General Yuzuru Chat

[Orsa2017]

1 hour ago, Henni147 said:

If we don't judge that, we can skip the use of music altogether and just let the skaters jump and spin and do compulsory figures again.

Noooo.. -although i can watch Hanyu on mute too - but it makes a lot of difference and add excitement and story..  For me Hanyu is the only one who follows the music -or the music follows him- precisely!!  There are many others I like but not like him, but close.. and there's a lot who -the music is there and they- are just doing their program within the time, just like a gold fish in a tank!!   You're right, it should be rewarded.. but the bias or I think the judges now don't care much about it.. maybe they don't have time, as there are many other elements to judge within minutes.. and they just put a random number if the music is their liking or not..

 

Thank you for your patience & opinions  I hope a third party develops an AI system soon with the help and advice of the king of ice 

[Orsa2017]

Magazine looks very tempting  but I stopped buying them as my Hanyu shelf is so crowded already!!!  I'll wait for the photo books instead by the end of the season!!  

[sallycinnamon]

24 minutes ago, hamaguri said:

And I read, from Weibo (so it's not official, but it must be more certain) that the tickets won't be sold to public, but be allocated to public companies, sponsor companies in  Beijing! Accordingly, fans cannot watch live, but those companies' people are audience. I think, it's a good thing for yuzu. Unlike figure skating fans, they don't have bias, and simply will cheer up for wonderful performances. Not just classical music, ballet, but Chinese traditional opera (京劇)... The quality of art culture in Beijing is high, and they must have good eyes. Yuzu's programs must please their eyes. From my point of view, audience is more important than judges in Olympics.

 

Maybe it's just me but I don't think it's that good that tickets will be allocated. It's okay to allocate certain % of the tickets to public companies/sponsors but that if none (or almost none) of the fans will be able to go is just sad. It's always good if there are fans who know what to look for in the performance, when to clap, when to stay completely silent etc. And it'd have been great for Chinese fanyus to go the Olympics and give their support for Yuzu. It's been seven years since Yuzu skated in China for the last time and his fans there are always so loyal and supportive...they'd have deserved to support him in the arena.

[hamaguri]

8 分, sallycinnamonさんが言いました:

 

Maybe it's just me but I don't think it's that good that tickets will be allocated. It's okay to allocate certain % of the tickets to public companies/sponsors but that if none (or almost none) of the fans will be able to go is just sad. It's always good if there are fans who know what to look for in the performance, when to clap, when to stay completely silent etc. And it'd have been great for Chinese fanyus to go the Olympics and give their support for Yuzu. It's been seven years since Yuzu skated in China for the last time and his fans there are always so loyal and supportive...they'd have deserved to support him in the arena.

Yeah, I agree. Of course, the supports from Chinese fanyu is big. And last competition was Shanghai Worlds? That's sad... My feelings are just like, it was good to avoid no-audience. Without pandemic, we can just cheer up. Haa...

[sallycinnamon]

9 minutes ago, hamaguri said:

Yeah, I agree. Of course, the supports from Chinese fanyu is big. And last competition was Shanghai Worlds? That's sad... My feelings are just like, it was good to avoid no-audience. Without pandemic, we can just cheer up. Haa...

 

Yes, in 2015, so it was a long time ago. And yeah without a doubt, figure skating isn't the same without audience. 

[Paskud]

There are legions of fanyus in China, so you never know.🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

[hamaguri]

23 分, Paskudさんが言いました:

There are legions of fanyus in China, so you never know.🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

Awwww! How strong supporters!

[SuzyQ]

On 2022/1/4 at 午前2時17分, SuzyQさんが言いました:

Asahi Shimbun "Witnesses of the Legend"

 

No. 6  4回転半、始まりは…羽生結弦が兄貴と慕う無良崇人さんが明かす秘話

The beginning of 4A -  Takahito Mura, whom Yuzuru Hanyu adores like a brother, reveals the secret story

 

https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASPDP5QMGPDDUTQP022.html?iref=pc_spo_winspo_fskate_top_list_n

 

「ジャンプに関して、一番面倒を見てくれた先輩。頼れる兄貴分」

2018年平昌五輪で2連覇を飾った羽生結弦が五輪後の同年4月、ファンのために作り上げた感謝の凱旋（がいせん）報告イベント「Continues～with　Wings～（コンティニューズ・ウィズ・ウィングス）」。

羽生自身が影響を受けたというトップスケーターや振付師、指導者たちが出演した。その1人が無良崇人さん（30）だった。冒頭の言葉は、羽生が無良さんを紹介した際のコメントだ。

「面倒みたっていうほどではないですけどね」と4学年上の無良さんは謙遜する。18年3月に現役引退するまで羽生とは様々な大会で競演し、親交を温めてきた。

無良さんが羽生のことを知ったのは自身が合宿や振り付けで仙台のリンクに行った時だという。

「何年だったか覚えてないくらいですけど、彼がノービスとかだったのかな。その当時から、もう転びながらでもずっとジャンプを跳んでいて、ガツガツと練習しているイメージがありました。転んでも転んでもずっとやっているイメージがすごくあります」

試合で初めて羽生を認識したのは07年11月に仙台市体育館で行われた全日本ジュニア選手権だったという。この大会、無良さんが優勝したが、当時12歳だった羽生は存在感を見せつけた。フリーは1位。ノービス選手として初めて全日本ジュニアの表彰台（3位）に上がった。

"He is my senpai who has taken care of me the most when it comes to jumps. He's a big brother I can rely on."

In April 2018, after Yuzuru Hanyu won the PyeongChang Olympics for the second consecutive time, he held a triumphant event called "Continues with Wings" for his fans.

The event featured top skaters, choreographers, and instructors that Hanyu himself had been influenced by. One of them was Takahito Mura (30). The words at the beginning of this article are Hanyu's comment when he introduced Mura.

"I didn't take care of him so much as he says," says Mura with humility, who is four years older than Hanyu.

He had competed with Hanyu in various competitions until he retired in March 2018, and the two have maintained a close friendship.

Mura first heard of Hanyu when he went to the rink in Sendai for training camp and choreography.

"I don't even remember exactly what year it was, but I think it was when he was in Novice category. and I had an image of him practicing so hard, jumping all the time, even falling again and again." 

The first time he recognized Hanyu in a competition was at the Japanese Junior Nationals held in Sendai City Gymnasium in November 2007. Although Mura won it, Hanyu, who was 12 years old at the time, showed his presence. He placed first in the free skating, and became the first Novice skater to reach the podium of the Japanese Junior Nationals (3rd place).

 

I will post the summary of my translation of the rest of the paid article tomorrow, as it is quite a volume.

 

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

 

Hereunder is the latter part of this article, which is the paid part. The translation is for almost all the sentences as I could not summarize it.  Please note it is rather rough translation, and I'm not familiar with the technical terms of figure skating.

 

Spoiler

“I didn't see his performance actually because I was at the competition myself. Although I have not directly seen it, when I watched the video later, I thought we could see a glimpse of what he has become since then. In a word, I had the impression that the "next generation" of skaters has emerged. Including the way he carries himself, it’s a different kind of sophistication from our generation, if I put it. I felt that he was a type of skater growing up under the new rules.”

“It is the same now, but the lightness of jumps, the fluidity of jumps, were already there when he was a junior. Seeing such, I just thought, 'oh, he is different’. We were the generation that had been competing under the scoring of six-point scale for a long time. Hanyu has started to compete in earnest after the new rules came into effect. He goes to competitions with the understanding that not only jumps, but also spins, steps, and the whole program, are scored in total. Compared to our generation, I think the biggest difference is that the skaters of his generation are competing with all the elements refined.”

Mura and Hanyu recognized each other at the Japanese Junior Nationals. Why did Hanyu describe Mura as "a big brother he can rely on"?

Mura recalls an incident at a charity event for the Great East Japan Earthquake held in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture in May 2011.

“At the time, I remember that Hanyu's quad jumps had a strong tendency to go off to the left, and we talked that he should leave his upper body maintained in the air a little more, something like that.”

Hanyu said, "I think I may be able to jump quad Salchow. Please take a look," and he jumped it with ease.

They continued their talks through quad jumps, which have been mandatory for men skaters.

Mura sometimes asked Hanyu to give him tips on quad jumps.

 

“He wrote it down on a piece of paper and diagrammed it for me."

One day, when Mura told Hanyu that he was having trouble with his quad Salchow, Hanyu came to him with a piece of paper and a pen,

"He wrote down on the paper with what images he was doing and made a diagram. When jumping Salchow, you are standing on the ice with your left foot on the track, and when you step in (just before jumping), it becomes two feet. At that time of two feet, which way my left foot should go, and how I can make the jump without interfering the movement of sliding backward. He made a diagram of it. He taught me carefully and kindly in what direction to move my left foot, so that I would be able to find the right spot, and match the timing of raising my opposite arm to it, and so on.”

“It was faster to ask him when it comes to quad jumps. I myself knew that he was looking into them. If he can jump quads so beautifully, naturally it's because he's been digging into it.”

When he was a competitive skater, Mura used his powerful jumps as his weapon. Although he did not make it to the Olympics, he was one of the top jumpers in the field, winning the Four Continents Championships in 2014. What is common between him and Hanyu is that they both excelled at triple Axel, a jump to take off forward.

Hanyu is aiming for an unprecedented quad Axel, and there is a story for the two of them on quad Axel.

It happened at the ice show "Dreams on Ice" in June 2015.

 

"Yuzu, maybe you have a better chance"

"We talked about how it would be great if we could do a quad Axel, and I said, 'Let's give it a try.’ It just started like this; Hanyu-senshu said, 'As your Axel is high, you may be able to rotate,’ and I said to him, ‘Maybe you have a better chance.’ Since I had tried it in practice, we decided to try it in that kind of opportunity.”

At that show, they tried quad Axel. They didn't succeed, but that little bit of playfulness was probably the starting point for Hanyu to challenge quad Axel.

Mura says, “I practiced quad Axel for a while myself, but I knew I couldn't do it because I couldn't withstand in the air. I could not keep the posture with my body tightened up in the air. But I have a theory that if you have the aerial sensation to jump quad Lutz, you can keep your body tight, but the premise is that you have to be good at Axel.”

Lutz is a jump that you have to be really conscious of tightening in the air more than any other quads, because you have to rotate from the opposite-side twist. If you have that feeling in the air, you should be able to rotate to the end of four and a half turns. Since Hanyu-senshu can jump quad Lutz, he probably has that kind of aerial sensation.”

“And the Axel, which is nearly 70cm high and in a beautiful parabola, is a jump that only Hanyu-senshu has. Quad Axel is a challenge that only he can do. I think Hanyu-senshu is the person closest to quad Axel."

 

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

[Fay]

Whatever happened to the Guardian? Never mind their getting the age wrong… 
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/04/winter-olympic-athletes-to-watch-beijing-games

Quote

Yuzuru Hanyu, figure skating

There is not much this two-time Olympic champion has not accomplished. The beloved skater, a household name in Japan and one of the country’s most popular sportspeople, has broken the world record 19 times, which is a record in itself. He also boasts seven world championship medals and four Grand Prix Final titles. After each skate, fans will throw dozens of Winnie the Pooh toys onto the ice, a tradition that developed after Hanyu started carrying a tissue box in the shape of the bear. Competing in his third Olympics, the 26-year-old will be rivaling with Nathan Chen for gold.

 

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

[yuzuangel]

3 hours ago, Fay said:

Whatever happened to the Guardian? Never mind their getting the age wrong… 
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/04/winter-olympic-athletes-to-watch-beijing-games

 

maybe it was written a while ago, LOL

and the editor just waited to print

[jier]

15小时前, sallycinnamon说:

Maybe it's just me but I don't think it's that good that tickets will be allocated. It's okay to allocate certain % of the tickets to public companies/sponsors but that if none (or almost none) of the fans will be able to go is just sad. It's always good if there are fans who know what to look for in the performance, when to clap, when to stay completely silent etc. And it'd have been great for Chinese fanyus to go the Olympics and give their support for Yuzu. It's been seven years since Yuzu skated in China for the last time and his fans there are always so loyal and supportive...they'd have deserved to support him in the arena.

 

Though the information is not confirmed, Chinese fanyus are really worried. Figure skating is not popular in general public in China at all. Arranged tickets basically mean that most of the audience are not figure skating fans and have little to none knowledge about figure skating. I wonder how many audience understand what 4A is. In such case, I don't think Yuzu will have bigger ovation which he always has (though many people have heard of Yuzu, but that's it, also the factor that he is a Japanese, which may make general public hesitant to give exceptional ovation). And as Yuzu is a very sensitive person and can always feel the reaction from the audience, I really wish he could use the Team event to get used to such awkward audience situation. Let's just wait for the final tickets arrangement decision. No matter what, I really wish Yuzu could be mentally prepared for it, which will be very different from his previous two Olympics. 

[CiONTUw4A]

 

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

[YuzuSkating_IsTheTruth]

I'm not sure if this has been shared previously. For the latest update of FS Overview and Complete schedules at 2022 Beijing Olympics, pls refer to : 

 

https://www.beijing2022.cn/en/schedule/calendar.htm (copy and paste in browser)

[Guest turquoiseblue]

[NEWS]

 

[hamaguri]

5 時間前, jierさんが言いました:

 

Though the information is not confirmed, Chinese fanyus are really worried. Figure skating is not popular in general public in China at all. Arranged tickets basically mean that most of the audience are not figure skating fans and have little to none knowledge about figure skating. I wonder how many audience understand what 4A is. In such case, I don't think Yuzu will have bigger ovation which he always has (though many people have heard of Yuzu, but that's it, also the factor that he is a Japanese, which may make general public hesitant to give exceptional ovation). And as Yuzu is a very sensitive person and can always feel the reaction from the audience, I really wish he could use the Team event to get used to such awkward audience situation. Let's just wait for the final tickets arrangement decision. No matter what, I really wish Yuzu could be mentally prepared for it, which will be very different from his previous two Olympics. 

Thank you for your insightful comment from inside China. Come to think of your comment, having team event  is more reasonable decision. This Olympics really recalls me of Sochi. At that time, the venue was Russia call (And he mistook it as Hanyu call!). It seems as long as he is healthy, he will have SP this time. He said he will use his experiences so far. And it's a shame, Nationals 2013, 2012... they were totally 'away' for yuzu because of the other big skater fans (I don't say the name here). Poor thing, he is get used to performing even in 'hostile' atmosphere from his young age. Of course, Beijing Olympics is different from such a hostile situation of Nationals. 'Figure skating is not popular', does not have so much damage to him.

I wish the tickets sales will go well (Most of all, I want Chinese fans to watch yuzu!!!.), and I believe his performances will attract people who are not interested in figure skating. He has brought very nice 2 programs in both SP and FP. And I have imaged the arena, and his costumes both really fit with the arena.

 

Beijing test event photos this October

https://www.afpbb.com/articles/-/3340386?pid=23218622