What are Yuna Kim's strongest points as a skater? | Page 17 | Golden Skate

What are Yuna Kim's strongest points as a skater?

FlattFan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jan 4, 2010
I agree with jenaj, and have said several times in the past that her 3x3 consistency is her strongest point.
I wonder how people can see her as having "inate musicality" I think she works really hard, and her teams have picked the right vehicles for her all along.
Out of her last 6 or 7 LP, only one showed her musicality well. The rest are well practiced and well rehearsed.

Her line isn't as good as a few others.
Her spirals, steps aren't as good as a few others.

As a CoP skater, where everything add up, her consistency and 3x3 will get her the win.
As a skater, I don't think she's as good as other top tier skaters who I go back and rewatch from time to time.

She's an A skater, and she stays in the A- to A range almost all the time. And she showed her perfect routines a few times already.
Someone else, a B+ A- skater, can go all the way to A+ at their max potential. They haven't yet, but I believe their best are better.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
The West Coast has a lot of odd mascots, I've found. Pomona College are the "Sage Hens". :p I mean, how is this supposed to strike terror in opponents?

The best West Coast mascot is the Evergreen University geoducks (pronounced gooey-ducks). This is what they look like.

http://www.antiquark.com/img/geoduck_clam_2.jpg

Tonichelle's college, the University of Alaska Anchorage, is the sea wolves. This is an Inuit mythological sea serpent sort of thing, perhaps originating from some sort of whale. Here is a Raven-Seawolf totem pole.

http://tresham.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/product/Totems and figures - 10.jpg

The Detroit Tigers' triple A team is the Toledo Mud Hens.
 

jenaj

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 17, 2003
Country
United-States
She doesn't do the 3F-3t anymore so I can't judge her on that. Lots of skaters do the 2A-3T. What sets her apart is her 3L-3T. The rest is, of course, subjective. To me, aside from her admittedly superior (and consistent) 3-3's, she is not that much better than her closest competitors and in some respects is not as good.

Agree that her 3lz-3t is special. So was her 3F-3t, as well as her 2A-3t.

Disagree on the rest. IMHO, Yuna is not only one of the most musically gifted skaters I've ever seen, but one whose style of movement is uniquely and immediately recognizable as her own. Jeff Buttle calls her "hypnotizing".

I'm not the only one that says so. Just about every major expert commentator I know says something along those lines. Great minds, and all that...
 

tulosai

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 21, 2011
Her strongest point is that she has no weaknesses. Some of her skills are better than others, but none are mediocre or bad.

Her other strongest point is that she is wildly consistent.
 

Robeye

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
The best West Coast mascot is the Evergreen University geoducks (pronounced gooey-ducks). This is what they look like.

http://www.antiquark.com/img/geoduck_clam_2.jpg
What the heck? :eek: (Not sure I would put that on my grill :unsure:. Sorry, didn't mean to get off on the wrong foot, ha ha. OK, I'll clam up now)


Tonichelle's college, the University of Alaska Anchorage, is the sea wolves. This is an Inuit mythological sea serpent sort of thing, perhaps originating from some sort of whale. Here is a Raven-Seawolf totem pole.

http://tresham.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/product/Totems and figures - 10.jpg
Now that is what I call a cool mascot

The Detroit Tigers' triple A team is the Toledo Mud Hens.
Weren't they featured in "Bull Durham"?
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Easily her jumping ability and massive speed and incredibly easy flow over the ice. I would put her as 1 of the top 3 jumpers of all time along with Ito and Harding. I would put her as the best triple-triple jumper ever though, nobody could ever seemingly do every jump into a triple with huge speed and flow in and out with the ease and perfection she can. I would also call her probably the best overall toe jumper (lutz, flip, and toe loop) ever.

She is one of the fastest skaters ever and seems to fly over the ice, but unlike Kostner also does it with complete ease and seems to flow with no apparent effort out there while still flying. It seems to give her an amazing fluidity and easy of movement.

After that I would say her incredible musical interpretation. Both her face and body movements completely convey whatever selection of music she is skating to, and she can do it to any type of music. She truly immerses herself into her music and program, and lives the choreography and music out for all to see.

Those are her biggest strengths of all. Beyond that I would agree with what someone else said, her lack of weaknesses. There are some things she could be better in, but there is nothing she is truly weak in. There probably isnt anything you could point to at a given time and say more than half of the Worlds top 10 is better than her at, let alone being a true weakness. That in itself is a huge strength and makes her incredibly hard to beat.


Along with all I said her consistency. She isnt always perfect, someone on another forum pointed out she has only 4 or 5 clean competitions ever. However she is very good at limiting her mistakes. She is the only skater in the 100+ year history of the sport I believe who has never failed to medal in a Senior competition. Not even once her whole career has she competed Senior and not gone away with atleast a bronze in any event, big or small. Over an almost 7 year span now she has only lost to 3 skaters- Mao Asada, Carolina Kostner, and Miki Ando. A fellow legend, a 5 time World medalist, and a 2 time World Champion.
 

gourry

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 7, 2007
Easily her jumping ability and massive speed and incredibly easy flow over the ice. I would put her as 1 of the top 3 jumpers of all time along with Ito and Harding. I would put her as the best triple-triple jumper ever though, nobody could ever seemingly do every jump into a triple with huge speed and flow in and out with the ease and perfection she can. I would also call her probably the best overall toe jumper (lutz, flip, and toe loop) ever.

She is one of the fastest skaters ever and seems to fly over the ice, but unlike Kostner also does it with complete ease and seems to flow with no apparent effort out there while still flying. It seems to give her an amazing fluidity and easy of movement.

After that I would say her incredible musical interpretation. Both her face and body movements completely convey whatever selection of music she is skating to, and she can do it to any type of music. She truly immerses herself into her music and program, and lives the choreography and music out for all to see.

Those are her biggest strengths of all. Beyond that I would agree with what someone else said, her lack of weaknesses. There are some things she could be better in, but there is nothing she is truly weak in. There probably isnt anything you could point to at a given time and say more than half of the Worlds top 10 is better than her at, let alone being a true weakness. That in itself is a huge strength and makes her incredibly hard to beat.


Along with all I said her consistency. She isnt always perfect, someone on another forum pointed out she has only 4 or 5 clean competitions ever. However she is very good at limiting her mistakes. She is the only skater in the 100+ year history of the sport I believe who has never failed to medal in a Senior competition. Not even once her whole career has she competed Senior and not gone away with atleast a bronze in any event, big or small. Over an almost 7 year span now she has only lost to 3 skaters- Mao Asada, Carolina Kostner, and Miki Ando. A fellow legend, a 5 time World medalist, and a 2 time World Champion.

I can't agree more! :thumbsup:
And a small correction: It's not just Senior competitions. All through Novice, Junior and Senior competitions ever since she entered the international stage. :)
 

pangtongfan

Match Penalty
Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Thanks. I did not add Juniors or beyond since I did not know if she had ever missed the podium. I wonder if she never missed a podium at any competition at any level since her first competition of any kind at say 5 or 7 years old. It wouldnt surprise me at all if she still had never even then.

When Yu Na Kim is in any competition you might as well ask "who will win the other 2 medals". Since it is always a guarantee 1 of the medals will be Kim's, even if occasionally not gold.
 

Krislite

Medalist
Joined
Sep 22, 2010
[...]
After that I would say her incredible musical interpretation. Both her face and body movements completely convey whatever selection of music she is skating to, and she can do it to any type of music. She truly immerses herself into her music and program, and lives the choreography and music out for all to see.
[...]

I think this is a major strength of hers that is under-appreciated, because some of her programs (especially her exhibitions) have not exactly been designed to showcase her musicality. While Michelle skated to "Fields of Gold" and "East of Eden", David Wilson has been more inclined to give her uptempo dance routines. She worked once with Bezic and that was to Rihanna's "Please Don't Stop the Music". I'm not the biggest fan of dance pop for figure skating routines.

However, I think it's pretty evident, especially when watching her programs from her younger years, what her strengths are. For example, her 2005 JGPF free skate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQCDgX9T580 at 15 years old.

You can easily see what came naturally to her versus what she had to work on to refine later in her career. You just have to watch Papa Can You Hear Me?, Tango de Roxanne and the Lark Ascending, and you can already see what at 15-16 years of age she already had in spades: top skating skills, huge jumps and triple-triples, and an amazing feel for the music.

Just look at the way she moved her arms at 15 years old vs. any 15 year old junior today. She wasn't flapping her arms attempting to take off even though she was playing a lark.
 

RABID

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 17, 2013
Thanks. I did not add Juniors or beyond since I did not know if she had ever missed the podium. I wonder if she never missed a podium at any competition at any level since her first competition of any kind at say 5 or 7 years old. It wouldnt surprise me at all if she still had never even then.

When Yu Na Kim is in any competition you might as well ask "who will win the other 2 medals". Since it is always a guarantee 1 of the medals will be Kim's, even if occasionally not gold.

Here's an exclusive figure skating club with quite a few members. Care to guess what they all have in common?

Emily Hughes
Mao Asada
Christine Zukowski
Joannie Rochette
Miki Ando
Carolina Kostner
Sarah Meier
Akiko Suzuki
Park Bit-Na
Choi Ji-Eun
Kim Chae-Hwa
Kim Hyeon-Jung
Park So-Yeon
Choi Da-Bin
Yukari Nakano
Laura Lepistö
Caroline Zhang
Fumie Suguri
Júlia Sebestyén
Rachael Flatt
Kimmie Meissner
Viktoria Helgesson
Ksenia Makarova
 

gourry

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 7, 2007
Here's an exclusive figure skating club with quite a few members. Care to guess what they all have in common?

Emily Hughes
Mao Asada
Christine Zukowski
Joannie Rochette
Miki Ando
Carolina Kostner
Sarah Meier
Akiko Suzuki
Park Bit-Na
Choi Ji-Eun
Kim Chae-Hwa
Kim Hyeon-Jung
Park So-Yeon
Choi Da-Bin
Yukari Nakano
Laura Lepistö
Caroline Zhang
Fumie Suguri
Júlia Sebestyén
Rachael Flatt
Kimmie Meissner
Viktoria Helgesson
Ksenia Makarova


Hm.... I have to guess about the Korean skaters, but maybe they are the skaters who shared podium with Yuna? I don't remember about Emily Hughes or Christine Zukowski, are they from her Junior years? If you included junior podiums, there must be more people than this...
 

RABID

Final Flight
Joined
Mar 17, 2013
Hm.... I have to guess about the Korean skaters, but maybe they are the skaters who shared podium with Yuna? I don't remember about Emily Hughes or Christine Zukowski, are they from her Junior years? If you included junior podiums, there must be more people than this...

Yes, they all shared the podium with her and of course a few of them multiple times. I think I got them all.... I wonder what Michelle Kwan's "club" looks like.
 

thinspread

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 8, 2013
The best West Coast mascot is the Evergreen University geoducks (pronounced gooey-ducks). This is what they look like.

http://www.antiquark.com/img/geoduck_clam_2.jpg

Geoducks.. lol. In Japanese it's called mirugai. It's one of my favorites for sashimi. :biggrin: I've seen some use it for sushi topping too. Evergreen College is in Olympia (yes!), Washington. I once drove through the town on the way to Olympic National Park from Seattle. That part of the Pacific Northwest is just so beautiful.

About YuNa's strengths, I agree with what Pangtongfan and others said, so I won't repeat. In my view the primary source of her strengths is her unique athletic talent. I remember Gkelly mentioning "balance, awareness of where the body is in space (proprioception, alignment), fearlessness" as some of the constituents of skating talent. I think YuNa is as good as anybody in those qualities.

Her ability in feeling and moving with the music was apparent as well since her first time out with a big audience at 2005 JWC. I thought she's very perceptive. I also agree with what Jeff Buttle said about her arms. The thing about her arms is that, her arm movements often seems stemming from her spinal movements. They don't look forced. In other words, her arm moves in connection with, and as extension of, the movements of her whole body. I think that's what sets her arms apart from others'.
 

alfoalfo

Rinkside
Joined
Mar 14, 2010
I think Yuna's strengths as a skater is firstly her uber strong mentality.. I mean c'mon who else in the business can skate under enormous pressure like her?! And secondly, her jump technique - it seems to rarely fail her. Lastly, her musicality- she definitely listens to the music. I can tell a lot of skaters jut hear the music and almost skate through it, but she definitely listens well and skates with it.

Eta- oh my goodness.. It looks like Yuna is out of the Grand Prix. She seems to have injured her right ankle during a run through. She's apparently gonna be out for 6 weeks.. Dang!!!
 

Finnstep

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Eta- oh my goodness.. It looks like Yuna is out of the Grand Prix. She seems to have injured her right ankle during a run through. She's apparently gonna be out for 6 weeks.. Dang!!!

:cry: Yes-I was shocked when I heard the news. First Korpi, now it's Yu-Na...

I hope Yu-Na recovers quickly, and the other half of the season turns out to be a good season for her.
 

gkelly

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I think this is a major strength of hers that is under-appreciated, because some of her programs (especially her exhibitions) have not exactly been designed to showcase her musicality. While Michelle skated to "Fields of Gold" and "East of Eden", David Wilson has been more inclined to give her uptempo dance routines.

How do you define "musicality," and its importance to skating?

I think dancing to rhythmic music requires more skating skill than emoting to lyrical music.

What requires more "musical skill" or "musicality," whatever that is irrespective of skating skill, i.e., what one could demonstrate standing on the floor, might be more subject to debate.

Then it's another question as to which skaters best demonstrate it.
 
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