Team Brian
Chapter Three: Yuzuru and Javier
(credit to yuzuinfostation
http://www.weibo.com/YuzuruInfoStation#_rnd1422641275749 for Chinese translation)…
Please bear with my rough English. I also apologize to those who had read the original Japanese version. If anything in my translation is inaccurate, please feel free to make corrections – thanks!
I did not translate the whole chapter word for word, so these are just some rough points.
In this chapter Brian mainly talked about the importance to learn about both students routines and their habits, how to give them suggestions, and maintain appropriate distance for observations, particularly during the preparation, warmup & then the real competition. Since both Yuzu and Javi are at the same level, they usually skate in the same group, with the orders close to each other. He has to split his time and attention between the two fairly. He needed to let them know that he cares about them and loves them the same way. (most of us already knew about this, the book just reveals more details)
1. Before Yuzu Joined, Brian felt that he had to watch over Javi the whole time. Surprisingly Javi does pretty well when he is let alone (when Brain was with Yuzu). While Yuzu seems to be fine by himself, he appears to be quite lonely without…POOH. (No more need to stretch how important Pooh-san is to Yuzu, especially Yuzu fans have fiercely defended pooh recently. And no wonder why Brian made peace with Pooh quickly)
2. How different Yuzu and Javi are: If Javi messes up his jumps in the 6 min warmup, he won’t do it again – he would just fix it in the competition. On the other hand, Yuzu takes the practice as serious as completion, and won’t feel satisfied until he lands everything in practice. (I have read this on the previous interviews as well)
3. During 2012-2013 GP Skate America, Yuzu skated his SP brilliantly (95 points, new record), however made many mistakes at LP, even he just did the LP wonderfully at Finlandia. It was not that Yuzu got too high from his SP and paid less attention to the LP. Brian spent a lot of time talking to Yuzu and finally figured the problem was the warmup. He also recalled Yuna had the same problem. At 2009-2010 Skate America, Yuna was perfect at SP (new record too). At LP after the 6min warmup she waited 30 minutes for her turn to skate. She left her shoes in the locker room so she literally sat on a yoga mat for 30 minutes. When she started the competition her body was completely cooled down already. (He regretted that he did not go to the LADY’s locker room to get the shoes for Yuna for her to keep warming up!). Yuzu’s case was on the opposite. He warmed up (running, jumping, all kinds of exercises) for a whole hour (he even got up the night before to run) and his body was tired out before the competition. From then on Brian worked hard to nail Yuzu’s routines before the competition (to make sure he maintains his best conditions before he takes the ice).
4. This part everybody should be familiar – it is about how Yuzu told him he wanted to win Sochi. Actually, he said he wanted to win both Sochi and Pyeongchang.
5. At 2012 Japanese Nationals, Yuzu dethroned Dai, however he did not seem to be happy. Brian respected Dai a lot while he recognized that it was inevitable (for any great skaters, such as himself) to be replaced by rising young stars. To be an Olympic Champion, Yuzu had to be the national champion first. The feelings of the transition between the “generations” are mixed and complicated, and Yuzu had to face this sooner or later.
....very beautifully sketch
Though YuzuPooh is a close second.
for the bold part, my fave part honestly
