General Yuzuru Chat

[Danibellerika]

I've been a fan of the sport for a long long time, but I have my ins and outs when it comes to peak interest. I usually need someone to uber or enough skaters I generally like, but when I have a fave I am all in and watching it across all disciplines. I put in a good 6-7 years during the Sasha/Plush era so I think it was okay to take some time away. I tuned in again for the 2010 Olympics and really only Dai was interesting to me but he wasn't really enough for me at the time.  But when I noticed Yuzu, it was the right time to get interested in the sport again. 

[yuzuangel]

Heh, sometimes I wish I didn't uber anyone, because it's less stressful that way. Then I might be able to go to all these cool competitions all over the world and do some sightseeing, explore, go shopping, meet people, etc. instead of being too anxious to do any of those things. At ACI it was like...practice...competition...practice...competition...line up at an ungodly hour to get good seats, etc. If I didn't love Yuzu so much I might have skipped practices and just watched the competitions, and I certainly would have been fine sitting in row #6 of an already tiny arena. And then I might have been able to explore Montreal, which I've heard is a great city with great nightlife.

 

But the downside is that things will be a lot less interesting for sure. I'd probably end up only really watching Worlds and GPF live or something rather than all the smaller events as well. And while I'd miss out on the lows, I'd miss out on the highs as well, and the highs are really something -- Helsinki Worlds must be one of the happiest days of my life.

[Danibellerika]

10 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

Heh, sometimes I wish I didn't uber anyone, because it's less stressful that way. Then I might be able to go to all these cool competitions all over the world and do some sightseeing, explore, go shopping, meet people, etc. instead of being too anxious to do any of those things. At ACI it was like...practice...competition...practice...competition...line up at an ungodly hour to get good seats, etc. If I didn't love Yuzu so much I might have skipped practices and just watched the competitions, and I certainly would have been fine sitting in row #6 of an already tiny arena. And then I might have been able to explore Montreal, which I've heard is a great city with great nightlife.

 

But the downside is that things will be a lot less interesting for sure. I'd probably end up only really watching Worlds and GPF live or something rather than all the smaller events as well. And while I'd miss out on the lows, I'd miss out on the highs as well, and the highs are really something -- Helsinki Worlds must be one of the happiest days of my life.

Yeah that's what we struggle with.  I wouldn't be as happy if I was more casual.  Helsinki was one of the happiest days of my life as well and somehow Yuzuru makes it feel earned. I think being able to celebrate with fellow fans had a lot of do with it too. Like, if he won in Boston I would have been happy, but probably not as happy as Helsinki made me. I really don't know if I could get any happier. An olympic win to compare it to would be nice though .  And Sochi doesn't really count because my level of ubering then wasn't the same. I hadn't put the time in yet.  

[Xen]

7 hours ago, Yoa said:

https://twitter.com/FSpiritVarz/status/922186721097216000

edit: the last one doesn't want to show so it's just a link

Not surprised by this, even extroverts need breaks from people, and Yuzu strikes me as an introvert, just a very people loving introvert. So that level of attention must be exhausting, needing to be on best behavior all the time because you never know when a camera might capture him. 

 

As for fan burden, it is love and support but also expectations. Mentally, he probably knows that fan support is unconditional love, but emotionally there muzt be some frustration and fear he does not meet fan expectations when he skates less clean. I know this is a sterotype, but the idea of unconditional love and support outside of your family is such an odd concept in asia, we compete like crazy starting even in kindergaten now, and as a child sometimes you even doubt the love of your parents due to the competitive pressure that they even add. So while Yuzu gets it intellectually, I wonder if he fully believes it all the time. For his.sake, and my peace of mind, I hope he does. I also suspect he is aware of some of the fanwars, and attack towards his fans, if nothing else just because that happens to all large fandoms when competition is involved. And I imagine he might feel bad that such a thing exists, but he also cannot do anything as that would make it worse.

 

I think as fans, so long as we respect his privacy, and respect his decisions, it should be fine. There is not a whole lot we can do anyways, and I think he has come to accept the attention, poohs, banners etc at competition. If his fans actually spread the love of skating and general knowledge of skating, I think he would be happy too.

[RockstarYuzuru]

16 minutes ago, Yuazz said:

I got to know this sport because of yuzuru (thanks to YouTube randomly give me recommended video to watch! Sochi Yuzu brought me here!) .....and I won't lie that I stay because of him.. I still don't know if I'll stay to watch this sport after he r******

 

I like to think I'll become a figure skating veteran after Yuzuru r******, like I will still be around appreciating the sport and its athletes because Yuzuru made me a fan of it. But I don't ever see myself favoring another skater as did with Yuzuru, that's for sure. 

[Xen]

The closest I've had to Yuzu was probably Sasha Cohen, but financially I was certainly not able to follow her around. She did inspire me to work my tail off on spirals and spins though. After Yuzu stops competing, I am sure another skater will attract my attention, but perhaps with less intensity and it will be a while before such a skater shows up in the men's, slim pickings there. Ladies maybe a higher possibility. 

[WinForPooh]

4 hours ago, beki said:

They are bandwagon jumpers and they don't want to be wrong later, so it's actually an indication that Yuzu is having a strong start to his season. I think Nathan could still fizzle out later, but we don't have as much past history on him to know his patterns. I really think Raf might break him if they bring back the 4Lo.

I hope they don't break him.

 

This Olympics seems badly timed for the younger lot. Give them another year and they could perhaps take a breath and focus on becoming better skaters instead of jumping as much as possible to accumulate those points. Shoma and Nathan especially, Boyang seems determined to become a better skater, timing be damned, he will make his own schedule and become the best he can - skating skills AND jumps. Even if Boyang is older than the others, he'll be 24 for the next Olympics, won't he? Shoma especially, I really really wish he would fix his jump technique, he'll hurt himself this way! Nathan seems to be going all out for this one because he has other plans for the rest of his life. So... *shrug* One more year and we might have seen the best from all of them.

[yuzuangel]

15 minutes ago, WinForPooh said:

Give them another year and they could perhaps take a breath and focus on becoming better skaters instead of jumping as much as possible to accumulate those points.

Good point. Makes me somewhat glad that both Mao and Yuna just narrowly missed qualifying for the 2006 Olympics in Torino. As for Mao she probably would have won, but who knows what types of training regimes both might have had leading up to the games knowing they'll be age-eligible, and medal contenders, and we might not have been gifted the long and beautiful careers that they had. 

[wombat-poodle]

3 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

Good point. Makes me somewhat glad that both Mao and Yuna just narrowly missed qualifying for the 2006 Olympics in Torino. As for Mao she probably would have won, but who knows what types of training regimes both might have had leading up to the games knowing they'll be age-eligible, and medal contenders, and we might not have been gifted the long and beautiful careers that they had. 

 

19 is a great age to win your first Olys with great tech and great artistry combined~  

 

^{Although 23 is also great~} 

[yuzuangel]

he looks like a model 

 

 

[wombat-poodle]

Yuzuru walked in like a boss! 

[yuzuangel]

10 hours ago, MrPudding said:

 

Quoting this again because  and his tie game is on point...im extremely in love with this photo 

 

[WinForPooh]

27 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

Good point. Makes me somewhat glad that both Mao and Yuna just narrowly missed qualifying for the 2006 Olympics in Torino. As for Mao she probably would have won, but who knows what types of training regimes both might have had leading up to the games knowing they'll be age-eligible, and medal contenders, and we might not have been gifted the long and beautiful careers that they had. 

Yuna is still the benchmark for getting technique perfectly on point, isn't she? But Mao's commitment, now that's something else altogether. All that work, unpicking her jumps and starting from scratch, to come back to the top... It might be a little different for the men because we don't know what the physical effect of jumping so many quads in their programmes will be. Plushenko didn't jump so many and he had robospine and barely any ligaments left in his knee by the end! Careers might be shortened, and shorter careers don't leave so much room for Mao-style dedication to get relearn technique, or Yuna-style commitment to getting all technique perfect.

 

I think I'm crashing so hard from the swan-high, I'm so pessimistic today! Not about Yuzu, about skaters in general. Zhenya not fixing her flutz and not getting called for it, Wakaba - didn't her lip get a free pass, too? Mirai's UR on the triple axel... Everything is so rushed to strategise for max point-accumulation for the Olympics. I think we should be really glad that Yuzu has the character he does, and that he rarely got a free pass on any of his mistakes. It's made him better as a skater. He had to develop the right technique. With all those quads, that should help his longetivity. So the tough calls earlier in his career have really been good for him. (This also makes me have renewed respect for Nathan for getting his quads flip and lutz! And a little sad because he could probably be so much better as a skater if he could focus a little less on the jumps.)

[ralucutzagy]

34 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

he looks like a model 

 

 

Omg! These two photos are awesome! He looks like an ambassador or some kind of state official!! Wow! Extra! 

[ralucutzagy]