Her 3-lutz-3-toe. If Yu Na couldn't pull off that 3-3 so beautifully time and time again, she would be in the mix of top skaters but would not be so far ahead of her rivals. The rest of her skating is good but her 3-3 is really her calling card in my opinion.
That was my reasoning as well. What makes a strong skater is a lack of weakness. You don't have to be the absolute best or even excellent at everything. As long as you do everything well and can do it well consistently, you are ahead of the game.
Jump technique - far and away. It is mind blowing - the speed, height, flow.
I have ALWAYS been quite baffled by how weak her foot position is - especially glaring in spirals (accentuated by her preference for leggings over her boots), and layback (would have never passed muster in the Kwan/Cohen/Hughes/Nikodinov era, where Kwan's interestingly enough was the weakest).
It's always about working with what you've got. Michelle didn't have the best attitude position in her layback. Next to Sasha, Sarah and Angela, her position was the weakest. She worked on it for a bit in 2000 and it improved. But eventually she found a way to make the spin unique and beautiful without the extended leg and it became a signature for her.
Yu-Na's back position in her layback is gorgeous...it's just the foot she needs to work on. And ITA about the tights; it's time she ditches them. They do nothing for her lines. If anything they make her feet look worse. And as for her spiral, I always thought she'd benefit from going the Nancy Kerrigan route.
Michelle seems to have had the least back flexibility of the ones mentioned along with her (Cohen, Hughes, Nikodinov). Nikodinov's layback was especially gorgeous. The other day I was watching an old video of Gordeeva, one of her first solo skates, and she did an Ina Bauer that was almost vertical, a position Michelle also seemed to take for that move. Yet despite that lack of flexibility (in that move at least), to me Katia and Michelle were possibly the two most graceful skaters ever (I speak subjectively). I guess that's an example of irony. But it does prove that flexibility in and of itself isn't a requirement for graceful skating. Similarly, I don't think of YuNa as unusually flexible, but she is graceful.
Much as I love Yuna, I gotta say that I personally prefer the white boot look as a general rule.Tights over boots make you look like you have some sort of horrible bone disease in your ankles.
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/10500000/KIM-yuna-kim-10541425-500-673.jpg
Much as I love Yuna, I gotta say that I personally prefer the white boot look as a general rule.
But at a certain point in a career, particularly after a certain amount of success, I'm thinking it becomes more about physical familiarity and psychological comfort than anything else.
Athletes are probably among the most deeply and reflexively superstitious people on earth, right up there with, ah, Haitian practitioners of decidedly alternative medicine . (I'm trying to be politically correct, and finding it doesn't suit me )
They all adhere to the venerable motto: Don't fix what aint broke. And if it pisses off some people on skating boards, the hell with 'em.
And just like in football; it is amazing how good a bad uniform looks when the team wearing them are the best at playing the game.
Much as I love Yuna, I gotta say that I personally prefer the white boot look as a general rule.
But at a certain point in a career, particularly after a certain amount of success, I'm thinking it becomes more about physical familiarity and psychological comfort than anything else.
No one does 3-3 better than Yuna, but IMO, that is not her greatest attribute. As many said before, what makes Yuna truly special is her innate musicality.
Based on the look, I think that "Killer Bees" would suit them much better. Also sounds more ferocious.They look dressed for an insect killer commercial.
Agree that her 3lz-3t is special. So was her 3F-3t, as well as her 2A-3t.Without the 3-3, Yu Na would be on a par, at best, with her closest rivals. I don't see her exhibitions, without her 3-3, as that special. Her 3-3 is the best, and that, with her amazing consistency in doing the difficult combo, is what really sets her apart.