General Yuzuru Chat

[Geo1]

Totally off-topic, but I came across one of Mark Twain's quotes:

 

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.

 

Yuzuru Hanyu is one of the very rare people who knows why he was born:

 

"I was born to skate."

[yumeaki]

Maybe a bit off topic but I happened to see this and thought of all those skaters stuck at home...

 

https://www.gif-vif.com/gifs/Flip-flop-spin

 

yuzu, are you doing this?

 

[sweetwater]

4 hours ago, MatchaBeans said:

 

Are you referring to this? 

 

In this video, from 06:45. They were talking about Boyang's arms position for his textbook 4Lutz - that the arms are not crossed, probably a technique borrowed from Chinese divers, to increase rotational speed.

 

 

 

Yuzu used to have different arm positions for different jumps when he was younger. I only realised this when I watched some of his old programs when he first entered Seniors. There was this 3Lz+2T he did, where his arms were crossed in 3Lz and then in the 2T his hands were on his hips for a more open position lol. Now his doubles are always rippon, his triples have the same air position as his quads, i.e. pic below. I personally find his air position very aesthetically pleasing, even if that was not the intention 

 

   Cr: gettyimages

Thank you for sharing the video! I think I've read the transcript of this video but I didn't know they gave a detailed analysis of these skaters' techniques showing such a super slow-motion video. I envy Italian fans.

 

By the way, I think the arm position for 2T in Zigeunerweisen is a choreography because it is the only program in which he jumped 2T with his hands on his hip, and he jumped 2T with normal arm position when he popped the 3Lz before it at 4CC2010. The choreography of Zigeunerweisen resembles Csardas in ballet in many parts, so I think the arm position in 2T in 3Lz-2T is an extension of hand-on-hip choreography often seen in Csardas in ballet, and an attempt to earn GOE by making the jump more difficult.

 

Videos

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

[monchan]

I hope they will reveal which part is Yuzu's idea after selling the watch!

[MatchaBeans]

Here I have done a condensed transcript of Brian Orser's recent video interview with Skate Oakville. Not much about Yuzu, but I have them in bold nevertheless. Couple of cute stories about Javi, and the way things work at TCC, some insights from Brian when he was a competitive skater. Quite a relaxed and pleasant interview. I've also included the time stamps in case anyone wanna listen to a particular section. Video is at the bottom. Enjoy! 

 

Please correct me if there are any mistakes!

 

*

 

H: Host

B: Brian

Q: Question from the public

H: Everybody wants to know about Yuzuru and Evgenia. What can you tell us?

[2:04] 
B: Well just to respect their privacy, I haven't even spoken to them about this but I just know that I really can't say much or really anything about them, where they are what they're doing. I know that they're staying healthy and they're following all the conditions that all of us are. As much as I'd like to say things there's not much I can say. There's actually not much stuff that I know, to be honest with you. Even during the season when we're just doing our regular training... I'll go to competitions, say I'm not going with Yuzu but I'll be with Jason/Evgenia/Jun/somebody, and the media will ask me how's Yuzu doing and it's not really fair to the skaters that I'm with to be talking about the skaters who's not there. They have a routine life during a normal season when they're back with their training. Yuzu would have us plagued with a lot of injuries the last couple of years. Most of his attention was getting better. It's not that groundbreaking. People are recovering from injuries, they get re-injured. He's very smart, so he knows what to do, he's got good people around him. When we're training, we had a lot time of this year where he was not injured, which was fantastic, so he was training just like the others.

H: This will be a great time for people to get healthy (for those injured) and get their bodies back into working order.

[4:22] (Truncated)
B: Yes. Every athlete is always dealing with some kind of injury. That's sport. Figure skaters injuries - mostly hips, ankles and knees.

H: What are the things you're doing with your athletes now / would recommend?

[5:52] (Truncated)

B: We have what we're having right now (video teleconferencing). We have physical trainers in our club who're doing exactly this with some of our athletes. Fitness stuff. Some coaches are doing off-ice jumping. It's a good way for them to be with each other, whether it's virtually. We can put them through a series of exercise for warming up, off-ice jumps, technique. This is the perfect time of the year to be doing that. Don't necessarily have to be on ice. - rant on skaters who don't like working on flexibility yada yada - I think figure skaters need to be able to do the splits. 

 

H: Flexibility - important for injury prevention.                  

[9:20] (Summarised)

B: They have to warm up properly, take time, set goals, know what areas you need to be flexible, and when we come back to the ice, we can check that flexibility box off. 

 

H: When skaters come back to the ice, what do you anticipate the challenges are gonna be?

[10:02] (Summarised)

B: Skaters can't expect themselves to be able to do what they were able to do after a long hiatus from on-ice training. It's gonna take some time. I think if they are being fit, using imagery, doing rotational jump exercises, I don't think it'd be that hard to get the jumps back. They just have to be smart about how quickly they will regain their jumps. - talked about his own self-training experience -  

 

H: Is there value in taking some time off ice?

[12:53] (Summarised)

B: Yes there is a great value. I think they (skaters and parents) would be pleasantly surprised. I think it's critical that they take the time off. An example is Javier. When I first started working with him, we had a discussion back in May, he was going to come to Toronto ... and I said OK I will see you in June, and he just wrote back 'Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha'. He thought I was joking, and was like 'I will be there in August'. We negotiated and started on July 1st. Even then he thought I was ridiculous, that was so early. He started July 1st and then took two weeks off in August for camping with his family. He was always fine. I learned as a coach to not be bossy. He's different from the others, that worked for him. 

 

H: Would your skaters have their own schedule/routines/what works for them?

[15:09] (Truncated)

B: Everybody's schedule (seniors, juniors etc) is different. We have to adapt to them.

 

H: What's your favourite part of the season? Planning, training, competition?

[16:28] (Summarised)

B: It's actually right now. Usually in May/June is when we work on skating skills a lot. Tracy and I come up with new exercises, do a lot of sessions where we're not even jumping. We need at least a month of doing just that. Try to give skaters a bit of foundation then only start jumping. 

 

H: Skaters just want to jump. It's hard to keep them motivated to do only skating.

[18:24] (Truncated)

B: We don't just show them exercises and ask them to do them. We say this is why you're doing it. We need you do feel a certain thing. It's fun to see when they 'get it'. - Brian takes a walk down memory lane - 

 

[21:15] B talks about Evgenia, how it takes time to develop skating skills (SS) etc

 

H: What do you say to skaters who are impatient? SS doesn't happen overnight.

[22:45]

B: You might see some improvement in the skills/choreo whatever in a few weeks because they are just trying harder, but when a skater is under the pressure of a competition, you fall back onto some old habits, that's natural, normal. Then there's gonna be a time where the new stuff takes hold and becomes a new normal. - Talks about Jason Brown: this season, the past few months, on a upward direction, peaking looks like was gonna be at Worlds, disappointed for him that it's cancelled. He's got such a great attitude, good spirit. Tracy taking the reins, experimenting things, now they know what works and will carry on to the next season. -

 

H: What things do you do with your skaters heading into a competition season?

[25:46] (Summarised)

B: Training, just training training training. Be aware of the peaking process. Maybe a month before competition, practice the peaking. Do a simulation. Usually the actual performances are not always great, but we learn something. Keeping an eye on their spirit, keeping them energised, looking at energy levels. Take a day off if needed. 

 

H: How do you feel as a coach now (compared to his competitive days)? How would you coach Brian as a skater? Would you listen? Would you do your own thing?

[28:08]

B: When I was a skater I did my own thing and I did way too much. I wanted to be ready really early in the season. I honestly don't think my programs were built properly but that was just me, as I wanted to prove that I can do a triple Axel at the 4-minute mark of a program. (He shrugs to himself) Like why? I always felt like in a Step Sequence you should go both directions. We didn't have to back then. I just wanted to show that I can, but whether that helped me or not, I have no idea. That was just me as a skater, I wanted to push it. I looked back at my programs, I had a tonne of transitions. If I was to do it again, I would probably have a different strategy in how I build programs - trying to maximise getting the job done without trying to show off everything that I could do. 

 

H: When you're building programs now for skaters, do you find some of them have the same intention that they want to do as much as they can and show it off? How/does the program change from initial choreography to when the elements start getting built in?

[29:58]

B: It's constantly changing. Have to be careful when building a program. David Wilson is really clever as is Jeff Buttle, they'll get the skeleton down. As we're doing it, David will say, 'now you have to do it with the jump, you have to put the jump there, we need to see the timing of landing the jump and getting to the next element. And then the spins. I think what makes these choreographers crazy is when the kids just mark the spins by just twirling with their finger. (Isn't this what Yuzu does during official practice run-throughs? Hahahahaha) I didn't have to do spins like they do now. Those spins are hard and exhausting. We have to start going 'OK, I know you don't want to do this but you gotta put the jumps in, you gotta do the full spin.' - more talk about spins - I am quite bossy about that. I remember the first year when Javi, he always forgot what his spins were. I remember having it written on a piece of paper, and literally chasing behind him. Sometimes he leave out spins, and when we do a run-through he'd do the same spin twice, thinking that I didn't know the difference. OMG we had a few battles over that, but he came around. (This story is so cute and funny!)

 

H: Skaters who are well-trained can do the wrong spins when they get into the moment.

[32:46]

B: It's just because of the training of the program. Sometimes you don't always have to do a full run-through, but there's time you gonna do the program from start to finish. You don't have to do all the jumping passes, you can do all the StSq, whether it's the choreo step or the regular step or you can do all three steps, and you gonna do them like you've never done them before, so that they get used to doing great quality spin at the end of their program. Have to try to make it interesting for them, there's a way of building up to doing a run-through. But I always tell them, we pick a day to do the run-through, and I say 'Just so you know, it's gonna be ugly & painful, but you gonna just hunker down and get into the trenches.'

 

H: Positive reinforcement is so important.

[34:57] (Summarised)

B: It's the whole community that has to get involved, it's not just one coach. I cheer for other coaches. Gotta keep the wheel of emotion well lubricated and turning. As soon as it's slowing down a bit, take a particular athlete to the office and have a chat with them. The other part of the year that I like too is just before a major competition. - talks about the TCC bell that rings when someone does a clean run-through. The next person up really wants to hear that bell. The bell rings a lot before big competitions. -                    

 

Q&A session:

 

Q: Any tips to prevent circling?

[37:28] (Summarised)

B: OMG. It's almost like you have to get into their head a little bit to figure out why they're circling. It's usually because of a lack of confidence. Maybe change the setup for the jump, do it to music, you gotta change something.

 

H: Do you limit the number of times they circle before you stop?

[39:37] (Summarised)

B: 3-4 times, then I'll bring them over and have a little chat.  

 

Q: What do you do when your athletes are doing through a rough patch?

[40:33] (Summarised)

B: Communicate with them. Give them the tools to get themselves out of it.

 

Q: What was your favourite exercise as a figure skater? What's your fav exercise/element as a coach?

[42:02] (Truncated)

B: - talks about him enjoying improvising music in the past - Tracy and I, we don't have a particular favourite. From the first year we started teaching, we came up with exercises and we're always building on it. This will be a question for the kids as they all have their favourites. I have now named them. The Jason exercise, the Yuzu exercise (I wonder what this is!!!), the Evgenia exercise, the Jun exercise. They'll know which exercise that is because that skater came up with the exercise. When I'm out for a competition, I'd say 'Just go do the Evgenia exercise' and they'd know what that is.

 

Q: All time favourite program (your own and your skaters)?

[44:56]

B: My own fav - both programs from 1988, especially my long. It was the first time I actually had some kind of concept of a program from the same composer that went from the beginning to the end.  - rambling about his older programs, music cuts that didn't make sense -  Fav programs now. These days I go on YouTube, went through John Curry's programs, just marvelling at how incredible he was. I always found myself looking at Yuna Kim's long program from Vancouver Olympics, it was a complete masterpiece. Javi, when he did 'Luck Be a Lady' from Boston, that was his shining moment. There were too many of Yuzu's that were brilliant. I was amazed season after season where, sometimes it's the same program, I'll go omg that was my favourite. I do find myself watching some of his programs over and over. Quite often at a competition I will get back to my hotel room, when somebody has had a great moment, I need to see how great this was, and I will go on YouTube and watch it over and over and over. - talks about JunWan -      

 

H: This is a great time to rewatch classic, good performances.

[48:48] (Summarised)

B: The cool thing about YouTube is  - the automatic recommendations -  - talks about compulsory figures - 

 

H: When we get kids back on the ice, it'd be fun to go back on some basics - feeling the ice, body, edges. 

[50:20] (Summarised)

B: A lot of our exercises are based on compulsory figures without doing compulsory figures. We were conditioned to do 4 hours of figures every single day. 

 

Q: What is Brian Orser's fav competition?

[51:28] (Summarised)

B: 1987 Worlds. I went there and I knew absolutely 100% that I was going to win. Another fav: the first time I won Nationals in 1981. 1988 Budapest - best long program of my life - another fav.

 

H: Do you (now) still jump? Doubles or triples?

[53:12] (Summarised)

B: Do I now? No I don't, and i don't miss it either. Quite often I dream about skating, jumping, triple Axels, delayed single Axels. 

 

Q: Have Yuzu, Javi or any of your skaters hold any pranks on you?

[54:19]

B: Oh. Yuzu isn't really a prankster. If anybody would have, it would've been Javi. He pulled a prank on me one time which I thought was quite funny. I have this one thing with my skaters, that no. 1 rule when we start together as coach and student, one thing I cannot tolerate is if somebody lies to me, so don't tell me a lie. Tell me the truth, I'm a big boy I can deal with it. I may not wanna hear it, but if I ask you a question, I want the truth. One time Javi came into the rink and he was a little bit late, that makes me crazy too. So he was late, and he obviously hadn't warmed up yet. I said 'Javi, did you do a warm up at least?' and the session was just starting. He's like, 'I came here with my bike.' I'm like, ok, because he lives down the hill, so to come up to the club with his bike, that'd be a pretty good warm up. I was like OK, and then one of the kids came over and said 'Brian, he came with his bike on a bus'. So he took a bus up the hill and had his bike with him. So he didn't lie to me, but he said he came with his bike. Didn't come on his bike, came with his bike. I'm not sure if that's a prank or not, but I thought it's quite funny. 

 

Q: Somebody asked if you had thought about writing another book...

[56:23] (Summarised)

B: I don't know, I hadn't thought about it, but never say never. I always say I'll never be a skating coach and here I am teaching skating. - talks a lil about the current covid situation in general - To me, health comes first. I think everybody just needs to take a little break, skating will always be there. Great things are gonna come. - says he asks his kids to use this time get through the choreo, costumes for the next season - I was texting Jeff Buttle for music ideas, this is the time where we can do all those things. After (now cancelled) Worlds I was gonna take two weeks off, so my vacation is here but supposed to be in India. Now that time has passed, I can be more productive in my craft. Helping Jeff, David find music. We have a group chat where everybody's sharing some stuff with each other. I touch base with all my skaters every other day, to make sure everybody is fine.  

*

[monchan]

Seems like there'll be YUZU'LL BE BACK II ! I expect there'll be less (or even no) ice shows this off-season but the Yuzu-related books and magazines prob will still come as much as usual 

 

[FlyingCamel]

Kazuki praising Yuzu!!

[memae]

I just love that in that interview Brian refers to all his skaters as "the kids". He's such a dad. 

[fyere0]

That story of lazy Javi with his bike is such a classic. You know Brian will whip that one out at Javi's wedding reception one day. 

[Paskud]

Basic Sensation Informatics sounds smart.

 

[amylance1215]

25 minutes ago, Paskud said:

Basic Sensation Informatics sounds smart.

 

Haha I was just about to post this after refreshing Twitter for some Yuzu tidbits. 

Reading about how he put the most efforts into his performance and posture, and expressing the sound/music moves me greatly, especially when we can clearly see the results of his hard work, most evidently in 4CC Chopin... Such a divine performance, the epitome of grace and elegance 

I'm feeling so soft now, I need a hamster to pet 

[rockstaryuzu]

Yuzu got me in the feels again....

 

I was minding my own business, not bothering anyone, just quietly social distancing away and watching a YouTube of FaOI 2019 Toyama when this bullet to the heart shows up in the auto-translated subtitles of one of the boy's post-skate interviews:

 

" The energy from everyone cheering here, or all the thoughts people send through watching me on TV, I will skate and train, swearing not to waste these things..."

 

 Wah! I was all wibbly in an instant. 

 

This wonderful, wonderful boy. 

 

 

[CiONTUw4A]

 

[ralucutzagy]

 

The Oly one! Wonderful! 

[Henni147]

18 hours ago, MatchaBeans said:

B: Tracy and I, we don't have a particular favourite. From the first year we started teaching, we came up with exercises and we're always building on it. This will be a question for the kids as they all have their favourites. I have now named them. The Jason exercise, the Yuzu exercise (I wonder what this is!!!), the Evgenia exercise, the Jun exercise. They'll know which exercise that is because that skater came up with the exercise. When I'm out for a competition, I'd say 'Just go do the Evgenia exercise' and they'd know what that is.

 

Brian: "Just go do the Yuzu excercise."

 

TCC skaters: Break out in sweat and tears. Disapparate from the rink as fast as they can. Cannot be found for two weeks. Game over.

 

Yuzu: