General Yuzuru Chat

[rubyblue]

Baby Momoka fangirling:

 

[SuzyQ]

This might be better to be posted to Costume thread or J-Nats, or Team Japan thread, but anyway, Satomi Ito is really a genius.

Her costumes are so gorgeous. 

 

 

[glilikoi]

2 hours ago, rockstaryuzu said:

 

Someone mentioned in one of these posts that Yuzu's first coach used to give him exercises to improve his stamina like skating continuously for an hour...and that's probably the way for a skater to build that base-level stamina. Doesn't sound like much fun. Round and round in ovals for an hour...almost as bad as up and down the pool following the black line on the bottom of the lane. 

 

 

Yeah, I mentioned that after watching the Yuzu-centric episode of 'Future of Tohoku' from 2010 a few days ago. That has a lot of content about Yuzu's stamina-training in preparation for his first senior season. It's not on any streaming sites as far as I know, but it's available to download from Nonchan's site here in case anyone else is interested - and I wanted to mention it again because I really recommend it. 

 

I had never seen this doc before and thought it was very interesting, especially the way Yuzu talks about how important his hometown is to him and how he wants to give back to it if he becomes successful. It feels very poignant considering that this was before 3/11 and after that, Yuzu's relationship with Sendai/Tohoku has become even stronger in that way. In general, I think this documentary really shows that Yuzu's motivations and the things he wants to achieve with his skating haven't really changed that much, he seemed like a person of high integrity then and still does now.

[Veveco]

Which country would score Yuzu best? Choose you fighter! 

 

And obviously:

 

[airi]

4 hours ago, Veveco said:

Which country would score Yuzu best? Choose you fighter! 

 

And obviously:

 

This is so bad and so wonderful at the same time

[EisElle]

On 12/27/2019 at 7:49 PM, kiches said:

Honestly I don't quite get the stamina comments I see lately, with the exception of Nationals where he was clearly dealing with his physical condition (his breathing was quite heavy even after the SP, this was unusual and had me quite worried for the free).

 

Yuzu looked stronger after his free at ACI and SCI than he's ever been that early in the season doing a 4 quad free. At the GPF he had a 5 quad free skate for the first time, and I believe him when he says he only practiced that layout once before the actual free skate and he did far better with it than I expected. He was visibly tired at the end because that skate took a lot out of him, but I think it had more to do with it being an unfamiliar layout that he pieced together within 2 days and he probably didn't practice when/how to breathe doing this particular layout. In the SP, with exception of the combo, everything was the highest quality we'd seen so far in the season. I think once he familiarizes himself with whatever he wants his final layouts to be he'll be fine. These skaters have to time the peaking/come down throughout the season and Yuzu has had a grueling set of 3 competitions in the span of 5 weeks where he chose to travel back to Canada in between (I believe he's stayed in Japan in the past, and usually nationals is one week later than it was this year). The way I see it, Yuzu was at peak condition at the GPF and was clearly coming down from that by the time Nationals approached. Luckily 4CC and Worlds he just has to focus on peaking for one competition at a time and he has more time to come down and peak again.

x1000

 

Even just comparing ACI18 and 19, Yuzu was much less winded after Origin this season. At gpf he was obviously tired after jumping 5 quads, including *HIS* 4Lz, 4Lo and two backloaded quad combos...which is...crazy (not even Nate backloads 4Teu3F and when he backloads 2 quads one is a solo quad...and he doesn't have nor the richness in tr nor as big jumps as Yuzu... Nate's jump technique and programs are... "fit for purpose", I guess, in the current scoring scene get max benefits/cost)

At Nats Yuzuru had been looking a bit out of of it in practice already. And yes, he had cleaner rt in fs practice compared to comp, but he skips lots of skating stuff in RT. Plus, he had been much more solid in practices in other comps (heck even in Turin at friggin 7am, when so many skaters were just skipping jumps, Yuzu did his usual drill and only jump that eluded him was 4Lz. In RT, skipped lz aside, he had landed everything and pretty nicely too... if you compare his RT at JNats he was much rougher). I found it unusual that he practiced not one but TWO spins in his FS rt at JNats. While he has, sometimes, dpinned in his RT too, and jokes about Yuzu (not)practicing spins aside, in hindsight I wonder if he was checking how well he could endure those spins (I am not sure if I remember well, but I think he said they can't really take a breath while spinning? So maybe he needed to check how long he could endure. This of course is entirely my speculation). Also the way his breath sounded while he was walking away from k&c sounded worrying to me

Anyway, hopefully his condition will be better st next comps. It's clear his dysmina has been improving A LOT these past years and I agree he looked in great condition this season up to gpf. Let's not forget that he still has the most complicated FS: BV among the highest (+more backloading) AND the most complicated (by far) among the multi-quadding skaters. No wonder he needs more stamina (without even taking into account his asthma)

 

 

On 12/27/2019 at 9:35 PM, glilikoi said:

Yeah, that's exactly what I think as well. It's just that most people (non-fanyus) aren't aware that he's asthmatic, so when he (or his team) doesn't say anything about it, people start saying his stamina is getting worse, when that's not the case. I do understand why he wouldn't say anything about it, even after the competition, because he thinks it would be an excuse. But I think it would help with the naysayers. Of course people might still say that the reason he's struggling with asthma is that he's too tired, but most people would probably just accept that it was a short-term issue and doesn't mean his stamina has deteriorated. 

 

To be honest though, I think the JP media has been a lot nicer than I thought. Several articles in Japan have pointed out his exhausting schedule, and Sano-sensei even defended him on TV. If the 'backlash' after his FS would have been worse, I would feel even more strongly that he (or Brian) should have mentioned possible health issues instead of just blaming everything on Yuzu's 'weakness' (which is not true). Now I think it's okay, but I still wish Yuzu didn't always feel so strongly that he needs to hide vulnerabilities.

But I understand that's just the kind of person he is, and there's nothing we can do about it, and that's why being a fanyu is suffering 

Being fanyu is extremely rewarding but also not for faint-hearted. Well, in the end we are all (still)here because he is worth it, but knowing or suspecting he is unwell and suffering in silence really makes you feel powerless  but I like to remember he still has people close to him (who must be so strong, blessed them, for going through everything by Yuzu's side) people he trusts and with whom he can share what he hides from the public. Yuzuru has his pride as a competitor and he doesn't want to receive pity, doesn't make excuses. While it makes me want to scream in frustration because, heck, some things are just *facts*, not excuses, I also know that this, too, is integral part of who he is (and why he has come so far)

 

thank you @glilikoi for the translations and links

 

 

23 hours ago, memae said:

That said, swimming is great for asthma (most of the time) and it's low impact. Maybe Yuzuru should consider hitting the pool.

Iirc Anastasia Tarakanova said that she had picked swimming for some breathing-related illness she had (honestly can't remember if it was asthma too). A pity Yuzu didn't learn(?) when he was smol LOL probably it's harder for him to "trust" liquid water

(I know he said he would sink and I understand his body is..unfit to float given the high density of muscles and virtually absent fat, but swimmers are super fit too, so I am guessing it might be more a matter of learning the right coordination to stay afloat...)

Now I think about it, improving my asthma might have been one of the reasons why I picked swimming as a sport to practice (tho I have never swum competitively)

 

RE: what kind of training Yuxu might do to increase his stamina, I guess a lot of it will happen off ice. He only lists on ice hours and we know he must go for quality training (otherwise his body couldn't recover) so tons of runthrough and repetitions on ice to gain consistency aren't really something his body can afford, but thus far all the muscle mass he put on and improved stamina compared toneven one year ago show he has been taking care of that part of his training too

I think on ice the best way to fo stamina training would be lots lots of stroking on deep edges (Yuzuru said he *could* skate like Patrick but took a lot of energy), but again, with the limited ice time I am not sure how much of that he does per week

 

6 hours ago, SuzyQ said:

This might be better to be posted to Costume thread or J-Nats, or Team Japan thread, but anyway, Satomi Ito is really a genius.

Her costumes are so gorgeous. 

 

 

She is!

She is underrated imo, since not many outside of TeamJapan fans know much about her and her works.

(This makes me wanna throw some snark at one overrated designer who can just slap some white on a UA and call it a daythe amount of effort, study, dedication and respect for the program, and the research for new efficient solutions to make beautiful pieces of art that still meet the requirements of safety, lightness and comfort skaters need is...remarkably different)

 

 

 

Does anyone know when the MOI extended broadcast is supposed to air?

[Ladysci]

1 hour ago, LadyLou said:

Does anyone know when the MOI extended broadcast is supposed to air?

As of this morning, my broadcast schedule says 7-8:55 pm (Japan time) BS Fuji, 29 Dec for the longer MOI broadcast. 

[cronkite]

1 hour ago, LadyLou said:

Does anyone know when the MOI extended broadcast is supposed to air?

 

1)JPN Nat the highlights and backstage scenes 
BS fuji 17:00-18:55 (JST)

 

2)MOI extended version
BS fuji 19:00-20:55 (JST)
 
To the best of my memory, the highlights often include "not-yet-aired" scenes. Kinda afraid it's more about Dai's "last competition" though. Either way I'm looking forward to it.

[Ladysci]

11 minutes ago, cronkite said:

To the best of my memory, the highlights often include "not-yet-aired" scenes. Kinda afraid it's more about Dai's "last competition" though. Either way I'm looking forward to it.

Gosh, forgot all about the highlights! Will record and watch only the ‘important’ portions 

[EisElle]

Thank you @Ladysci @cronkite🙏

[Glory]

Just saw this I might be late to the party but Yuzuru's Merry Christmas is too sweet!!

 

[rockstaryuzu]

So, have to share this: I'm out with friends for drinks and somehow the conversation has turned to Hanyu. Clearly something is wrong with my friends - I have shown them Masquerade AND H&L '17 and they still think I'm the crazy one. 

[memae]

8 hours ago, LadyLou said:

 

Iirc Anastasia Tarakanova said that she had picked swimming for some breathing-related illness she had (honestly can't remember if it was asthma too). A pity Yuzu didn't learn(?) when he was smol LOL probably it's harder for him to "trust" liquid water

(I know he said he would sink and I understand his body is..unfit to float given the high density of muscles and virtually absent fat, but swimmers are super fit too, so I am guessing it might be more a matter of learning the right coordination to stay afloat...)

Now I think about it, improving my asthma might have been one of the reasons why I picked swimming as a sport to practice (tho I have never swum competitively)

 

It's definitely a coordination thing. I taught swimming for years too and was teaching 2 year olds to roll onto their backs and float and call out for help. (I'll add here that the older kids get without knowing how to swim the harder it is to teach them because they get so scared of the water). Floating looks like someone is just completely sedentary in the water but there's a bit of adjusting of your body and a bit of movement to stay afloat that just becomes automatic once you know how to do it. I didn't have a speck of fat on me at one time or another as a teenager but could still 'float'.

 

As for asthma, my brother had terrible asthma as a little kid and swimming improved it a lot. His asthma started to play up again as an adult when he stopped swimming. 

 

I know Sasha Cohen swam for cross-training. I wouldn't be surprised if other skaters do too, simply because it's virtually a no-impact alternative to running, etc, and gives their knees and ankles a break while building stamina. You'd be so peeved as a skater if you rolled your ankle going for a jog after everything it withstands on the ice.  

[memae]

8 hours ago, LadyLou said:

While he has, sometimes, dpinned in his RT too, and jokes about Yuzu (not)practicing spins aside, in hindsight I wonder if he was checking how well he could endure those spins (I am not sure if I remember well, but I think he said they can't really take a breath while spinning? So maybe he needed to check how long he could endure. This of course is entirely my speculation).

 

 

A pretty good speculation now that I remember the monitor he was wearing for his asthma. 

[Silver]

12 minutes ago, memae said:

It's definitely a coordination thing. I taught swimming for years too and was teaching 2 year olds to roll onto their backs and float and call out for help. (I'll add here that the older kids get without knowing how to swim the harder it is to teach them because they get so scared of the water). Floating looks like someone is just completely sedentary in the water but there's a bit of adjusting of your body and a bit of movement to stay afloat that just becomes automatic once you know how to do it. I didn't have a speck of fat on me at one time or another as a teenager but could still 'float'.

Welp, that explains it! I went to swim class for two years when I was a teen and learned “how to swim” but never got down the “how to float” part. I was always impressively uncoordinated. 

(Somehow, knowing Yuzu also can’t swim makes me feel slightly better about myself lol)