General Yuzuru Chat

[Murieleirum]

12 hours ago, Geo1 said:

 

Another example of this is Yuzu's FS performance at the 2013 Trophee Eric Bompard. He had to finish first or second at this GP event in order to qualify for the Grand Prix Final. Since the Japanese men's field was so deep, qualifying for the Grand Prix Final was crucial in whether or not he would be chosen for the Japanese Olympic team.

 

Many a skater would have been totally devastated by the freak accident that nullified his initial quad Salchow, followed by the fall on his quad toeloop. Both of his two quads in the free skate were blown. What followed after that was a demonstration of immaculate skating which allowed him to finish second and qualify for the Grand Prix Final in Japan where he beat Patrick Chan.

 

If he had failed at the 2013 TEB, he would not have made the 2013 GPF and may not have made the Japanese Olympic team. Even if he had, he would not have had the #1 world ranking and may not have had the confidence to win his first Olympic gold medal. History may have gone in a totally different direction if he had not pulled himself together so well after the two disastrous quad attempts at the 2013 TEB.

 

 

 

Thank you so much for sharing this program with us!! Actually my weakness is that whole season... the Olympic season... I love R&J2 because it really shows an emotional Yuzu as much as the first Romeo and Juliet program, here you can see how many details into the coreography he loses himself into, and how much he's into it... 

(I've seen it with Max and Angelo's comment and they both agree that he should have gotten more than 81 PCS here. He was 18 here and he would become an Olympic champion. Still, there was nothing given to him for free - on the contrary, he was often penalized on the PCS side, and the score gap between him and Patrick was +10 points, although the real gap between their SS and Transitions, mmh... not so much, I would say.)

[SuzyQ]

On 2019/2/23 at 午後2時46分, meoimaさんが言いました:

I am going to WC. I drop here to ask if there will be a gathering for PH? 

Btw, long time no see, everyone. I hope you are doing well.

 

It's nice we can welcome you to Japan, meoima 

 

What's your magic spell to get the ticket 

 

Enjoy! and give all the power to Yuzu for us. 

 

With love from the one fell in the bloody ticket battle 

[micaelis]

6 hours ago, Huiqi said:

Takahashi was placed fifth in the 2013 Japanese nationals. Yuzu beat all the other Japanese men by a huge margin. He is also the Japanese skater with the highest SP score back then, second only to Patrick Chan. It is impossible that Japan would not send him to the Olympics in favour of their bronze medalist Oda or fifth-placed Takahashi. Yuzu was also ranked world no. 1 back then, yes, even before winning the grand prix final.

At the time of the 2013 Japanese nationals Yuzu had the record SP score.  He had lost his record to Patrick in France (the only time in the historic records period that anyone broke a record Yuzu had set) but at the GP final two weeks later he reclaimed the record.  Patrick still had the FS record but Yuzu would break that record at NHK 2015.  Yuzu at that time was clearly the preeminent Japanese skater when the Japanese Olympic team was assembled.  And momentum seemed to be going for Yuzu.  So Yuzu went.  After that Yuzu lucked out (as he himself admitted more than once).  Yuzu broke his own SP record at Sochi and then went on to skate less than perfect in the free.  His lead from the SP and the fact that almost everyone (including Patrick) who was in contention did not skate well meant that Yuzu took the gold.  I'm sure all of you have seen that short clip of Yuzu off the ice checking up on the rankings and discovering, to his surprise, that he was first.  He knew that it was a combination of skill in the SP and luck in the free that he got the gold.  One of the driving forces in his aim to get gold at PC was to have a 'clean' Olympic win, which he indeed did have there.

 

As for the situation this season, in the enforced long break between Moscow and upcoming Saitama Yuzu has had, essentially, a second summer break, just as he had last season.  With memories of last season's amazing recovery I'm sure that he and Brian and Yuzu's medical team, moved forward with caution as Yuzu once again took to the ice and began training once again.  Yuzu knows what he did last season in recovering and I'm sure he's applied the lessons learned then to this season's situation.  At least he knows that he can take the gold as he did last season.  He did it once, he'll do it again, and that fact must have given him encouragement to keep going.  The thing is that all the other elite men know what Yuzu did last season leading up to PC and you can be sure none of them is dismissing Yuzu in the coming showdown.  Yuzu is the one to beat and Nathan, Shoma and Boyang (and several others) are training with the certainty that the Yuzuru Hanyu they'll be facing next month will be a Yuzuru Hanyu in top form.  They dare not think otherwise.  They, like everyone else, must remember Brian's advice - Never underestimate Yuzuru Hanyu.  They won't. 

[faeline]

Hello! New to this forums here  I found out about Hanyu around Sept 2017, when I had a friend who was very into figure skating and showed me a video of his WC2017 FS video, and I was totally mesmerised haha  dug deeper, saw more videos, got more interested, read up about him (uh well, standard obsession kinda behaviour) and started cheering for him silently in OWG2018

 

Found this forum when trying to understand his history and basically lurked for a good 4 months before finally deciding to drop a message thank you all for the hardwork for ensuring there are always resources for fans!!

[Murieleirum]

28 minutes ago, SuzyQ said:

What's your magic spell to get the ticket 

 

 

Mine was aiming low and applying only once to the balcony seats that no one cared about 

[Sombreuil]

Just been looking at the schedule for Saitama and doing the maths to work out the times- not going to be getting much sleep but on the plus side, unlikely to be interrupted either.  Can’t say I see myself sitting through a lot of tangos at 1am, though I’ll probably record them.

[IULIANA]

Guys, where can I find the pdf coloured shedule for Saitama?

[sallycinnamon]

7 minutes ago, IULIANA said:

Guys, where can I find the pdf coloured shedule for Saitama?

 

It's not available yet, it'll be published shortly before the competition.

[IULIANA]

Thanks, I thought I lost any ability to find it as usual. I guess I will have to wait a little longer, gosh, March is so close...

[Henni147]

2 hours ago, Murieleirum said:

Thank you so much for sharing this program with us!! Actually my weakness is that whole season... the Olympic season... I love R&J2 because it really shows an emotional Yuzu as much as the first Romeo and Juliet program, here you can see how many details into the coreography he loses himself into, and how much he's into it... 

(I've seen it with Max and Angelo's comment and they both agree that he should have gotten more than 81 PCS here. He was 18 here and he would become an Olympic champion. Still, there was nothing given to him for free - on the contrary, he was often penalized on the PCS side, and the score gap between him and Patrick was +10 points, although the real gap between their SS and Transitions, mmh... not so much, I would say.)

After rewatching the Worlds marathon yesterday my impression is that Yuzu's biggest improvement in transition work and skating skills happened during the 2014/15 season. Compared with any of his previous programs Chopin 1.0 was a complete different level of footwork, deep egdes, soft gliding and controlled body movements. It's been pretty close actually to the current Yuzuru Hanyu already.
 

So retrospectively I agree with that 81 in PCS in Sotchi. Yuzu was good (probably even better than some other +90 skaters nowadays *cough*), but compared with his current skating qualities or Patrick's skating skills in 2014 the gap is indeed that big. Especially in Notre Dame and R&J2 you could see that Yuzu appeared very passionate, but wild at the same time. He didn't have that absolute control over his body, moves and the ice. It was a nonstop fight for every jump and step back then. If I remember correctly, Brian has mentioned something similar in a documentary.

When you look at Yuzu's skating today, it appears that everything is obedient to him: his body, the music, the ice, the entire arena. Even if he makes mistakes, his skating is well organized, controlled and effortless from start to finish. For me that alone justifies these ~15 points difference between Sotchi and today. He has grown that much in these past five years.

That's exactly the reason why I'm not a huge fan of generous PCS scoring. I'm sure that young skaters like Nathan or Boyang will improve a lot in skating skills, transitions and performance till Beijing, but the judges won't have the chance to reward that growth properly, because the bar is incredibly high already, especially in Nathan's case.

[Henni147]

PS: Thank you guys for mentioning GPF 2013. Didn't know that it was such a crucial point in Yuzu's career.

GPF marathon will be next on my rewatch list

[Bilge]

3 hours ago, Henni147 said:

After rewatching the Worlds marathon yesterday my impression is that Yuzu's biggest improvement in transition work and skating skills happened during the 2014/15 season. Compared with any of his previous programs Chopin 1.0 was a complete different level of footwork, deep egdes, soft gliding and controlled body movements. It's been pretty close actually to the current Yuzuru Hanyu already.
 

So retrospectively I agree with that 81 in PCS in Sotchi. Yuzu was good (probably even better than some other +90 skaters nowadays *cough*), but compared with his current skating qualities or Patrick's skating skills in 2014 the gap is indeed that big. Especially in Notre Dame and R&J2 you could see that Yuzu appeared very passionate, but wild at the same time. He didn't have that absolute control over his body, moves and the ice. It was a nonstop fight for every jump and step back then. If I remember correctly, Brian has mentioned something similar in a documentary.

When you look at Yuzu's skating today, it appears that everything is obedient to him: his body, the music, the ice, the entire arena. Even if he makes mistakes, his skating is well organized, controlled and effortless from start to finish. For me that alone justifies these ~15 points difference between Sotchi and today. He has grown that much in these past five years.

That's exactly the reason why I'm not a huge fan of generous PCS scoring. I'm sure that young skaters like Nathan or Boyang will improve a lot in skating skills, transitions and performance till Beijing, but the judges won't have the chance to reward that growth properly, because the bar is incredibly high already, especially in Nathan's case.

I’d say 2013. I started to watch his old programs starting from 2009 (thank you streaming party thread) and i saw the biggest difference there. PW really changed the game. Even the commentators went from “but these are easy steps, his steps are not as hard as other guys competing” to “there is not even a note left” and started his wr breaking trend. But his improvement never stops really he keeps getting better and better. 

Edit: also i could only watched until the end of 2013 (worlds was a poor ending to a great season) excited for the jump in quality  on the next seasons thinking his current state

[rockstaryuzu]

3 hours ago, Henni147 said:

That's exactly the reason why I'm not a huge fan of generous PCS scoring. I'm sure that young skaters like Nathan or Boyang will improve a lot in skating skills, transitions and performance till Beijing, but the judges won't have the chance to reward that growth properly, because the bar is incredibly high already, especially in Nathan's case.

Agree with you here, but, thankfully, a good number of skaters appear to take PCS with a huge grain of salt and just keep working on getting better anyway, regardless of score. I think they're taking their cues from Yuzuru in that. He keeps on improving. The guy's the tip of the top, the very last grain of stone at the pinnacle of Everest, nothing left to prove, and yet he's still not satisfied and keeps on growing. I love it. 

 

And yes, in my opinion Nathan is one of those skaters who has decided that PCS is not an accurate measurement of his performance and that he has to work to improve his performance to suit his own standards. Look at him a year ago vs today - heaps of improvement in performance value. He moves better, his body lines are more precise, he's trying to hit the music better, if he'd just ditch the Vera Wang 'oh-look-i'm-a-skating-monk' outfits, I'd enjoy his skates immensely. If he were taking his PCS as Gospel truth accurate evaulations of his skating, none of that would have happened.

 

 

[makebelieveup]

23 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Agree with you here, but, thankfully, a good number of skaters appear to take PCS with a huge grain of salt and just keep working on getting better anyway, regardless of score. I think they're taking their cues from Yuzuru in that. He keeps on improving. The guy's the tip of the top, the very last grain of stone at the pinnacle of Everest, nothing left to prove, and yet he's still not satisfied and keeps on growing. I love it. 

 

And yes, in my opinion Nathan is one of those skaters who has decided that PCS is not an accurate measurement of his performance and that he has to work to improve his performance to suit his own standards. Look at him a year ago vs today - heaps of improvement in performance value. He moves better, his body lines are more precise, he's trying to hit the music better, if he'd just ditch the Vera Wang 'oh-look-i'm-a-skating-monk' outfits, I'd enjoy his skates immensely. If he were taking his PCS as Gospel truth accurate evaulations of his skating, none of that would have happened.

 

 

 

RE: Nathan

I agree but I also think it's come with the help of a part of the fandom who, despite of being called haters/crazy fanyus, kept voicing out his skating issues. If everyone else had taken it as gospel truth, he would probably have not been motivated enough to prove himself. But also kudos to Nathan himself because he's got a wise head on his shoulders to receive these constructive criticisms. I've seen a lot of other skaters who responded the opposite.  

[rockstaryuzu]

1 minute ago, makebelieveup said:

 

RE: Nathan

I agree but I also think it's come with the help of a part of the fandom who, despite of being called haters/crazy fanyus, kept voicing out his skating issues that helped him. If everyone else had taken it as the gospel truth, he would probably have not been motivated enough to prove himself. But also kudos to Nathan himself because he's got a wise head on his shoulder to receive these constructive criticisms. I've seen a lot of other skaters who responded the opposite.  

You may be right, but you're making a big assumption there, namely that Nathan reads what people say about him on social media. For his own sake, I kind of hope he doesn't!  Honestly, most of what fans say online about his performances, any responsible coach would also be saying to him. Raf doesn't seem like the kind of guy who pulls his punches. My guess is that he read Nathan the riot act after the Olympics, and Nathan listened.