General Yuzuru Chat

[rockstaryuzu]

Found a super-interesting article talking about brain adaptations in elite athletes. They had this to say about figure skating:

 

Shutting Out the Sploshing

Defying gravity and embodying grace while balanced on two thin, steel blades is hard enough; figure skating also requires skaters to sabotage their own sense of balance. Take a triple axel, whose 1,260 degrees of rotation is already enough to make the average person dizzy. Then there are spins, with a minimum of eight rotations each. Elite skaters usually do them in combination, one after another, easily wracking up dozens of revolutions in one vertiginous blur.

All that spinning sends the tiny pools of fluid in the inner ears sloshing. This is the vestibular system, which uses the movement of this fluid to keep track of the head’s movement and maintain coordination. In figure skaters, the vestibular system is sent into such overdrive that they—and their brains—learn to ignore its signals. Figure skaters just don’t get as dizzy.

Most athletic skills require sharper, faster reflexes, but adapting to dizziness actually requires a weaker one. When your head rotates in one direction, your eyes instinctively shift in the other; this vestibulo-ocular reflex happens even in the dark and even when you’re unconscious. But sports physiologists have found that this basic reflex is weakened in figure skaters.⁷

A study in ballet dancers, also expert spinners, provides some insight into what’s going on in the brain.⁸ A group of 29 ballet dancers were spun on a chair in a dark room and asked to turn a handle in time with their perceived rotation. Unsurprisingly, their vestibulo-ocular reflexes were slower and their perceived rotations shorter. When neuroscientists peered into the dancers’ brains with MRI, they found less gray matter in the very areas of the cerebellum that get input from the vestibular system. The cerebellum is a fist-sized bundle of nerves at the nape of the neck that processes sensory feedback and uses it to fine-tune physical movements. The cerebellums of pirouetting ballet dancers and spinning figure skaters have likely adapted to ignore what is, for them, the counterproductive feeling of dizziness.

 

I'm guessing figure skaters don't see the point of the Tilt-a-Whirl ride, then...

 

The whole article can be found here and it's really, really intriguing reading: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-jocks-and-mathletes-are-alike?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

[rockstaryuzu]

1 hour ago, yumeaki said:

Prob lip balm or is it really lip gloss? I have been trying to find if anyone knows what brand he uses. The shine on his lip is too nice. I am not sure if it is the shine + his natural lip color or there’s a tint on the balm/gloss but... if anyone knows what brand he uses, msg me!!! 

I thought I saw some video of him applying a lip balm or something like it while he was waiting for the press conference to start, right after the Sendai victory parade in April 2018. It was impossible to tell what he used but he definitely quickly applied something to his lips. My guess is was a softer lip balm, maybe like EOS brand or the Japanese equivalent? Because his lips seemed just a little shiny afterward.

 

Anyway, it was part of a nearly two-hour-long live feed so finding it back is a task... nothing popped up on Youtube, but if you're looking, I recall it was right before he entered and  took the seat at the front of the room to start the presscon. The live feed cameras followed him all the way in so they caught it.

[yuzuangel]

12 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Found a super-interesting article talking about brain adaptations in elite athletes. They had this to say about figure skating:

 

Shutting Out the Sploshing

Defying gravity and embodying grace while balanced on two thin, steel blades is hard enough; figure skating also requires skaters to sabotage their own sense of balance. Take a triple axel, whose 1,260 degrees of rotation is already enough to make the average person dizzy. Then there are spins, with a minimum of eight rotations each. Elite skaters usually do them in combination, one after another, easily wracking up dozens of revolutions in one vertiginous blur.

All that spinning sends the tiny pools of fluid in the inner ears sloshing. This is the vestibular system, which uses the movement of this fluid to keep track of the head’s movement and maintain coordination. In figure skaters, the vestibular system is sent into such overdrive that they—and their brains—learn to ignore its signals. Figure skaters just don’t get as dizzy.

Most athletic skills require sharper, faster reflexes, but adapting to dizziness actually requires a weaker one. When your head rotates in one direction, your eyes instinctively shift in the other; this vestibulo-ocular reflex happens even in the dark and even when you’re unconscious. But sports physiologists have found that this basic reflex is weakened in figure skaters.⁷

A study in ballet dancers, also expert spinners, provides some insight into what’s going on in the brain.⁸ A group of 29 ballet dancers were spun on a chair in a dark room and asked to turn a handle in time with their perceived rotation. Unsurprisingly, their vestibulo-ocular reflexes were slower and their perceived rotations shorter. When neuroscientists peered into the dancers’ brains with MRI, they found less gray matter in the very areas of the cerebellum that get input from the vestibular system. The cerebellum is a fist-sized bundle of nerves at the nape of the neck that processes sensory feedback and uses it to fine-tune physical movements. The cerebellums of pirouetting ballet dancers and spinning figure skaters have likely adapted to ignore what is, for them, the counterproductive feeling of dizziness.

 

I'm guessing figure skaters don't see the point of the Tilt-a-Whirl ride, then...

 

The whole article can be found here and it's really, really intriguing reading: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-jocks-and-mathletes-are-alike?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

i'm not really sure how it works, but i don't get dizzy from a centered spin (although i don't spin nearly as fast as competitive skaters for sure), but i would get dizzy from an uncentered spin (so, maybe a tilt-a-whirl). maybe it has to also do with the centering of the spin? (also i get dizzier spinning clockwise because i'm just not used to that. i don't get dizzy from spinning counterclockwise, though.)

[rockstaryuzu]

2 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

i'm not really sure how it works, but i don't get dizzy from a centered spin (although i don't spin nearly as fast as competitive skaters for sure), but i would get dizzy from an uncentered spin (so, maybe a tilt-a-whirl). maybe it has to also do with the centering of the spin? (also i get dizzier spinning clockwise because i'm just not used to that. i don't get dizzy from spinning counterclockwise, though.)

There's something to that - if I sit on an office chair and spin it, I only get dizzy if I tilt my head back or stick it forward. If I keep it aligned with my spine, I'm okay.

[ralucutzagy]

 

New magazine cover!

[monchan]

Best selling magazine ranking & best selling of sports categories (figure skating costumes artbook #3) :

 

[Crow]

I missed the vote for Origin 

I like in the Ghana shoot when Yuzu says he is an athlete and not "talent" when someone joked about talent helping the staff hehehe Tell them Yuzu/

[peach-blossom]

12 hours ago, sallycinnamon said:

 

It's really hard to choose from all those beautiful magazines  but some that I like a lot and I could recommend:

 

- DX magazine, this is the latest issue. This magazine often has over 90% Yuzu content, great pictures too 

- Figure Skate Magazine (x), this magazine has the transcripts of Yuzu interviews from competitions, it also has great amount of Yuzu content with good quality pictures of him, and usually 2 two-sided posters

- Ice Jewels magazine (latest issue is here) is always a great choice, it has interviews with Yuzu, also very good quality pictures. Ice Jewels also releases Yuzu's season photobook every summer (it has Nobuaki Tanaka's pictures), I can highly recommend those! I also liked the PyeongChang Special Issue of Ice Jewels (no gala pictures though).

- Kiss and Cry magazine is also good (this issue has posters in it too - I managed to put the Origin poster on the wall just a day before Yuzu's program change was published on his ISU bio  . Never mind, it's a great poster:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

- This photobook is more pricey but has beautiful pictures of Yuzu from his novice season until season 2017/2018 (and it says the author is Yuzu himself?). It is one of my favourites.

- Yuzuru I and II with photos of Sunao Noto are also worth buying 

- Dancin' on the edge 2 - Yuzu'll be back is also a beautiful photobook that it is worth buying

- I haven't bought Figure Skaters magazine for a long while, some say the quality of pictures aren't that good in some of the latest issues, but it's a big magazine (A3 size I think?), with over lots of Yuzu pictures and often posters

 

Not magazines but Yuzu's autobiographies, Aoi Honoo 1 and 2 ("Blue Flame" 1 and 2) are a must They have beautiful pictures of Yuzu and contain his words from different interviews. For those who buy these books there are available translations (click here). The royalties from these book are donated to Ice Rink Sendai.  

Yume Wo Ikiru ("Live the Dream") contains Yuzu interviews from Ice Jewels Vol. 1-7 magazines (2015-2018), afterword by Yuzu + it also has beautiful pictures. 

 

Some people upload recommendations of the magazines, you can have a look and maybe you can decide which one do you like the most (here and here).

 

Anyway, we have a Magazines and Books Recommendations and Reviews thread as well, where you can read more about the topic here: 

 

 

Wow, thanks so much!  I feel ready to fearlessly go into the depths of Amazon now.

[Old Cat Lady]

12 hours ago, SitTwizzle said:

And he is not a heavily made-up top model, they chose a photo taken "on ice".
By the way, do you think he uses any make-up to compete? And for shows?

 

6 hours ago, Geo1 said:

 

At about 3:05 of this making of CM for Ghana chocolates, this exact point is being demonstrated. Yuzu is coming back to the makeup person and saying basically, “There’s no point, right? The wax has melted because of the sweat. (The makeup person interjects: “The foundation, too.”) Yes, the foundation, too. My lip (gloss) as well.”

 

 

 

 

 

Lol.  This discussion reminds me of a conversation I had with my gaming group on Friday.

 

Me: looking at Yuzu pics instead of paying attention to the game.  "He has perfect skin and he doesn't even wear any makeup"

Friend: "He at least wears eyeliner"

Me: shows first closeup of Yuzu's eyes I find. "No he doesn't.  Look"

Friend: "Okay.  But you think that's perfect skin?"

Me: "That's just the contrast on the photo."  Turns to hubby. "you've seen him in real life.  Doesn't his skin look even better in real life?"

Husband: Yes, but still convinced that he's lying about not wearing makeup.

Me: Shows friend different pictures of Yuzu.

Friend: "I see contour"

Me: "There's no way he could be wearing makeup. He sweats too much"

Husband: "There's makeup that's made to last through that"

Me: "But he's constantly wiping it off.  There's no makeup that stays on through that"

Me: shows friend another picture

Friend: "You can see the photo shopping in the neck"

Me: "No... I've seen him in real life.  His neck really is that long"

 

Husband and friends: convinced that I'm just some delusional fangurl.

Me:   How do you convince someone that a person can be naturally that beautiful? It took me over a year to accept it myself and then I was still amazed when I saw it in person.

 

 

[Flutterby]

4 hours ago, Old Cat Lady said:

 

 

 

Lol.  This discussion reminds me of a conversation I had with my gaming group on Friday.

 

Me: looking at Yuzu pics instead of paying attention to the game.  "He has perfect skin and he doesn't even wear any makeup"

Friend: "He at least wears eyeliner"

Me: shows first closeup of Yuzu's eyes I find. "No he doesn't.  Look"

Friend: "Okay.  But you think that's perfect skin?"

Me: "That's just the contrast on the photo."  Turns to hubby. "you've seen him in real life.  Doesn't his skin look even better in real life?"

Husband: Yes, but still convinced that he's lying about not wearing makeup.

Me: Shows friend different pictures of Yuzu.

Friend: "I see contour"

Me: "There's no way he could be wearing makeup. He sweats too much"

Husband: "There's makeup that's made to last through that"

Me: "But he's constantly wiping it off.  There's no makeup that stays on through that"

Me: shows friend another picture

Friend: "You can see the photo shopping in the neck"

Me: "No... I've seen him in real life.  His neck really is that long"

 

Husband and friends: convinced that I'm just some delusional fangurl.

Me:   How do you convince someone that a person can be naturally that beautiful? It took me over a year to accept it myself and then I was still amazed when I saw it in person.

 

 

Pics can be photoshopped sure but how would you photoshop live tv, like in comps?

 

He does have the very occasional blemish, but also fantastic bone structure.

[ralucutzagy]

 

 

 

 

[memae]

20 hours ago, azelais said:

I still gasp and get anxious whenever I watch his old programs too, lol. Even ones where I know he skated perfectly and broke the world record like H&L 2017.

 

The RJ fall from worlds still gets me every time lol. My poor heart seeing him fall like that </3 

[monchan]

5 hours ago, Old Cat Lady said:

 

 

 

Lol.  This discussion reminds me of a conversation I had with my gaming group on Friday.

 

Me: looking at Yuzu pics instead of paying attention to the game.  "He has perfect skin and he doesn't even wear any makeup"

Friend: "He at least wears eyeliner"

Me: shows first closeup of Yuzu's eyes I find. "No he doesn't.  Look"

Friend: "Okay.  But you think that's perfect skin?"

Me: "That's just the contrast on the photo."  Turns to hubby. "you've seen him in real life.  Doesn't his skin look even better in real life?"

Husband: Yes, but still convinced that he's lying about not wearing makeup.

Me: Shows friend different pictures of Yuzu.

Friend: "I see contour"

Me: "There's no way he could be wearing makeup. He sweats too much"

Husband: "There's makeup that's made to last through that"

Me: "But he's constantly wiping it off.  There's no makeup that stays on through that"

Me: shows friend another picture

Friend: "You can see the photo shopping in the neck"

Me: "No... I've seen him in real life.  His neck really is that long"

 

Husband and friends: convinced that I'm just some delusional fangurl.

Me:   How do you convince someone that a person can be naturally that beautiful? It took me over a year to accept it myself and then I was still amazed when I saw it in person.

Lollll photoshop with the neck im ded . But yeah seems like realistic reaction, my same thought when i first saw him too ("that skin must be wonder work of lighting and some touch-up", "i must find other pics that look more real" ). He looked the same everywhere it kinda drove me crazy:))

[rockstaryuzu]

9 hours ago, Old Cat Lady said:

 

 

 

Lol.  This discussion reminds me of a conversation I had with my gaming group on Friday.

 

Me: looking at Yuzu pics instead of paying attention to the game.  "He has perfect skin and he doesn't even wear any makeup"

Friend: "He at least wears eyeliner"

Me: shows first closeup of Yuzu's eyes I find. "No he doesn't.  Look"

Friend: "Okay.  But you think that's perfect skin?"

Me: "That's just the contrast on the photo."  Turns to hubby. "you've seen him in real life.  Doesn't his skin look even better in real life?"

Husband: Yes, but still convinced that he's lying about not wearing makeup.

Me: Shows friend different pictures of Yuzu.

Friend: "I see contour"

Me: "There's no way he could be wearing makeup. He sweats too much"

Husband: "There's makeup that's made to last through that"

Me: "But he's constantly wiping it off.  There's no makeup that stays on through that"

Me: shows friend another picture

Friend: "You can see the photo shopping in the neck"

Me: "No... I've seen him in real life.  His neck really is that long"

 

Husband and friends: convinced that I'm just some delusional fangurl.

Me:   How do you convince someone that a person can be naturally that beautiful? It took me over a year to accept it myself and then I was still amazed when I saw it in person.

 

 

Your hubby is a joy forever...He's seen Yuzu skate in person and still thinks it's makeup? LOL. You need to bring him to another competition so he can verify for himself. 

[yuzuangel]

I made a Yuzu programs bracket too 

(here is part 2)

Please vote!