Yuzuru Hanyu: 2014-15 Season
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- Nov 1, 2005
I'm sure positive news will make light.
Yuzuru looks quite manly in this photo, I always thought he had slight shoulders for a guy
He seems to have filled out in the last few months or so. Maybe it's because he turned 20 and is now a "real" man.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2014
Thanks for the question Meoima! I will choose to hijack it and not really give you an exact answer because I was recently wanting to find an excuse to ramble about Hanyu's skating but mostly in terms of his improvements over the years. Sorry in advance for how long this will be! (Also I'm not at all a technical expert, just someone with a few years of knowledge and skating fannish-ness)
I don't ever think Hanyu will be a Patrick Chan or a Denis Ten in terms of posture, carriage, elegant curving back, etc... but I don't think he needs to be. His aesthetic will never be classical. Daisuke Takahashi's lines were never classical either but he made it work for him. For me, Hanyu has amazing lines on his spins and the line on his ina bauer is my favourite among all current/recent competitors, women included. I think it's pretty obvious that he has been working on his posture, it's very evident in his exhibitions where the physical demands are much lower and he's a bit more relaxed. He doesn't nearly hunch his shoulders up as unsightly as much as he used to (look at Skate America 2012 for example and cringe at his shoulders going into his second spin, ack) and his back has improved a lot. When exiting his jumps, he also has a beautiful line with great extension on his free leg, even better than compatriots Uno/Machida who otherwise have better lines (Machida much more so than Uno). In general I would say he has a couple of gorgeous lines (most of his spins, his ina bauer, his jumps), but otherwise can be a bit clunky (his biellmann line is rather eeek).
I think what he really needs to work on is yes, his extension (point your toes!), but mostly on controlling his arm movements. As gorgeous as his Chopin SP step sequence is, he still looks a bit like he's frantically trying to bat away an army of cobwebs with his flailing. It doesn't detract too much from the overall performance IMO because it plays well to the beautiful and desperately fast music, but overall his arms really could be improved upon. Of course he's so thin that any noodle-like quality will be amplified. I think what made R+J very successful was that his choreographers gave him unique shapes to do with his arms (the fist pumping after the quad, that arm movement during the spread eagle, etc. A lot of it was just hitting an interesting/static arm position to the accents of the music, but it really worked). I would like to see Hanyu work again with Russian choreographers because I think their tendency towards bombastic drama really suits him more so than the more lyrical North American style... That being said, him and Buttle are a dream team.
WRT skating skills, even back in the 2011-2012 season, they were never bad. He's pretty much always had relatively deep edges, speed, great flow and knee bend, he just lacked refinement. IIRC Orser even said when Hanyu came to him he was all about speed, deep edges, and quads Of course he lacked control and stamina, which is seemingly why he often slowed down half way through his programs and got his edges would suffer. He had a good sense of sureness on his blade most of the time but I don't think he was very confident in multi-directional skating and his foot placement was sloppy. If you compare his edgework and amount/quality of his one-footed and multi-directional skating, the improvement in a few years is quite remarkable. Just watch only his feet and look at his COC 2011 SP step sequence versus his GPF 2014 SP step sequence and see how much faster, more ice coverage, and more precise his footwork is. He does less easy toe work and his edge quality is much deeper. The difficult turns (twizzles, counters, etc) are much less laboured especially in the clockwise direction. He has better upper body movement (yes, the arm flailing, lol) even though he's also skating on much deeper edges and at greater speeds.
One thing that has always stood out to me is his wonderfully long strokes and how few crossovers he takes, and those things have only gotten better with practice. Watching his Worlds 2014 EX it was really evident just how little effort he needed to put in to glide across the ice, and I especially enjoy how he's learned to stroke and turn right with the nuances of the music (even though I think he said he had to turn down his speed lest he skated into the boards LOL). In his POTO LP, I loved what Kurt Browning had to say about his step sequence, which is that (paraphrased) he doesn't 'push' through his footwork, he simply glides through it. He of course also praised him as "fleet-to-foot" at the GPF, and used words like "supernatural" at Worlds earlier this year to describe the way he moves across the ice. Kurt has always spoken highly of his skating skills, and I tend to trust his credentials on evaluating footwork
So to kind of answer your question, in terms of improvements from last season, it's hard compare such a short time span because you don't know what can just be attributed to the different choreography, different choreographers, or just outside factors like schooling (Machida
), terrible accidents that leave you bedridden for 10 days, unexpected health complications... It seems like this year more people are praising Hanyu for his skating skills, which I do think have gotten better, but at the same time I think people didn't really acknowledge that they were still very very good last season, definitely some of the best in the field. Perhaps it's just the fact that Patrick Chan is sitting out for the season, most of the veterans are gone, and among this current crop, Hanyu's great skating skills (when paired with his beautifully minimal Chopin SP that highlights his effortless glide, as opposed to PW which highlighted his charisma) shine all the more brightly. His posture for me is still steadily improving (mostly observable on a long term basis), his lines are great in some places, sloppy in others i.e. mostly through the feet and arms, but generally better (again, more observable on a long term basis)... Stamina is quite obviously unable to be accurately judged this season because of how much time he's had to spend this season recovering from one thing or another. That being said, I do think his R&J2 seems harder in terms of TR/CH than what his POTO is supposed to be (even though I know it's been significantly rescaled back to a more basic form, I'm making an educated guess based on what we saw of it in practices), but POTO was supposed to have 3 quads in it, so I really have no idea if his stamina pre-COC was better/worse/on par with his stamina last season.
But overall, I think it's important to chart development and improvement over a long period of time. In just a few years, he's truly come very far. It makes me all the more excited to see how great he'll be by 2018... Wishing him the best of health so we can enjoy and cheer him on all the way to Pyeongchang (or that slightest possibility of even further!!)
but mostly in terms of his improvements over the years. Sorry in advance for how long this will be! (Also I'm not at all a technical expert, just someone with a few years of knowledge and skating fannish-ness)I don't ever think Hanyu will be a Patrick Chan or a Denis Ten in terms of posture, carriage, elegant curving back, etc... but I don't think he needs to be. His aesthetic will never be classical. Daisuke Takahashi's lines were never classical either but he made it work for him. For me, Hanyu has amazing lines on his spins and the line on his ina bauer is my favourite among all current/recent competitors, women included. I think it's pretty obvious that he has been working on his posture, it's very evident in his exhibitions where the physical demands are much lower and he's a bit more relaxed. He doesn't nearly hunch his shoulders up as unsightly as much as he used to (look at Skate America 2012 for example and cringe at his shoulders going into his second spin, ack) and his back has improved a lot. When exiting his jumps, he also has a beautiful line with great extension on his free leg, even better than compatriots Uno/Machida who otherwise have better lines (Machida much more so than Uno). In general I would say he has a couple of gorgeous lines (most of his spins, his ina bauer, his jumps), but otherwise can be a bit clunky (his biellmann line is rather eeek).
I think what he really needs to work on is yes, his extension (point your toes!), but mostly on controlling his arm movements. As gorgeous as his Chopin SP step sequence is, he still looks a bit like he's frantically trying to bat away an army of cobwebs with his flailing. It doesn't detract too much from the overall performance IMO because it plays well to the beautiful and desperately fast music, but overall his arms really could be improved upon. Of course he's so thin that any noodle-like quality will be amplified. I think what made R+J very successful was that his choreographers gave him unique shapes to do with his arms (the fist pumping after the quad, that arm movement during the spread eagle, etc. A lot of it was just hitting an interesting/static arm position to the accents of the music, but it really worked). I would like to see Hanyu work again with Russian choreographers because I think their tendency towards bombastic drama really suits him more so than the more lyrical North American style... That being said, him and Buttle are a dream team.
WRT skating skills, even back in the 2011-2012 season, they were never bad. He's pretty much always had relatively deep edges, speed, great flow and knee bend, he just lacked refinement. IIRC Orser even said when Hanyu came to him he was all about speed, deep edges, and quads
Of course he lacked control and stamina, which is seemingly why he often slowed down half way through his programs and got his edges would suffer. He had a good sense of sureness on his blade most of the time but I don't think he was very confident in multi-directional skating and his foot placement was sloppy. If you compare his edgework and amount/quality of his one-footed and multi-directional skating, the improvement in a few years is quite remarkable. Just watch only his feet and look at his COC 2011 SP step sequence versus his GPF 2014 SP step sequence and see how much faster, more ice coverage, and more precise his footwork is. He does less easy toe work and his edge quality is much deeper. The difficult turns (twizzles, counters, etc) are much less laboured especially in the clockwise direction. He has better upper body movement (yes, the arm flailing, lol) even though he's also skating on much deeper edges and at greater speeds.One thing that has always stood out to me is his wonderfully long strokes and how few crossovers he takes, and those things have only gotten better with practice. Watching his Worlds 2014 EX it was really evident just how little effort he needed to put in to glide across the ice, and I especially enjoy how he's learned to stroke and turn right with the nuances of the music (even though I think he said he had to turn down his speed lest he skated into the boards LOL). In his POTO LP, I loved what Kurt Browning had to say about his step sequence, which is that (paraphrased) he doesn't 'push' through his footwork, he simply glides through it. He of course also praised him as "fleet-to-foot" at the GPF, and used words like "supernatural" at Worlds earlier this year to describe the way he moves across the ice. Kurt has always spoken highly of his skating skills, and I tend to trust his credentials on evaluating footwork
So to kind of answer your question, in terms of improvements from last season, it's hard compare such a short time span because you don't know what can just be attributed to the different choreography, different choreographers, or just outside factors like schooling (Machida
), terrible accidents that leave you bedridden for 10 days, unexpected health complications... It seems like this year more people are praising Hanyu for his skating skills, which I do think have gotten better, but at the same time I think people didn't really acknowledge that they were still very very good last season, definitely some of the best in the field. Perhaps it's just the fact that Patrick Chan is sitting out for the season, most of the veterans are gone, and among this current crop, Hanyu's great skating skills (when paired with his beautifully minimal Chopin SP that highlights his effortless glide, as opposed to PW which highlighted his charisma) shine all the more brightly. His posture for me is still steadily improving (mostly observable on a long term basis), his lines are great in some places, sloppy in others i.e. mostly through the feet and arms, but generally better (again, more observable on a long term basis)... Stamina is quite obviously unable to be accurately judged this season because of how much time he's had to spend this season recovering from one thing or another. That being said, I do think his R&J2 seems harder in terms of TR/CH than what his POTO is supposed to be (even though I know it's been significantly rescaled back to a more basic form, I'm making an educated guess based on what we saw of it in practices), but POTO was supposed to have 3 quads in it, so I really have no idea if his stamina pre-COC was better/worse/on par with his stamina last season. But overall, I think it's important to chart development and improvement over a long period of time. In just a few years, he's truly come very far. It makes me all the more excited to see how great he'll be by 2018... Wishing him the best of health so we can enjoy and cheer him on all the way to Pyeongchang (or that slightest possibility of even further!!)
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2014
Just saw an article about Yuzu's father. Could anyone kindly translate? 
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- Joined
- Feb 20, 2014
Thanks for clarifying Bonesfan ^^
Where is that? Sendai rink? It looks quite big.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2014
^Shingalas could you be more specific?
Not really, thank you is a nice and detailed observation, and I agree that is better to be patient and observe improvement over long period, but I don´t think the ausence of older skater is enhancing his SS and edges, because I think people has been paying more attention to his jumps and spins, but even before lots of people (commentors and specialist) pointed out that his SS and edges were special.
I was thinking earlier that maybe is that Yuzuru stroke is really "different", like is true that Patrick has deep edges and SS, but Yuzuru stroke is really light , like he is really floating, and maybe is not that one is better than the other, just that they are different.
I want to made clear that in no way I am have deep knowledge in FS, but is how I can compare what I see.
Not really, thank you is a nice and detailed observation, and I agree that is better to be patient and observe improvement over long period, but I don´t think the ausence of older skater is enhancing his SS and edges, because I think people has been paying more attention to his jumps and spins, but even before lots of people (commentors and specialist) pointed out that his SS and edges were special.
I was thinking earlier that maybe is that Yuzuru stroke is really "different", like is true that Patrick has deep edges and SS, but Yuzuru stroke is really light , like he is really floating, and maybe is not that one is better than the other, just that they are different.
I want to made clear that in no way I am have deep knowledge in FS, but is how I can compare what I see.
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- Joined
- Feb 20, 2014
Shingalas (I don't quote you because it's indeed a long post ) I found your post very good and informative so thanks a lot. I think the part I most agree with you is that Yuzuru isn't the classical type of skater but he really doesn't need to. Of course improvement in posture, lines etc will make him a better skater but he has a unique style that in my opinion is what made most of us interested in his skating.
) I found your post very good and informative so thanks a lot. I think the part I most agree with you is that Yuzuru isn't the classical type of skater but he really doesn't need to. Of course improvement in posture, lines etc will make him a better skater but he has a unique style that in my opinion is what made most of us interested in his skating.- Joined
- Feb 23, 2014
Just saw an article about Yuzu's father. Could anyone kindly translate?
Can translate, but it seem thet said his father is very strict, they call him spartam and a demon.
And said that maybe Yuzuru is so good because his dad is so strict.
No idea
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2014
Just saw an article about Yuzu's father. Could anyone kindly translate?
Thanks for this! Wow who would've thought such adorable boy/man has such stern and strict father(sounds very scary too
). Then again it might be one of the key why Hanyu is so tough and has the nerve of steel~ 
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2014
Can translate, but it seem thet said his father is very strict, they call him spartam and a demon.
And said that maybe Yuzuru is so good because his dad is so strict.
Lol, maybe that's why he does so well in school. Could also explain his extreme self-displine - Joined
- Apr 22, 2014
Can translate, but it seem thet said his father is very strict, they call him spartam and a demon.
And said that maybe Yuzuru is so good because his dad is so strict.
Oh, you made me curious about what that article says in detail.
I think we're agreeing? I was saying that perhaps the absence of a lot of skaters makes it all the more obvious how good his skating skills have gotten within the past 1.5 seasons (especially to the "detractors"
), not that they only seem good because other skaters are gone. What Patrick Chan is able to do on the ice is absolutely amazing, effortless speed and transitions in both directions, upper-body moving in whatever way it chooses, acceleration and deceleration on a whim, skating on all levels to give "depth", one-footed skating, incredibly deep edges and speed... Even (my beloved
) Takahiko Kozuka doesn't compare. Kozuka is light and dances across the ice with elegance and intricacy, but he doesn't have the sheer power and command of Chan. So yeah, no, Hanyu's skating skills are definitely not quite up there with either of them, but I do think he's not too far off in the pecking order. If I were to somewhat rank recent competitors, I would say perhaps Chan>Kozuka>Yan/Hanyu(not too sure who is better, I've seen Hanyu live but never Yan)>mostly everybody else lol. IMO what Hanyu excels in is long and beautiful stroking with his very long and beautiful legs and gaining speed from nowhere (if you're ever bored, count how many crossovers he does in his Chopin SP for example and compare it to the other top men this season). He moves very ethereally across the ice but he still needs to work on the ease of more intricate and difficult footwork, particularly in the opposite direction (although like I mentioned, I think he's improved A LOT). His one-footed skating has significantly gotten better.Yes, it was quite a ramble!! I'm not sure when I became so invested in his development, but alas, it happened. He definitely has his weaknesses, but I can watch even his bad programs and still find things to like about them. I didn't become a fan of him because of his impeccable lines and postureShingalas (I don't quote you because it's indeed a long post
, or even because I absolutely love every single one of his programs (I really don't), I became a fan because of combination of both the intangible and tangible qualities that make him a skater that is more than the sum of his parts. When I think about skaters who inspire so many fans (and haters LOL), take a Takahashi/Chan/Asada/Kim/Kwan/Cohen/Plushenko/Yagudin, and now Hanyu, these are all skaters for the ages that people will remember. Oh my, I'm feeling overly sentimental today.Thank you for the long post shingalas!
:agree: ! and with Abe for her fantastic choices of music that seems to fit yuzuru perfectly!
MTE!
watching his official practices before competitions (especially during gpf2014), one thing i noticed with him is that he does some movements (like with his hands moving in a particular motion that accents the music before his 3a3t combo) in between his elements, i dont know if its part of the original choreography or not, but the moves complement his program but then he leaves them out during actual competitions. I mean, is it a thing for him to do this all the time like forgets to do it in actual competitions or he just randomly adds them during practice and are not really part of his choreo?
:agree: He is still growing and developing to what he will become as a skater and seeing him develop/improve so much is what makes it exciting to see what he will become in a few years. Hopefully with proper guidance from his team that he wont stagnate and will keep on improving.
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- Joined
- Feb 20, 2014
Sharing a lovely fan video of this season so far.
Love everything about it. When I see something like this, I wish for him to have a chance to see it too, since he said that he does sometimes search for his own video. He has many talented and dedicated fans!
Aww I completely missed this post but thanks for sharing. What a beautiful video, perfect clips matching with the music as you wrote I wish he could watch his fans art, so many beautiful work out there.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2014
Some poster in one of Yuzuru´s facebook fan group said that his nickname is "Demon" and that he is called "Hot blood spartan" , man really, please someone translate this article
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2014
Some poster in one of Yuzuru´s facebook fan group said that his nickname is "Demon" and that he is called "Hot blood spartan" , man really, please someone translate this article
I remember Yuzu said that he is more like his Mom who is also very hot-blood. I guess the whole family is hot-blood type.
About his father, all that I know is that he began to train Yuzu baseball before Yuzu learned
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- Joined
- Mar 4, 2014
I remember Yuzu said that he is more like his Mom who is also very hot-blood. I guess the whole family is hot-blood type.
I remember him saying he used to fight with his mom a lot! But when did he say he was hot-blooded like his mother? I can't really recall. Maybe in some interview which I missed.
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2014
I recall there is an interview where he was asked which parent he is like more. He said he is more like his Mom, in terms of personality and appearance as well. He said both him and his Mom are hot-blooded, quick decision-maker and once decide will go all in. He also mentioned even his hands and feet are like his Mom's.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2014
