Danibellerika

Bump. Yes. He did!

Raf called it psychological warfare. And now we have JSF with their crap because they have no backbone. As if it's the first time their biggest star has performed there and as if they shouldn't have been completely ready for what they were going to get...which wasn't even as big as it COULD have been!

Raf does like his skating. 2015 GPF when he scored 330 he was on the icenetwork podcast singing his praises and felt honored to be there in person for it. Why wouldn't he like Hanyu's skating? What's not to like if you're a Raf, especially with his tireless work ethic and technical brilliance when at its best? As for his other comments, he did say something similar about Ashley Wagner and her transition scores. Pretty much that she gets points for them anyway, so why even bother adding them. Don't hate the player, hate the game. Also, I am noticing a lot of Nathan (and Raf) discussion here. Unless it directly ties in to Yuzu, please move that discussion to the Team USA thread:

Browning, Kwan, and Mao fans probably have a different opinion (because they have no choice). But Iosing a worlds doesn't seem to be nearly as emotionally scarring for these athletes as losing an Olympics seems.

But why would they risk her long term development when she is at a rink where she's making good progress, and yet has to return to it to train with the same person being accused of bullying her. She could get her name out there by simply skating well too as Korea is receptive to that.

And it didn't take TMZ long... https://www.tmz.com/2019/03/21/u-s-figure-skater-accused-of-slashing-korean-rival/?fbclid=IwAR3zyFHwn6GbWbTpw3J5Rqo9V9NjKJ_yYLy8jXPSAM4noDEXnhjiHGAkoLE

Or maybe wishful thinking on someone's part

You know looking back at these PC photos and memories, it's kind of amazing how Yuzu managed to make his defense look...not THAT hard. Only the best can make something so difficult look so effortless.

People say the same thing about figure skating tbh...Especially those who might have been voting. I had a feeling it'd be either Vonn or Woods.

Except the 8 quads he did at last year's Worlds? I'd give the guy more credit than that. He is now more experienced than he was then as well. We just need to wait and see, folks.

Something alone the lines of "nobody can beat this, not even Yuzuru". It's the best I've seen Nate skate honestly. Pretty drastic difference from the GPF. But I do think a 2017 Worlds H&L Yuzu could compete with that with fair scoring. We'll see at Worlds I guess. Yuzu just needs to focus on Yuzu.

LOL the last one is funny. It says to search for Ghislain.

Okay, that was a dose of adorable that I just wasn't ready for.

@kiches and I are still going. We're just making it more of a sightseeing trip as we won't be as diligent about attending the practices which typically cuts a lot into that time. Vancouver's a beautiful city with a lot to do, so I'll look forward to the distraction. What a shot! Also that little girl's face in the back ! She made sure not to miss her chance the next day. Yeah I too just chalked it up to Yuzu's English not necessarily being the best and it's not Plushy's native language either (he sounds around upper intermediate himself), so I can see signals getting crossed. But as someone that lived through the bitter rivalry of Plushy and Yags, I am pleasantly floored that Yuzu is able to bring them together in a sense. I welcome the mutual fanboying .

I have a friend who has a friend that's from Japan (though she hasn't lived there in years and isn't into figure skating). After Yuzu won I was explaining to him how I doubt there is a Japanese person alive that doesn't know who he is. He claimed his friend probably didn't know. Of course a couple of days later he came back and said that she indeed DID know who he was . Can't underestimate that Yuzu is the pride of a nation! Thank you for sharing. My mom recently went to Autumn Classic this year and it was her first skating competition. She knows I'm an avid Yuzu fan and really supports it, so I try to cherish those bonding experiences. She likes him too and really enjoyed watching all the anticipation and excitement around him, and seeing how happy his skating makes people. Let's just continue to enjoy his gift because life is too short. I know what you mean about making it a private thing. People know I love skating and they know I am a fan of Yuzu, but I get the feeling it comes off a little differently than people that love a sports team just as avidly. For me it's the same. Like NFL fans have their jerseys, they paint their bodies in colors and cheer belligerently in the cold. I have my Pooh ears and just want to do my own thing.

I can't even count all of the clear files and swag I've picked up at skating comps. The fans are amazingly generous.

I noticed her double axel is better but everything else looks too shaky for me to tell very well for now. It would have been nice if she could have jumped her natural direction all along so she wouldn't have to deal with this stuff now, but we can't turn back time. Get well soon, Wakababy!!

Love her skating to pieces (and Shoma's too) but unless either of them is planning to move to Toronto and Chicago full time, it just seems like you're trying to put a band-aid on a compound fracture. A couple weeks away from home here and there to work on "jumps"...I don't really buy the effectiveness. I think that type of thing needs to be your everyday if (and it's a big if) there's going to be any real hope at all.

I think he said he doesn't have time to take care of a cat more than anything. My coworker is a runner with asthma and she has 4 cats. Guess it depends on the person. He's so brave to reach in to pet kitty like that. I love cats but I am not so brave when it comes to kitties that don't know me. Especially reaching in to enclosed spaces. I'm even weary about it with my own depending on his mood (and I've had him for almost all of his 11 years). If he's in an empty box and is giving me the saucer eyes, forget about it

Oh yeah. And didn't Stephane say little Yuzu challenged him to a spinoff once? We know how that eventually went.

Hence why I think it's more language barrier than the age gap.

Yuzu is very good with young kids though between visiting schools, holding skating classes for the youngsters, grabbing a shot or two with younger skaters visiting TCC, etc.

True. Though Gogolev really admires Yuzu but says he doesn't really get to speak with him much because of the language barrier.

He does want to improve, but I took it to mean after he r-words and can have proper time to focus on it. You'll probably find no better opportunity than in North America to learn it (as well as other English speaking nations) but I think when he's done he's returning to Japan so will work on it there. It can be done, even if it's a longer process. Whatever works !! A fun environment never hurts to make things stick.

For my graduate program we visited Waseda U and had a discussion with their students and professors and we talked about this a lot. Of course everything you said is true but on top of that, you don't really need English in Japan to function and have a good life. Life there is busy enough as is, so why take even more time to learn another language you don't even need? And while this is a case by case basis, a lot of times people in Japan are more shy and afraid of making mistakes, so speaking English only gives them negative reinforcement. It's similar to the US in that sense because we don't really need another language aside from English. Granted, I live in the DC area and it's extremely multicultural here, so I hear a different language on the street everyday. And we have a very large Spanish speaking population so many things are offered in English and Spanish but you will find that many people will use one or the other, not necessarily both. My mom is in her 60s and just last year got her first passport. Only about 40% of the US population even has a passport (compared to Japan's 25% in 2010 which was a decline from he previous year) and then many who do travel don't bother learning another language because we know there's likely going to be some English assistance wherever we're going. I have friends that live in Japan now and I speak better Japanese than they do since Tokyo is generally really english friendly with so much english signage from menus to how to use the trains, etc. A lot of English speakers who move to Japan teach English, but even with the prevalence of so many programs I'm not sure how effective it is. Oh the flip side, here in DC we have language schools too so I do think people are interested, but as an adult it requires a lot more dedication than what you're going to get out of a classroom. Class is only a supplement to my studies. Japanese classes always fill up in the beginning levels, but as you go further along in the language, the difficulty, frustration, and time it takes to get good at it can be pretty humbling, so naturally the numbers drop (my program is a good example of it, though lately the higher levels have been pretty full which is nice to see). Everyday I have to remind myself why I do it, and sometimes I feel like I'm never going to get there when I study something and think I understand it only to encounter exceptions that then make me realize I didn't get it after all; I often ask "why" without getting a clear answer. Someone as analytical as Yuzu probably encounters the same thing and it's probably amplified for him. Japanese is ranked as one of the most difficult languages to learn for an English speaker so it's not unreasonable to assume that it'd be the same the other way around. Learning a new language is rewiring your brain, but I think it really helps broaden your horizons and your perspective, so I endure, especially because I originally started learning in 2005 and it's been off and on ever since. I've put in so much time already, I should just keep at it and hope something sticks. I met Takeshi Honda in Helsinki and his English is quite good, though I know he lived abroad for a while. But for Yuzu, I understand if he wants to put English beyond the basics on the back burner. He has bigger fish to fry.