Men's LP JGP Austria 2012 | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Men's LP JGP Austria 2012

Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
WOW again for Nathan. He skates like a Senior, just small in size but big in attitude. He resembles Kurt Browning the most to my eyes, in his body and movements. PCS are great but he still needs deeper (held) edges and power to compare to the top Men, Senior Men that is. Imagine what a little growth can do for him! Definitely the future for the US Men skating, or US figure skating period.
 

ILoveFigures

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 3, 2011
Chen is just amazing, well done to him :clap: huge, huge score.
I don't find it in myself to hype him though, not yet. He's so talented, but so tiny... he still hasn't hit the big growth spurt (which is just normal of course, considering he's 13) and nobody knows how growing up will affect his skating: look at what happened to Hino. Shoma Uno, who's almost 15 and even shorter than Nathan, is in the same situation. We'll see in a few years.

That's true. You never know what's going to happen to a skater once they hit their growth spurt and the anxieties of adolescence hit - just look at Caroline Zhang and Mirai Nagasu. They were hailed as the next coming but adolescence/ flawed technique/ and physical growth have slowed the advancement of their competitive careers. But the one thing Nathan seems to have in spades even at this young of an age is calculation and focus. You can literally feel it pouring out of him on the ice. He has an agenda out there and he goes out there like he's consciously managing his performance- it's kind of extraordinary.

I just have to point out that a growth spurt does not have the same effect on guys as it does on girls, so it most likely will not be an issue. At the same time Chen has very good technique in all fields, and as long as you have solid technique to begin with, which Mirai and Caroline did not, a growth spurt should not be too much of a problem. ;)
 
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