Yuzuru Hanyu: 2016-17 Season

[Marin]

I can't really remember the last time he hasn't skated in the final group! Was it Worlds 2013?
Hoping he doesn't feel too wound up after the SP.

sc 2015 he was 7 th no? In second group .

 

[Farnaz]

I myself would be shouting 大丈夫!!! (daijoubu) - "it's okay". Not sure if there is a common chant for that kind of thing though.

I see, that's more suitable

 

[nihil]

I don't think Yuzuru should fight his perfectionism, because that's who he is - he should accept it and treat it as his strength.

He shouldn't fight but he needs to learn how to handle it. Now it's quite unruly so he himself cannot predict the outcome. I am a perfectionist too and it took me some time to learn my "stopping points". And you usually learn them the hard way

 

[Yatagarasu]

LGC is too difficult IMO.

Nah, he can do LGC in his sleep.

It's just that there is a weird disconect when it comes to WTT. It is supposedly a fluff competition, and frankly, looking at other teams I pretty much did get the feeling that they were having a good time, even if Kovtun forgot his jumps in Russia and Kevin his in Canada. But it's not really that for Japan, because there is the intense pressure of performing at home and on top of that, the silly forced rivalry with Shoma, who gets away with it while everything is heaped up on Yuzuru. And then you get the dichotomy of a fluff competition, where not only scores count, but you've got external pressures and on top of that internally, Yuzuru's own sense of responsibility and desire to show the best at home. So he's supposed to deal with fluff that's not really fluff.

Honestly, who cares. I think he'll pick his own feelings apart once it settles down just fine and realize that he peaked mentally and physically for the right competition which was the Worlds (which also means most of his strength, even mental, went there; as it should have) and it's difficult to suddenly raise your game again for such a conflict situation. As I said, who cares. He'll realize that too after a while. He got the most important medal this season, World Gold is his. He's got the whole summer to use whatever frustration this left him with and hopefully channel it into a new SP

He can skate LGC just fine, I do think it's just time for vacation. Honestly, even Zhenya looked tired today! Everyone pretty much did.

 

[maxcellwire]

I myself would be shouting 大丈夫!!! (daijoubu) - "it's okay". Not sure if there is a common chant for that kind of thing though.

Might be a bit trivial, but I'm a fan of Haikyuu (the volleyball anime) and whenever a player loses a point to the other side, their teammates shout 'Don't mind! Don't mind!' It must be nice to be part of a sport where that team mentality is there, even here at Team trophy the pressure is still on one person to perform at any one time

 

[KatjaThera]

A couple of loose thoughts after today's SP.
I see many people (not necessarily here) saying that he should be less focused on achieving perfection and more on enjoying himself when skating. This kind of approach will NEVER ever work with a perfectionist. I know, I am one, and had some troubles because of this over the years.

A perfectionist can only enjoy themselves when they are good technically. If something goes wrong, if they make a mistake, they can no longer be happy or relax. That's the way we are. We are also obsessive worriers, struggle with self-esteem and work best under immense pressure. Sounds familiar?

I am a performer and there used to a piece during which I would always have a memory lapse on stage. Compare this to... popping a jump. My friends and coaches would make a joke that this piece was "cursed" and kind of made fun of it. After a while I gave up and stopped performing it because I pretty much developed a weird trauma because of being obssessed with the mistakes, which appeared no matter how prepared I was. Plus because I am a freaking perfectionist, I had this image in my head that I would always fail in this piece, no matter what. It took me 3 years to perform that piece cleanly two times in a row. I guess I learned a lesson.

I don't think Yuzuru should fight his perfectionism, because that's who he is - he should accept it and treat it as his strength. But, comparing his body language before SP today with Shoma's (congrats to him! and a good sport at knc), the difference is staggering. I would love to see someone with background in psychology analyze this a bit. (from my own experience - I behave similarly when I'm "off" - tense posture, looks that could kill).

I am not too worried because this competition is not that important, mistakes like could happen to anyone, even in most relaxed circumstances. In fact, it makes me respect him more as a performer and grounds me a little bit, especially when I obsess over my mistakes. I also don't expect a brilliant free skate tomorrow, because I suppose he still will be hung up over his mistakes from today. The humiliation that he surely must feel is hard to get through, but ironically, it can lessen the pressure.

What do you guys think? His mind surely isn't his weakness but he needs to work out how to be better attuned to his mental condition. He's blessed with great technique, talent for performing and good work ethic. I'm sure he'll come up with a solution!

This is a very good point. I guess more than seeing him fail jumps, it hurts to see him not enjoying it.

I wonder if trying out a Japanese sport for a while, maybe as part of his off-ice training might help? Something like kendo or aikido or so. I haven't tried either - though have considered it - but as far as I know, both put a lot of emphasis on self-knowledge, self-awareness and self-control and meditation-like focus (I'm sure I'm really bad at explaining this, but hopefully you know what I mean). It might help him learn to clear his mind before a competition and, in somewhat cliche terms, become more zen.

I don't think comparing him to Shoma is fair now, though. Their pressures are very different, and if Shoma failed, everyone would just say: "well, he's young, he'll get there next time and he's already so close!" For Yuzu, like someone well put it, it's more than just a bad day, it's humiliating - in his perception, that is - after what happened at Worlds, and especially because it's supposed to be a fun event. (Edited out because of too much negative speculation. We'll never know what Shoma or anyone else is thinking, anyway.)

On a brighter note... could we somehow spam Tracy with support messages for Yuzu, that she could pass on to him? : Last time he said it was the support that helped him overcome depression, so...

 

[Yuaz]

thats why I don't like the rivalry drama created by J'media, afterall Yuzu always got the pressure and Shoma got the momentum

Can't believe he must go through all that drama.. First vs Dai, then vs Patrick, Javi , Boyang,.Nathan.. And now Shoma.. Who's next? But after all he's still the best among them all..

 

[katonice]

A couple of loose thoughts after today's SP.
I see many people (not necessarily here) saying that he should be less focused on achieving perfection and more on enjoying himself when skating. This kind of approach will NEVER ever work with a perfectionist. I know, I am one, and had some troubles because of this over the years.

A perfectionist can only enjoy themselves when they are good technically. If something goes wrong, if they make a mistake, they can no longer be happy or relax. That's the way we are. We are also obsessive worriers, struggle with self-esteem and work best under immense pressure. Sounds familiar?

I am a performer and there used to a piece during which I would always have a memory lapse on stage. Compare this to... popping a jump. My friends and coaches would make a joke that this piece was "cursed" and kind of made fun of it. After a while I gave up and stopped performing it because I pretty much developed a weird trauma because of being obssessed with the mistakes, which appeared no matter how prepared I was. Plus because I am a freaking perfectionist, I had this image in my head that I would always fail in this piece, no matter what. It took me 3 years to perform that piece cleanly two times in a row. I guess I learned a lesson.

I don't think Yuzuru should fight his perfectionism, because that's who he is - he should accept it and treat it as his strength. But, comparing his body language before SP today with Shoma's (congrats to him! and a good sport at knc), the difference is staggering. I would love to see someone with background in psychology analyze this a bit. (from my own experience - I behave similarly when I'm "off" - tense posture, looks that could kill).

I am not too worried because this competition is not that important, mistakes like could happen to anyone, even in most relaxed circumstances. In fact, it makes me respect him more as a performer and grounds me a little bit, especially when I obsess over my mistakes. I also don't expect a brilliant free skate tomorrow, because I suppose he still will be hung up over his mistakes from today. The humiliation that he surely must feel is hard to get through, but ironically, it can lessen the pressure.

What do you guys think? His mind surely isn't his weakness but he needs to work out how to be better attuned to his mental condition. He's blessed with great technique, talent for performing and good work ethic. I'm sure he'll come up with a solution!

It's interesting to hear about what goes on in the mind of a perfectionist. How did you finally manage to break through it and perform the piece with no mistakes? Do you need to recognize when the perfectionist thoughts are taking over too much, and learn to tone them down a little bit? Or just accept your own perfectionism, and just learn to manage what comes afterwards if you don't quite get it there? I'm just really curious now.

 

[Yatagarasu]

(And actually, I had a little cringe moment at Shoma's post skate comment, though I'm sure it wasn't intentional. Namely he said something like: "I'll try my hard not to cause trouble [for the team]."

What a nice guy Shoma, only not really. Taking potshots now, because nah, he is not dumb, ah such a nice guy

 

[KatjaThera]

Might be a bit trivial, but I'm a fan of Haikyuu (the volleyball anime) and whenever a player loses a point to the other side, their teammates shout 'Don't mind! Don't mind!' It must be nice to be part of a sport where that team mentality is there, even here at Team trophy the pressure is still on one person to perform at any one time

Actually, in the post skate interview on TV Asahi he said his team mates were telling him "Don't mind! Don't mind!" Sadly it's not so easy not to mind. But big :agree: to Team Japan for trying!

 

[FTnoona]

sc 2015 he was 7 th no? In second group .

He was 6th at SC 2015, so I think he made the final group.

 

[KatjaThera]

What a nice guy Shoma, only not really. Taking potshots now, because nah, he is not dumb, ah such a nice guy

I'd really rather believe he didn't mean it and it just slipped. I'm not a fan, so I haven't watched many interviews with him, but in the few I've seen he always says humble things like this... well, who knows. Even if he meant it, he'd be neither the first, nor the last to be mean towards Yuzu.

 

[sublimeskating]

Can't believe he must go through all that drama.. First vs Dai, then vs Patrick, Javi , Boyang,.Nathan.. And now Shoma.. Who's next? But after all he's still the best among them all..

Urgh I really dislike the way the media hypes up the "rivalries" too!

Can't they just let these incredibly hard working athletes do their thing and enjoy the show?

Why create all this unnecessary DRAMA??? Let the performances speak for themselves and athletes are human too, so no need to put even more pressure on them when they're already carrying the weight of their country's expectations on their shoulders.

 

[Marbeelsss]

Hello everyone! A new member here! I feel the urge to make an acc because i want to share few things in my mind about yuzu.. but before that, im sorry for my english.. english is not my main language

Im a very superstitious person like yuzu, i somehow sees his winning as a pattern..

On his senior debut 2012 both of his sp and fs were beautiful, his fs at nice RJ1 made him very famous, despite the fall on step sequence, for a senior debut he's doing amazing. So in summary; its a good season for him

2012/2013 season, the sp is still 'eh' and the fs is just.. not as good as the iconic dramatic RJ1, so not that good season for him

Fortunately on 2013/2014 both of his sp and fs were not that good, but he's still keeping his sp and level up the dificulities which leads him as the first man to pass 100 points barrier, and also his new sp is beautiful He won all major competitions! So This year is a great season indeed!

2014/2015 is not 'his' season, but phantom is great! The early version of chopin is also great but i still prefer the newest ones! This year is a -so-so season for him

but he still keeping his sp for 2015/2016 season which leads him ito another WR and even he became the first man to pass 200 & 300 point mark. Another great season for him!

Unfortunatelly like the same pattern we had before, 2016/2017 is not going that well, H&L did have the current WR but its not as popular as seimei, LGC is waaaayyy difficult than PW and chopin, although he botched his jumps his spins & step sequences always lv 4 (compare to chopin) but still i think for yuzu the best kind of sp is something slow & elegant like PW & chopin.

Ok so my superstitious mind says..
2017/2018 will be a good year for him. I dont know whether he'll keep lgc or not, but next year will be better for sure,
Just Look at the pattern

Shoma/nathan/boyang can get a clean sp & Fs in all competition throughout the season for all i care, but they can never be as good as yuzu, (even a bad SP & clean FS yuzu can still beat other skater clean skate both sp and fs, imagine if he went clean for BOTH, gpf 2015 & nhk 2015 for example)
i play music, and was a dancer, and i can say yuzu musicality is just amazing, sometimes i wonder if he plays music instrument.. all of his programs have a great songs and enjoyable, and the parts that he use were perfectly combined they didnt sounded so weird (his POTO song is the best one, unlike some skaters POTO sometimes went very slow and suddenly very strong and fast, dont have a good transition) he doesnt want to do his jumps in easy-peasy way(he does a lot of hard transitions) & his landings were beautiful, he made quads looks easy!

WTT is just for fun, but i bet he's depressed right now, he has a lot of pressure, he just got his monument revealed, prince anniversary, the last chance to do clean prince.. yet he didnt get it clean (again, for the last time)..

i dont know what to say anymore, im just hoping he'll do great tomorrow and have fun with his team!
YUZU GANBAA

(Sorryfor the long post and uncountable grammatical error)

 

[ralucutzagy]

I'd really rather believe he didn't mean it and it just slipped. I'm not a fan, so I haven't watched many interviews with him, but in the few I've seen he always says humble things like this... well, who knows. Even if he meant it, he'd be neither the first, nor the last to be mean towards Yuzu.

I don't think that he meant to be mean to Yuzu ... They seem to be in good terms. But who knows ...

 

[Floria]

He has always a tremendous amount pressure. Shoma said at Nationals 2016 where yuzu was absent that he didn’t know yuzu had fought with such an amount of pressure. His pressure is always beyond our imagination.

This time, he just got tired too much. After Worlds, he must have attended to the event, interviews, commented about Mao…. He always devotes himself to what he’s doing and he really wanted to show his gratitude for fans. His schedule was too busy after worlds. Even me, after I came back from Helsinki, still I cant get back to a normal mode in my life. His program is too difficult and it needs a lot of concentration. That’s all. But I really love such yuzu. He always does his best with everything and not trying to save his energy. His attitudes like this sometimes leads to a failure this time (he’s not a machine!) , but it’s very human!
This season, he was late for his injury. But he got the big title of GPF and what’s more, he got back the Worlds title! What else can we wish with him? He succeeded with his peaking. His peaking was Worlds 2017. Do you remember the WTT 2015? After his EX of WTT 2015, he laughed that his peaking was WTT, not WC which was most important.

Of course, I know he got totally angered at himself. So I really wish he will achieve the performance which he wants to. That’s all.

He is reigning Olympic, World and GPF champion. He wasn't lower then second place all season. So, who cares about WTT now? Would we prefer him to win WTT and lose WC like in 2015? Ok, I am cheering up myself now.

What a nice guy Shoma, only not really. Taking potshots now, because nah, he is not dumb, ah such a nice guy

I thought better of him, really.

 

[Yuaz]

Nah, he can do LGC in his sleep.

It's just that there is a weird disconect when it comes to WTT. It is supposedly a fluff competition, and frankly, looking at other teams I pretty much did get the feeling that they were having a good time, even if Kovtun forgot his jumps in Russia and Kevin his in Canada. But it's not really that for Japan, because there is the intense pressure of performing at home and on top of that, the silly forced rivalry with Shoma, who gets away with it while everything is heaped up on Yuzuru. And then you get the dichotomy of a fluff competition, where not only scores count, but you've got external pressures and on top of that internally, Yuzuru's own sense of responsibility and desire to show the best at home. So he's supposed to deal with fluff that's not really fluff.

Honestly, who cares. I think he'll pick his own feelings apart once it settles down just fine and realize that he peaked mentally and physically for the right competition which was the Worlds (which also means most of his strength, even mental, went there; as it should have) and it's difficult to suddenly raise your game again for such a conflict situation. As I said, who cares. He'll realize that too after a while. He got the most important medal this season, World Gold is his. He's got the whole summer to use whatever frustration this left him with and hopefully channel it into a new SP

He can skate LGC just fine, I do think it's just time for vacation. Honestly, even Zhenya looked tired today! Everyone pretty much did.

I believe he can do LGC in his sleep it just different when you're in the real competition .. People can feel the pressure and being nervous or so intense .. That's why usually they can do more or better at practice but they can't in the real competition.. I'm admire the skaters who can relax during competition

 

[Altie]

What a nice guy Shoma, only not really. Taking potshots now, because nah, he is not dumb, ah such a nice guy

I don't think you should read too much into it, he said exactly the same thing to Matsuoka-san in the Japan team interview several days ago - that he didn't want to be a weight for the team and that kind of thing... it's his first WTT and there is bigh pressure to be strong for the team in japanese culture (sadly, they already have too much pressure on their shoulders).
I really think his comment had absolutely nothing to do with Yuzu's performance today (and he's probably been regretting it when he realised how it could be interpreted)

 

[sublimeskating]

Yuzu's always been his own worst critic and seeing him so defeated only makes me want to give him a hug...

It's such a contrast watching other teams like USA, Canada, China, etc. all letting loose and having fun (I love the antics of the teams ... such a fun mood they have going on there) and then seeing Team Japan looking more serious (it's almost like they want to let loose but can't because they're on home turf and there's a lot of expectations on them).

Especially heartbreaking was Yuzu looking so defeated and the man sitting next to him (sorry I don't know who he is) patting his leg and trying to encourage him to keep his chin up (Yuzu had his head down and was shaking it at himself)... I saw him even bow (and apologize?) to his team mates at the kiss & cry... *SIGH*

The whole thing was just so sad to watch ... I always thought WTT was a fun event for the skaters to let loose and relax ... I just want to see everyone who participates in WTT to let loose (cuz isn't that what it's meant to be? Like a friendly match which is more like a show?)

 

[fishheadanon]

I'd really rather believe he didn't mean it and it just slipped. I'm not a fan, so I haven't watched many interviews with him, but in the few I've seen he always says humble things like this... well, who knows. Even if he meant it, he'd be neither the first, nor the last to be mean towards Yuzu.

I'm glad some of us haven't been following Japanese media for the last month, let alone the last two years... it's good to have some belief in human goodwill and sportsmanship. :cool14:

But I don't actually care about what other skaters, retired or currently competing, are thinking. I only care about Yuzuru, his incomparable passion and dedication to the sport, and his impeccable character. I hope he can enjoy his skate tomorrow and don't be so hard on himself! When I first knew that he was thinking of recuperating the entire season I felt thankful for all of the performances he has given this year, not to mention he won all the important stuff. So Yuzuru give what you can tomorrow and then look to next season!