Continuing on this Worlds train of thought. Is there anything you said to Hanyu before his free skate? What was he like the night before leading into that?
I knew he was disappointed after the short so we needed to just let him be disappointed for that night. Then we did our practice the next day and he was on a mission to prove something. I totally had to hold him back and say, “Just do one practice. Don’t do a run through. We’re just gonna treat this like a day of rest.” He was kind of like, “really?” And I said, “Yeah, just trust me on this. I want you fresh for tomorrow; you’re gonna be fine.” Honestly, he’s never been in this kind of condition before. So, just, “trust your training. You need to come to the rink a little more approachable, a little bit less focused.” He gets intense. There’s focused, and there’s intense. As soon as he came in and we started our off ice warm up, I looked at his team leader and I said, he’s got a better face today. I could tell by his face. He was a little bit more engaging and it just felt right.
Your communication has improved then? I read when you first started working with him you kept a translator on your speed dial!
Yeah! Well, you know what, he’s been studying English. He’s learning English. Sometimes he would just throw a yes or no answer without understanding the question. And now he takes his time and thinks about it and he explains what he’s feeling, or what the answer is supposed to be. He’s communicating that way. I said, “We can’t take anything for granted here.” Whenever he answered a question with “yea, yea, yea,” I knew that he didn’t understand the question. So I had to rephrase it.
So like you said, your rink has multiple international skaters. Is communication all over the place, or how does that work?
You know what, it’s 2017. All of the kids speak English. Some of them arrive and they don’t; like when [Kazakhstan skater] Elizabet Tursynbaeva came, she didn’t speak any English.
At least you know that as long as Javier is competing there's chance of a competition being held there, or maybe a new skater might come along, who knows. I personally would love if all GPF were held in Barcelona lol They were well organized events with great audience.
(I know the music choice was Yuzu's fault. I'm glad he seems to realize now that he can create greater programs if he avoids overused music like RJ and POTO.)
Skating Gods. I want to believe in the 4A, I really really really want to. 
