[2018.11.01] Team Brian: A New Journey

[yuzurujenn]

NOTE: Chapter 1 up to Chapter 3.5 are the same from the book "Team Brian: 300-Point Legend." Please check the translation in 2017 thread.

 

 

Info: https://www.amazon.co.jp/チーム・ブライアン-新たな旅-ブライアン・オーサー/dp/4065123666/

https://ebookjapan.yahoo.co.jp/books/497167/

 

 

"I want to experience that overwhelming emotion again and again, the kind that makes my whole body tremble."

After Sochi, Brian Orser, the renowned coach, speaks about Yuzuru Hanyu’s journey up until PyeongChang, including the untold struggles and the path that led to Hanyu’s historic back-to-back victories in men’s singles at the PyeongChang Olympics. This new edition of the book, Team Brian: The 300-Point Legend, has been extensively revised to include these new developments. The author, who knows Hanyu’s journey best, delves into these moments and shares insights on how Evgenia Medvedeva and Jason Brown came to join the team, the new season for Yuzuru Hanyu and the rest of "Team Brian," and the dreams they all shared moving forward.

 

 

Table of Content:

Spoiler

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Road to PyeongChang – 2014-2015 Season

-There's plenty of time to evolve

-The free skate is Yuzuru's choice, but the short program is planned

-The value of the quadruple jump in the second half of the short program

-Yuzuru's worst night at the China Cup

-Deliberately imposing hard training after the injury

-Extreme tension in front of Spanish fans

-Yuzuru’s abdominal surgery

-Winning a world title changes Your life

-Team Brian community 

 

Chapter 2: Two Champions, Two Comrades – 2015-2016 Season

-The awareness of being a top skater

-Aggressive or calm? The quadruple Lutz

-Incorporating two quadruple jumps into the short program

-Important information that was helpful for the PyeongChang Olympics

-Drawing the moment of surpassing 300 points through one's own strength

-Yuzuru battling with himself

-The World Championships, the two skaters' plans

-Secrets to surpassing 300 points: GOE and PCS

-Towards Boston, Worsening Injury

-Yuzuru continues to face challenges
-The night in Boston illuminated by Sinatra

 

Chapter 3: Pre-Olympic Season – 2016-2017 Season

-Choosing music with the Olympics in mind
-Yuzuru's quadruple loop is firstly a form of injury rehabilitation
-A surprisingly low evaluation compared to last season
-Discussions and understanding
-Third time surpassing 300 points
-The Four Continents Championships to get a feel for the Pyeongchang Olympics venue
-Focusing on "rankings" at the World Championships

Chapter 4: PyeongChang Olympics – 2017-2018 Season

-Competing not as a challenger
-Performing the same program but with a more aggressive content
-I must not let Yuzuru’s frustration annoy me
-Bringing back more than just results from the Autumn Classic
-"Their game" and ours
-The biggest crisis between him and Javier
-Yuzuru's serious injury
-The Grand Prix Final without the two champions
-Yuzuru appearing with crutches
-Imagining jumps and spins in the head

-Return to Practice

-Still in rehabilitation on the day of Team Event competition
-The energy that only Yuzuru has
-The first step starts with compulsory figures
-The magma of the heart
-What Happened During the Official Practice the Day Before the Short Program

-It was a real miracle
-Yuzuru and Javier as I had always envisioned
-Yuzuru needed the Olympics
-The calm heart of Javier
-The two with teary eyes
-Olympic moment
-Yuzuru energetically preparing for the ice show
-Questions for Yuzuru

Chapter 5: Evgenia and Jason

-Meeting with Evgenia Medvedeva
-A period of patience for change
-Jason Brown's unexpected joining
-The significance of rule changes
-The challenges for athletes using the quadruple jump as their weapon
-The "plus 5" rule created by Yuzuru 
-Heading to Beijing, the start of a new team
-The athletes are the ones who helped me grow as a coach

 

Afterword by the Author

 

 

 

Up to Chapter 3, "Third Time Surpassing 300 Points," this book is a significantly revised and re-edited version of the book "Team Brian: The 300-point Legend" published in January 2017. Starting from the section "The Four Continents Championship to Feel the Venue of the Pyeongchang Olympics," the content is based on an interview with Coach Brian Orser conducted in July 2018 at the "Toronto Cricket, Skating & Curling Club." The interviewer was Mie Noguchi.

 

Although there were major rule changes starting in the 2018-2019 season, the rules and scores in this book are explained based on the regulations at the time.

[yuzurujenn]

*machine translation, inaccuracies exist*

 

 

Introduction

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[yuzurujenn]

*Machine translation, inaccuracies exist. Please do not reply in this thread.*

 

 

Chapter 3: Pre-Olympic Season – 2016-2017 Season

 

 

3.6 The Four Continents Championships to get a feel for the Pyeongchang Olympics venue

 

Spoiler

For Yuzuru, there were two things he needed to accomplish in the season before the Olympics. One was to win the title at the World Championships the year before the Games. I’ll come back to why that mattered later. The other was to experience the rink at the Olympic venue during the test event held there, specifically the 2017 Four Continents Championships.

 

I myself had already visited the venue during the Korean National Championships, so I had a general sense of what it was like. For Javier, who couldn’t compete at Four Continents, the only thing I could do was pass along my advice. But as the saying goes, seeing is believing, so I wanted Yuzuru to experience the venue firsthand and use that for simulation ahead of the real event.

 

What mattered was getting a feel for the atmosphere in the stands, the sense of distance in the venue, and understanding the kind of environment Team Yuzuru would be dealing with at the PyeongChang Olympics. In Yuzuru’s case, he wouldn’t rely solely on the athletes’ village. He would also have a hotel secured, which would serve as a base for care, meals, and support from the Japanese team. That’s why it was important not just for Yuzuru, but for the whole support team as well, to see the town in advance and get a sense of things like how far the hotel was and what traffic conditions were like.

 

Yuzuru was already an Olympic champion from Sochi, and unquestionably among the very best in the world. That meant that, more than technical preparation, what mattered was mental and psychological readiness—how to deliver in the actual performance. He also does more image training than most athletes before competition. While many skaters think of “warming up” as stretching or light physical exercises, for Yuzuru, the key part of warming up is sharpening his focus and mentally rehearsing the competition. Therefore, it was necessary to check the path from the venue’s gates to the stadium, the layout of the corridors, the location of the locker rooms, which hallways led to the rink, where media interviews would take place, and also to look for suitable spots to warm up away from others.

 

In reality, the Gangneung Ice Arena venue was an excellent facility, and I personally had a very positive impression of it. I wanted Yuzuru to feel the same way: to leave thinking, “All right, I’m going to deliver a great performance here. I can almost hear the crowd already.” Bringing that feeling back with him was the main objective of this Four Continents Championships.

 

Of course, winning is always wonderful at any competition, but this was not a competition where that was necessary. And in a sense, things went according to plan: it was Nathan Chen, not Yuzuru, who won.

 

In fact, Yuzuru has never won the Four Continents Championships. It’s an interesting thing. He’s an Olympic champion, a world champion, and has broken world records multiple times, yet he hasn’t won this event. To me, this shows just how much focus Yuzuru has when it comes to delivering results at truly important competitions.

 

So the advice I gave him for this Four Continents Championships was simple: “Come away with a good impression of the Gangneung Ice Arena.” I didn’t say anything about winning or even about skating well. Yuzuru is an intelligent athlete, so he understood exactly what that meant.

 

The competition itself unfolded in a very interesting way.

 

In the short program, Nathan landed a quadruple Lutz and a quadruple flip to take first place, with Shoma in second. In the free skate, Nathan successfully executed five quadruple jumps and won the competition, scoring over 300 points for the first time in an ISU event. Until then, only Yuzuru and Javier had entered the “300-point world.” Now Nathan had arrived there too. The news that "Nathan landed five quadruple jumps in the free skate" became a new top story in the figure skating world, and the media covered it extensively.

 

But in truth, at this Four Continents Championships, it was Yuzuru’s score that spoke more clearly to "what figure skating really is." Despite a mistake in the short, he scored a solid 97.04 points. In the free skate, he successfully landed four quadruple jumps, scoring 206.67 points. His score was higher than Nathan's, who landed five quadruple jumps. Yuzuru placed third in the short and first in the free, finishing second overall. It was a result that showed how important not just the number of jumps, but their quality and the overall performance truly are.

 

The media tends to focus on the “number of quads.” True, if the outcome were decided solely by the number of quads, it would be easy to understand. As a result, Nathan became the leading favorite for Olympic gold. Javier, who only included two types of quadruple jumps, faded from the spotlight, and Yuzuru was cast as facing a formidable challenge from younger skaters.

 

For us, what mattered was sticking faithfully to the plan we had already made. The media got excited about “Nathan beating Yuzuru a year before the Olympics,” but to me, it wasn’t a concern at all. If anything, I watched calmly as attention focused on a slightly misplaced measure: the number of quadruple jumps.

 

 

3.7 Focusing on "rankings" at the World Championships

 

Spoiler

The most important competition of the 2016–2017 season was the World Championships in Helsinki. Not only was it the culmination of the season, but it was also the most important competition in the four years leading up to the Pyeongchang Olympics. This is because the results of the World Championships in the year before the Olympics have a major impact on an athlete’s mindset during the Olympic season, as well as on media perception and the judges’ impressions. For that reason, more than the performance or the score, the "ranking" was paramount.

 

Yuzuru had to win the World Championships for himself and for his pride. He had won the World Championships once in 2014, but in 2015 and 2016 he earned silver. By claiming the “world’s best” title once more before the Olympics, I wanted him to solidify the mental image that he can win the competitions that matter most.

 

I thought it would be better for Javier to aim for a bronze or something around that. Having won in both 2015 and 2016, a third consecutive victory would have made him the “undisputed three-time World Champion” heading into the Olympics. Everyone would then expect him to take gold, seeing it as a given. That kind of pressure would have been overwhelming. On top of that, as Spain’s first-ever medalist, he would also be carrying the weight of his entire country’s expectations.

 

I myself entered the Olympic season in 1987 as the reigning World Champion, the year before the Olympics. And it was the Calgary Olympics, held in my home country of Canada. For some reason, that season the Canadian team had no reigning World Champions in any other winter sport besides figure skating. There were no Canadian world champions in skiing or hockey that year. Being the only titleholder at a home Olympics, I was under intense scrutiny. Every newspaper, television program, and magazine featured my gold medal prediction as its top story, even surpassing ice hockey and skiing. The pressure was immense.

 

If a similar situation had occurred with Javier, he wouldn’t have been able to enjoy skating. That’s why I thought it would be better for him not to win gold at this World Championships.

 

The result: Yuzuru won, and Javier placed fourth. For us, it was exactly as planned, a perfect outcome.

 

This was, in a way, the “perfect storm” we could prepare for in the year before the Olympics. Let’s call it a carefully prepared chaos. It allowed us to set the perfect foreshadowing for the PyeongChang Olympics for both of them.

 

Of course, even though rankings mattered, it isn’t something we can control. Ultimately, in sports, athletes can only do their best.

 

In reality, there was nothing I needed to tell Yuzuru. He is always a young man who wants to win, and he is smart enough to understand which competitions must be won. Yuzuru wins at the competitions where victory is necessary. That is his ability, his spirit, and it's not something I taught or controlled. Winning when it matters most is his talent, his mentality, and that is what makes him special.

 

Nathan’s result at this competition reflected the current state of figure skating. In the free skate, he attempted six quadruple jumps, landing only two cleanly. Mistakes in both the short and free programs left him in sixth overall. This was a competition where young skaters fought with full courage and ambition to try various quads. It was admirable bravery. But in a major competition where rankings must be prioritized, jumps that are possible in other events suddenly become much more difficult. That pressure can only be understood by those competing under the same circumstances.

 

When I first landed a triple Axel in my career, the media and skating community talked almost exclusively about the jump. I succeeded in practice, and in smaller competitions. But at the World Championships or the Olympics, it became an entirely different jump. Today’s young skaters attempt not just one quad, but five or six. Nathan has mastered the high-level skills needed for quads, yet he could not fully demonstrate them at Worlds.

 

I could deeply empathize with Nathan’s mental state. It was something I had gone through over 30 years ago. At the same time, I had won Olympic gold alongside Yuna and Yuzuru. Over the past three decades, I’ve learned what figure skating is really all about.

 

This World Championship served as a chance to revisit the “art of competing” in figure skating. Competing with a program containing five quads at Worlds or the Olympics is incredibly demanding. The pressure is enormous. To succeed, mental preparation is even more crucial than technical skill. No matter how advanced a skater’s technique, if they don’t have the mental strength to deliver it on the day, the performance remains incomplete.

 

The fact that the focus was solely on the “number of quadruple jumps” made me, after 30 years of thinking about what figure skating truly is, honestly feel that public opinion had lost its way. Team Brian’s plan, however, remained unchanged.

 

The preparations for the PyeongChang Olympics were complete. Technique, results, media perception, rankings—everything. I felt a sense of relief, and at the same time, immense pride that my two students were on such a winning streak heading into the Olympic season. Normally, I would skip the exhibition and return home to oversee other skaters’ lessons. But at the Helsinki World Championships, I made the rare effort to watch both of their performances rinkside.

 

It was then that Yuzuru performed his "Notte Stellata" program beautifully and, after returning to the rinkside, told me, “I skated thinking about your father, Brian.” At the World Championships, everyone is completely focused on themselves. On top of that, this was an important competition for Yuzuru, one he had to win to prepare for the Olympic season. And yet, in the exhibition immediately after that intense event, he was thinking of my father, who had passed away just that March. I had tried to hide my grief in front of the skaters, but Yuzuru still noticed and cared about my feelings.

 

Yuzuru is a strong, young, and energetic athlete. But I realized he is also someone who can empathize with the delicate feelings of those who are grieving. Through his support, my impression of him changed profoundly. As a coach, I often only see his strength, but in reality, he possesses deep compassion and a sensitive nature, and that is exactly why he can perform so beautifully.

 

My father's death, the excitement of the upcoming Olympics, and Yuzuru’s affection—all these emotions mixed together, filling my heart with overwhelming feelings. Little did I know the trials that still lay ahead.