Oh okay. I'm sorry for misidentifying but I don't closely keep track of Kim's competition protocols (I rarely read protocols anyway). From my naked eyes her flips sometimes do tend to look like lips but it's not too obvious. I have only seen Osmond do 3 lutzes, and from the angles that I have seen they don't look too much like flutzes (even if she does, she switches at the very last instance and it has been hard to spot with the angles I've been given). It's one of those "somewhere in the middle" cases. There's no need for me to make excuses for my favorites. I am healthy and happy enough with my own life that I don't need to do that. I will watch her lutz more closely next time and If I indeed think she flutzes then I will say she flutzes. Because, well, so what if she flutzes? Doesn't affect me one way or the other. Unlike fans of some certain other skaters.
Flips sometimes have the impression of being on an outside edge because of the bend in the ankle on the take-off that some skaters tend to have. That has nothing to do with the edge, that's them applying some edge pressure and it doesn't necessarily mean their edge rolled over. Video analysis supports this. Most skaters do not do their flip jumps off really deep inside edges, as it can cause the take-off to be unstable (nevermind the risk of losing the edge on the take-off). That's also one of the reasons why a lot of skaters moved to short lutz take-off (i.e. Slutskaya, who had no Flutz issues, moved to a shorter lutz take-off to improve her take-off stability and consistency, and suddenly it went form being her most inconsistent jump to one of her most consistent).
As for the hammer toe. Well, some could call it that, on her flip and lutz. It's slightly there, but not excessive like a Lipinski Lutz or Murakami's toe jumps. It's more reminiscent of Ito's toe jumps.
I do think Yuna Kim's toe loop technique when it's the back jump in her combinations is sort of bad, though. She tends to jump off of two feet and rotate instead of bringing the skating leg back on the jump. Actually, the technique she uses is actually quite astonishing because she makes the jump way harder than it needs to be. Instead of doing 2.5'ish rotations which is normal for a Triple Toe Loop, she does a full 3. But it can cost her URs in places where a proper take-off would have easily gotten the jump around.
I've seen her solo 3Toe and it looked much better. Her Salchow landings scare me a little...
A Flutz should be a major fault, even a slight one. Because a Lutz is significantly more difficult than a flip. That's why the BV of a 3 Loop compared to a 3 Flip is 5.1 vs. 5.2 and then it jumps up to 6.0 for a 3 Lutz. To say a flutz isn't a big deal is to say that it's of comparable difficulty to a Loop or Flip, and therefore should be overlooked at a fairly minor error - which it isn't. Skaters learn Half and Single Lutzes in Learn to Skate and by the time they're elite they should have mastery over basic edges and take-off mechanics. Edge calls on jump take-offs need to be penalized more, and a bonus should be given to skaters who can display all 5 triples in one program. 3/3 Combinations should get a 10% bonus to the base value of the jumps. The distribution bonus for jumps in the last half of the program should be halved as it allows skaters with easier programs or virtually extinct components to game the system by simply backloading their programs (in Ladies this means we often get to see 2 Salchows back there).
Skaters who have edge issues on a jump will usually not have more than one in a program. Gracie Gold has only one Flip in her FS, and Ashley Wagner/Sotnikova only one Lutz, for example.
Osmond has a flutz and is trying to fix it. Yu-Na does not have an issue with her flip take-off.
