning WC and Olympic champion, Yuna did not bear the highest expectation. She came back from injury so people who bet on her were not overwhelming, and Mao won all the events before that, so it somewhat calmed Yuna down too.

I think as Yuzuru does not have to suffer the hype of GP series anymore, he will have more time to calm his mentality down and analyze what should be analyzed. Yes they will still pay attention to him as the reigning WC and Olympic Champion, but less hype from GP series is still somehow useful. Yuzuru will be fine. 

6 minutes ago, freeyafanfan said:

yes it talks about GOE at the start (hence the 4T-3T rippon video is shown), then talked a bit on yuzuru's injury, shizuka explained to them that it's hard to practice with injury on the right ankle etc, then a reminder that olys is close by and they think it'll be so great if yuzu and shoma can win the gold and silver for Japan at olys

My friend said she said he would rest or so. Anyway I don’t think he will be reckless as it’s only 3 months away from the Olympics. 

This video is about GOE isn't it? Thanks https://twitter.com/anipooh1/status/930705757766602752

4 hours ago, xeyra said:

It's been a while since I've done a tl;dr but here it goes:

 

I think this idea that he only needs 3 quads to win is a fallacy. Yes, if we look at Yuzu's best scores, his 330 achieved with 2+3 quads, with only the 'easy' 4T and 4S, still stands to this day. But how likely would Yuzu, with those same quads, be able to replicate the circumstances that would give him that so far unsurpassed 330? We look at Javi and Patrick and bless them, they're amazing, but they're also posterboys of how you need to be absolutely foot perfect in order to stay competitive with the higher BVs of other skaters who are also improving in GOEs and PCS. And how hard it is to be clean even with lower BV. 

 

Yuzu's greatest opponents right now aren't staying still either; they will be gaining momentum throughout the season and they're packing some BV ammunition. Shoma is very close to Yuzu's scores, closer than any other man right now, and his GOE/PCS potential is as great as Yuzu's. And unfortunately, there's also the factor of narratives surrounding perceived weakness in keeping up with the quad race as well as pressure to do so, especially from Japanese media and its quad obsession. 

 

Then we add the fact that going back to a 3-quad layout seems to be complete opposite to Yuzu's personality, bless his stubborn self. I feel like he's going to need at the very least 4 quads, with the 4Lo, with those 3 quads in the second half, in order to at least feel like he is challenging something even if he ends up not doing the 4Lz. My feeling is that Brian will be weary of the 4Lz and might caution Yuzu not to risk it. But it depends entirely on Yuzu, his feelings for the jump, its training and the weight of the ratio of risk/reward in using it in his layout, especially now he's been set back.

 

Yuzu's layout for Olympics and whether it can or cannot include 4Lz is dependent on three things right now: conditioning, competition practice and psychological issues.

 

Conditioning: His injury set him back on that. He needs 10 days rest then he's hoping to get back into competition shape in 3-4 weeks. But he won't be able to immediately start training quads at the beginning of his return to the ice, so exactly how much he'll make up for in terms of strength, stamina, conditioning, quad training and success rate we'll need to wait and see. However quick and successful his recovery goes, I am somewhat doubtful of him being ready for a 5-quad layout by Japan Nationals so I think he'll have to water it down for that competition. Also, my hope is that he is reigned in a bit (by himself or his team) because he's also been known to try to overtrain to make up for lost time. 

 

Competition experience: Yuzu himself said he needed to take every opportunity to test out the 4Lz, as the newest and more unstable jump in his layout this season, in competition. Unfortunately he has now lost his last opportunities to do so. The only competition I could see him using to test that jump out prior to the Olympics would be 4CC as his conditioning should be much better by then. Could we possibly see him there? If his name is assigned to that competition, then I feel like the 4Lz might return. 

 

Psychological issues: As Daisuke Takahashi said recently, there is also the factor of fear of injury again so close to the Olympics and how that'll affect his quad training. This is something he will have to deal with but I trust he'll get over it soon enough. 

 

Also, let's all remember that it wasn't the 4Lz's fault that Yuzu injured himself. It was bad luck it was on that particular jump but it could have been in any other quad.

 

GPF 2013, aside from Meryl/Charlie who were ice dancers thus ice dancers rarely bomb (like they almost never bomb), all GPF winners (Mao, Yuzuru, Aliona/Robin) bombed at the Olympic Sochi several months later. Only Yuzuru won as even though he bombed, Patrick bombed even worse. Mao ended up off podium  as other ladies all skated cleanly, Aliona/Bruno got bronze because there were other teams skated cleanly.

All the scores before Olympic are just illusion. It does not matter how many WR you have before the Olympic, even if you're inconsistent as hell, if you skate light-out at the Olympic and you're in the last group after the SP, the chance is that you will medal. Ask Adelina, she knows that very well. Or Carolina, if Olympic that year were not in Russia but any other European countries, Carolina might have won. Or a lesser degree, ask Sarah Hughes, or Shizuka (who were inconsistent the same).

Mao won everything in season 2013-2014 except the Olympic, she had the best momentum going into Sochi, and she fell badly right at the Olympic. So yes, momentum before Olympic is important, but it is not the decisive factor. Adelina placed 5th at GPF 2013, and she ended up winning Olympic. Yuna and Carolina were NOT at GPF 2013, they ended up skating cleanly at Olympic and won medals. Controversy aside, these 3 skaters were the one who either injured/WD or did badly in the first half of the season. But in the end, they ended up on the podium at the highest event. Plushy did not appear at GPF before both Olympic 2006 and Olympic 2010, and he did well in both. Denis Ten never got into GPF and yet he medaled at WC and Olympic. My conclusion is: The first half of the season can be thrown away out of the window. 

At the beginning of this season I was afraid if Yuzuru won GPF this time again, it would put too much pressure and attention on his shoulders. I had no doubt he had high chance of winning GPF again as it's his peaking pattern (he often peaked in December). The injury at NHK was unfortunate but at this moment I realize it is still a positive note from this. So, on a brighter side, Yuzuru accidentally escapes the hyping circle of both Japanese media and the International figure skating media. 

The current Yuzuru does not need more pressure and hype, he is no longer the Yuzuru in 2013 when he did not win any big event yet, the current Yuzuru has 12 WR, 4 GPF titles, 2 WC titles and 1 Olympic Gold and he will have more. He does not need to win GPF before Olympic to maintain his momentum. They will keep giving candies to everyone, so Yuzuru who already has all the highest scores he can get, he cannot do anything with what the judges are doing with others. What Yuzuru needs is a cool head, some silence to stay away from the hype and the media, to analyze what he wants and what he can do. 

If he wants to bring 4lz to the Olympic, that means his body is ready and he believes he can handle it. if he decides he will bring 4lo only, that means his body recovers to that point and he decides to go with what he has right now. Nevertheless, Olympic is where ALL THE HYPE, ALL THE PRESSURE WILL CRASH DOWN ON YOU the most. Only Yuzuru understands the effect of pressure on himself.

And Plushenko understands pressure too, he knew what it was with his first Olympic after all. Plushenko bombed his first Olympic as well as many other men. I think Plushenko did not joke when he said 4T and 4S were enough. But of course, Yuzuru will not do as Plushenko said. I don't rule out that Yuzuru will bring 4lz to Olympics. 

Anyway, a small note about Plushenko. It pains me to say this as I was his fan before. But I don't really believe in his honesty. I think when he gave interviews to NBC about Yuzuru's chance at the Olympics, he already knew he would come to Japan for an event with P&G and give compliments to Yuzuru. But honestly, I don't care. Plushenko's honesty does not matter to me anymore. As long as Yuzuru finds Plushenko's words as an inspiration and appreciate that, it's good. If Yuzuru finds it good, then I am happy for him. 

14 minutes ago, liv said:

Glad he did go to Sendai. It would seem ridiculous not to go home for a few days when you are already in the country and have been ordered to rest for a while. Mom can take a break too. It will be a longer stretch in Toronto than was expected before so take the 'vacation' time. I doubt he would return much before Nats now. 

So he will stay in Japan for 10 days then go back to Toronto, or he will go back to Toronto in 3 weeks I wonder? Not that I want to ask about his detailed plan. I just hope he will go back to Toronto and stay away from the media (protective mode on).

2 minutes ago, sublimeskating said:

 

thanks for explaining!

tbh i wasn't really following what happened at Teb because yuzu wasn't competing in it (sorry)

i just saw/heard that marseille gpf was really bad so yeah...

I feel very bad for their sponsor honestly, the event was canceled, they could not get any refund, they wanted some arrangement and they got no answer. So of course after like 20 years, they had to call it off. Enough was enough. 

14 minutes ago, sublimeskating said:

 

i can't remember the source but i read it in one of the skating blog posts trashing "french event planning" of the marseille gpf

that was the thing that stuck with me the most because it helped to explain WHY the marseille gpf was a complete splat fest!

and WTF not even a banquet...

and cheap medals...

makes me wonder where all the invested money went but i guess that's not my place to say...

Yes main reason was that French Fed lost their major sponsor because after Teb 2014 was canceled due to the fear of terrorism, the sponsor called them numerous time to request an explanation about the situation and they DID NOT bother to reply their longtime sponsor.

3 minutes ago, kaerb said:

Lol Yuzu jumped on the GPF podium to #expose shitty French event planning. The medals were just awful. Why not sacrifice the bouquets so you can at least give them a non-plastic medal smh

 

Yuzu looks young mostly because of his excellent skin and lack of eyebags from working an office job lol but he does look different from when he was 17/18-ish (where he looked even younger bc baby fat on his face lol). His 20-23 is relatively unchanged though. 

 

I often find non-Asians tend to drastically underestimate our ages whereas conversely, I’ve had European/American friends I’ve assumed to be MUCH older than they are (there was a friend who I thought was 25 when I met him....he was 18.....)

Many young Asian kids today look older than me... Khoai often sends me photos of very mature looking kids and tell me "Guess how old he/she is?". Like many of them are under 18 but they look 28 or so... I am like: Ok... if i don't know their real ages I might have thought they're as old as me.

Yuzuru looks very young for his age. But he has mature aura whenever he does a serious interview. 

1 minute ago, 5tarfruit said:

I once told a Japanese friend that Yuzu looks so young, and she just looked at me strangely and said "What, he looks like a regular 22-year-old."  Okay then 

 Among Asians, there are people who look older than their age. I think Yuzuru looks young for his age, he can pass as a 17 year old boy. And as an Asian who also look young for my age, I can confirm that. 

lol lol lol

Hello, is there anything new in this article https://www.nikkansports.com/m/sports/news/amp/201711120000175.html

Think of this on the bright side:

- No GPF, less hype, less pressure into Olympic

- Less pressure on his injury, more time to heal

- Yuzuru will be fired up for National or 4CC (if he will attend either) and he will do well to win the Olympic too.

- No NHK, no GPF... he delays his peak for National (or 4CC) and Olympics.

This is what I am trying to tell myself these days. 

Hello... is there anything new in this https://the-ans.jp/news/12643/

thank you in advance 

Do we have samples of post-it size? Thank you in advance.

3 hours ago, SSS said:

I feel like he needs at least one for mental health. I don't want to see some crazy debut of...positive thinking positive...hope for speedy recovery again

Well not competing at NHK and GPF means he will peak later at National and Olympic. Think of it that way. 

6 minutes ago, WinForPooh said:

To think we thought the stubborn lad had learnt his lessons and decided to listen to his body.

 

He sure did, and he told his body to STFU and then his body told him to STFU or else and then, well, there we have it.

He has learned. I think he will be alright. All those bad things repeated for a reason.  He finally learned that he has to be healthy to win. That means a lot. I think WD from NHK was a correct choice. Who knows maybe he will recover fast and land all 5 quads in the free as he wants.

Is there anything new here https://t.co/mNRc5yV12t