"Wouldn't be together?" When/Where, what do you mean by that?
Nathan Chen
- Thread starter matmuh
- Start date
"Wouldn't be together?" When/Where, what do you mean by that?
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2018
I agree he needs to add more specialists if he believes Raf is still a good fit for him for techniques. Seeing how Hanyu and Javi rebounded from their 2014 Sochi Men’s where falls was the headlines, hope Nathan matures and wise up through this lesson.
It’s great to see good pool of opinions but please reframe from name calling, we can agreeably disagree.
Thanks for sharing the interview and other links.
Salt Lake Tribune Article on Nathan's Mom
This thread is growing too fast for me to catch up...Not sure if this link was already posted or not so just in case...
Salt Lake Olympian Nathan Chen can attest to this mantra: Mother knows best
https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2018/02/20/meet-the-woman-who-drives-salt-lake-olympian-nathan-chen-to-excel/
Sounds like Nathan's mom is going to let her son go independent.
This thread is growing too fast for me to catch up...Not sure if this link was already posted or not so just in case...
Salt Lake Olympian Nathan Chen can attest to this mantra: Mother knows best
https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2018/02/20/meet-the-woman-who-drives-salt-lake-olympian-nathan-chen-to-excel/
Sounds like Nathan's mom is going to let her son go independent.
If Team Nathan or Nathan's family don't know anything about Raf' Russian interview this time, then they are really clueless.
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2018
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2018
I meant it's highly likely Raf won't coach Nathan after this season.
as for Gala, I remembered one of Nathan's fan is kinda bitter that in COR, although Nathan won, but in the Gala, he always chose to stand on the side and leave the spotlight to others who enjoys the most.
Nathan is so humble, he seems do not particularly enjoy living in he spotlight, at least not a natural. He does have a champion's heart and bearing though.
BTW, Nathan's SP costume(individual event one) is really ugly, vera wang or not, still ugly, I was thinking how could Nathan potentially help figure skating's popularity in US etc, I thought about marketing a potential star personality, yet I saw that SP costume, it was WRONG on so many levels. Even if he cleaned the SP and won the OG, it won't induce a wind-whirl of fandom by the SP per se (or as huge as it could have been), Nemesis is such a unique and amazing program, but with that costume, the visual is all wrong.
Not only coach, Nathan needs to get it right on other aspects as well...
Nathan is so humble, he seems do not particularly enjoy living in he spotlight, at least not a natural. He does have a champion's heart and bearing though.
BTW, Nathan's SP costume(individual event one) is really ugly, vera wang or not, still ugly, I was thinking how could Nathan potentially help figure skating's popularity in US etc, I thought about marketing a potential star personality, yet I saw that SP costume, it was WRONG on so many levels. Even if he cleaned the SP and won the OG, it won't induce a wind-whirl of fandom by the SP per se (or as huge as it could have been), Nemesis is such a unique and amazing program, but with that costume, the visual is all wrong.
Not only coach, Nathan needs to get it right on other aspects as well...
Blocking Nathan from unnecessary distraction is one thing (and I'm sure he does not read or care about any discussions about him), but collecting information is also an important task of a team.True. Even I found the interview
Another account from my friend who chatted with Nathan's mom is that:
Nathan's mom does not know the "anti-China" campaign targeted towards Nathan (organized by Nathan haters/some crazy Yuzuru fans after Nathan's COR wins) happened in China back then. my friend is a little surprised.
Although that incidence is mostly restricted inside of China (only briefly discussed on this board), but it is kinda a big-deal in Chinese figure skating community. Thus it is kinda surprised that Nathan's mom never heard of it.
EDIT: and if Nathan's mom really is a controlling tiger mom, she would have known...
No think it was him leaving him for Marina.
a few inputs from Chinese fans regarding Raf's article
1, at first, they are shocked, angry and like most of us here started to blame Nathan's mom (Asian tiger mom) and Nathan (arrogant brat). Some of those fangirls are so angry that they wanna leave the fandom
2, not many mentioned the constant lay-out change mistake at all, cos most of Nathan's fans in China is still just fancy over his good looks, so not really know much about figure skating
3, some fans/skating fans mentioned coach change, Brian Orser is the most recommended, but this option is resisted by some due to personal emotional bias/preference (which is quite obvious). but consider Nathan's weakness and what he needs to be improved, fans still think BO is a good choice.
4, fans believe doing a 6 quad jumper program is not sustainable, still should aimed at become a full package skater, and get the scores through GOE/PCS in the long run. speaking of this Nathan should look at no other than Javi's growth and longevity under Team BO's direction.
1, at first, they are shocked, angry and like most of us here started to blame Nathan's mom (Asian tiger mom) and Nathan (arrogant brat). Some of those fangirls are so angry that they wanna leave the fandom
2, not many mentioned the constant lay-out change mistake at all, cos most of Nathan's fans in China is still just fancy over his good looks, so not really know much about figure skating
3, some fans/skating fans mentioned coach change, Brian Orser is the most recommended, but this option is resisted by some due to personal emotional bias/preference (which is quite obvious). but consider Nathan's weakness and what he needs to be improved, fans still think BO is a good choice.
4, fans believe doing a 6 quad jumper program is not sustainable, still should aimed at become a full package skater, and get the scores through GOE/PCS in the long run. speaking of this Nathan should look at no other than Javi's growth and longevity under Team BO's direction.
Unless they’re on boards like this, they won’t. It’s in Russian made for Russians. Raf criticizes all his students to Russian interviewers. It’s nothing new. If they cared about it at all, they would’ve all left him long ago.
Regardless, whether or not Nathan's family/team knows/approves this kinda behavior of Raf or not, I personally DO think it is inappropriate... just saying.
And from a fan's perspective, his position just lowered a bit in my heart, if that even matters.
also, I personally has a few doubts/questions about Raf's teaching methodology.
1, as another poster already pointed out, why a young Nathan only tells Mom about his illness/sickness, not directly to Raf (which allegedly caused many injuries ), should a good coach build a trusty relation with his pupil in the first place? (it looks to me is just another conveniently blaming the quiet kid)
2, why Nathan is always competing injured while he is with Raf, I don't think we should just conveniently blame Nathan is a brat, do not listen to coach thus caused all those injuries (which he is absolutely not and he is consistently winning medals for US while competing injured). Is Raf's coaching scientific and nurturing.
3, why Nathan is so determined to retired after 2018 before, what kinda hardship caused him to lose all his passion in figure skating at such a young age of 18 (or even younger), which is uncommon for figure skating prodigy on his talent level.
4, why after this OG journey, Nathan repeatedly thanked his fans on all platforms and his family support as well, but no mention of Raf.
5, why Nathan only considered to perhaps stay for a few more years after 2018, due to that he felt the love of fans and support of families.
These are some questions.
1, as another poster already pointed out, why a young Nathan only tells Mom about his illness/sickness, not directly to Raf (which allegedly caused many injuries ), should a good coach build a trusty relation with his pupil in the first place? (it looks to me is just another conveniently blaming the quiet kid)
2, why Nathan is always competing injured while he is with Raf, I don't think we should just conveniently blame Nathan is a brat, do not listen to coach thus caused all those injuries (which he is absolutely not and he is consistently winning medals for US while competing injured). Is Raf's coaching scientific and nurturing.
3, why Nathan is so determined to retired after 2018 before, what kinda hardship caused him to lose all his passion in figure skating at such a young age of 18 (or even younger), which is uncommon for figure skating prodigy on his talent level.
4, why after this OG journey, Nathan repeatedly thanked his fans on all platforms and his family support as well, but no mention of Raf.
5, why Nathan only considered to perhaps stay for a few more years after 2018, due to that he felt the love of fans and support of families.
These are some questions.
a Chinese fan find an ancient article about Nathan's father in Chinese
https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309614210323623121723#_0
what is interesting is it revealed some very cute Chinese nicknames for the Chen Fam
quote in Chinese
"大女儿菲菲，二女儿莎莎，老三、老四、老五都是男孩，分别叫晓晓、茜茜、微微。"
English translation:
"the oldest daughter Feifei, second oldest daughter SaSa, the third, fourth and fifth son, Xiaoxiao, XiXi, WeiWei respectively"
Very interesting and cute is that
All boy's nickname are written in Chinese characters usually used for girl's name with the same pronunciation.
for Nathan,
if use his name as it is should be "巍巍" but they used "微微" instead. very cuuteee.
https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309614210323623121723#_0
what is interesting is it revealed some very cute Chinese nicknames for the Chen Fam
quote in Chinese
"大女儿菲菲，二女儿莎莎，老三、老四、老五都是男孩，分别叫晓晓、茜茜、微微。"
English translation:
"the oldest daughter Feifei, second oldest daughter SaSa, the third, fourth and fifth son, Xiaoxiao, XiXi, WeiWei respectively"
Very interesting and cute is that
All boy's nickname are written in Chinese characters usually used for girl's name with the same pronunciation.
for Nathan,
if use his name as it is should be "巍巍" but they used "微微" instead.
very cuuteee.
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2003
That's true, but this time he complained about his family. I think that's a bit different. It suggests there are probably fundamental differences between how he and Nathan's family view their training approach. If a consensus cannot be reached regarding Nathan's development, it really doesn't bode well for Nathan's coaching situation.
To each his own.. I really liked that SP costume and think it probably suits the program the best out of all of his Vera costumes. It also really accentuated his lines and I appreciate the asymmetry. OTOH, I found the new FS costume just plain ugly and the grey sleeves pointless and out of place.. It alsot made him look short. And I've never thought Nathan looked short on the ice.
the SP costume makes him looking fat and the white sleeve makes one of his arm disappear on ice.
the FS is not great as well, especially the point you mentioned the weird grey, cut his arm line in half. and it is not properly fitted in his collar/neck area, but overall his profile is intact on ice .
the modified FS(TE SP) is best at flattering his body proportions and lines. yet it is a rip-off of Evan's old costumes,
I was thinking about cool, abandon, fierce vibe and swagger for Nemesis, the costume really is not good enough to enhance those.
FS is okay, both old and new FS kinda related to the theme (Chinese theme) a bit.
the FS is not great as well, especially the point you mentioned the weird grey, cut his arm line in half. and it is not properly fitted in his collar/neck area, but overall his profile is intact on ice .
the modified FS(TE SP) is best at flattering his body proportions and lines. yet it is a rip-off of Evan's old costumes,
I was thinking about cool, abandon, fierce vibe and swagger for Nemesis, the costume really is not good enough to enhance those.
FS is okay, both old and new FS kinda related to the theme (Chinese theme) a bit.
Agree about his SP costume, I think it looks very elegant and sophisticated, I love its simplicity.
But I'm also ok with his FS one... it's not as stylish as his SP one, rather plain, but since I like a minimalist aesthetic, it's fine too...
(I have to admit that almost all other costumes of the other men that compete are either tacky or just incredibly hideous to me... except for Yuzu, Patrick and Javi that is)
I agree with you regarding the involvment of the family as a tricky material to be exposed in a public interview, from an Asian point of view. If you all remember Yuna-Borser split the last straw was Borser hinting at Yuna's mum involvment and influence and her calling it over in defense of her mum. I don't think that Rafael should have put that in the press or maybe he put that in the press because there are already voices of a split all around and he uses this as a defense. And all in all, I don't particularly appreciate Rafael approach nor his "now or never-big hardware approach" towards Nathan. Much prefer someone like Borser.
On the other hand, I truly hope in another SP from Shae (also JButtle would be interesting to see) and I truly crave to see him paired with Tom Dickson. If Nathan manages to improve in the PCS area, funny thing is that Dickson major dream is to find a good skater for a LP on Rites of Spring...I would have love Daisuke do this but I would not mind an improved Nathan at all, plus he should already be partly familiar with it.
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2003
I would also love for Nathan to work with Tom Dickson. There was a fascinating podcast that featured TD years ago where he talked about how he gave these interesting blade exercises to his skaters and how that serves as the foundation on which his choreography could be built. It really explained how it helped shape the likes of Ryan Jahnke, Matt Savoie, Jeremy Abbott and Alex Johnson into the kind of skaters they were/are. They are all quintessential Dickson skaters which also happen to be my favourite style in skating. I'd love for Nathan's artistry to develop in that sort of vein because I think he has the kind of talent (musicality, movement quality, and blade skills) that could do so well with TD's choreo. And we HAVE seen that in him in spades. That said, I think by now it's pretty clear that the only one who can really help Nathan develop artistically is Nathan. All that artistry is there and can be furthered fostered, but he has to allow himself to put his quads aside for a bit to pursue it. I know a lot of fans love his quads and so does he, but I just think it's such a huge waste of talent if that's all he's going to be remembered by.
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