Yuzuru Hanyu: 2015-16 Season

[Lindacrow]

Can we stop arguing about his "mental" problem and just trust that he will work on it. So ironic how a SILVER medal has changed everything. People used to praise his coach, team and his strong mental strength. I honestly just think he peaked too early and the amount of pressure was unbearable. You win some, you lose some.

 

[gsyzf]

I was thinking, how likely could it be for Yuzu to go to other GP that's not NHK? Maybe that could help him go to 4CC because having NHK, GPF and Nationals one after the other exhausted him and that's one of the reasons why he skipped 4 CC. So, if he were to chose an earlier GP event, he may have some time to refuel and skate at 4 CC.

I don't think the date is the reason he skipped 4CC. He didn't skip 4CC in 2013 and he did NHK, GPF and national one after another. The European championship is in January, which is even closer to Russian national, but the Russians would not skip Euro either and they also do COR, GPF, and national one after another. If 4CC is a competition he values, he will go. When he skipped 4CC two years in a row in order to prepare the WC, it already showed he cared about winning the WC (perhaps a bit too much and it adds more pressure to himself).

 

[Nontama0817]

Taking about possibility of NHK opting for Shoma.
Very unlikely. The rating of 4CC was 8.6% with Shoma and Satoko compared to Yuzu or Mao over 20%

 

[Meoima]

Because from what I've seen, Yuzu enjoy very much winning the GPF thrice in a row.

And bombed at Olympic, Shanghai and Boston really give him some good feeling. Let's not be political correct, all skaters and the whole FS world care about WC and Olympic more than GPF.
I'm glad he has won 3 GPF in a row. I will be glad if he wins it again next season, but with the cost of WC title? Eh no. WC all the way. But of course I am sure some skaters would trade their WC for Yuzuru's OGM so yeah...

Having said that, as great as Yuna was, she only won WC twice, in 2009 and 2013 and if we don't count the 2012 when she took a year off, then she had to wait for 2 seasons to regain that title. So maybe next year Yuzuru will finally overcome his demons and wins WC 2017.

 

[SuzyQ]

Today's news article. It says, Yuzuru had serious reservations about the second 4S. Due to injury of his left instep that reoccurred at the beginning of this year, he had to change the second 4T to 4S, because toe jump gives stress on his left foot. It means his layout change was not to earn additional points. I never imagined this.

http://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2016/04/03/kiji/K20160403012331060.html

He did not excuse his injury for his defeat. Javi did well also with injury. Chan banged into the rink wall. So many things happened in the rink including his own failures. He says "This is the Worlds with so many dramas." "I could not win at this stage. It means I have still a long road to travel", he emphasized his words.

Go for it, Yuzuru

 

[Poice]

I always try to look on the bright side. Last year Yuzu had many problems with his body and injuries, so this season he learnt to be more cautious and effective in training. This year he was in great shape but couldn't deal with pressure....and he's willing to work on it. For me it means that next season he's going to be more stable mentally. Just in time for 2018 Olympics - great body management and ability to deal well with pressure.

 

[Lindacrow]

Having said that, as great as Yuna was, she only won WC twice, in 2009 and 2013 and if we don't count the 2012 when she took a year off, then she had to wait for 2 seasons to regain that title. So maybe next year Yuzuru will finally overcome his demons and wins WC 2017.

You know, I'm not really one to believe in the venue/country thing, but Europe has been pretty kind to Yuzu. (Hague 2010, Moscow 2011, Nice 2012, Sochi 2012, Sochi 2014, Barcelona 2014,2015) I'm just trying to move on from Worlds 2016 and get myself pumped up for 2017!

 

[Meoima]

Can we stop arguing about his "mental" problem and just trust that he will work on it. So ironic how a SILVER medal has changed everything. People used to praise his coach, team and his strong mental strength. I honestly just think he peaked too early and the amount of pressure was unbearable. You win some, you lose some.

The issue is the way he bombed in those biggest events, not because he lost. He got silver in GPF 2012, he was off podium at WC 2013, or he lost SC 2015 recently... But those times he bounced back after horrible SP. that means he fought a lot.

In SA 2012 he lost even though gold should have been in his hand. Sochi he was lucky that Patrick bombed too. Shanghai and Boston he wasn't lucky because Javi took the chance.

He left the door open while the gold was almost in his hand. This kind of issue is alarming because he aims for the biggest events and most of these are the biggest events.

 

[FTnoona]

He held the pressure well in GPF, but for me there is no denying that worlds just isn't his best competition. To me he seems like more of a come from behind skater at worlds. Sure it would be great for him to be able to learn and handle the pressure, but that is easier said than done. You can have one of the biggest coaches in the world, but I don't think nerves of steel is something that is easily taught or even something that you can teach or else everyone would be throwing down perfect skates all the time.

 

[Meoima]

You know, I'm not really one to believe in the venue/country thing, but Europe has been pretty kind to Yuzu. (Hague 2010, Nice 2012, Sochi 2012, Sochi 2014, Barcelona 2014,2015) I'm just trying to move on from Worlds 2016 and get myself pumped up for 2017!

I have noticed that too. With Yuna, she won her biggest events at NA (first WC in US, second WC in Canada, Olympic in Canada).
With Yuzuru I think Europe is very good for him. Asia is neutral in general, however he still has quite a number of good competitions in Asia.
So yeah we have high hope for next WC. Not to mention he often does well in Finland. :clapper:

 

[Athena13]

We must remember Yuzuru is only 21, I mean he obviously has so much time to accomplish all he wants. Only if he won't retire after 2018 but even after 2018 I think he will win a lot more we just have to keep faith in his training. Yuzuru doesn't give up after one bad performance. He'll recover whatever issues he had and come back stronger. I know it's weird because he wasn't injured but like I said before this day and age a clean skate is miracle so I'd take one fully clean SP over the mess that was last season. Try to stay positive folks!

P.S. I wish he would skip NHK too but it seems unlikely hopefully he goes to 4CC but that's a pipe dream.

 

[unico]

It seems like there's so much conflicting opinions, but I hope it doesn't tear this fan fest apart, everyone should be welcome to respectively express their opinions. We all come from the same place of enjoying his skating. It's not worth fighting over, because Hanyu will overcome this wall too I hope his Requiem in the gala will help soothe some of the aching that this painful loss has caused to him and his fans, and remind everyone that even if loses a competition, he still uses every opportunity to convey and spread a message about perseverance, healing from pain and suffering, and hope.

“I love him, i love him, and it’s so touching to see this big champion who is almost like apologising to the crowd; what an exceptional gift of heart and humility. (…) There’s so much content in his program, so much content that says “look at me i want to be olympic champion in one year and a half” and look at him he touches the ice and bows once again to the crowd. There’s a lot of nobility in this skater”

-Annick Dumont about Yuzuru Hanyu after his free program at Worlds 2016 in Boston

What a nice quote she is a french coach.

Thank you for the nice words from this commentator.

From this icenetwork article, the legendary Katia Gordeeva says something nice:

She grew a bit offended at the suggestion that many of today's skaters are more athletes than artists.

"No, no. Yuzuru [Hanyu] skates from his heart," she said. "Adam Rippon skates from his heart. Grant [Hochstein] skated his free skate from his heart. It's not the amount of elements or difficulty -- it's how you feel the music, how you feel the program, how you feel your partner at that moment. The dancers (Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron), you didn't want their programs to end. With all of the difficult elements, today's skaters definitely have to be more concentrated, a little bit more conservative with their emotions, but still I think it's possible."

Even after his subpar freeskate, she speaks of him this nicely. He is very hard on himself, harder than even his harshest critics (or his some of his fans here ), so it's nice to see such an outpouring of sympathy and respect from other skaters.

This year's Yuzuru was stronger than last year's, and he'll be stronger once again next year.

 

[FTnoona]

P.S. I wish he would skip NHK too but it seems unlikely hopefully he goes to 4CC but that's a pipe dream.

I think he will most likely go to 4CC next year. It's suppose to be the test event for Pyeongchang, so I think we will be seeing a lot of the big names attending 4CC in 2017.

 

[Lindacrow]

Yuzuru is skating 19th at the gala

 

[hamaguri]

Yuzuru is skating 19th at the gala

Wow! What's the program? Can't wait!:luv17:

 

[Diahpam]

Today finally i brace myself to watch the fs program. It painful alright, but i think deep down i somewhat know that this time yuzu won't make it- the pressure is just too much. However, like some of you already said, i think yuzu show improvement in that he didnt laser-focused on his failure and completey throw away his amazing accomplishment.because it was amazing!! That itself is a great improvement.
I always concerned about his crazy ambitious drive for winning, because if you put too much pressure into something it could broke. However, i think yuzu already noticed this. I'm sure he will work on this. It will be another wall in yuzu's journey., and like previous wall he too will climb over it somehow. I believe in our boy!!
Frankly speaking, I'm somewhat happy it happen. I mean, sure it painful and bitter. But it make yuzu and his team realize his serious issue and work on it. It also make us his fans to realize and to not taken his talent for granted.
His 'failure' make me love him even more! He is not perfect, he is not a god, he is flawed, but the fact that he is not give up despite all flaws and failures make him so precious i want to 'wrap him up in cotton wool' forever

 

[Diahpam]

And i read some comments that mention yuzu should consider to change coach? It's yuzu's decision. But i hope he won't. I think brian, tracy, tcc environment-and yes also javi is good for him. It somewhat make his life felt more normal? In Japan, i think it will be like pressure cooker for him..

 

[Raomina]

I haven't posted in a while but I've become a huge Yuzuru fan last year and came to Boston just to watch him skate. I know that we are all disappointed FOR him (I was so sad because I knew he would be devastated by his performance), so just by reading what has been posted since yesterday and the discussion now, I think that we should remember that we all want what's best for him!

I do agree somewhat with what Meoima mentioned previously about how over-thinking, overconfidence and over-training seem to be what usually affects Yuzu and after watching what happened yesterday, I came to the same conclusion myself.

Even before the warm up, I was very nervous for his skate because he was so emotional after his short program and you could tell that he was very nervous before both short and long programs. Hearing that he practised so many quads in the morning (does he usually do so many in a row? And all mainly one jump) made me think that he would tire his body out. He seems to do better after being well-rested like at the first practise session on Monday and going into jumps confidently. During the 6 min warm up, he doubled his loop and I was even more anxious from that. He doubled it again in the warm up right before his skate and I knew it would be a bad skate for him even though he landed the 3A, since it's so rare to see him double his loops. That just spells trouble for his salchows and it made him visibly more anxious and I was not surprised at all when he said later that he was not confident in his 4S-3T (in fact, all his salchows had problems). Frankly, I have never seen him so anxious and nervous before a competition as much as he was here and I was surprised when I read that he said he was calm before the start of his program. His demeanor didn't seem calm (in my opinion) but frazzled instead. High-strung. Actually, high-strung is probably the best adjective to describe him this whole week.

I feel like the pressure both from himself and the audience for a PERFECT skate from him was too much for him to handle. I think that he wanted to be perfect much more than he wanted to be first (though being first would come naturally if he skated perfectly). One thing he admires so much about Plushenko was his ability to skate clean so many times and he even asked him about that during the ice show in January. So once he messed up the first jump, he just fell apart (by his standards). The fight that is usually there for him wasn't there last night since he already failed his goal of being perfect after the first jump. Just because of one thing he knew going in that could've made his skate not perfect (4S-3T) affected his whole performance and I thought that he should've went for the 4T-3T instead after all the 4T practice he did that morning and he felt that it wasn't stable. He was over-thinking it right from the start and essentially, the same thing that happened at Nationals happened here. He perhaps should've taken his own advice from after the Nationals skate and just do each element one by one instead of trying to achieve perfection!

Sure, he is just as disappointed as we all are, but I sense now that he is actually relieved after the performance because the pressure is gone.

Of course, these are all just from my perspective and are just my opinion, so don't treat them as facts.

 

[Eloyse]

Having said that, as great as Yuna was, she only won WC twice, in 2009 and 2013 and if we don't count the 2012 when she took a year off, then she had to wait for 2 seasons to regain that title. So maybe next year Yuzuru will finally overcome his demons and wins WC 2017.

Hi Meoima
You talk about demons and mental issues all the time, but have you considered this possibility: Yuzuru's failure was mostly due to his technical problems instead of mental problems? Check the practice videos, you will see that Yuzuru struggled with his 3Lz and 3a1l3s in his lp runthroughs. The landings of his 3lo were not very clean either. My theory is that Yuzuru's practice of 4Lz and 4Lo affected his 3Lz and 3Lo. I don't know what happened to the 3a1l3s, but he popped the -3s in his final runthrough just like he popped it in the competition. He definitely had some TECHNICAL issues there. I said before I thought about the possibility of him bombing the program, because the signals were all there. I don't think Yuzuru is as mentally week as you think he is. He just needs to find a way to settle these difficult quad jumps. Please have some confidence in him

 

[treeloving]

He held the pressure well in GPF, but for me there is no denying that worlds just isn't his best competition. To me he seems like more of a come from behind skater at worlds. Sure it would be great for him to be able to learn and handle the pressure, but that is easier said than done. You can have one of the biggest coaches in the world, but I don't think nerves of steel is something that is easily taught or even something that you can teach or else everyone would be throwing down perfect skates all the time.

Yes it is much easier said than done.

Anyway after watching Medvedeva landing all those jump like nothing, I start to feel that the nerves of steel is somewhat genetic