General Yuzuru Chat

[Yolo3a]

17 minutes ago, MrPudding said:

 

Definitely bc for US of A, everything outside that country is Narnia and as long as they didn't win the team event last Olympics, Japan might have.. what is Japan but a stone thrown distance away from Russia.. 

[Xen]

4 minutes ago, KatjaThera said:

I'm pretty sure it's just a mistake by some staff member who knows nothing of FS lol Or maybe the overlord's kuyashii fire is strong enough to alter stats online lol

I would like to think it's the latter- the kuyashii fire so strong it whipped down to NBC land and a poor guy got hit to alter the stats before hitting publish.

But honestly, a part of me thinks from a story/narrative perspective, we haven't had back to back golds in such a long time, it might actually happen.

 

[ralucutzagy]

 

 

[KatjaThera]

10 minutes ago, ralucutzagy said:

 

 

I'm starting to wish media will take a hint already and stop trying to pry... (but well, media is media lol) While I wish we got some encouraging info, the thought that stuff Yuzu doesn't want leaking out might leak out really bothers me... thankfully, I think TCC is too good for that to happen, but still.

[Xen]

2 minutes ago, KatjaThera said:

I'm starting to wish media will take a hint already and stop trying to pry... (but well, media is media lol) While I wish we got some encouraging info, the thought that stuff Yuzu doesn't want leaking out might leak out really bothers me... thankfully, I think TCC is too good for that to happen, but still.

We need to send stress balls to TCC, as well as cookies, hot chocolate, everything to help destress.

But the coach they asked didn't say anything, and what he said about Orser's strategy being wise, does sound like a polite "stuff it please" to the media. It's a pretty good indication that media can pry all they want but nothing is coming out any time soon. Which is good for Yuzu-who is now the personification of the silent asian bellcurve destroyer.

 

As for why media is so curious- well, if Yuzu's status has no updates, there's no drama for the media to spin. He's different from Plushenko, because Plushy was out of competition for a long time while Evan was gathering steam. Yuna isn't a direct parallel either because she stopped for a while before going  back to competition mode-and even then she was mostly doing Senior B types no? So even if Yuzu hasn't been perfect all season, none of the issues other than the injury, has been out of pattern-plus I'm sure somewhere the fact he won the Free in Rostel still unnerves people (it shows even imperfect he's not out of the game). Also, if the media harps on about him having an injury and he comes back and skates clean-I'm sorry, that is just what heroic drama stories are made of-that's just PR material that others wish they had, so don't underestimate the candies that can be generated from this alone.

[KatjaThera]

4 minutes ago, Xen said:

We need to send stress balls to TCC, as well as cookies, hot chocolate, everything to help destress.

But the coach they asked didn't say anything, and what he said about Orser's strategy being wise, does sound like a polite "stuff it please" to the media. It's a pretty good indication that media can pry all they want but nothing is coming out any time soon. Which is good for Yuzu-who is now the personification of the silent asian bellcurve destroyer.

 

As for why media is so curious- well, if Yuzu's status has no updates, there's no drama for the media to spin. He's different from Plushenko, because Plushy was out of competition for a long time while Evan was gathering steam. Yuna isn't a direct parallel either because she stopped for a while before going  back to competition mode-and even then she was mostly doing Senior B types no? So even if Yuzu hasn't been perfect all season, none of the issues other than the injury, has been out of pattern-plus I'm sure somewhere the fact he won the Free in Rostel still unnerves people (it shows even imperfect he's not out of the game). Also, if the media harps on about him having an injury and he comes back and skates clean-I'm sorry, that is just what heroic drama stories are made of-that's just PR material that others wish they had, so don't underestimate the candies that can be generated from this alone.

Oh, I quite understand this and you're right. I just feel a bit like if something might slip up it'd be a bit like spoiling the twist in a good story lol But yes, it's unlikely anything will come out.

 

And since you mentioned the free in Rostelecom, I admit I haven't even tried searching, but if anyone knows without checking, have there been many - or any? - FS scores higher than that? In the GP Series, I mean. I know it was a far from ideal performance, but the score actually seemed pretty high to me and from the bits I've heard, I had the impression nobody went much above that... I'll do my own search when I get home, since now I'm curious ^_^;

[golden]

11 minutes ago, KatjaThera said:

And since you mentioned the free in Rostelecom, I admit I haven't even tried searching, but if anyone knows without checking, have there been many - or any? - FS scores higher than that? In the GP Series, I mean. I know it was a far from ideal performance, but the score actually seemed pretty high to me and from the bits I've heard, I had the impression nobody went much above that... I'll do my own search when I get home, since now I'm curious ^_^;

 

in the grand prix series, no one had a higher free skate score. over the entire season so far only shoma beat it at lombardia - (here's the list)

[KatjaThera]

1 minute ago, golden said:

 

in the grand prix series, no one had a higher free skate score. over the entire season so far only shoma beat it at lombardia - x 

Oh, I didn't realize ISU had that statistic! Thank you! Personally, I tend not to count lombardia (and for the sake of fairness, I won't count ACI, either, although Chopin was squeaky clean)

[kaeryth]

15 minutes ago, KatjaThera said:

Oh, I quite understand this and you're right. I just feel a bit like if something might slip up it'd be a bit like spoiling the twist in a good story lol But yes, it's unlikely anything will come out.

 

And since you mentioned the free in Rostelecom, I admit I haven't even tried searching, but if anyone knows without checking, have there been many - or any? - FS scores higher than that? In the GP Series, I mean. I know it was a far from ideal performance, but the score actually seemed pretty high to me and from the bits I've heard, I had the impression nobody went much above that... I'll do my own search when I get home, since now I'm curious ^_^;

 

LOL... For this season, Yuzu's got the SB SP score from ACI - 112.72. For the GP Series/Finale it's Javi at IDF with 107.86.

For the SB on the FS Shoma's 1st with his 214.97 at Lombardia. For the GP Series it's Yuzu with 195.92 at COR.

[sallycinnamon]

In the latest podcast of PJ Kwong, Shae-Lynn talked about choreographing Seimei and her work with Yuzu (I still couldn't finish listening to it, but the part about Yuzu begins at around 30 min 31 sec)

 

 

[cloverpu]

1 hour ago, kaeryth said:

 

LOL... For this season, Yuzu's got the SB SP score from ACI - 112.72. For the GP Series/Finale it's Javi at IDF with 107.86.

For the SB on the FS Shoma's 1st with his 214.97 at Lombardia. For the GP Series it's Yuzu with 195.92 at COR.

I think for GPS, the highest FS result was Shoma's Skate Canada fs (197+). Yuzu's is second best

[xeyra]

5 minutes ago, cloverpu said:

I think for GPS, the highest FS result was Shoma's Skate Canada fs (197+). Yuzu's is second best

 

Yeah. Similarly, Shoma holds the first two SBs total scores (Lombardia and SC), but ISU only considers the highest for their SB lists, which can be confusing when determining who has the best scores of the season. 

[Xen]

3 minutes ago, cloverpu said:

I think for GPS, the highest FS result was Shoma's Skate Canada fs (197+). Yuzu's is second best

Yes, at 197.48 it is the highest so far.

 

Just now, xeyra said:

 

Yeah. Similarly, Shoma holds the first two SBs total scores (Lombardia and SC), but ISU only considers the highest for their SB lists, which can be confusing when determining who has the best scores of the season. 

And scary if you consider that so far, don't think any of the top 6 from Helsinki have gone back to back clean at a GP event. o_O

[xeyra]

Just now, Xen said:

Yes, at 197.48 it is the highest so far.

 

And scary if you consider that so far, don't think any of the top 6 from Helsinki have gone back to back clean at a GP event. o_O

 

I don't think they did either last season. I think the only top skater last season with two clean programs was Boyang at Worlds? 

[micaelis]

On 1/23/2018 at 6:21 AM, KatjaThera said:

While I wish we got some encouraging info, the thought that stuff Yuzu doesn't want leaking out might leak out really bothers me... thankfully, I think TCC is too good for that to happen, but still.

Brian's had years with Yuzu to hone his skills for dealing with the media, although I'm sure he had no real idea when he first took on coaching Yuzu the sheer phenomenon Yuzu would become, since there is no skater in history who has had such a wide and fierce following as Yuzu has had.  Just look at the tonnage that has to be removed from the ice after each Yuzu skate.  In an earlier post I coined the term 'Poohvalanche' to describe what follows each time Yuzu takes to the ice (in formal competition) and I think it's interesting to see the changing ratio of Poohs to bouquets over the years.  Poohs now definitely constitute the majority of what descends onto the ice at the completion of Yuzu's skates. 

 

Be that as it may, Brian's skills have definitely been challenged this season.  Things started off well enough with ACI (a disappointing silver in the end but also a new SP record), were somewhat disappointing in Moscow and then came the fall.  Even there, though, Brian had his experience with the 2014 collision in Shanghai to guide him what to do this time around.  The new element here, though, was the very long time Yuzu was not only out of competition but off the ice. 

 

Essentially Yuzu is starting a new season in PC and I think for Brian the challenge here is to keep Yuzu from having his usual early season jitters this time around.  What's going on here, I feel, is much more psychological than physical.  Brian has to get Yuzu to the point where, had the season not been interrupted, Yuzu would be peaking.  That, I think, constitutes the greatest challenge Brian has ever had as a coach.  How has he gone about doing this?  I'm not sure, but perhaps he might have had some mock competitions between Yuzu and Javi, though that would have been very risky, not so much for Yuzu's sake but for Javi's.  Javi so far has had a fairly successful season, with some disappointments in the GP series but with a resounding win at Europeans (for the sixth straight time). 

 

How else to have Yuzu cycle through an imaginary season to get himself not only into competitive mode but peaking mode?  I cannot say.  I'm sure that Yuzu and his team now know who the major challengers will be in PC.  At the season's beginning I thought Shoma would be the greatest danger for a repeat gold for Yuzu, but now I feel strongly it's going to be Nathan, who has had a very good season this year and can fairly be seen as the dominant men's skater this time around.  I only hope that Nathan has peaked too soon, but it's very likely his coach has seen the same danger, thus explaining Nathan's non-appearance at FCC.  He wants Nathan's focus to be entirely on PC. 

 

Perhaps Brian has basically concluded that there is no contrivance he could utilize to get Yuzu in psychological shape for what's coming up.  I know one issue he's having to deal with must be Yuzu's desire to load his FS with quads, since Nathan's got five quads in his FS.  Brian should simply point out (probably repeatedly) the SP Yuzu skated at ACI, where because of some knee issues then he 'dumbed down' his program yet still managed to set a new SP record, the point here being that Yuzu should not be blinded by the number of quads.  As Johnny Weir pointed out one time, with Yuzu  it's 'not just the quads but the quality of the quads' Yuzu performs. 

 

The thing is, as Brian probably points out, Yuzu's competitive edge is in the 'completeness' of his skating skills and that's probably the argument Brian is using to have Yuzu go easy on the quads and simply work for perfection in every aspect of his performance.  That's what has consistently worked for him in the past.  Just look at the records Yuzu just keeps setting and resetting.  It's not just the quads that are getting those records and everyone should recognize that the last time anybody else has broken a Yuzu-set record was way back in 2013 when Patrick broke Yuzu's record in the SP, but only to have Yuzu reclaim the record two weeks later.  Ever since then it's been Yuzu's name only in the record books.  He owns the record books and he does so because he has consistently high PCS scores and high GOEs on the spins, the step sequences and all the other elements that make for high TES scores.  There's where Yuzu's advantage is and that's what Brian has to do to get Yuzu ready to strut his stuff in PC. 

 

I think however the best way to get Yuzu to skate at peak ability come PC is to have Yuzu skate against himself and not some other competitor.  As one of the British Eurosport commentators remarked when Yuzu was in the process of breaking for the second time in two weeks the SP, FS and combined records, 'it's no longer the competition but the program itself' that was driving Yuzu onward.  Johnny Weir on another occasion remarked about Yuzu, 'he's skating against himself - What's harder than that?'  Nothing is harder because Yuzu himself is the greatest competitive challenge he'll ever have to face.  If Yuzu skates against himself in PC the gold will be his.  For Brian the best way to have Yuzu achieve that mental stance is to cocoon him as much as possible from the outside world, the media especially.  Yuzu right now is a caterpillar in a cocoon ready to break out and one should remember that a newborn butterfly is always at its most beautiful just after its emergence, when the elements have not yet had a chance to batter it about.  The challenge here is to have the Yuzu butterfly emerging on the Olympic ice for all the world to see its unfolding splendors.