Nathan Chen | Page 199 | Golden Skate

Nathan Chen

yyyskate said:
I wonder how do you known or come to a conclusion that "a little difficult" is just a truth about this 18-year-old (Nathan).
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Of course we don't know if it's truth. You can always choose to believe or not believe any interview given by any person. We can all make our own judgements. But just because he happened to give an opinion of one of his athletes which happens to not be agreeable to you, it doesn't automatically mean he has some character flaw.

I honestly don't really know what you are trying to get at. Are you tryign to suggest that anything Raf says should not be trusted, because....? Or that in order to avoid "blaming" anyone, he should only be talking about the postives of his athletes?

oatmella said:
I read it as him saying that Nathan was difficult to work with when he was coaching him (and compared unfavorably to coaching Adam and Ashley), I don’t find it particularly outrageous - but you asked where Raf called him difficult, and here it is.
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Difficult to work with could mean various things. Like I said in another post, it could be because Nathan is more stubborn. It could also be because Nathan is not as good at communicating his feelings and thoughts to Raf (which is totally conceivable as a fan). It could also be because he's younger than his other skaters. We don't know. But in any case I don't see how this is seen so as an "accusation" by Raf, or a "blame". To me it's simply an opinion, a reflection. And I personally see nothing wrong with him reflecting on his experience teaching these different skaters in an interview.
 
shine said:
Of course we don't know if it's truth. You can always choose to believe or not believe any interview given by any person. We can all make our own judgements. But just because he happened to give an opinion of one of his athletes which happens to not be agreeable to you, it doesn't automatically mean he has some character flaw.
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once again, my personally opinion about Raf based on his multiple Russian interviews (also discussed in some details here), he lacks accountability (always blames the other party), seems sneaky etc. Because of all these I do not like him. I do appreciate bluntness, but bluntness has nothing to do (and different) from that things that bugs me about Raf. Again, my impression of Raf.
we are not doing math proof here. just one person's(me) impression of another person(raf) based on a couple of Russian interviews. you are entitle to your personal opinion of Raf's character.
 
shine said:
I honestly don't really know what you are trying to get at. Are you tryign to suggest that anything Raf says should not be trusted, because....? Or that in order to avoid "blaming" anyone, he should only be talking about the postives of his athletes?


Difficult to work with could mean various things. Like I said in another post, it could be because Nathan is more stubborn. It could also be because Nathan is not as good at communicating his feelings and thoughts to Raf (which is totally conceivable as a fan). It could also be because he's younger than his other skaters. We don't know. But in any case I don't see how this is seen so as an "accusation" by Raf, to me it's just an opinion, a reflection. And I personally see nothing wrong with him reflecting on his experience teaching these different skaters in an interview.
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I am not trying to get at anything.
if you ask my opinion.
I will not take Raf's Russian interview serious anymore (I used to believe his Russian interview, not any more), or take whatever he said with a grain of salt. And I do not like his personality/character that exhibited in his Russian interviews, which has nothing to do with bluntness.
 
Mamamiia said:
Is there any way to watch those Japanese shows? Other than hoping for fancams?
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The Legends show will be broadcast so likely someone will upload it. The SOI Osaka shows will not be televised, and fanscams aren't allowed. I suspect the Nagano Heroes show will be televised.
 
Okay, maybe last bit of rambling about Raf...
I am a Nathan fan first and foremost. I love Nathan even more after this season, especially the characters Nathan displayed throughout this roller coaster OG season. Nathan is precious!
as for Raf, if he can help Nathan's future figure skating develop in the correct direction. I will appreciate him. Otherwise, I don't know what to do but pray for my beloved Nathan Boi.
 
oatmella said:
I do not have any particular issue with Raf calling Nathan “difficult”. My main issue with him is the disrespect he showed towards Nathan family - which from a Chinese perspective, is quite terrible. I know some will defend this as his Russian “bluntness”
My other issue with Raf is his management or mis-management of Nathan’s injuries throughout
the years. Nathan has spent a lot of his skating career since joining Raf’s team injured. There was even a thread on this forum from 2012 about Nathan being injured at that time period and people wondering what had happened to him. Nathan has competed injured at 3 out of his 4 senior Nationals. I assume as fans, we all care about Nathan’s health and don’t want him to be crippled with permanent injury.
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This is true, but we also don't know how much of that can be attributed to Raf's management or mismanagement. Nathan was battling Osgood-Schlatter disease for a good part of his junior years which I believe led to several injuries. Raf also seems to be the one advising against over-training of the quads as well as against training them prematurely. The time when Nathan injured himself at the 2016 US Nats gala I believe I've read that Raf had told him not to do quad in exhibitions or doing quads unnecesarily but he decided to go for it anyway. Nathan has said as much himself that he should've listened to Raf more at times.
 
Maybe it's overblown to say Raf was wrong or lying in saying a teenage boy could be difficult at times, I mean, I'm sure he can be. But I still don't really like it in context and when they weren't really together as coach/student. It's much different to say you have problems with your stubborn teenage student (like at the Olympics) and saying it while he thought Nathan might not even be his student anymore. It was never Nathan's fault that whole situation went on, but the adults, which I think he also said. Though that was awhile back and everything worked out in the end.

But I also don't think Raf is as bad as some Nathan fans seem to think. They got results this year despite some issues and Nathan is staying on for the near future. He's been a good coach and Nathan went up in value a whole heck of a lot by winning the world championship. I just hope things continue well in the future. I just have no loyalty towards Raf and only care about Nathan, so as long as he's happy and not injured I'll be happy. And I also don't believe (listening to Raf talk about how kids do jumps too soon) that injuries Nathan got are the result of Raf doing something wrong or overtraining him too soon.


https://twitter.com/kiwi_egg/status/979049941984145408

Nathan art with his beloved phone of course. :laugh:
 
@ Kelly I was using the mobile version and boy does this full site look different, thanks for directing me.

I’m not sure how a coach is fully responsible for an athlete’s injury, yes he is part of the “care team” but again, so much going on bts there’s no fact to lay down this fault solely onto him.

Sorry but I’m an ABC and have seen plenty of same ethnicity background in basketball, volleyball, football and my cousin with some other skaters, with parents having different reactions to coaches’ blunt/straightforwardness approach. Some parents remove the athlete from the program and find another as it rubbed them the wrong way, some weather through a few and after a few friction all parties end up on the same page, understanding there are ups and downs, while some will throw tantrum publicly causing the kids to retract from the sport due embarrassment and some take coaches’ words to the dot and force the kids to accept (due to obeying your master). From my personal and other stories, there’s no one default reaction base on a specific ethnicity background.

One fault I do find is Raf’s wee sound causing Nathan to step out of his 6th quad salchow haha I'm not sure if other coaches make sounds like that or is that a cheering sound...
 
Well, in not Raf related news Nathan liked a picture congratulating new Yale 2022 students on IG and now fans are freaking out.

I don't think he'd go to college there...? He said he was staying in SoCal.
 
For those who would like to watch the Legends show live you can register for an account at https://fujitv.live/

Doing so you get free access for one day.

Instructions for watching:
Launch the player by clicking FujiTV on the menu.
Then scroll down the list of channels and choose 057 TBS チャンネル1
On the right hand column choose the date 03/30 金
Then scroll down the center column to the time 13:55 The Legends
 
hhh said:
One fault I do find is Raf’s wee sound causing Nathan to step out of his 6th quad salchow haha I'm not sure if other coaches make sounds like that or is that a cheering sound...
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Nathan's 4S axis is tilted since take-off (he is outside of circle), that is the cause of step out. i don't think Raf's wee is to blame here :biggrin: but maybe it startled Nathan a bit, thus he cannot save the landing:biggrin: but I would not blame Raf on that.
 
discode said:
Well, in not Raf related news Nathan liked a picture congratulating new Yale 2022 students on IG and now fans are freaking out.

I don't think he'd go to college there...? He said he was staying in SoCal.
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do you have any info as for which college Nathan will go to? Did he confirmed he will stay in SoCal on that Insta?
 
yyyskate said:
oatmella is a former dancer and has spent quite some time with many dance coaches including Russians.

Also you claim that ALL coaches are narcissist is not only wrong but also laughable.
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I don’t know anything about dance coaches. But please name one skating coach, who doesn’t think he is the best. But pick top coaches... especially the Russians, and for sure some Americans. In my opinion those coaches have every right to believe they Do a great job, because they do.
 
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