General Yuzuru Chat

[KatjaThera]

I kind of get why posture is considered important, but it never bothered me... I actually find that flexibility to be part of Yuzu's charm and a display of the passion he puts into skating. Keeping a straight back seems less important to me... But I get how that's subjective

[WinForPooh]

15 minutes ago, Veveco said:

I have no idea about traditional skating standards, but in dance there is a clear distinction between posture and the angle of the body. Good posture is more about the connection between head, shoulder, upper back/torso and hip placement to each other. The body should be "open", not slouched/turned in or arched. You can have a perfect posture with a torso at an angle or even parallel to the ground though. You don't have to be vertical all the time (in fact if you do, you are waaaay too stiff - like I tend to be ). So this talk about "balletic posture" always confuses me quite a bit. Either standards of posture are different in skating (are they?) or some of these commentaries by so-called experts are just misleading. In my humble opinion, Yuzuru's posture is pretty fine. If I want to nitpick, he could raise his chin a bit more, but that's about it as far as I am concerned. 

 

I see the bend over thing more with ladies. And that's a problem with skating skills for many of them - they work too hard to get speed with their crossovers, so they bend at the waist to compensate. We see, for example, Alina's and Bradie's broken line as bad posture but honestly I think if they had more efficient crossovers, it would kind of automatically get better. Yuzu used to slouch when he was running out of steam, like the second half of R+J2 especially makes it pretty obvious. When he has the energy, his posture is fine. 

[Flutterby]

25 minutes ago, Bilge said:

....to me stiff hands and arms are much bigger turn off than not pointed toes and down shoulders (etude photo is beautiful chopin is gorgeous, his position is firm but hards are so relaxed and soft) 

Yes that would be a pet peeve of mine as well. I like Yuzu's graceful flowing arms.

 

Unfortunately in the west, particularly in the US, stiff arms seems to be the norm. (certainly in the past). It's why you'll hear Dick Button comment about a skater's  "noodle" or "spaghetti" arms, as if flowing arms are a mistake. In his day the arms were always stiff. That was the style, but it just looks so uncomfortable to me.

 

I think the curve of the arms and the upper body is a much better complement to the curves one makes on the ice.

[Paskud]

Yuzuru wouldn't be able to skate Notte Stellata without very good posture. Etiude and Romeo were 7-8 years ago.

[Flutterby]

3 hours ago, Shimmering said:

My only experience with TSL was their talk about underrotations and prerotations (don't remember details, sorry). I got to the point where the guy they interviewed said that rewatching jump takeoffs for prerotations would ruin the spirit of the sport, with the hosts nodding in agreement, and I switched it off. I mean, sure, videos of questionable offsides in soccer, snapshots of the ball on the line in tennis, photofinish in running competitions - abolish them all, cause that would ruin the spirit 

 

I'm preaching to the converted here obviously, but FS wants to be viewed as a technical based sport, in addition to the artistry. We want specific points to be assigned to specific elements. Rewatching would help. Especially, as i take it, judges usually only see one angle of an element which may be misleading.

 

I think the reason ISU resists this is because they think it will add to judging time. But if we can get a set up where computers accurately  determine such things as pre-R and UR I think it would help considerably.

[ralucutzagy]

Sleeping Zuzu... cute! 

[Flutterby]

33 minutes ago, WinForPooh said:

 Yuzu used to slouch when he was running out of steam, like the second half of R+J2 especially makes it pretty obvious. When he has the energy, his posture is fine. 

Yuzu's posture has greatly improved. Occasionally it drops when he's tired, but that's true for everyone. 

 

The only problem I see is that he will still occasionally drop character (and posture) when a performance isn't going well and so telegraphs his frustration. But that usually only lasts for a second or two before he regroups. 

[wpisces]

1 hour ago, Veveco said:

If I want to nitpick, he could raise his chin a bit more,

This and more relaxed shoulders and neck would help his postures imo. 

[Marte]

I have just catch up with almost 50 pages of post, I haven't been here for four days and I think I'm glad I missed nasty people saying unpleasant things. But it seems that in the meantime strange interviews have been released??? and the blog

(some pictures will give me nightmares and who mentioned Carmen as music for next year????)

[Flutterby]

6 hours ago, rockstaryuzu said:

 I have a friend who likes figure skating almost as much as I do,  and she prefers Javi over Yuzu because she thinks he moves better. Meanwhile, in my eyes, Javi is beautiful but a little stiff. 

 

I actually really like Javi's style as well. It's very different from Yuzu's style to be sure, but it has its own appeal.  I'd say Javi tends to be more character driven (which can be more relatable for the casual viewer) and he projects outward to the audience. Whereas Yuzu is more abstract and internalized. (at least in competitive programs, as opposed to his EX)

 

On related note, I admire the fact that TCC doesn't try to force skaters to fit to one particular model or to be cookie cutter copies of each other. I like seeing different styles.

[micaelis]

On 3/31/2019 at 8:32 AM, Moria Polonius said:

Lol, Scott Hamilton.

 

From what I heard, the dude's practically homophobic - excuse me for calling a spade a spade - and probably can't stand the fact that the most accomplished skater in the modern era, lauded as the best of all time and arguably the focus of the greatest adoration a figure skater has ever experienced, is one that doesn't represent and doesn't give a flying f**** about the stereotypical masculinity.

Notions of masculinity are essentially culture-based.  There is no universal notion of what comprises a man.  In the 18th century it was not deemed unmasculine if a man shed tears when experiencing an excess of emotion of any sort so that one could talk of tears of joy (we've see those from Yuzu on several occasions), for instance.  The same goes for clothing styles.  In earlier centuries men were quite often as gaudily dressed as the ladies and even today in Japan a man is not seen as effeminate if he is wearing an extremely colorful kimono and the traditional Japanese tattoo is actually an attempt to engrave a kimono on a person's body.  American notions of masculinity are actually many, depending on which part of the populace one is examining.  On one end is the red-neck 'good ol' boy' image predominating in the more rural parts of the country and on the other hand the notion of the cultured gentleman found in the cities and amongst the highly-educated.  There are many variants between those two extremes.  What we see, however, is the fact that notions of masculinity are generated by specific cultures and sub-cultures and are not genetically generated. 

 

As far as Yuzu goes, going by his behavior through the years, I don't think he's all that sexually-motivated.  He's never had a girlfriend, and his friendship with the Spanishly-straight Javi is one that is more of the sort that arises between fellow-soldiers than one erotically-generated.  What we can say about Yuzu is that he wears his emotions on his sleeve.  He doesn't mask them and while he can be the playful fellow we saw in those vids of him and others just playing around after practicing for a gala performance, he can also be the dignified young man we saw when he was presented with the People's Honor award.  That was a situation where he realized the truly great honor being bestowed on him.  He acted accordingly and without artifice.  He WAS the dignified young man at that ceremony.  It wasn't a mask put on for the occasion.

 

So, yes, Yuzu really doesn't seem to orient his likes and dislikes around notions of masculinity.  Just look at his admiration for the obviously heterosexual Eugenie Plushenko and the very obviously gay Johnny Weir.  The issue for Yuzu is a non-issue and the Scott Hamiltons of the world will just have to live with that.

[Marte]

6 minutes ago, Flutterby said:

 

I actually really like Javi's style as well. It's very different from Yuzu's style to be sure, but it has its own appeal.  I'd say Javi tends to be more character driven (which can be more relatable for the casual viewer) and he projects outward to the audience. Whereas Yuzu is more abstract and internalized. (at least in competitive programs, as opposed to his EX)

 

On related note, I admire the fact that TCC doesn't try to force skaters to fit to one particular model or to be cookie cutter copies of each other. I like seeing different styles.

 

I agree with you, somehow Yuzu's style is more difficult for the casual public to understand, for me Seimei is his most public-friendly program (POTO and RJ1 too).

If I remember correctly Robin Cousins talked about introversion in Yuzu programs, in this aspect I think that he is an innovator in the interpretation of certain music, he is special for this too. And he somehow has a way of moving that is so free in comparison to others, when in reality he has so much control, it's beautiful.

[Flutterby]

10 hours ago, Vulnavia said:

It reminds me of a comment I saw from a Nathan fan recently who was trying to argue that Nathan doing empty programs with a million crossovers was an artistic choice and that "his crossovers are part of his artistry". Like the skating version of a minimalist painter, I guess 

 

I saw a comment like that too, possibly the same one. That someone preferred the simpler  jumps-focused program without the transitions because too many transitions makes it looks busy or cluttered, but then a skater shouldn't get points for that stuff that isn't there.

 

EDIT: To me, crossovers are the on-ice equivalent of walking. So if you went to the ballet, and the guys spent most of time just walking back and forth across the stage, would it still be considered dance? 

[sophiang]

13小時前, rockstaryuzu說:

Suddenly I'm jealous of everyone who  lives in Hong Kong

i am the lucky one! and i am going to take picture there with my friend next week!

[Flutterby]

51 minutes ago, Marte said:

 

I agree with you, somehow Yuzu's style is more difficult for the casual public to understand, for me Seimei is his most public-friendly program (POTO and RJ1 too).

 

I love Semei, but I also know I enjoyed it a lot more after seeing the movies and hearing the music in context, but how many Westerners would have seen those movies, especially before Yuzu skated to the music?

 

Like would you know Javi was doing a drunken pirate if not for the popularity of the POTC movies? Or would you think he was just being sloppy? Chaplin - another well known crowd friendly character that the casual viewing public can grab hold of.

 

So while Yuzu may be more unique and innovative, Javi can be easier for the audience to grasp. And judges are after all members of the audience.

 

(on a side note, I've now been converted to a huge fan of Nomura Mansai and Ito Hideaki. Thank you, Yuzu)