Nathan Chen | Page 382 | Golden Skate

Nathan Chen

hhh said:
How fitting a day before his 19th birthday to reflect on his younger days.
Thanks @ shine for sharing thoughts on him as a boy vs the teen he’s become. What fascinated me when watching his younger self skating is like you pointed out the complexity of the blade work but also the transitions he can handle and the musicality at that age making them so worthy to savor those moments.

I didn’t quite get what you mean by he needs more power?



do you know if that is a permanent condition?
Click to expand...

It’s not. It normally stops after the child has stopped growing.
 
Clearly I'm no expert on Osgood Schlatter or any such conditions, but I find it hard to believe injuries are what's preventing Nathan from achieving a deeper knee bend while skating. First, if he had a knee problem which hurts his knees even when he's skating, he probably wouldn't/shouldn't be doing all these quads. The magnitude of impact on the knee upon landing a quad (or even a triple) is wayyy higher than the impact from the rhythmic knee action of regular stroking/gliding/turning. I also don't think the ability to actually bend down is a problem as he has no problem with sit spins (which requires a much deeper bend than skating), for example.

I know this is a ff and we all tend to over analyze :laugh:, but him not having as good of a knee bend or knee action may really just be an area that he needs to work on.
 
yyyskate said:
- - - Updated - - -



that is from Zijun, and her introduction of Nathan is "the male skater from Mars"
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That's really cute and funny awwww :love: I think they also had a chance to interact a bit when Nathan went to Lori for choreo last year while Zijun was also there?
 
hhh said:
How fitting a day before his 19th birthday to reflect on his younger days.
Thanks @ shine for sharing thoughts on him as a boy vs the teen he’s become. What fascinated me when watching his younger self skating is like you pointed out the complexity of the blade work but also the transitions he can handle and the musicality at that age making them so worthy to savor those moments.

I didn’t quite get what you mean by he needs more power?
Click to expand...

I think Nathan has pretty precise edges, blade placement, and weight distribution while skating and his stroking mechanism is quite good. Even Kurt mentioned he likes the way Nathan "treats the ice".

But comparing him to someone like Patrick, Shoma or even Yuzuru you can clearly see he's not generating as much power and speed with each stroke and his edges are shallower (not as much lean). Much of this is related to amount of knee bend one has while stroking (again, both Patrick and Shoma are known for this). Having deeper knees allows you to generate more power with each stroke and you are faster and your skating looks bigger overall.
 
I’m getting a little teary eyed at all these sweet birthday messages for Nathan💞

aww ... some are like - thank you for having been born 😊
 
shine said:
Clearly I'm no expert on Osgood Schlatter or any such conditions, but I find it hard to believe injuries are what's preventing Nathan from achieving a deeper knee bend while skating. First, if he had a knee problem which hurts his knees even when he's skating, he probably wouldn't/shouldn't be doing all these quads. The magnitude of impact on the knee upon landing a quad (or even a triple) is wayyy higher than the impact from the rhythmic knee action of regular stroking/gliding/turning. I also don't think the ability to actually bend down is a problem as he has no problem with sit spins (which requires a much deeper bend than skating), for example.

I know this is a ff and we all tend to over analyze :laugh:, but him not having as good of a knee bend or knee action may really just be an area that he needs to work on.
Click to expand...

I think it was a habit that developed long term. His coaches worked oparound his condition, so he still mentally inadvertently doesn’t deepen his knees yet. It’s something he’ll have to train his body to do.
 
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