General Yuzuru Chat

[yuzuangel]

just wondering, has anyone felt embeds getting slower (esp on mobile)?

[Fay]

6 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

just wondering, has anyone felt embeds getting slower (esp on mobile)?

Definitely. The forum got slower for me. 

[sallycinnamon]

8 hours ago, birnasan said:

Yuzuru interview from his new book "Creating the Future", automatically translated with OCR and deepL. I don't speak Japanese and this is not a proper translation. I think I was able to grasp the overall meaning, but we shouldn't trust every single word or sentence.

 

  Hide contents

Interview after the 2020-2021 season, July 2021

(from "Creating the Future", p. 236)

 

Q: After your 'Super Slam' at the Four Continents Championships in February 2020, you were focused on the World Championships the following month, how did you react to the sudden cancellation due to the Corona crisis?

YH: I was so stunned that I cried. I wasn't really well prepared for the World Championships and I was feeling half-hearted and a bit empty. So when I heard that it was cancelled, I thought "Oh, it's not happening" and for some reason I started to cry. It wasn't that I was very sad or in pain, it was just a strange feeling, like the strings of tension had suddenly been cut. But I didn't lose my motivation, I thought that I could practice skating and Axel more since it was the off-season, so I decided to switch my focus. But suddenly I got an email saying that the rink of the Cricket Club would be closed from that day onwards, so I thought "what should I do?". So I decided to go back to Japan.

 

Q: With the cancellation of the ice shows, it must have been a very different kind of off-season for you, wasn't it?

YH: I've missed it a lot, and now that I've been skating in some ice shows again, I've realized that I really love to perform and skate in front of people, and have them watch me. So last year (2020), when I didn't have that, I felt like I had a lot of time to talk with myself, to face my skating.

 

Q: Have you thought about what you are going to do next?

YH: In the end, I've always had a fundamental desire to execute a quad Axel, and I think that's what makes my life worth living now, chasing my dream. My life now is built around that dream. It's the same now as it was before, but when I decided to work towards the quad Axel, I didn't have a coach, and the training environment changed. There were times when I had to make decisions by myself, and I had to take care of my body as well, so I had a hard time to find the right direction, when I felt like what I was doing was decreasing more and more, not so much in terms of quad Axel, but in terms of everything I was doing. I asked myself, "Why am I skating?". I had a feeling of loss. I felt like I was losing my power, like it wasn't my skating anymore, like I was separated from my ideal.

 

Q: When you look back, why do you think you got so depressed?

YH: After all, 4A is not that easy. For example, if I have a coach watching me, he can give me feedback like, "This was good," or "Let's do this part better," but now I had to do it by myself. Besides, my goal is set pretty high, so I always spend my days without achieving it. The other big factor was that I didn't give myself enough positive affirmation, and I felt like my head and my heart were exhausted from over-analyzing.

 

Q: You were also working on your graduation thesis during that period, weren't you?

YH: That too took a lot of concentration and energy. In fact, only a small part of it was published in an academic journal, and I was doing a lot of work with more solid data. It took a long time to get the data, and I had to use my brain a lot. I had to take a break from practicing quad Axel, because of pain in my foot, and when I returned to practice, I couldn't jump at all, so I felt like everything was going in a negative direction.

 

Q: You didn't have the chance to have someone watching you jump and skate, right?

YH: It makes me happy to be watched and to receive cheers. I realized that skating is the only way for me to do what I want to do without hesitation, to move my body freely. I've been skating since I was 4 years old, and of course there are still many things that I can't do, or wish I could do better. But skating is a way to express myself, a way to communicate and express what's in my heart. It's when I can do that, that I feel happy, I think. As I had no chance to skate in front of people, and I had to focus on quad Axel and other aspects of skating for a long time, I didn't have a chance to express myself, or a time to release my emotions. So, in that sense, I was helped by my old programs like "Haru yo koi", which I skated at that time.

 

Q: When you hit rock bottom, did you realize what you wanted to do, what you wanted to express?

YH: To be honest, there was a time when I didn't know why I liked skating. If I look back to my childhood, it was an extraordinary feeling to be on the ice, and it's completely different from being on land, isn't it? It was something difficult, so there was always a sense of excitement when I could do something. On top of that, I was skating alone on that huge rink, with everyone watching only me. If my performance was good, I would get a lot of cheers, if it wasn't, I would only get a moderate amount of applause. I think I liked that feeling... a lot. But as I've been skating for a long time, that feeling has become less and less, or it has become more and more a given. And I'm under so much pressure to meet everyone's expectations. It's not just about enjoying skating, it's about being nervous, about what if I make a mistake... all this pressure is getting bigger and bigger, and I don't have time to enjoy skating anymore. I put pressure on myself to perform well in ice shows, and I practice a lot for that, but I think in this off-season (2020), when I didn't have such opportunities, I went back to my beginning, asking myself "Why do I love skating?".

 

Q: Q: So it was because you were in a situation where you were not allowed to do what you usually do that you were able to realize that again?

YH: Yes, that's right. It was because I didn't have a chance to skate in front of people, and I had a tough time with the quad Axel. At that time, my heart was in a mess, my head was in a mess, and I couldn't do anything. Normally, a little change of mood, such as playing a game, would have refreshed my mind and helped me get back into action, but I just couldn't do anything. Then, for some reason, I thought to myself, "I feel like I want to skate 'Haru yo koi' in my current mood". When I skated it, I felt so happy, and I thought, "Oh, this is what I loved about skating". If it wasn't for that moment, I probably wouldn't be so devoted to my skating right now.

 

Q: If it wasn't for the quad Axel, would you have retired?

YH: I think I would have quit for sure. After the PyeongChang Olympics, I didn't have as much motivation as before, so I think I would have considered retiring earlier.

 

Q: But the quad Axel was not a goal you were forced into, it was your own goal.

YH: Yes, that' s right. I remember when I was little, I said something about it (laughs). And also I love Axel jumps so much. So I'd like to leave something significant behind. Not for the future of figure skating, not for the Japanese skating world, but for my own satisfaction, like "I have pushed the limits".

 

Q: Compared to athletics, in the 100m, would you like to beat the world record of 9.58 seconds, like 9.4?

YH: I think it's like wanting to break 8 seconds in the 100m. It's like no one else in the world can do it. Nobody knows where the limits of human beings are. Scientifically, there are many things that can possibly be done, but it depends on the individual person. I'd like to make a jump that goes beyond the norm.

 

Q: What helped you heal and think about what to do next during this difficult time?

YH: I think being with my family was a big factor. I was in a lot of trouble, but my family was there for me and supported me in practice and everything. I had a lot of time to be just the youngest of the Hanyu family, rather than a skater, so that was very healing. I think it was very important for me to be able to say what I wanted and just be taken care of. I was able to be in a place where I could be myself, where I didn't feel any different to the person I was before I started skating.

 

Q: What do you think of the three competitions you did in the 2020-21 season after such an off-season?

YH: I was well prepared for the Japanese Nationals. But at the World Championships in March, I was kind of burnt out, because I felt like I had already done the best possible performance at Nationals. But I still wanted to jump the quad Axel. I was feeling much better, and I thought I could do it, so I tried until the end of February, but I couldn't do it. I thought about what I should do, and I decided to keep on practicing, even though I was already thinking about cancelling the competition. That's why I think the result of the competition was not surprising. But I also wanted to contribute to the team and do my best as a representative of Japan.

 

Q: Looking back on that, as a competitor, doesn't it give you a strong desire to break 8 seconds in the 100m?

YH: Yes, that's right. I think I've already won the titles that I wanted to win, to some extent, and if you ask me if I want to win the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics like I did at the PyeongChang Olympics, I don't have that feeling, I just want to overcome my own wall, or the wall of common sense.

 

Q: How do you look back on such a year?

YH: I'm doing really well. The situation in the world is changing and I'm learning more about Corona and how to deal with it. There are more and more things I can do, like ice shows and competitions. I can feel the happiness of skating again, and I think that happiness is what gives me the chance to work hard again. Compared to last year, I'm very happy (laughs). I think I have learned a lot of different things, I've learned something very important, something big, that will be important for the rest of my life, or for the rest of my skating career.

 

(Some parts of this interview really made me cry. We should be careful with our expectations and the pressure we put on him.)

This post has been tagged by yuzuangel as [NEWS].

 

 

I hope he stays healthy and he enjoys skating which makes him happy. We love him and support him whatever he does. 

[Faithyu]

50 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

just wondering, has anyone felt embeds getting slower (esp on mobile)?

 

Not sure about embeds (?), but I had to try three times to get my last comment posted (from my laptop).

Stopped it twice because nothing had happened after like three minutes, the third try made it.

[Yuzuwinnie]

27 minutes ago, sallycinnamon said:

 

 

I hope he stays healthy and enjoys skating which makes him happy. We love him and support him no matter what he does. 

 

 with what you wrote and he knows very well that ALL his fans around the world love to admire his skating and Yuzu gives it back to us with his magnificent performances    and here he is in practice and even here he agrees with the music and even he improvise on some perfectly  

 

 

and I did not feel any slowing down, I still use my computer to come to the planet ..... 

[rockstaryuzu]

10 hours ago, birnasan said:

Yuzuru interview from his new book "Creating the Future", automatically translated with OCR and deepL. I don't speak Japanese and this is not a proper translation. I think I was able to grasp the overall meaning, but we shouldn't trust every single word or sentence.

 

  Hide contents

Interview after the 2020-2021 season, July 2021

(from "Creating the Future", p. 236)

 

Q: After your 'Super Slam' at the Four Continents Championships in February 2020, you were focused on the World Championships the following month, how did you react to the sudden cancellation due to the Corona crisis?

YH: I was so stunned that I cried. I wasn't really well prepared for the World Championships and I was feeling half-hearted and a bit empty. So when I heard that it was cancelled, I thought "Oh, it's not happening" and for some reason I started to cry. It wasn't that I was very sad or in pain, it was just a strange feeling, like the strings of tension had suddenly been cut. But I didn't lose my motivation, I thought that I could practice skating and Axel more since it was the off-season, so I decided to switch my focus. But suddenly I got an email saying that the rink of the Cricket Club would be closed from that day onwards, so I thought "what should I do?". So I decided to go back to Japan.

 

Q: With the cancellation of the ice shows, it must have been a very different kind of off-season for you, wasn't it?

YH: I've missed it a lot, and now that I've been skating in some ice shows again, I've realized that I really love to perform and skate in front of people, and have them watch me. So last year (2020), when I didn't have that, I felt like I had a lot of time to talk with myself, to face my skating.

 

Q: Have you thought about what you are going to do next?

YH: In the end, I've always had a fundamental desire to execute a quad Axel, and I think that's what makes my life worth living now, chasing my dream. My life now is built around that dream. It's the same now as it was before, but when I decided to work towards the quad Axel, I didn't have a coach, and the training environment changed. There were times when I had to make decisions by myself, and I had to take care of my body as well, so I had a hard time to find the right direction, when I felt like what I was doing was decreasing more and more, not so much in terms of quad Axel, but in terms of everything I was doing. I asked myself, "Why am I skating?". I had a feeling of loss. I felt like I was losing my power, like it wasn't my skating anymore, like I was separated from my ideal.

 

Q: When you look back, why do you think you got so depressed?

YH: After all, 4A is not that easy. For example, if I have a coach watching me, he can give me feedback like, "This was good," or "Let's do this part better," but now I had to do it by myself. Besides, my goal is set pretty high, so I always spend my days without achieving it. The other big factor was that I didn't give myself enough positive affirmation, and I felt like my head and my heart were exhausted from over-analyzing.

 

Q: You were also working on your graduation thesis during that period, weren't you?

YH: That too took a lot of concentration and energy. In fact, only a small part of it was published in an academic journal, and I was doing a lot of work with more solid data. It took a long time to get the data, and I had to use my brain a lot. I had to take a break from practicing quad Axel, because of pain in my foot, and when I returned to practice, I couldn't jump at all, so I felt like everything was going in a negative direction.

 

Q: You didn't have the chance to have someone watching you jump and skate, right?

YH: It makes me happy to be watched and to receive cheers. I realized that skating is the only way for me to do what I want to do without hesitation, to move my body freely. I've been skating since I was 4 years old, and of course there are still many things that I can't do, or wish I could do better. But skating is a way to express myself, a way to communicate and express what's in my heart. It's when I can do that, that I feel happy, I think. As I had no chance to skate in front of people, and I had to focus on quad Axel and other aspects of skating for a long time, I didn't have a chance to express myself, or a time to release my emotions. So, in that sense, I was helped by my old programs like "Haru yo koi", which I skated at that time.

 

Q: When you hit rock bottom, did you realize what you wanted to do, what you wanted to express?

YH: To be honest, there was a time when I didn't know why I liked skating. If I look back to my childhood, it was an extraordinary feeling to be on the ice, and it's completely different from being on land, isn't it? It was something difficult, so there was always a sense of excitement when I could do something. On top of that, I was skating alone on that huge rink, with everyone watching only me. If my performance was good, I would get a lot of cheers, if it wasn't, I would only get a moderate amount of applause. I think I liked that feeling... a lot. But as I've been skating for a long time, that feeling has become less and less, or it has become more and more a given. And I'm under so much pressure to meet everyone's expectations. It's not just about enjoying skating, it's about being nervous, about what if I make a mistake... all this pressure is getting bigger and bigger, and I don't have time to enjoy skating anymore. I put pressure on myself to perform well in ice shows, and I practice a lot for that, but I think in this off-season (2020), when I didn't have such opportunities, I went back to my beginning, asking myself "Why do I love skating?".

 

Q: Q: So it was because you were in a situation where you were not allowed to do what you usually do that you were able to realize that again?

YH: Yes, that's right. It was because I didn't have a chance to skate in front of people, and I had a tough time with the quad Axel. At that time, my heart was in a mess, my head was in a mess, and I couldn't do anything. Normally, a little change of mood, such as playing a game, would have refreshed my mind and helped me get back into action, but I just couldn't do anything. Then, for some reason, I thought to myself, "I feel like I want to skate 'Haru yo koi' in my current mood". When I skated it, I felt so happy, and I thought, "Oh, this is what I loved about skating". If it wasn't for that moment, I probably wouldn't be so devoted to my skating right now.

 

Q: If it wasn't for the quad Axel, would you have retired?

YH: I think I would have quit for sure. After the PyeongChang Olympics, I didn't have as much motivation as before, so I think I would have considered retiring earlier.

 

Q: But the quad Axel was not a goal you were forced into, it was your own goal.

YH: Yes, that' s right. I remember when I was little, I said something about it (laughs). And also I love Axel jumps so much. So I'd like to leave something significant behind. Not for the future of figure skating, not for the Japanese skating world, but for my own satisfaction, like "I have pushed the limits".

 

Q: Compared to athletics, in the 100m, would you like to beat the world record of 9.58 seconds, like 9.4?

YH: I think it's like wanting to break 8 seconds in the 100m. It's like no one else in the world can do it. Nobody knows where the limits of human beings are. Scientifically, there are many things that can possibly be done, but it depends on the individual person. I'd like to make a jump that goes beyond the norm.

 

Q: What helped you heal and think about what to do next during this difficult time?

YH: I think being with my family was a big factor. I was in a lot of trouble, but my family was there for me and supported me in practice and everything. I had a lot of time to be just the youngest of the Hanyu family, rather than a skater, so that was very healing. I think it was very important for me to be able to say what I wanted and just be taken care of. I was able to be in a place where I could be myself, where I didn't feel any different to the person I was before I started skating.

 

Q: What do you think of the three competitions you did in the 2020-21 season after such an off-season?

YH: I was well prepared for the Japanese Nationals. But at the World Championships in March, I was kind of burnt out, because I felt like I had already done the best possible performance at Nationals. But I still wanted to jump the quad Axel. I was feeling much better, and I thought I could do it, so I tried until the end of February, but I couldn't do it. I thought about what I should do, and I decided to keep on practicing, even though I was already thinking about cancelling the competition. That's why I think the result of the competition was not surprising. But I also wanted to contribute to the team and do my best as a representative of Japan.

 

Q: Looking back on that, as a competitor, doesn't it give you a strong desire to break 8 seconds in the 100m?

YH: Yes, that's right. I think I've already won the titles that I wanted to win, to some extent, and if you ask me if I want to win the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics like I did at the PyeongChang Olympics, I don't have that feeling, I just want to overcome my own wall, or the wall of common sense.

 

Q: How do you look back on such a year?

YH: I'm doing really well. The situation in the world is changing and I'm learning more about Corona and how to deal with it. There are more and more things I can do, like ice shows and competitions. I can feel the happiness of skating again, and I think that happiness is what gives me the chance to work hard again. Compared to last year, I'm very happy (laughs). I think I have learned a lot of different things, I've learned something very important, something big, that will be important for the rest of my life, or for the rest of my skating career.

 

(Some parts of this interview really made me cry. We should be careful with our expectations and the pressure we put on him.)

This post has been tagged by yuzuangel as [NEWS].

And to think some of the previous translations of his prior interviews made it sound like he was happy to be coachless, when in reality he was missing their input badly...

[DancingFeather]

10 hours ago, birnasan said:

Yuzuru interview from his new book "Creating the Future", automatically translated with OCR and deepL. I don't speak Japanese and this is not a proper translation. I think I was able to grasp the overall meaning, but we shouldn't trust every single word or sentence.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Interview after the 2020-2021 season, July 2021

(from "Creating the Future", p. 236)

 

Q: After your 'Super Slam' at the Four Continents Championships in February 2020, you were focused on the World Championships the following month, how did you react to the sudden cancellation due to the Corona crisis?

YH: I was so stunned that I cried. I wasn't really well prepared for the World Championships and I was feeling half-hearted and a bit empty. So when I heard that it was cancelled, I thought "Oh, it's not happening" and for some reason I started to cry. It wasn't that I was very sad or in pain, it was just a strange feeling, like the strings of tension had suddenly been cut. But I didn't lose my motivation, I thought that I could practice skating and Axel more since it was the off-season, so I decided to switch my focus. But suddenly I got an email saying that the rink of the Cricket Club would be closed from that day onwards, so I thought "what should I do?". So I decided to go back to Japan.

 

Q: With the cancellation of the ice shows, it must have been a very different kind of off-season for you, wasn't it?

YH: I've missed it a lot, and now that I've been skating in some ice shows again, I've realized that I really love to perform and skate in front of people, and have them watch me. So last year (2020), when I didn't have that, I felt like I had a lot of time to talk with myself, to face my skating.

 

Q: Have you thought about what you are going to do next?

YH: In the end, I've always had a fundamental desire to execute a quad Axel, and I think that's what makes my life worth living now, chasing my dream. My life now is built around that dream. It's the same now as it was before, but when I decided to work towards the quad Axel, I didn't have a coach, and the training environment changed. There were times when I had to make decisions by myself, and I had to take care of my body as well, so I had a hard time to find the right direction, when I felt like what I was doing was decreasing more and more, not so much in terms of quad Axel, but in terms of everything I was doing. I asked myself, "Why am I skating?". I had a feeling of loss. I felt like I was losing my power, like it wasn't my skating anymore, like I was separated from my ideal.

 

Q: When you look back, why do you think you got so depressed?

YH: After all, 4A is not that easy. For example, if I have a coach watching me, he can give me feedback like, "This was good," or "Let's do this part better," but now I had to do it by myself. Besides, my goal is set pretty high, so I always spend my days without achieving it. The other big factor was that I didn't give myself enough positive affirmation, and I felt like my head and my heart were exhausted from over-analyzing.

 

Q: You were also working on your graduation thesis during that period, weren't you?

YH: That too took a lot of concentration and energy. In fact, only a small part of it was published in an academic journal, and I was doing a lot of work with more solid data. It took a long time to get the data, and I had to use my brain a lot. I had to take a break from practicing quad Axel, because of pain in my foot, and when I returned to practice, I couldn't jump at all, so I felt like everything was going in a negative direction.

 

Q: You didn't have the chance to have someone watching you jump and skate, right?

YH: It makes me happy to be watched and to receive cheers. I realized that skating is the only way for me to do what I want to do without hesitation, to move my body freely. I've been skating since I was 4 years old, and of course there are still many things that I can't do, or wish I could do better. But skating is a way to express myself, a way to communicate and express what's in my heart. It's when I can do that, that I feel happy, I think. As I had no chance to skate in front of people, and I had to focus on quad Axel and other aspects of skating for a long time, I didn't have a chance to express myself, or a time to release my emotions. So, in that sense, I was helped by my old programs like "Haru yo koi", which I skated at that time.

 

Q: When you hit rock bottom, did you realize what you wanted to do, what you wanted to express?

YH: To be honest, there was a time when I didn't know why I liked skating. If I look back to my childhood, it was an extraordinary feeling to be on the ice, and it's completely different from being on land, isn't it? It was something difficult, so there was always a sense of excitement when I could do something. On top of that, I was skating alone on that huge rink, with everyone watching only me. If my performance was good, I would get a lot of cheers, if it wasn't, I would only get a moderate amount of applause. I think I liked that feeling... a lot. But as I've been skating for a long time, that feeling has become less and less, or it has become more and more a given. And I'm under so much pressure to meet everyone's expectations. It's not just about enjoying skating, it's about being nervous, about what if I make a mistake... all this pressure is getting bigger and bigger, and I don't have time to enjoy skating anymore. I put pressure on myself to perform well in ice shows, and I practice a lot for that, but I think in this off-season (2020), when I didn't have such opportunities, I went back to my beginning, asking myself "Why do I love skating?".

 

Q: Q: So it was because you were in a situation where you were not allowed to do what you usually do that you were able to realize that again?

YH: Yes, that's right. It was because I didn't have a chance to skate in front of people, and I had a tough time with the quad Axel. At that time, my heart was in a mess, my head was in a mess, and I couldn't do anything. Normally, a little change of mood, such as playing a game, would have refreshed my mind and helped me get back into action, but I just couldn't do anything. Then, for some reason, I thought to myself, "I feel like I want to skate 'Haru yo koi' in my current mood". When I skated it, I felt so happy, and I thought, "Oh, this is what I loved about skating". If it wasn't for that moment, I probably wouldn't be so devoted to my skating right now.

 

Q: If it wasn't for the quad Axel, would you have retired?

YH: I think I would have quit for sure. After the PyeongChang Olympics, I didn't have as much motivation as before, so I think I would have considered retiring earlier.

 

Q: But the quad Axel was not a goal you were forced into, it was your own goal.

YH: Yes, that' s right. I remember when I was little, I said something about it (laughs). And also I love Axel jumps so much. So I'd like to leave something significant behind. Not for the future of figure skating, not for the Japanese skating world, but for my own satisfaction, like "I have pushed the limits".

 

Q: Compared to athletics, in the 100m, would you like to beat the world record of 9.58 seconds, like 9.4?

YH: I think it's like wanting to break 8 seconds in the 100m. It's like no one else in the world can do it. Nobody knows where the limits of human beings are. Scientifically, there are many things that can possibly be done, but it depends on the individual person. I'd like to make a jump that goes beyond the norm.

 

Q: What helped you heal and think about what to do next during this difficult time?

YH: I think being with my family was a big factor. I was in a lot of trouble, but my family was there for me and supported me in practice and everything. I had a lot of time to be just the youngest of the Hanyu family, rather than a skater, so that was very healing. I think it was very important for me to be able to say what I wanted and just be taken care of. I was able to be in a place where I could be myself, where I didn't feel any different to the person I was before I started skating.

 

Q: What do you think of the three competitions you did in the 2020-21 season after such an off-season?

YH: I was well prepared for the Japanese Nationals. But at the World Championships in March, I was kind of burnt out, because I felt like I had already done the best possible performance at Nationals. But I still wanted to jump the quad Axel. I was feeling much better, and I thought I could do it, so I tried until the end of February, but I couldn't do it. I thought about what I should do, and I decided to keep on practicing, even though I was already thinking about cancelling the competition. That's why I think the result of the competition was not surprising. But I also wanted to contribute to the team and do my best as a representative of Japan.

 

Q: Looking back on that, as a competitor, doesn't it give you a strong desire to break 8 seconds in the 100m?

YH: Yes, that's right. I think I've already won the titles that I wanted to win, to some extent, and if you ask me if I want to win the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics like I did at the PyeongChang Olympics, I don't have that feeling, I just want to overcome my own wall, or the wall of common sense.

 

Q: How do you look back on such a year?

YH: I'm doing really well. The situation in the world is changing and I'm learning more about Corona and how to deal with it. There are more and more things I can do, like ice shows and competitions. I can feel the happiness of skating again, and I think that happiness is what gives me the chance to work hard again. Compared to last year, I'm very happy (laughs). I think I have learned a lot of different things, I've learned something very important, something big, that will be important for the rest of my life, or for the rest of my skating career.

 

(Some parts of this interview really made me cry. We should be careful with our expectations and the pressure we put on him.)

This post has been tagged by yuzuangel as [NEWS].

I remember crying so badly when he announced in August 2020 that he will skip the GP series. He had such a bad time, yet every crumb was a sunray for us and continues to be. I feel guilty to put pressure on him.

[yuzuangel]

1 hour ago, Faithyu said:

 

Not sure about embeds (?), but I had to try three times to get my last comment posted (from my laptop).

Stopped it twice because nothing had happened after like three minutes, the third try made it.

 

2 hours ago, Fay said:

Definitely. The forum got slower for me. 

 

I shall look into it.. 

[birnasan]

38 minutes ago, DancingFeather said:

I remember crying so badly when he announced in August 2020 that he will skip the GP series. He had such a bad time, yet every crumb was a sunray for us and continues to be. I feel guilty to put pressure on him.

I don't think that just the simple wish to see him is the kind of pressure he was talking about. Don't feel guilty for that. He often said that he feels the thoughts of his fans and it gives him energy. Of course we can try to be more sensitive and support him in a better way, but as long as he wants to be seen, it is okay for us to want to see him.

I think the pressure he means is to have to be perfect all the time. Whenever he has a miracle performance, people expect his next performance to be even better. People expect him to make world records, to get at least silver at Worlds, to win the next Olympics. This is the kind of pressure that we should be careful about. But there is nothing wrong with loving to see him skate and admiring his personality.

[Paskud]

9 minutes ago, birnasan said:

I think the pressure he means is to have to be perfect all the time. Whenever he has a miracle performance, people expect his next performance to be even better. People expect him to make world records, to get at least silver at Worlds, to win the next Olympics. This is the kind of pressure that we should be careful about. But there is nothing wrong with loving to see him skate and admiring his personality.

Sadly, I don't think we can do anything with this. Even if we (fans) are aware of this, these expectations will still exist (general audience, media, judges, officials and so on).

[Umebachi]

16 hours ago, birnasan said:

Yuzuru interview from his new book "Creating the Future", automatically translated with OCR and deepL. I don't speak Japanese and this is not a proper translation. I think I was able to grasp the overall meaning, but we shouldn't trust every single word or sentence.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Interview after the 2020-2021 season, July 2021

(from "Creating the Future", p. 236)

 

Q: After your 'Super Slam' at the Four Continents Championships in February 2020, you were focused on the World Championships the following month, how did you react to the sudden cancellation due to the Corona crisis?

YH: I was so stunned that I cried. I wasn't really well prepared for the World Championships and I was feeling half-hearted and a bit empty. So when I heard that it was cancelled, I thought "Oh, it's not happening" and for some reason I started to cry. It wasn't that I was very sad or in pain, it was just a strange feeling, like the strings of tension had suddenly been cut. But I didn't lose my motivation, I thought that I could practice skating and Axel more since it was the off-season, so I decided to switch my focus. But suddenly I got an email saying that the rink of the Cricket Club would be closed from that day onwards, so I thought "what should I do?". So I decided to go back to Japan.

 

Q: With the cancellation of the ice shows, it must have been a very different kind of off-season for you, wasn't it?

YH: I've missed it a lot, and now that I've been skating in some ice shows again, I've realized that I really love to perform and skate in front of people, and have them watch me. So last year (2020), when I didn't have that, I felt like I had a lot of time to talk with myself, to face my skating.

 

Q: Have you thought about what you are going to do next?

YH: In the end, I've always had a fundamental desire to execute a quad Axel, and I think that's what makes my life worth living now, chasing my dream. My life now is built around that dream. It's the same now as it was before, but when I decided to work towards the quad Axel, I didn't have a coach, and the training environment changed. There were times when I had to make decisions by myself, and I had to take care of my body as well, so I had a hard time to find the right direction, when I felt like what I was doing was decreasing more and more, not so much in terms of quad Axel, but in terms of everything I was doing. I asked myself, "Why am I skating?". I had a feeling of loss. I felt like I was losing my power, like it wasn't my skating anymore, like I was separated from my ideal.

 

Q: When you look back, why do you think you got so depressed?

YH: After all, 4A is not that easy. For example, if I have a coach watching me, he can give me feedback like, "This was good," or "Let's do this part better," but now I had to do it by myself. Besides, my goal is set pretty high, so I always spend my days without achieving it. The other big factor was that I didn't give myself enough positive affirmation, and I felt like my head and my heart were exhausted from over-analyzing.

 

Q: You were also working on your graduation thesis during that period, weren't you?

YH: That too took a lot of concentration and energy. In fact, only a small part of it was published in an academic journal, and I was doing a lot of work with more solid data. It took a long time to get the data, and I had to use my brain a lot. I had to take a break from practicing quad Axel, because of pain in my foot, and when I returned to practice, I couldn't jump at all, so I felt like everything was going in a negative direction.

 

Q: You didn't have the chance to have someone watching you jump and skate, right?

YH: It makes me happy to be watched and to receive cheers. I realized that skating is the only way for me to do what I want to do without hesitation, to move my body freely. I've been skating since I was 4 years old, and of course there are still many things that I can't do, or wish I could do better. But skating is a way to express myself, a way to communicate and express what's in my heart. It's when I can do that, that I feel happy, I think. As I had no chance to skate in front of people, and I had to focus on quad Axel and other aspects of skating for a long time, I didn't have a chance to express myself, or a time to release my emotions. So, in that sense, I was helped by my old programs like "Haru yo koi", which I skated at that time.

 

Q: When you hit rock bottom, did you realize what you wanted to do, what you wanted to express?

YH: To be honest, there was a time when I didn't know why I liked skating. If I look back to my childhood, it was an extraordinary feeling to be on the ice, and it's completely different from being on land, isn't it? It was something difficult, so there was always a sense of excitement when I could do something. On top of that, I was skating alone on that huge rink, with everyone watching only me. If my performance was good, I would get a lot of cheers, if it wasn't, I would only get a moderate amount of applause. I think I liked that feeling... a lot. But as I've been skating for a long time, that feeling has become less and less, or it has become more and more a given. And I'm under so much pressure to meet everyone's expectations. It's not just about enjoying skating, it's about being nervous, about what if I make a mistake... all this pressure is getting bigger and bigger, and I don't have time to enjoy skating anymore. I put pressure on myself to perform well in ice shows, and I practice a lot for that, but I think in this off-season (2020), when I didn't have such opportunities, I went back to my beginning, asking myself "Why do I love skating?".

 

Q: Q: So it was because you were in a situation where you were not allowed to do what you usually do that you were able to realize that again?

YH: Yes, that's right. It was because I didn't have a chance to skate in front of people, and I had a tough time with the quad Axel. At that time, my heart was in a mess, my head was in a mess, and I couldn't do anything. Normally, a little change of mood, such as playing a game, would have refreshed my mind and helped me get back into action, but I just couldn't do anything. Then, for some reason, I thought to myself, "I feel like I want to skate 'Haru yo koi' in my current mood". When I skated it, I felt so happy, and I thought, "Oh, this is what I loved about skating". If it wasn't for that moment, I probably wouldn't be so devoted to my skating right now.

 

Q: If it wasn't for the quad Axel, would you have retired?

YH: I think I would have quit for sure. After the PyeongChang Olympics, I didn't have as much motivation as before, so I think I would have considered retiring earlier.

 

Q: But the quad Axel was not a goal you were forced into, it was your own goal.

YH: Yes, that' s right. I remember when I was little, I said something about it (laughs). And also I love Axel jumps so much. So I'd like to leave something significant behind. Not for the future of figure skating, not for the Japanese skating world, but for my own satisfaction, like "I have pushed the limits".

 

Q: Compared to athletics, in the 100m, would you like to beat the world record of 9.58 seconds, like 9.4?

YH: I think it's like wanting to break 8 seconds in the 100m. It's like no one else in the world can do it. Nobody knows where the limits of human beings are. Scientifically, there are many things that can possibly be done, but it depends on the individual person. I'd like to make a jump that goes beyond the norm.

 

Q: What helped you heal and think about what to do next during this difficult time?

YH: I think being with my family was a big factor. I was in a lot of trouble, but my family was there for me and supported me in practice and everything. I had a lot of time to be just the youngest of the Hanyu family, rather than a skater, so that was very healing. I think it was very important for me to be able to say what I wanted and just be taken care of. I was able to be in a place where I could be myself, where I didn't feel any different to the person I was before I started skating.

 

Q: What do you think of the three competitions you did in the 2020-21 season after such an off-season?

YH: I was well prepared for the Japanese Nationals. But at the World Championships in March, I was kind of burnt out, because I felt like I had already done the best possible performance at Nationals. But I still wanted to jump the quad Axel. I was feeling much better, and I thought I could do it, so I tried until the end of February, but I couldn't do it. I thought about what I should do, and I decided to keep on practicing, even though I was already thinking about cancelling the competition. That's why I think the result of the competition was not surprising. But I also wanted to contribute to the team and do my best as a representative of Japan.

 

Q: Looking back on that, as a competitor, doesn't it give you a strong desire to break 8 seconds in the 100m?

YH: Yes, that's right. I think I've already won the titles that I wanted to win, to some extent, and if you ask me if I want to win the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics like I did at the PyeongChang Olympics, I don't have that feeling, I just want to overcome my own wall, or the wall of common sense.

 

Q: How do you look back on such a year?

YH: I'm doing really well. The situation in the world is changing and I'm learning more about Corona and how to deal with it. There are more and more things I can do, like ice shows and competitions. I can feel the happiness of skating again, and I think that happiness is what gives me the chance to work hard again. Compared to last year, I'm very happy (laughs). I think I have learned a lot of different things, I've learned something very important, something big, that will be important for the rest of my life, or for the rest of my skating career.

 

(Some parts of this interview really made me cry. We should be careful with our expectations and the pressure we put on him.)

This post has been tagged by yuzuangel as [NEWS].

 

I preordered the book from Amazon Japan and it arrived this week - by DHL - only two days after the publication date!  It's a beautiful book, well made and high quality paper.  I just read the last section which contains the part translated by birnasan, above.   Will share /translate other sections when I get to them.  

 

The book is already #2 best seller among non-fiction sports books, and #4 among all sports-related books (on Amazon Japan).  Only 3 days after publication!  

 

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4087900576?tag=shohin-22&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1

 

[Maleko]

 

 

[Yuzuwinnie]

12 hours ago, yuzuangel said:

 

 

I will inquire.. 

 ALL : so you notice a slowdown and, again, you are not like me who has to have my writings translated into English, well it has rarely happened to me to have to wait 1 minute for the said translation !!!!! but that does not prevent me from informing you ..... 

[Yuzuwinnie]

6 hours ago, Umebachi said:

 

I preordered the book from Amazon Japan and it arrived this week - by DHL - only two days after the publication date!  It's a beautiful book, well made and high quality paper.  I just read the last section which contains the part translated by birnasan, above.   Will share /translate other sections when I get to them.  

 

The book is already #2 best seller among non-fiction sports books, and #4 among all sports-related books (on Amazon Japan).  Only 3 days after publication!  

 

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4087900576?tag=shohin-22&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1

 

 

 

 , I went to see on your link and I saw a calendar and I had the price Yen and Euros € translated and it is correct for me (and with the sending, of course) and Amazon Japan does not not accept my French email (I am registered on Amazon France) and I do not understand why? 

 

https://www.amazon.co.jp/Hagoromo-CL22-551-Yuzuru-Hanyu-Calendar/dp/B097PYXTDY/ref=pd_vtp_7/356-7440161-0211522?pd_rd_w=X8GDM&pf_rd_p=949fde26-f5 49d7614d0317 & pf_rd_r = S0131GQVZJBEYS2H7K1R & pd_rd_r = ff31a10a-7f2e-4a53-ad41-e63745dde1ad & pd_rd_wg = DzqQt & pd_rd_i = BY97PYXTD  

[Anni]

On 10/6/2021 at 8:22 AM, amylance1215 said:

Another Yuzu book. This one is an interview book by news every about Yuzu and the Great Tohoku earthquake. 

 

DeepL translation

  Reveal hidden contents

#newsevery. has been covering the event.
#The story of Yuzuru Hanyu and the disaster will be published in a book.

"Together, Forward, Yuzuru Hanyu
Memories of 10 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake".

The book is scheduled to be released in November, and part of the royalties and sales will be donated to the earthquake recovery efforts.

Author: Nippon Television Network Corporation "news every."

 

This post has been tagged by yuzuangel as [NEWS].

 

This book was published today.

Here in the Kinokuniya bookstore, Umeda main store.

 

From Amazon 

     

Source:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4396617534/ref=as_sl_pc_as_ss_li_til?tag=hanyuaa-22&linkCode=w00&linkId=47ccd461c06ed826b5d6bb29959b24b5&creativeASIN=4396617534

 

[NEWS]

 

Currently bestseller#1 in the category "History / Geography / Travel"👍