General Yuzuru Chat

[4Nessie]

3 minutes ago, Sammie said:

Yes it is a 3lz2T. 

 

You know what I used to do when I first start learning his jumps and layouts? I look at his protocols that is on the first post of this thread and kinda analyze trying to learn what jump he is doing and where  it been soo helpful to me to look at the protocols 

I love you Planet Hanyu 

 

Oh, I love it here! 

I was thinking about finding the layout, but gave up, because I thought that 2011 is a long time ago and it won't be online anymore. Thank you all for your advice. 

[rockstaryuzu]

1 hour ago, makebelieveup said:

Aww Yuzu must be disappointeddd. I wonder if having Plu-san be in the audience would give him more fuel. 

 

Off topic: 

Since we had many discussions previously about how great Yuzu is as a skater and person -- his abililty to overcome obstacles and withstand pressure. But if the forum allows, I would like to know what you guys perceive as his weakness(es) as a skater? I wouldnt say he has no weakness as a skater. I also dont think this is to criticize him in any form. After all, Yuzu himself said there are two Yuzus: strong Yuzuru and weak Yuzuru. He also said weakness is an opportunity to be stronger.

 

So with that being said, based on our perception of him from the limited resources, is there anything to his skating or approach to skating you think he might need improvement on or you would like to see differently from him? If you cant find any now, was there any in the past that you think he had improved upon? It will be interesting to see the different perspectives because maybe one person might think such and such is a weakness but other sees it as a strength i.e. when I was a new fan I never thought stamina was his problem since I mostly watched his clean skate. But when I watched his fre skates esp prior to training with Brian, it was so clear. Clearly he's improved tremendously since and from what I've seen from short program, he carries the energy from begininng to end the best. But rather than stamina being a weakness, since it's primarily affected by his asthma, I would say his ability to maintain his fuel between programs in many competitions. I feel like he always needed that pressure from either his results or time to hit his potential. So if he had a poor SP, he will try anything to win in the FP and in the whole competition. But if he had a super high SP, he lost focus in the FP.

 

I think he is the type who works most effectively under pressure, and I learn in the past, this type of people produce more creative results. So I can still see it as a strength and since Yuzu still gets the results with what he does, I cant say he HAS to do things differently. But I know Yuzu is also aware of this, thats why he's always emphasized on skating clean as his goal and getting that resounding win.

 

 

edit: But the silver lining in this is since he always needed something to push him, there will always be something to push him in his competitive career. and this is how he keeps himself motivated. How he stays on top for so long and will continue. In the past, it was Javi's Quad Sal, Patrick's skating skills, and then Boyang's lutz.  Now we have 4A 

 

Certainly I can see how he's improved over the years as a skater. Go back and compare PW to LGC or even PC Ballade and you can see how his skating has become more fluid and his programs more complex over time.

 

But rather than his skating per se, I think Yuzu's biggest weakness for his competition programs lies in his tendency to get attached to certain things. He has his 'darlings' - the side lunge, the hydroblade, the pancake spin, the bielman and the Ina Bauer - that he likes to put into every single program. Likewise, his taste slants strongly in a certain direction in terms of music and costuming. Any time he's done something different in that regard, it's usually been at someone else's suggestion. So if there is an area where he can still improve, I'd say it's that - to keep trying new things and to recognize when the old favorites aren't going to serve him well. 

 

That's not to say I want to see him drop old favorites entirely. I just would like for him to realize that not every single competition program needs all the tricks in his bag in it.

[Sammie]

It begins 

[WinForPooh]

His 3Lz issue is linked to both how many quads he does - therefore stamina - and maybe when he was training 4Lz but since he's a cryptid who doesn't really tell us when he started training a certain jump until much later, we can only speculate on that, I guess. Mostly though, I think he puts his 3Lz last because it's his most reliable high value regular triple, he can usually land it even if his axis is tilted because his stamina is about ready to give up. So I don't think it's his 3Lz that's the issue, it's mostly because adding more quads to his programmes is more of a physical and mental drain. If he put it where his 3F usually is, it would probably be gorgeous now, too. That he can land it even when his axis is wonky is a good indication of how reliable it usually is for him. 

 

The only real weakness I think Yuzu has is that it takes a long time for his new jumps to stabilise in competition even if he's tossing them out in practice at TCC like it's nothing. Like his 4Lz, we know that last year's media day, he did a gorgeous 4Lz-3T(rippon). But CoR practice? We were having kittens over here because he couldn't control it properly. He landed one beautifully like he probably did back in TCC every other day but the rest had such a lean! I was burning sage to banish the tilted axis. His 4Lo was perfect in itself by the time he put it in programme but he wobbled it on landing after that first time. His 4S was brilliant in practice but in competition? Not so great for a long time. When he first comboed his 4S with the 3T, we literally nicknamed it the combo of doom. 

 

So now, newer satellites can join me in freaking out even more about Nessie.  

[Xen]

I think to a degree, Yuzu's weakness is perhaps tunnel vision. 

Yes, that tunnel vision is "dedication" to a goal, and it's what has helped drive him to where he is today. But sometimes, it is also a weakness, because he won't compromise even if logically, it is more practical to do so (and even when he might not lose as much as he thought). 

[makebelieveup]

6 minutes ago, Xen said:

I think to a degree, Yuzu's weakness is perhaps tunnel vision. 

Yes, that tunnel vision is "dedication" to a goal, and it's what has helped drive him to where he is today. But sometimes, it is also a weakness, because he won't compromise even if logically, it is more practical to do so (and even when he might not lose as much as he thought). 

 

that made me think even if he were able to land a Quad Axel on day, would that be enough to retire? I remember he said his teacher or himself wanted to see him jump Quad Axel and quints. I wonder if he could really sit tight when he retired. or maybe he would retire and then right around Beijing 2022 unretired 

[rockstaryuzu]

18 minutes ago, WinForPooh said:

 

 

 

So now, newer satellites can join me in freaking out even more about Nessie.  

About that: the risks from having an instability in it are so high, that even once Yuzu debuts it in competition, I'm guessing that he probably will only attempt it when all the stars align to give a good landing. We'll probably see a LOT of popped jumps once 4A is a reality.

[makebelieveup]

oops double posted 

[WinForPooh]

8 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

About that: the risks from having an instability in it are so high, that even once Yuzu debuts it in competition, I'm guessing that he probably will only attempt it when all the stars align. 

 

I really can't say. Usually, he does better when his layout is fixed for the season. Switching jumps in and out isn't something that works all that well for him usually. Like ACI FS last year, he tried to put triples instead of quads for his first couple of jumps in his free skate and he bombed the whole thing even if the layout technically would've been much easier, something he could do without a second thought. I guess that's the drawback to having a really intricate programme where every jump has actual choreography going into it! I've no idea how he'd do if he switched Nessie in and out of his layout after he puts it in. PC changed a lot about him, he had to make a lot of compromises and sacrifices. A lot might have changed in how he approaches his skates now. 

 

ETA: The only times I can think of when he did switch his layout around has been when he couldn't execute original planned layout because of injury. 

[Paskud]

33 minutes ago, makebelieveup said:

 

that made me think even if he were able to land a Quad Axel on day, would that be enough to retire? I remember he said his teacher or himself wanted to see him jump Quad Axel and quints. I wonder if he could really sit tight when he retired. or maybe he would retire and then right around Beijing 2022 unretired 

Who knows? Yuzuru changes his mind about retiring every single off-season. 

[sallycinnamon]

1 hour ago, 4Nessie said:

 

Oh, I love it here! 

I was thinking about finding the layout, but gave up, because I thought that 2011 is a long time ago and it won't be online anymore. Thank you all for your advice. 

 

You can find the protocols on ISU's site until season 2013/2014 on this link, but if you simply type "X competition X year isuresults" in google, you'll find all protocols until 2003 and it's faster than to search for it on ISU's page (is it just me or searching on ISU's site or in general, finding something there is a bit difficult...? )

[4Nessie]

5 minutes ago, sallycinnamon said:

 

You can find the protocols on ISU's site until season 2013/2014 on this link, but if you simply type "X competition X year isuresults" in google, you'll find all protocols until 2003 and it's faster than to search for it on ISU's page (is it just me or searching on ISU's site or in general, finding something there is a bit difficult...? )

 

Yeah, I was being lazy. 

And true, the ISU site is terrible when you need to find something.

[yuzuangel]

2 hours ago, Hydroblade said:

It's some sort of mental block, i guess. I don't know where the curse of the 2nd began but satellites who have been orbiting around for a while now might enlighten us but yeah, he usually doesn't perform as well if he's skating second. IIRC skating first or last in his group is where he's had the best results.

Second to last is his favorite. Followed by first or last, which are okay too.

 

1 hour ago, Xen said:

I think to a degree, Yuzu's weakness is perhaps tunnel vision. 

Yes, that tunnel vision is "dedication" to a goal, and it's what has helped drive him to where he is today. But sometimes, it is also a weakness, because he won't compromise even if logically, it is more practical to do so (and even when he might not lose as much as he thought). 

Yeah although tunnel vision went away a bit with maturity, and Yuzu showed a lot of maturity last season. He had to compromise on NHK and the GPF for the Olympics, and he had to compromise on defending his world title for his skating future. And if everyone's words are to be believed (fingers crossed 100x that is the case), he has healed fine from last season's injury thankfully.

 

BTW for those who say that Yuzu has injuries even though his technique is wonderful, having good technique also means that injuries heal better/faster. No one can prevent injuries that result from just bad luck and bad timing, but one-time injuries are usually easier to heal than chronic, overuse injuries  now I worry about jinxing anything and I hope hope hope to god I have not 

[KatjaThera]

3 hours ago, SparkleSalad said:

 

 

Or, or, we could have CiONTU in reverse in Malaga, Yuzu skating Origin live by net from Moscow. Then Javi can be all "Yuzu, thank you so much for taking the time to skate for my show!" And Yuzu can be his bratty self and say "You're welcome, but I actually did it because I wanted Plu-sama to see me skate to this in Russia! "

 

To more serious topics, IMO, I believe Yuzu's biggest weakness is his big brain, which is also one of his greatest assets. He is very analytic and self-analytic and he uses his brain a lot. However, that sometimes results in overthinking and I think that's when things go off. I think his mistakes have little to do with technique, which I believe could be quite perfect, and a lot to do with him being able or unable to show that technique off when the time comes. The way he thinks about things in great detail is what helped him develop his technique and learn from mistakes. But it's really easy to fall into overthinking. And I think I actually saw him doing it at ACI. He was thinking a lot and seemed to end up 'obsessing', over the 4S before the SP, and over the 4Lo before the LP. I believe at times like that it'd be more important to focus on the program, the theme, the overall feeling, because if he nails that, his body will probably do the elements naturally.

 

However, last year, I think I remember he said at one point that he'd found the way to focus when it matters and that he can now do it at will. Get into the zone, basically. Pyeongchang definitely worked, especially the SP (though he was 'obsessing' over the 4S a bit then, too, if I remember correctly lol). So that makes me think, if it's true, that maybe he allows himself to focus on the 'wrong' things early in the season, because it's more important to fine-tune the elements than getting the whole program clean. But that, come the important events, he'll switch gears and show he has learned to control his mind and avoid overthinking. I guess it remains to be seen. We didn't really get to see what progresses he has made last year.

 

On the other hand, I don't really know about weaknesses... Personally, I don't think I'd be as big a fan if Yuzu were perfect day in, day out. His unpredictability is part of his charm, I think. The passion, the feelings and the mind that make you unsure of what exactly will happen, but in the same time, absolutely sure you're watching a human and not a robot. That to me is part of the magic of watching him skate.

[IULIANA]

Some cute reading, guys...