Nathan Chen | Page 952 | Golden Skate

Nathan Chen

sheetz said:
I actually think he must be pretty close if he's attempting it in an open practice session with so many onlookers.

Nathan describing a favorite photo on his smartphone.
Click to expand...
Sheetz, I’m surprised we hadn’t heard earlier that he was working on a 4A. He keeps denying he was even trying. But I guess he gets these quads relatively fast, like his 4F, 4Lz. I wonder if Raf pushed him into it. I want to see his 4Lo since it looked great the few times he did it.
 
figskatefan said:
Sheetz, I’m surprised we hadn’t heard earlier that he was working on a 4A. He keeps denying he was even trying. But I guess he gets these quads relatively fast, like his 4F, 4Lz. I wonder if Raf pushed him into it. I want to see his 4Lo since it looked great the few times he did it.
Click to expand...

Raf said he was working on it in an old interview but most people didn't believe him at the time. But I doubt Nathan was pushed into it, as in the past Raf has had to hold him back.

Nathan up for US Sports Academy Athlete of the Month.
ussa.edu

The United States Sports University

The United States Sports University is an independent, non-profit, accredited university dedicated to preparing students for careers in the field of sports.
ussa.edu ussa.edu
 
I think that when 4A happens they will need to change the Zyak rule to allow the repetition of two different types of a quad.
 
sheetz said:
Interview with Tom Z. He was at SA practice and at 55m30s he gives his thoughts on Nathan 4A's attempts.
youtu.be

ENTREVISTA CON TOM ZAKRAJSEK

Una entrevista muy interesante! Conoce los métodos de enseñanza del coach olímpico y mundial Tom Zakrajsek. No te pierdas su opinión acerca del patinaje feme...
youtu.be youtu.be
Click to expand...

I may not like Tom, but he's sure brave, the way he's risking incurring the wrath of um, a certain crowd... 🙈 🤣
 
1111bm said:
I may not like Tom, but he's sure brave, the way he's risking incurring the wrath of um, a certain crowd. 😏
Click to expand...
1111bm said:
I may not like Tom, but he's sure brave, the way he's risking incurring the wrath of um, a certain crowd... 🙈 🤣
Click to expand...
Yikes! Guess he doesn’t mind the walls of his house getting potentially vandalized. 🙈

Tom Z makes a good point about axis and Chen’s axel is much more stable than before because of it. Hanyu’s rotation is tighter on his axel which still makes me think he has a better shot to sufficiently rotate it (eventually) but it’s much easier to avoid a fall as Tom Z said if your axis of rotation is straighter.

That 4A attempt still looks a way’s away from being landed cleanly but it’s still a good, controlled attempt.
He doesn’t need the 4A though and should stay healthy but he’s smartened up about his training so I also trust him to be practicing the 4A in a safe, controlled, supervised manner.
 
Last edited:
bonita said:
I doubt if Nathan has any clue of what kind of storm he started with his 4A attempts.

Our world champion of good looks is calmly promoting in his IG story the current issue of Skating Magazine with his buddies Kait and JLB on the cover


On Twitter, thanks to aboutNathan

BTW, with the start of competition season, his IG followers go up again. Wondering how many are Yuzu fans.

Shine, I so admire your courage to visit that website. It is scary for me to even think of that 😂

BTW2, don’t get me started with that Italian commentator guy, he is not only mean and full of bias against Nathan, he is a sexist to begin with, with bullying comments against Alysa and other girls all the time. He would have serious boycott in US with remarks like that
Click to expand...

Are we talking about Max Ambiasi? 😂
 
I don't think that video tells us much, I mean it's just one attempt of how many? And was this at the end of the practice session, when he was already tired or in the beginning? Same with Yuzu's at GPF practice, so who knows where they're at.

I'm just afraid that once it's landed in competition, ISU will increase its BV before the Olympics. I don't want them to encourage Nathan to train it regularly and go for such a risky element at this important event.

Honestly, I'd rather enjoy Nathan's 3A, which has become a really pretty jump. It's still not the most massive one, but it looks super effortless, smooth with clean landings and nice flow out.
 
Turned out Nathan might not have been as terrible at axels as we thought (or he made himself appear to be). He actually had a super solid 2A (with all the dazzling entries and exits you can think of) when he was a novice, but somehow couldn't figure out his 3A for years. I noticed that around 16/17 season he started changing his 3A air position from that seatbelt position he used for other jumps to something closer to what other guys did, with two hands closer together (instead of one higher and one lower) and elbows farther away from the body compared to the seatbelt. I remember Kurt Browning once commented that the seatbelt position gives you super fast rotation due to minimal air space between your arms and your body, but it makes it harder to control your balance. So maybe that additional rotation in the 3A somehow threw off his ability to control his balance/axis in the air. Not until 18/19 had Nathan completely switched to a more conventional 3A air position. The updated technique gave him much better 3A consistency but also somewhat slower rotation. While the 4A footage we have is not of HD quality, I can sort of see him doing it the way he does his 3As. So, the thesis of this rant is, I agree with Tom Z that while Nathan could've probably used a little bit more rotation, his axis was straight and stable, thanks to Raf's overhaul of his axel technique.

ps. IIRC Mishin skaters (Plushenko, Tuktamysheva etc) also do seatbelt positions, and in all jumps except their axels.
 
Good spotting! I didn't realise Mishin also favours the seatbelt.
There was a discussion in Lutz Corner about different air position variants. Someone (kolyadafan I think) mentioned that adjusting their arms on the triple loop helped a lot, but only for that jump. I guess the optimal arm position depends on both the jump type and the individual.
Whatever it is, glad for Nathan's axel improvement :D
 
I'm excited for that team event this weekend (hoping some nice fans will upload it), really looking forward to seeing his LP again.

I know I'm being greedy here, but I wish they'd also skated their SPs. 🙈 I love his Desperados program, even though the choreo is not as creative or original as Nemesis or Caravan, on its own it's still a very cool and exciting program and I love its look when Nathan performs it.

A few months back, when the season was about to start, I was hoping he'd compete at Golden West, to get some mileage out of his programs, since it's supposed to take place at his home rink I believe? (not sure about the safety measures, but he already trains there, so it seemed viable)
Not sure though, if it wasn't cancelled by now, and if he'd even be interested in this opportunity. After all, Raf said he most likely won't take part in any other competitions before Nationals, but of course I'd love to see him skate his programs yet another time before Nationals (hopefully) take place.
 
Nathan would be special guest of Ice Desk tomorrow, talking about the upcoming Las Vegas Invitational


2 PM ET on Facebook and U.S. Figure Skating Fan Zone

Nathan in this Jackson Ultima IG Veteran’s Day tribute post

US Figure Skating promo of the upcoming Las Vegas Invitational. I can picture that smiling face behind that gigantic sparkling mask. USFSA did a good job to make this boi wear something so sparkly 😂 😂

 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

dorispulaski
2026 U.S. Nationals Novice Pairs
Replies
7
Views
1K
Silevril Ilumire
Silevril Ilumire
4everchan
2026 Canadian Nationals : Women's Short Program
9 10 11
Replies
200
Views
9K
4everchan
4everchan
rabidline
Shoma Uno
105 106 107
Replies
2K
Views
37K
Arriba627
Arriba627
4everchan
2026 Canadian Nationals : Senior Rhythm Dance
10 11 12
Replies
236
Views
9K
viennaskater
viennaskater
4everchan
2026 Canadian Nationals : Women's Long Program
12 13 14
Replies
276
Views
10K
4everchan
4everchan
Back
Top