Can Takahashi Close The Gap On Patrick Chan?

let`s talk said:

According to your logics it's because they have more spiritually rich people than North America. I don't dare to argue your conclusion at all.

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The pop culture is the root preventing figure skating from being popular. As I've said, the younger generation people are more into direct, fast, revealing, clear beats, and sexy stuff. Sophistication and classic are seen as old fashioned and boring. Actually, the classical European musicians' products and the dance like ballet are better respected and widely inherited by Asians and their newer generations. Both are the core of figure skating. Of course, having big star/stars in a country makes critical difference.

SkateFiguring said:

Rich people 's sports and arts may be too expansive to take part in but are just as accessible for enjoyment and appreciation. Tickets to see the world's best figure skaters are much cheaper than tickets for a regular commercial sport game. Some equestrian events are free as well. Similarly, tickets for a hot pop star are much more expansive and hard to come by than for a classical concert. TV programs are equally free for any sport, except in the US.

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And the radio is free. I have listened to classical music all my life, and it's my "soul music." And now there's YouTube as well. Skating's a bit harder to keep up with (even with YouTube), but there's still enough to keep me going. I wish we had the economic power to have more shown on regular TV, though.

Bluebonnet said:

The pop culture is the root preventing figure skating from being popular. As I've said, the younger generation people are more into direct, fast, revealing, clear beats, and sexy stuff. Sophistication and classic are seen as old fashioned and boring. Actually, the classical European musicians' products and the dance like ballet are better respected and widely inherited by Asians and their newer generations. Both are the core of figure skating. Of course, having big star/stars in a country makes critical difference.

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From Dai & Patrick, we are now onto the popularity of of pop culture. I don't think pop culture has taken over figure skating, but certainly with the invent of internet, pop culture is more easily transferable including beyond borders. It takes a fraction of time to master hip hop compared to ballet. We can learn hip hop via video. Try ballet? Anything which is easily available and perhaps free will allow more people to use it. We can kick a ball anywhere but we cannot ski where there are no snow. Hence, only certain sports will remain widely played or popular in some countries.
But we can always promote a sport by ensuring easy access of resources (like skating rinks and coaches as in fs), encouraging every child in school to learn skating (better still if we can bring to the sport to the schools) and hold competitions and camps to keep their interests. Having world class winners in the sports help as every child and competitor will aspire to be like someone successful. Encourage a sporting culture instead of pop culture. It's cool and clever to learn to figure skate than hip hop!

let`s talk said:

According to your logics it's because they have more spiritually rich people than North America. I don't dare to argue your conclusion at all.

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I don't want to be accused of being a racist. But I do want you to notice the big number of asian talents in figure skating and classical music, even in North America.

Boeing787 said:

I don't want to be accused of being a racist. But I do want you to notice the big number of asian talents in figure skating and classical music, even in North America.

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It's not a racist issue. It's a fact. Talk about in North America alone, most Asian girls were to learn figure skating, gymnastics, swimming, piano/violin/cello, and/or dances. And most Asian boys were to learn swimming, tennis, piano/violin/cello, karate, and/or tai kwon Do. There are not many choices for Asian families. They are small built and generally not competitive in team sports. Also, they are traditionally in favor of classical music and instruments, like piano and strings. If you go to the local big or small piano competitions or orchestra auditions, most of people are Asians and most of them are won by Asians.

Bluebonnet said:

It's not a racist issue. It's a fact. Talk about in North America alone, most Asian girls were to learn figure skating, gymnastics, swimming, piano/violin/cello, and/or dances. And most Asian boys were to learn swimming, tennis, piano/violin/cello, karate, and/or tai kwon Do. There are not many choices for Asian families. They are small built and generally not competitive in team sports. Also, they are traditionally in favor of classical music and instruments, like piano and strings. If you go to the local big or small piano competitions or orchestra auditions, most of people are Asians and most of them are won by Asians.

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Things are starting to change. Now we have Jeremy Lin!

Boeing787 said:

The ******* should be "people". Why is it a sensitive word?

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A little software glitch. It should be fixed now.

Test: Rich people's sport.

I don't think it's a race issue either, but more of the result of the culture of emphasis in education and parental willingness to sacrifice to nurture the children. However, earlier immigrants, like those they left behind, were pragmatic and channeled their offsprings into traditionally lucrative and high status professions as in the "old country". Many of these offsprings have accordingly excelled in the chosen fields. But then both the old countries and the new generations of immigrants started to open themselves up to the more diverse opportunities, with pioneering success like Michelle Kwan, and now Patrick Chan and Jeremy Lin, for examples, serving as inspiring role models to branch into new arenas. As well, the original Chinese immigrants were almost all from certain areas of Southern China and they were small in stature due to both genetic and economic factors. More recent immigrants are from diverse parts of China, including the tall Northerners. Meanwhile, some of the locally born children of Asian immigrants grow up to be significantly taller than their parents. Thus more sports are open up to persons of Asian origins. With strong support from their families, we can expect to see more excellence from them in a bigger variety of professions and endeavours.

Highly successful persons of ethnic origins also arouse a lot of pride and support back in the countries of origin of their parents or earlier ancestors, especially if they break new grounds in the new country like Jeremy Lin does. After Nam Nguyen made a splash in the 2010 Olympics, I read articles about the enthusiasm back in Vietnam where there was no skating or winter sport of any kind but huge excited and supportive crowds were expected to be watching the 2018 Winter Olympics with invested emotions.

Figure skating is one of the few winter sports that are possible to learn and train indoors in countries of any climate. It is possible for it to be popularized and flourish in any nation with a spark from a star skater of their own a la Yuna Kim though she happens to be from a Northern nation.

Mathman said:

A little software glitch. It should be fixed now.

Test: Rich people's sport.

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Lots of glitches for me. It keeps freezing each time I submit. So my 10 sentences 2 cents worth of comments became 1 cent worth.... 5 sentences. Got tired of retyping. What's wrong? Overloading?

Boeing787 said:

I don't want to be accused of being a racist. But I do want you to notice the big number of asian talents in figure skating and classical music, even in North America.

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Not rich people's sport and racism. It is CULTURAL as per SF's post. It is common for Asian kids to learn ballet (for girls) and piano because these are encouraged at home. Music lessons are affordable too. It comes back to my earlier post that the more you expose the children to certain sports/arts, the higher the probability of getting talents into the sports/game. My country has depth in swimming partly due the fact that every child knows how to swim, many homes have swimming pools, most public and private schools have swimming pools and tennis courts, easy access to community swimming pools and coaches in suburbs, and free swimming lessons in schools during summer. It is rare to find a child who doesn't know how to swim.
This also back up Bluebonnet's reasoning on the rising popularity of pop culture which I believe may not be so widely encouraged at home but easily accessible.

Your points are well taken. I had to make the disclaimer to be on the safeside.

Talking about Asian figure skating talents, this is the kid (Vincent Zhou) I really like. I think he is better than Patrick at the same age. This is what he wrote recently:

Everyone already knows about Linsanity® by now. I hope I can make Vinsanity all the rage someday. What is common about Linsanity and Vinsanity? Not just that they are both from Palo Alto. I hope people will say “Linsanity® Vinsanity is a testament to perseverance and hard work. A good example for kids everywhere.”

What an ambitious kid! Patrick'd better win gold in Sochi, or he might lose it to Vincent or Nathan in 2018!

Boeing787 said:

I had to make the disclaimer to be on the safeside.

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Thank you.

27 pages. Does anyone REALLY think Dai will beat Chan at worlds? A more honest discussion will be guessing how many points he loses by.

skateluvr said:

27 pages. Does anyone REALLY think Dai will beat Chan at worlds? A more honest discussion will be guessing how many points he loses by.

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Both are in my favourite list. Even if Dai is not, I honestly think he can beat Chan if he is up his jumps and remain consistent. All other aspects, he can match Chan. No one is 'unbeatable' maybe not today but tomorrow is is anyone's guess.

I wish dai had chance, but math people/scoring experts say in this thread Chan has 3 fall cushion over DAI. (Perfect Dai). This is like Yuna/Mao or Yuna/Joannie -Yuna was way ahead, but Yuna was not on her fanny on the ice. It is the system and the whole trend. If Chan can't skate due to a new injury, Dai has chance. maybe others could beat chan. who tho?

skateluvr said:

27 pages. Does anyone REALLY think Dai will beat Chan at worlds?

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We are told that the last to post on the thread wins something. We have one more month till Worlds.

seniorita said:

We are told that the last to post on the thread wins something. We have one more month till Worlds.

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Oh... I will keep posting everyday. Maybe I may win something!

seniorita said:

We are told that the last to post on the thread wins something. We have one more month till Worlds.

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I heard that rumor too. I really do not have anything further to add to this thread other than GO Dai and Patrick, but I will keep posting so that I will be eligible for the prize.

skateluvr said:

Does anyone REALLY think Dai will beat Chan at worlds?

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Me! I am a believer in talent and justice.