Behind the first successful quad loop in (competition) history -brief translation of main points
in video:
1) Snippets from Yuzuru’s Autumn Classic, SP and FS.
2) Last season, Hanyu’s quad jumps were toeloop and salchow. This season, he adds a quad loop, a jump that takes off with the right foot. It is a jump that is more difficult and has a higher base value (12 points) than the toeloop (10.3) and salchow (10.5).
3) We look at the story behind that successful quad loop.
In this scene from 5 years ago (2011), 16 year-old Hanyu was practising the quad loop. At that time, he was learning 2 kinds of quad jumps and he sometimes challenged the quad loop.
4) In 2014, 19 year-old Hanyu said he practised the quad loop just to challenge himself, but does not intend to include it in competition.
5) Last year, in 2015, he said:
–I am thinking that I want to include the quad loop.
–the younger skaters are coming up.
–the number of quads will definitely increase.
Q: Your goal is a gold medal at the next Olympics. If the quads don’t increase, it will be hard?
–You can’t keep up (if you don’t increase the quads).
6) Just as what he predicted, last season, the quads in men’s figure skating progressed. China’s Boyang Jin (18 years old) has a quad lutz as his weapon. It is the most difficult quad jump done so far. [scene from Nov 2015, NHK Trophy]
7) This year January, Hanyu said (at 4:00 of video, in the car):
–it did not take up that much time (to be able to jump quad loop).
–the control of it is difficult.
–it’s hard to express it in words, you have to enter the jump with a ‘shuuu~t’. (laughs)
8) Actually, last season’s World Championships (April), he thought of putting in the quad loop. But due to an injury of the left foot, he put off this challenge. From April, he needed 2 months to recuperate. Then last month (Sept), he showed a splendid quad loop in open practice. He said the 4Lo, which uses the right foot for take-off, puts less stress on the left foot compared to other jumps. So he was able to start practising it earlier (after recovery from left foot injury).
9) Then, at his first competition of this season, Autumn Classic, SP, he succeeded in the very first quad loop of official competition. But he made a mistake in the quad salchow combination jump. He was very dissatisfied with his performance.
“I want to practise as soon as possible.” (I have translated his interview in a previous post.)
10) His next competition is Skate Canada at the end of Oct.
—-brief translation by me; video thanks to YzRIKO
* I laughed when I heard him talk about the jump with his favourite word 'shuuu~t’. ^^ (There was one talk show in 2014 where Nobunari Oda asked him how to do a particular jump and Yuzu said 'just go shuuu~t’, and poor Nobu said, “What is 'shuuu~t’?? I don’t understand!!!”) ^^
(
tumblr source with my thanks!)
. What do you think about it?
