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General Yuzuru Chat


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3 hours ago, Umebachi said:

 

I was being flippant in my earlier response, but in all seriousness, I am very glad that he is in Canada with TCC - where the entire team seems to be dedicated to offering a safe and supportive environment.  That's why you need a multi-disciplinary team, not individual coaches dictating all aspects of the athlete's life.  This being Canada, I would expect TCC athletes to have access to some of the best sports medicine as well as sports psychology specialists.  When Yuzu had discovered he had lisfranc injury in 2016, he had initial assessments done in Japan but it was reported on Japanese media that he went back to Canada immediately thereafter because they have great sports therapists in Toronto.  This was not related to mental health but in Japan there is a general recognition that Yuzu is receiving excellent care in Canada from physical and mental perspectives.   TCC probably offers a far better environment than any of the clubs in Japan, where old ways still linger and probably not enough attention is paid to sports psychology.  The situation is definitely improving in many other sports in Japan.  Tennis and baseball come to mind  perhaps because athletes in these fields also train in North America and are up to date on modern science, and ofc they have much more money to access top experts.  Figure skating seems to be lagging in this respect.  That's why I am also relieved to see Shoma in Champery with a coach who seems to place a lot of emphasis on balanced mental conditioning.   Ofc, Shoma had very supportive and caring coaches in Japan, but this was clearly not sufficient, and he needed a different environment.  

And it's so good to see Shoma smiling and actually happy.

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Just for the record, but my comments on sports psychology and therapy had virtually nothing to do with the interviews. I didn't even watch the subbed versions, because I watched them when they aired and it was enough. It's perfectly natural he would have been so upset then, it was definitely one of the lowest moments of his career and he was utterly exhausted on top of it (which also causes the low, combined with the judging/scoring etc.) That interview didn't make me worry for him, just hurt for/with him. There have been other things in the past that made me worry for him, but not this, not really. I know Yuzu is strong and I have no doubt he can pick himself up, because he's been through harder stuff and because I generally think most people are stronger than they think. However, if in this process he needs or just wants extra help, then I wanted to make it clear that he should feel free to get it. Hence my comments, after seeing a couple of people here saying that he doesn't need therapy and is self-sufficient enough. Especially knowing that mental healthcare is still somewhat of a stigma in Japan. (And actually, also because of some of the attacks towards Yuzu by his antis lately.) I'm happy those comments here weren't meant to be all that serious and we all agree that seeking/not seeking, accepting/not accepting the help of sports psychologists/therapists doesn't make a difference to how strong Yuzu actually is. He's just as strong either way.

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8 hours ago, memae said:

Even TSL had things to say about the judging of Yuzu's elements at SC. They even called out the specific judges who didn't give +5 for his SP 4S. 

 

Someone on here had the idea of separating the judges for the separate scores of TES and PCS and ever since I've thought it the most simple, brilliant possible solution. I wish ISU would at least consider trialing it

The 4S in SC SP is GORGEOUS too i just dont have a closer up shot for it. This ss he landed at least 4 4S that are as brilliant as this but none got straight :1497158260_5GOE:. The one in 4CC FS is even the biggest among all yet only got +3.88GOE. His hand-down 4lz earlier might have given judge an excuse to put a GOE cap for later jumps:(.

 

That's why I feel whenever Yuzu competes he must always be extra careful as any step-out, hand-down doesnt only affect that jump but also creates a cap in judge's mind for his other elements. While for other skaters they tend to "save" them with better GOEs for landed jumps to make up any mistake, sigh:(

 

There WAS an official proposal like that to ISU from fed member (i dont rmb who but just small fed) and ofc got rejected instantly :knc_brian1: 

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2 hours ago, KatjaThera said:

Just for the record, but my comments on sports psychology and therapy had virtually nothing to do with the interviews. I didn't even watch the subbed versions, because I watched them when they aired and it was enough. It's perfectly natural he would have been so upset then, it was definitely one of the lowest moments of his career and he was utterly exhausted on top of it (which also causes the low, combined with the judging/scoring etc.) That interview didn't make me worry for him, just hurt for/with him. There have been other things in the past that made me worry for him, but not this, not really. I know Yuzu is strong and I have no doubt he can pick himself up, because he's been through harder stuff and because I generally think most people are stronger than they think. However, if in this process he needs or just wants extra help, then I wanted to make it clear that he should feel free to get it. Hence my comments, after seeing a couple of people here saying that he doesn't need therapy and is self-sufficient enough. Especially knowing that mental healthcare is still somewhat of a stigma in Japan. (And actually, also because of some of the attacks towards Yuzu by his antis lately.) I'm happy those comments here weren't meant to be all that serious and we all agree that seeking/not seeking, accepting/not accepting the help of sports psychologists/therapists doesn't make a difference to how strong Yuzu actually is. He's just as strong either way.

I've heard of these "antis" before but I've never actually read any of the negative press.  Perhaps the one plus of not being able to read or understand Japanese.

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23 hours ago, KatjaThera said:

Honestly, I'm not a fan of this attitude. The idea that strong people don't need a therapist. So if you need a therapist, then you must be weak? As someone who saw a therapist for years and is now on the verge of needing one again, I take offense at it. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if Yuzu would not consider a therapist, while at the same time I hope his studies of psychology as part of his university studies have made him more open minded. I'm sure he knows the importance of psychology in his sport and I think he's probably aware of his own trauma stemming from the earthquake experience. Then there's the stuff he said at Continues. This all makes me hope he is far more open minded about it and is willing to ask for and accept help on the harder days. TCC has sports psychologists on call precisely to help the athletes. Asking for and accepting help in tough times, to help clear one's mind does not mean that person is not strong. I REALLY hope Yuzu knows that. He's been through so much stuff I just hope he gets all the support he needs.

 

It looks like I opened a can of worms with my posting.

 

I never said that strong people don’t need a therapist nor did I say that seeking help meant that a person is weak.

 

I am not some kind of Neanderthal.

 

I was looking at this purely from Yuzuru Hanyu’s perspective. I said that he was too strong and too self-reliant to seek a therapist. This is based on everything I’ve seen of and heard from Yuzu over the years. Perhaps I should have said that he was too strong-willed.

 

I was a trial lawyer specializing in personal injury for over 35 years and I am fully aware of the benefits of psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists. In dealing with my clients’ cases, I would arrange for independent assessments by the appropriate experts, including those involving mental health. If the family physician of a particular client had not referred him or her for psychological counseling and the independent assessment I had arranged recommended it, I would send the independent assessment report to the family physician and request the appropriate referral. If I personally thought that the client would benefit from counseling, I would speak to his or her family physician and try to arrange for it. So I am not blind to the potential benefit of counseling of any kind, including me providing non-legal, supportive counseling to my clients.

 

In my experience as a lawyer, I found that counseling was of benefit to some of my clients and not to others. There were many of my clients who did not require counseling even though they had suffered devastating injuries.

 

I feel compelled to give a summarized version of my own life so that people know where I am coming from. I personally have had to deal with a life altering injury and a series of challenges. At the age of 27, a year and a half after I had become a lawyer, I lost control of my vehicle on a highway, went into a ditch, shot out like a ski jump, turned turtle in mid air and came down on the roof. I broke my neck and was rendered a quadriplegic. When I arrived at the acute spinal cord injury unit, I was paralyzed from the neck down.

 

The orthopedic resident who first spoke to me in the Intensive Care Unit did not have much of a bedside manner. His first words to me were, “You’ve broken your neck and you’re paralyzed from the neck down. We have to put your neck in traction and in order to do that we have to attach a halo ring on your head with four screws using a torque wrench. To freeze the screw sites, we are going to inject them with anesthetic, and that’s going to hurt.”

 

The thought that went through my mind when I heard that was, “I have no feeling from my neck down. Why the fuck do they have to stick needles into the only part of my body that has sensation?”

 

They did a discectomy and I started to recover function. 4 ½ months later, I walked out of the spinal cord unit on elbow crutches. I spent 3 ½ months as an inpatient at a rehabilitation centre and at the end of it, I walked out without any aids. I spent another 3 months as an outpatient attending rehab 1 ½ days per week and working as a lawyer 3 ½ days a week. At the end of that, I returned to work full-time. I was considered the miracle of the spinal cord unit for recovering as much as I did.

 

Prior to the injury, I was very physically active. I had my black belt in judo and competed at two Canadian national championships. I skied and participated in any pickup sports or physical activities. I was a good dancer and had natural musicality. I was also very artistic and had beautiful handwriting.

 

As a result of the injury, I could no longer run or participate in any sports. I lost the dexterity in my hands so that I was no longer artistic nor did I have very good handwriting. I was incontinent with respect to both my bladder and bowel functions. I had to wear a leg bag for my urine and just had to be very careful about my bowel routine or else I would have accidents at the most inopportune times. If I had a malfunction with my condom drainage, I would end up with a big urine stain on my suit pants.

 

And to add insult to injury, my first wife who I married when I was in my final year of law school, stopped coming to see me at the hospital one month after my injury. She apparently thought that I would never practice law again.

 

Still, I was extremely grateful that I had recovered as much as I did. I maintained a very positive attitude about life, work and my future.

 

About 6 ½ years after the spinal cord injury, it was discovered that I had syringomyelia – a syrinx in my cord and I underwent surgery to insert a shunt. I felt immediate improvement in my condition.

 

Unfortunately, I was hit in five more car accidents through no fault of my own over the following 20 years, all of them causing major aggravation and deterioration of my condition. I also had two more spinal cord surgeries requiring post-surgical rehab. I also had a total left hip replacement because of the steroid antibiotics that had been used and this surgery also required rehabilitation treatments. All of these surgeries made my condition worse.

 

In September 2011, we traveled to Germany for two weeks with another couple assisting us. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Yuzu was competing in another part of Germany in the Nebelhorn Trophy. I had developed open pressure ulcers in my butt prior to the trip and as a result of the long flights and extended time in my wheelchair, they became infected. By the time I returned to Canada, it had developed into osteomyelitis – bone infection. I was hospitalized for 3 ½ months on intravenous antibiotics. Even after my discharge, I had to continue with a special form of IV antibiotics at home for another month and a half.

 

Before this trip to Germany, my wife and I were independent in the sense that I was able to stand up from the bed or wheelchair and get dressed with my wife’s assistance. We were able to go to my law practice every day and do things together without a third person assisting us. After Germany and my hospitalization and prolonged bed rest, I was no longer able to stand up at all even with assistance from my wife. Since then, we have had to rely on someone else to help us whenever I need to get out of bed.

 

It became impossible to go to the office regularly and I closed my practice and retired as a lawyer 7 ½ years ago.

 

I have now lost all use of my body below my neck. I have constant pain and stiffness in my neck. I have chronic pressure ulcers on my tailbone and right buttock. I have frequent urinary tract infections often requiring hospitalization and intravenous antibiotic treatment.

 

Throughout all of this my mood has fluctuated and there were times when I experienced situational depression, so I think that I, better than most, understand what Yuzuru has gone through. I personally did not need or desire counseling or therapy of any kind. As expected, it was offered to me countless times because people expect you to be depressed or in need of counseling when you go through life-changing experiences like I have. Sometimes I was very irritated and felt intruded on by the attempts to almost force counseling on me when I didn’t need it and I had not exhibited anything which would signal the need for counseling. Sometimes I felt like I was caught in a Catch-22 because when I acted normal and well-balanced emotionally because I genuinely felt that way and they suspected that I was just masking my depression.

 

I think that Yuzuru and I have a similar mindset. Of course, that is just speculation on my part because I am not him, but I am basing that assessment on what I have seen and heard regarding Yuzu and analyzing it from my experiences with my own challenges as well as having lived life for 69 years.

 

So when I said that Yuzu is too strong and too self-reliant to ever need a therapist, I was not putting other people down for finding benefit in therapy.

 

And unlike @rockstaryuzu, I do not believe that Yuzu has now or ever consulted with a sports therapist. Every elite athlete in Western society may consult one, but I do not think Yuzu does. Someone else suggested that The Cricket Club has sports therapists on call so that Yuzu would be able to consult with one if he wanted to. I do not think that any sports therapists that are available to skaters at The Cricket Club are fluent in Japanese. So I believe that is a non-starter, even if Yuzu had an interest in consulting with one, which I do not think he has.

 

I am not saying that I am particularly strong because I have been able to deal with life and my challenges without the need for a therapist or counseling. And again, I am not suggesting that someone is weak because they seek therapy or counseling. All I can say about myself is that I have maintained a positive attitude towards life notwithstanding my circumstances and have enjoyed life despite my limitations. With quadriplegia, there is no “light at the end of the tunnel” and no comforting thoughts like, “It is darkest before the dawn.” There is no hope of physical recovery, so there is never going to be a dawn unless you make your own light and happiness.

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3 hours ago, Geo1 said:

 

It looks like I opened a can of worms with my posting.

 

I never said that strong people don’t need a therapist nor did I say that seeking help meant that a person is weak.

 

I am not some kind of Neanderthal.

 

I was looking at this purely from Yuzuru Hanyu’s perspective. I said that he was too strong and too self-reliant to seek a therapist. This is based on everything I’ve seen of and heard from Yuzu over the years. Perhaps I should have said that he was too strong-willed.

 

I was a trial lawyer specializing in personal injury for over 35 years and I am fully aware of the benefits of psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists. In dealing with my clients’ cases, I would arrange for independent assessments by the appropriate experts, including those involving mental health. If the family physician of a particular client had not referred him or her for psychological counseling and the independent assessment I had arranged recommended it, I would send the independent assessment report to the family physician and request the appropriate referral. If I personally thought that the client would benefit from counseling, I would speak to his or her family physician and try to arrange for it. So I am not blind to the potential benefit of counseling of any kind, including me providing non-legal, supportive counseling to my clients.

 

In my experience as a lawyer, I found that counseling was of benefit to some of my clients and not to others. There were many of my clients who did not require counseling even though they had suffered devastating injuries.

 

I feel compelled to give a summarized version of my own life so that people know where I am coming from. I personally have had to deal with a life altering injury and a series of challenges. At the age of 27, a year and a half after I had become a lawyer, I lost control of my vehicle on a highway, went into a ditch, shot out like a ski jump, turned turtle in mid air and came down on the roof. I broke my neck and was rendered a quadriplegic. When I arrived at the acute spinal cord injury unit, I was paralyzed from the neck down.

 

The orthopedic resident who first spoke to me in the Intensive Care Unit did not have much of a bedside manner. His first words to me were, “You’ve broken your neck and you’re paralyzed from the neck down. We have to put your neck in traction and in order to do that we have to attach a halo ring on your head with four screws using a torque wrench. To freeze the screw sites, we are going to inject them with anesthetic, and that’s going to hurt.”

 

The thought that went through my mind when I heard that was, “I have no feeling from my neck down. Why the fuck do they have to stick needles into the only part of my body that has sensation?”

 

They did a discectomy and I started to recover function. 4 ½ months later, I walked out of the spinal cord unit on elbow crutches. I spent 3 ½ months as an inpatient at a rehabilitation centre and at the end of it, I walked out without any aids. I spent another 3 months as an outpatient attending rehab 1 ½ days per week and working as a lawyer 3 ½ days a week. At the end of that, I returned to work full-time. I was considered the miracle of the spinal cord unit for recovering as much as I did.

 

Prior to the injury, I was very physically active. I had my black belt in judo and competed at two Canadian national championships. I skied and participated in any pickup sports or physical activities. I was a good dancer and had natural musicality. I was also very artistic and had beautiful handwriting.

 

As a result of the injury, I could no longer run or participate in any sports. I lost the dexterity in my hands so that I was no longer artistic nor did I have very good handwriting. I was incontinent with respect to both my bladder and bowel functions. I had to wear a leg bag for my urine and just had to be very careful about my bowel routine or else I would have accidents at the most inopportune times. If I had a malfunction with my condom drainage, I would end up with a big urine stain on my suit pants.

 

And to add insult to injury, my first wife who I married when I was in my final year of law school, stopped coming to see me at the hospital one month after my injury. She apparently thought that I would never practice law again.

 

Still, I was extremely grateful that I had recovered as much as I did. I maintained a very positive attitude about life, work and my future.

 

About 6 ½ years after the spinal cord injury, it was discovered that I had syringomyelia – a syrinx in my cord and I underwent surgery to insert a shunt. I felt immediate improvement in my condition.

 

Unfortunately, I was hit in five more car accidents through no fault of my own over the following 20 years, all of them causing major aggravation and deterioration of my condition. I also had two more spinal cord surgeries requiring post-surgical rehab. I also had a total left hip replacement because of the steroid antibiotics that had been used and this surgery also required rehabilitation treatments. All of these surgeries made my condition worse.

 

In September 2011, we traveled to Germany for two weeks with another couple assisting us. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Yuzu was competing in another part of Germany in the Nebelhorn Trophy. I had developed open pressure ulcers in my butt prior to the trip and as a result of the long flights and extended time in my wheelchair, they became infected. By the time I returned to Canada, it had developed into osteomyelitis – bone infection. I was hospitalized for 3 ½ months on intravenous antibiotics. Even after my discharge, I had to continue with a special form of IV antibiotics at home for another month and a half.

 

Before this trip to Germany, my wife and I were independent in the sense that I was able to stand up from the bed or wheelchair and get dressed with my wife’s assistance. We were able to go to my law practice every day and do things together without a third person assisting us. After Germany and my hospitalization and prolonged bed rest, I was no longer able to stand up at all even with assistance from my wife. Since then, we have had to rely on someone else to help us whenever I need to get out of bed.

 

It became impossible to go to the office regularly and I closed my practice and retired as a lawyer 7 ½ years ago.

 

I have now lost all use of my body below my neck. I have constant pain and stiffness in my neck. I have chronic pressure ulcers on my tailbone and right buttock. I have frequent urinary tract infections often requiring hospitalization and intravenous antibiotic treatment.

 

Throughout all of this my mood has fluctuated and there were times when I experienced situational depression, so I think that I, better than most, understand what Yuzuru has gone through. I personally did not need or desire counseling or therapy of any kind. As expected, it was offered to me countless times because people expect you to be depressed or in need of counseling when you go through life-changing experiences like I have. Sometimes I was very irritated and felt intruded on by the attempts to almost force counseling on me when I didn’t need it and I had not exhibited anything which would signal the need for counseling. Sometimes I felt like I was caught in a Catch-22 because when I acted normal and well-balanced emotionally because I genuinely felt that way and they suspected that I was just masking my depression.

 

I think that Yuzuru and I have a similar mindset. Of course, that is just speculation on my part because I am not him, but I am basing that assessment on what I have seen and heard regarding Yuzu and analyzing it from my experiences with my own challenges as well as having lived life for 69 years.

 

So when I said that Yuzu is too strong and too self-reliant to ever need a therapist, I was not putting other people down for finding benefit in therapy.

 

And unlike @rockstaryuzu, I do not believe that Yuzu has now or ever consulted with a sports therapist. Every elite athlete in Western society may consult one, but I do not think Yuzu does. Someone else suggested that The Cricket Club has sports therapists on call so that Yuzu would be able to consult with one if he wanted to. I do not think that any sports therapists that are available to skaters at The Cricket Club are fluent in Japanese. So I believe that is a non-starter, even if Yuzu had an interest in consulting with one, which I do not think he has.

 

I am not saying that I am particularly strong because I have been able to deal with life and my challenges without the need for a therapist or counseling. And again, I am not suggesting that someone is weak because they seek therapy or counseling. All I can say about myself is that I have maintained a positive attitude towards life notwithstanding my circumstances and have enjoyed life despite my limitations. With quadriplegia, there is no “light at the end of the tunnel” and no comforting thoughts like, “It is darkest before the dawn.” There is no hope of physical recovery, so there is never going to be a dawn unless you make your own light and happiness.

 

Hope you are well, glad that you made it through all that.

 

I think in the end we just don't know whether he needs one or not. Some people take offence at being offered therapy when they don't need them, but many others take offence at being told that they don't need therapy when they really did need them. It's a common problem in conservative societies where the intervention are unnecessarily delayed for people who really needed them, resulting in worsened conditions or even deaths that could've been prevented if their pleas for help was taken seriously.

 

For example, I had severe depression that is directly caused by hepatitis C, so external intervention was needed in my case, but I couldn't get one because my family didn't believe me when I said I needed one. I finally got treatment, and I'm in a better place now, but not until it worsened and caused damage that didn't really need to happen had I gotten timely help.

 

I can look forward now, but it really sucked when people insist that they know what you need or don't need. I think there's no cases that would justify the reasoning "If I didn't need it, you don't need it because I think you are similar to me", because our assumptions of Yuzu based on "what we see online" are often very different from what the reality actually is for him.

 

We often see Yuzu as strong as resilient, but based on his translated interviews, he also cries a lot in private and have a tendency to overthink or get overwhelmed by his own emotions. Even parents don't always understand what their children needs, what more fans who only know the side of him known to public. This is best left to professionals with the necessary technical expertise. 

 

Let's just enjoy Yuzu without speculating what he needs, or projecting our thoughts onto him. He is himself, and he knows what he needs. 

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3 hours ago, Geo1 said:

And unlike @rockstaryuzu, I do not believe that Yuzu has now or ever consulted with a sports therapist. Every elite athlete in Western society may consult one, but I do not think Yuzu does. Someone else suggested that The Cricket Club has sports therapists on call so that Yuzu would be able to consult with one if he wanted to. I do not think that any sports therapists that are available to skaters at The Cricket Club are fluent in Japanese. So I believe that is a non-starter, even if Yuzu had an interest in consulting with one, which I do not think he has.

@Geo1 I don't want to take anything away from what you've said here, but I would like to clarify a definition which may have been a little lost in the shuffle:

 

Sports psychology is not therapy. A sports psychologist does not provide counseling in the traditional sense. The sole purpose of sports psychology is to get the athlete into a winning mindset. With that endpoint in mind, a sports psychologist will help an athlete to visualize winning performances through guided imagery, teach them relaxation techniques to control pre-event nerves, help to define and set clear performance goals, establish routines and rituals that help an athlete get their mind in the game, and so on. Sports psychologists aren't there to listen to an athlete talk about their emotional state, they're there to help identify the things the athlete is doing/thinking that either add to or take away from success.

 

Given that Brian is the originator of http://www.peakperformanceskating.com, a system that does exactly all those things, and based on things Yuzu has said in interviews, the chances are pretty high that he has, at the very least, benefited from using sports psychology, even if he doesn't actively consult a sports psychologist. 

 

But really, it's not just North American/ Western athletes that do it. Sports psychology is like having the right skates or the right nutrition - just another thing that gives you an edge over the competition. At the top levels of sport, if you're not, at the very least, practicing guided relaxation and visualization exercises, you're leaving points on the table for others to grab. Given how much Yuzu likes winning, I can't imagine him turning his back on such tools. 

 

So, anyway, just wanted to clarify what I was talking about there. 

 

 

 

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On 2/19/2020 at 7:59 PM, Figure_Frenzy said:

 

Also speaking of the name Ghislain...

 

  Hide contents

...I was idly searching for the given name Ghislain on Wikipedia, wondering if I would come across something interesting. Turns out that the namesake saint (St. Ghislain) is often portrayed in catholic iconography with a bear/bear cub by his side...and we here on the Planet (and anywhere else...where fanyus gather :coolio:) often called Ghislain papa bear! 🐻

 

I mean... WHAT ARE THE CHANCES

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Ghislain

 

 

This made me think (after several days...) that although the etymology of Orser is likely to be van Auslin (settled in NY during Netherlands rule, later they anglicized their name in Orser, and most of them were loyalist and moved to Canada after US Independence), or maybe Hostiler (an Oxfordshire family, quoted in the Domesday Book), the name as it is rather conveys, for a speaker of Latin languages (and many words and names in English, have a Latin origin), the idea of a bear (ursus in Latin, orso in several Italian languages, ours in French) keeper.

Really these men are aptly named to be Pooh-san guardians when Yuzuru-Senshu goes skating. ;-)

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