Media Day 2018

[quadaxelwin]

10 hours ago, vanadiezz said:

 

If my memory serves me right, he does have several pairs of blade as backup since he regularly sent those back to Sendai for re-sharpening. And it is also highly probable that he has at least 2 pairs of boots? IDK, he's like never complaining about boot problems, thus I think he might have more than 1 pair and broke them at the same time. 

Why can't he sharpen his blades in Toronto? There is bound to be a specialist in Toronto. Much cheaper, and quicker. It's not like he can't speak English for instructions either. 

[yuzuangel]

3 minutes ago, quadaxelwin said:

Why can't he sharpen his blades in Toronto? There is bound to be a specialist in Toronto. Much cheaper, and quicker. It's not like he can't speak English for instructions either. 

Probably personal preference and maybe superstition? The way blades are sharpened is as important to a skater as their boots...so they probably don't trust a new person to do it the same way (I've also heard other skaters say that they would never change the person who sharpens their boots.)

[quadaxelwin]

1 minute ago, yuzuangel said:

Probably personal preference and maybe superstition? The way blades are sharpened is as important to a skater as their boots...so they probably don't trust a new person to do it the same way (I've also heard other skaters say that they would never change the person who sharpens their boots.)

 

Oh I see.. maybe it's a technical issue then. That must be quite of a hassle to do international mail to Sendai from Toronto all the time though. 

 

[liv]

Does he still do this? Maybe from the time we read about it to now, things have changed and he found someone in Toronto. But then again, it's yuzu, he probably does send them to Sendai to sharpen. 

[KatjaThera]

IIRC, the guy who sharpens his blades in Sendai is Nanami Abe's husband, so he's probably done it for Yuzu ever since he was a kid. It makes sense to keep someone like that. It's also not like he very rarely goes back home. He goes at least twice a year, and probably gets several sets of blades sharpened then. (I'm not sure it's even possible to mail them back and forth, given that they're sharp objects, so I think it's more likely he gets them sharpened when he's there personally?) If it were ever an emergency, I'm sure he'd do them in Canada, but if doing them in Sendai works well, why change it?

[Katt]

I'm sure there's some people who do sharpen blade in toronto, and even near TCC. The document about him going to Nanami-san's husband was too old, like, 3,4 years ago and things might change atm. But I'm not really mind about this because till now Yuzuru manage his equipments very well, at least we didn't hear about him having boot/blade problem like Nathan or Shoma last season. So whatever he does, it works. 

As for the boots, I'm pretty sure he has at least one back up pairs. Its too risky to have just one pair the whole season. I remember an article during 2014 off season that he ordered 3 pairs but only one is fit. Tbh, boots problem could be very tricky (Karen )  and I'm glad Yuzuru doesn't have many problem with it.  

[quadaxelwin]

54 minutes ago, Katt said:

I'm sure there's some people who do sharpen blade in toronto, and even near TCC. The document about him going to Nanami-san's husband was too old, like, 3,4 years ago and things might change atm. But I'm not really mind about this because till now Yuzuru manage his equipments very well, at least we didn't hear about him having boot/blade problem like Nathan or Shoma last season. So whatever he does, it works. 

As for the boots, I'm pretty sure he has at least one back up pairs. Its too risky to have just one pair the whole season. I remember an article during 2014 off season that he ordered 3 pairs but only one is fit. Tbh, boots problem could be very tricky (Karen )  and I'm glad Yuzuru doesn't have many problem with it.  

 

 

Maybe the fact that Yuzu's takeoffs into Jumps are much more clean (virtually no prerotations on toe jumps) allow him to maintain his boot quality longer?

 

I've never heard Yuzu complaining about boot problems, and I often wondered is it because he is so light and slim that his boots don't receive much shock or pressure during landings?

I don't know. Whatever Yuzu is doing, his boots are magical or something. 

[Katt]

43 minutes ago, quadaxelwin said:

 

 

Maybe the fact that Yuzu's takeoffs into Jumps are much more clean (virtually no prerotations on toe jumps) allow him to maintain his boot quality longer?

 

I've never heard Yuzu complaining about boot problems, and I often wondered is it because he is so light and slim that his boots don't receive much shock or pressure during landings?

I don't know. Whatever Yuzu is doing, his boots are magical or something. 

I haven't seen any expert/skater talk about jump technique affect to boot, or whatsoever.  Also, lots of skaters didn't have boot problems for their whole career, good technique or not so I dont think Yuzuru's physical is the reason. Alots of fans who saw Yuzuru's boots in exhibition said the toe pick are the most damage part in blade. 

Of course, we would never know thing behind the scene, I think skaters all might have some minor problem with boots when they have growth spurt or breaking into new boots. But if it won't affect too much to their traning (like Karen,  Kevin R ) or happen during competition, I doubt skaters would talk about that. 

Whatever, as long as he's doing fine, I won't try to find or guess the reason. 

[vanadiezz]

He rarely share about his health problems anyway, so it is highly likely that he will not share about boot problems even when he has one. 

 

I think he also does try to source his needs at home as much as possible. Japanese costume maker, blade sharpening, and probably headphone/iem too, etc. Very thoughtful.

[EisElle]

more than his picking technique (that actually puts more strain in the toe despite looking so nice and light), I think his soft landings are what limit the damage on boots (and on his foot and all the joints). Of course Yuzuru can have bad/heavy landings too, but on average he lands with nice running edge while e.g. many of Nathan's landings look like he stops on the spot (another example would be a landing like Yuzu's 4lz during WTT17 practice). All that rotational energy from the jump must go somewhere, and if it isn't (partially) converted into exit speed, it means it's all absorbed by boot and body... tbh if Yuzu had less than amazing technique, IMO his ankle wouldn't even have held thus far, with his long history of ankle sprains since his jr days (and once you injury a joint it's usually easier to re-injury no surprise Yuzuru said they couldn't understand what exactly was wrong with that poor right ankle of his)

[Rainbow]

About who sharpens his blades, here's an article.

https://ameblo.jp/clover-waraukadonifuku/entry-11784746700.html

According to the 2008 Sendai Keizai Newspaper Mr. Yoshida, husband of Nanami sensei, used to be an employee for an electric/electronic company.  He decided to help his wife by sharpening the blades for her students and opened the skating goods shop “NICE” in Sendai in 2002 near Ice Link Sendai.  He has the great skill of doing the maintenance job of the outer and inner blades to the millimeter precision customizing to each skater’s tendency the requests.  In Japan there are only handful experts who can skillfully work on the skating blades for edge maintenance, and some coaches do the job themselves. 

 

(Perhaps watching his wife sharpening her students’ blades he decided to help her because working on the sharp edge has the risk of cutting hand.) 

 

In order to learn the skills he read books in English, practiced sharpening all the blades of the rental boots at the ice link. Today because of his high skills he receives requests from all over Japan.   Yoshida says “Hanyu senshu pays particular attention to his boots more than any other skaters, and gives me many detailed requests.   It goes to show how dedicated he is about skating.” 

 

Yoshida has a sharpening machine exclusively customized for Hanyu senshu to meet his specific requests at millimeter precision.  However one time he adjusted his blades on his own.  In 2010 Hanyu senshu won junior world champion.  Shortly before the competition he requested Yoshida to deepen the groove more and more.  Yoshida worried that deeper grooves would cause additional burden on knees and legs, and instead making the grooves shallower each time without telling him.  Hanyu senshu later learned the truth and appreciated him for his care and control.

 

Even after moving to Canada in 2012 spring, Hanyu senshu continues to ask Yoshida to take care of the blades by bringing his boots to his shop while in Japan or sending the boots by parcel.

Hanyu senshu says “I once got a professional in Canada to work on the blades, but afterwards I could no longer jump.  I fully realized how well he has been doing his job exactly as I wanted.”

[SparkleSalad]

@Rainbow Thank you so much!  It seems every professional he works with (blade-sharpener, costume designer, music editor) has the same thing to say about him. An absolute perfectionist.

[Nighticeswan]

6 hours ago, Rainbow said:

Even after moving to Canada in 2012 spring, Hanyu senshu continues to ask Yoshida to take care of the blades by bringing his boots to his shop while in Japan or sending the boots by parcel.

Hanyu senshu says “I once got a professional in Canada to work on the blades, but afterwards I could no longer jump.  I fully realized how well he has been doing his job exactly as I wanted.”

I don't know if someone can please clear this up for me. In this article it says Yuzuru moved to Canada in spring of 2012. However, didn't the Japanese Skating Federation say he was going to still live in Japan and make frequent visits to Canada to train? Then I thought after he graduated high school in spring of 2013 is when he officially moved to Canada? Thanks!

[Fay]

2 hours ago, Nighticeswan said:

I don't know if someone can please clear this up for me. In this article it says Yuzuru moved to Canada in spring of 2012. However, didn't the Japanese Skating Federation say he was going to still live in Japan and make frequent visits to Canada to train? Then I thought after he graduated high school in spring of 2013 is when he officially moved to Canada? Thanks!

He moved to train with Brian in spring 2012, but on condition he makes frequent visits to Japan to finish high school. 

And he stayed long periods in Japan and trained via Skype and email more or less up to spring 2016 - then it changed. 

[Nighticeswan]

On 9/7/2018 at 11:43 PM, Fay said:

He moved to train with Brian in spring 2012, but on condition he makes frequent visits to Japan to finish high school. 

And he stayed long periods in Japan and trained via Skype and email more or less up to spring 2016 - then it changed. 

Thank you!