General Skating Chat

[KatjaThera]

7 hours ago, hoodie axel said:

I doubt it. 

You could be right, but can you give some arguments in that sense? Like I said, I haven't read anything about what happened, so I am curious if you have some information in that sense. Especially if it's relevant to the mental strength topic being debated now.

[hoodie axel]

56 minutes ago, KatjaThera said:

You could be right, but can you give some arguments in that sense? Like I said, I haven't read anything about what happened, so I am curious if you have some information in that sense. Especially if it's relevant to the mental strength topic being debated now.

I think he just wasn't able to prepare, and his conditioning was already not the best due to his injury earlier in the season. I saw a video of a Chinese GP event from that season (same Star Wars LP), which was at the very beginning of the season, and he fell on all the jumps. Nothing was landed. So I think he wasn't able to prepare for whatever reason.

 

As to why he wasn't able to prepare, I don't know. 

[axelsandwich]

39 minutes ago, hoodie axel said:

I think he just wasn't able to prepare, and his conditioning was already not the best due to his injury earlier in the season. I saw a video of a Chinese GP event from that season (same Star Wars LP), which was at the very beginning of the season, and he fell on all the jumps. Nothing was landed. So I think he wasn't able to prepare for whatever reason.

 

As to why he wasn't able to prepare, I don't know. 

he was injured in the GP part of the season (potentially from very early on in the season, I remember the news coming out halfway through), then missed the GP Final to recover and made a comeback at 4CC and Olys where he skated well at both events. perhaps Olys aggravated his injury (or he wasn't fully healed) but Boyang himself only cited not being in the right mental state as a reason for the FS, no mention of continued injuries and he's been skating at ice shows. I really hope Worlds was one-off -- watching live, you just got a sense of how things snowballed from the first few falls in throwing him off completely.   

[hoodie axel]

Not the GP season, the Chinese National GP. 

 

Just rewatched it, fell on everything but 3Lz-3T and 3F, which had errors, too. 

 

I think we're both referring to this? 

 

 

He does say there he lacked practice (and hence I concluded the "proper" conditioning). 

[EisElle]

Like @hoodie axel said, I read Boyang had not trained a lot (or at all I mean, no SP runthrough before official practice in Milan, wut o_O) between Olys and Words, and tbh in the Kiss&Cry he looked as if he wasn't surpised he had bombed (the opposite of how crushed Vincent was, for example). It's true he had some more expectations to shoulder as a serious podium contender (possibly as the only Chinese man in Milan, too, who had to grab the spots), but he looked a thousand times more emotional at Olys, tbh. Maybe, as he said, he was too "relaxed" going into Worlds, as if he didn't feel he needed to do his "absolute best" there....(tho idk if we can trust his words, we know *someone else* who refuses to make excuses for his bad outings and blames his "mindset" only, so I hope Boyang is ok. He looks ok in his off-season stuff).

imo it's crazy that in Worlds FS he didn't pop those quads, it must have felt like driving down a cliff without hitting the brakes, I almost covered my eyes because it was really scary to see

I think he needs to train in smaller rinks so when he's in a bigger rink his jumps will have some more room to spare...jk

I read TCC rink is a bit smaller than olympic size rinks? *me subtly sending hints*

 

ETA

4 hours ago, kaerb said:

I really hope Worlds was one-off -- watching live, you just got a sense of how things snowballed from the first few falls in throwing him off completely.  

imo he kinda gave up, as if he accepted jumps just weren't going to work (but still during Cantina theme he tried to sell the program, I thought he was back on tracks but then...not really)

[Neenah]

I think  Boyang's problem at Worlds was a combination of fatigue and inexperience. We must remember that this was his first Olympic season and he started it severely injured. He had to work through the injury and stress of the season, and he did manage to peak at 4CC and the Olympics. So it makes sense that he just couldn't keep his motivation high for another month. He was also not the only one who had this problem, I was there and everyone looked exhausted.

 

I do believe that this was a good learning experience for him (though a costly one), but he seems like a person who learns from his mistakes and I think he will come back stronger next season. I just hope he is spared other injuries as I really want to see Boyang reach his full potential.

 

He also needs to re-evaluate his relationship with the boards. I believe this kind of closeness is not really good for either of them and he needs to create some distance between them and define boundaries  

[hoodie axel]

1 hour ago, LadyLou said:

imo he kinda gave up, as if he accepted jumps just weren't going to work (but still during Cantina theme he tried to sell the program, I thought he was back on tracks but then...not really)

I don't think he gave up. It looked to me like he was trying to readjust the amount of energy to put in, so he could land. As if he was thrown off by something.

 

Surprisingly, he landed all edge jumps. 

[EisElle]

34 minutes ago, hoodie axel said:

I don't think he gave up. It looked to me like he was trying to readjust the amount of energy to put in, so he could land. As if he was thrown off by something.

 

Surprisingly, he landed all edge jumps. 

Mmh I suppose my live-feelings of OMG!whattheheckgoshNO! influenced my perception then, I haven't rewatched that performance (so he did pop one jump instead of going over the boards, whew, I had forgotten)

[axelsandwich]

8 hours ago, LadyLou said:

Like @hoodie axel said, I read Boyang had not trained a lot (or at all I mean, no SP runthrough before official practice in Milan, wut o_O) between Olys and Words, and tbh in the Kiss&Cry he looked as if he wasn't surpised he had bombed (the opposite of how crushed Vincent was, for example). It's true he had some more expectations to shoulder as a serious podium contender (possibly as the only Chinese man in Milan, too, who had to grab the spots), but he looked a thousand times more emotional at Olys, tbh. Maybe, as he said, he was too "relaxed" going into Worlds, as if he didn't feel he needed to do his "absolute best" there....(tho idk if we can trust his words, we know *someone else* who refuses to make excuses for his bad outings and blames his "mindset" only, so I hope Boyang is ok. He looks ok in his off-season stuff).

imo it's crazy that in Worlds FS he didn't pop those quads, it must have felt like driving down a cliff without hitting the brakes, I almost covered my eyes because it was really scary to see

I think he needs to train in smaller rinks so when he's in a bigger rink his jumps will have some more room to spare...jk

I read TCC rink is a bit smaller than olympic size rinks? *me subtly sending hints*

 

ETA

imo he kinda gave up, as if he accepted jumps just weren't going to work (but still during Cantina theme he tried to sell the program, I thought he was back on tracks but then...not really)

Yeah, I do worry about why he wasn't training.... but even if it's just being mentally exhausted after Olys, I'll take it to hiding an injury or some other condition (Boyang, don't learn from a certain Pooh-lover on this front). 

 

Watching live from close up was....I don't even remember, it was mostly a haze of horror and anxiety, but I do vaguely remember he was definitely fighting for the jumps. But honestly once you pass like 3 falls (the first fall looked really rough), his exhaustion was visible and it really just looked like he had no strength in his legs, which then caused...more falls. but tbh I don't remember much of it and I still haven't watched the broadcast  

[kaeryth]

Challenger Series competition dates/locations are out

 

[Katt]

Uhm ACI is around the same time to last year's which means a bit early. Given the rule changes and injuries, I wonder if Yuzuru will choose a later CS ? Maybe Finlandia trophy ?

[Tsubakindy]

4 hours ago, kaeryth said:

Challenger Series competition dates/locations are out

 

 

Wow the Asian Trophy is going to be held in ASEAN country? Quite close to my country 

 

Sadly the possibility of a wild yuzu appearing there seems to be zero..

[ralucutzagy]

 

[yuzuangel]

10 hours ago, Katt said:

Uhm ACI is around the same time to last year's which means a bit early. Given the rule changes and injuries, I wonder if Yuzuru will choose a later CS ? Maybe Finlandia trophy ?

Brian mentioned that Evgenia might do ACI or Finlandia, which probably means that whichever one she does, yuzu might do as well..

[Danibellerika]

10 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

Brian mentioned that Evgenia might do ACI or Finlandia, which probably means that whichever one she does, yuzu might do as well..

 

ACI is so close and convenient that even if it's "too soon" I think it's the most attractive option.  And if we're going to learn the new rules in June that still feels like plenty of time to me, especially for a guy who only had 3 weeks to really pull himself together to compete at the Olys.