That makes sense. And I'd add one more trait: the ability to perform under pressure. Having a cool head is a factor that separates "How wonderful he/she is!" from "If only he/she could do in competition what he/she does in practice." I don't know how much of that trait is innate and how much is learned, but most great skaters have it: YuNa, Michelle, Tara, Boitano, Witt. Some other skaters are (seemingly miraculously) able to summon it up at a crucial moment, for example Paul Wylie, who before the 1992 Olympics was known as a head case. He sure wasn't a head case in Albertville.
Natural talent vs Work Ethic
- Thread starter coppertop1
- Start date
That makes sense. And I'd add one more trait: the ability to perform under pressure. Having a cool head is a factor that separates "How wonderful he/she is!" from "If only he/she could do in competition what he/she does in practice." I don't know how much of that trait is innate and how much is learned, but most great skaters have it: YuNa, Michelle, Tara, Boitano, Witt. Some other skaters are (seemingly miraculously) able to summon it up at a crucial moment, for example Paul Wylie, who before the 1992 Olympics was known as a head case. He sure wasn't a head case in Albertville.
While there are people who say Yuzuru is super-talented and there are even some people who call him a phenom, he is also well known as an "extremely" hard worker. He is famous in this part among his fellow skaters and coaches, and people who have seen him train have agreed on that. Javi said there were days when he felt lazy and didn't feel like training, but when he went to the rink and saw Yuzuru training, he thought, "I should train!"
Yuzuru seems to be a person who always puts his 100 % (or even more than that) into nearly everything he is doing; shows, competitions, training, study (which Orser said he is seriously engaged in, and I just read an article that says he studies 7 hours a day!) and even into play and hobbies. People say he is a very emotional person and has a strong competitive spirit. He once admitted that he always wants to win (but he is not afraid of losing), so he tended to push himself too hard and overworked himself, that lead to constant injuries and fatigue (and he has asthma). When he went to the Cricket Club, one of the things they wanted to do first was make him control this intensity and learn to organize his training.
Here's a quote from Bestemyanova/Bobrin's interview.
Here's a quote from Orser in IFS magazine last summer.
He is young, emotinal, inexperienced and has sometimes been carried away by his desire to win, bombed and cried hard. But after the emotion calms down, it seems he has another ability to start to view things objectively, collect things systematically, and analyze the causes why he failed, and it seems to help him a lot at next competitions.
I think that since his lack of on ice time (and off-ice training since I read somewhere that he practically never did off-ice training before his move to Canada) he wouldn't have been able to achieve his numerous and impressive results without always giving 150% in every single second of his scarce training time... (and he sure has to thank his incredible talent for making it so far in such training conditions)
This attitude of Yuzuru's makes him an athlete I'm even more eager to support. But I'm glad that Orser and the rest of his team are trying to get him to "organize his training." I don't want to see him wear his body out with practice that's too intensive the way Tara Lipinski did, robbing herself (and us) of years of skating growth. Overdoing is not always the best policy. As we say over here, don't work harder, work smarter.
I'd love to see Yuzuru dominate the next Olympic cycle as he becomes a more mature artist and performer as well as a stronger skater. He won't be able to do that if he rips up his body with excessive practice.
I'd love to see Yuzuru dominate the next Olympic cycle as he becomes a more mature artist and performer as well as a stronger skater. He won't be able to do that if he rips up his body with excessive practice.
On a similar note, I listened to the interview with Frank Carroll on "The Skating Lesson," and at the very end, he talked about Mirai. The full exchange is here, and the questions start at about 1:01:45.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfu6U5IT-R0
To summarize, the questioner (Jenny Kirk) says she struggles with "discipline and focus" when she asks if he thinks she can be one of the women to make the Olympic team. Frank himself says (in summary) many of her issues are emotional and that she has heavy stuff in her head that she needs to sort out. She then asks about Mirai's under-rotations, and he says discipline is the key to solving them, getting into the rink and doing drills. Take that however you will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfu6U5IT-R0
To summarize, the questioner (Jenny Kirk) says she struggles with "discipline and focus" when she asks if he thinks she can be one of the women to make the Olympic team. Frank himself says (in summary) many of her issues are emotional and that she has heavy stuff in her head that she needs to sort out. She then asks about Mirai's under-rotations, and he says discipline is the key to solving them, getting into the rink and doing drills. Take that however you will.
Oh yes! I'll leave Mirai out of it because I don't have any knowledge of her life. But Ashley for sure has squeezed every ounce of her talent to get farther than many every believed she could. I do think she is quite talented. Anyone who has ever tried a skating or ballet or a sport can see that anyone capable of a triple combo (or a bielmann spin for that matter) has plenty of natural athletic talent. Most of us would not be able to achieve that no matter how long and hard we worked. Even so, Ashley has pushed herself to her limits and her perseverance and refusal to be cast as just another skater is quite impressive. But she still has a down-to-earth quality about her. She's definitely a fun personality.
Similar threads
