Another part from the book ‘Team Brian’, translated by me from the original Japanese (thanks to a fan for sharing a few pages with me):
(Early August 2014, writer Yoshie Noguchi had a talk with Brian Orser and Yuzuru Hanyu.)
Finding “Yuzuru’s skating style”
—Half a year has passed since winning the Olympic gold medal. Firstly, after this Olympics, what do you want to say to each other?
Brian: First I want to say congratulations. You can become even stronger, so don’t stop, let’s go on improving together.
Yuzu: Although it is only a short period of 2 years from the time I joined Brian to the Olympics , I was always discussing with him while practising and so I was able to grow before Sochi and I could show my capabilities there. When I first came to Toronto, there was the English barrier (t/n. language barrier), but Brian could always sense what I was thinking and what I wanted to do. Brian as a coach, to do that for me, it’s really wonderful.
B: 2 years ago, when Yuzuru first came to Toronto, he already had amazing abilities. The first time I saw him was at Nebelhorn Trophy 2011 and my first impression was, an amazing skater has appeared. At World Championships 2012 in Nice which I went to with Javier Fernandez, he had grown into our strong rival. Overflowing with youth and zeal, he is a skater that we must pay special attention to in the near future, I thought. Then, soon after that World Championships, I got word that he wanted to be a part of my team. It was a big surprise!
Y: For me, during the 2011-2012 season, I saw that the quality of Javier’s quad jumps had become very good. The success rate had also increased. In competition and also at official practice, his quads were very good. I heard that he had moved to train with Brian and so I thought there must be some secret at Brian’s place. To me, quad jumps are my biggest weapon. If that jump is stable, there is a chance that my skating and expression and all other parts will become good too. That’s why I thought I want to learn with Brian.
—I heard that when Yuzuru first moved to Toronto, the training was not on quad jumps but just on the basics.
B: When Yuzuru came to Toronto in the spring of 2012, I first took him to some rinks here and there in the city and we skated together. That was like a kind of experiment. I made him do various steps and transitions, and I watched from every angle what kind of skating skills he has and what kind of characteristics are in his movements. I realised that many of his skills are random and change with his feelings. Having such frequent fluctuations in technique due to feelings, he would not be able to do stable jumps.
Y: Just as Brian has said, before coming to Toronto, there was a part of my skating that was affected by my mood for the day. Even in a programme, the feeling of speed and cross-skating steps were random; I myself felt that.
—So because of that, you started with the practice of foundation skating?
B: We started from having an in-depth discussion with Yuzuru. It is important to find the techniques that fit him and then decide the goal. Everyone has different skills and habits, it’s important to find that. Before plunging into quads practice, we must strengthen the foundation, in other words, the skating skills. Javier and Nam also managed to find skills that fit them, so in the same way, we searched for the “Yuzuru skating style”. Actually 2 years have passed and we are still searching for it, but someday, he must have his own style.
Y: I did skating practice when I was a child, but after moving up to senior level, learning skating skills all over again, it was the first time. So initially, it was hard. Actually, now it’s still hard. (laughs) But I understood that it would be good for me in the future and also good for the programme as a whole.
B: That’s right. The wonderful thing about Yuzuru is that he accepted quickly this basic skating practice. Or maybe he had no other choice. (laughs) In Cricket Club, there is skating practice for all skaters, led by Tracy Wilson. The difference in ability among each of them is clearly shown, and they also have to work hard to catch up with the rest. Yuzuru cannot be doing skating that changes with his mood, he has to skate together with the others, and through this, he understood more about basic skating skills.
Y: Yes it’s true. After coming to Toronto, I’ve really felt that my awareness of skating skills is connected to the stability of my skating and quad jumps. I felt the skills for the set-up to my jumps and timing improved.
—Besides skating, in terms of training as a whole, what kind of things did you pay attention to?
B: My coaching style places great importance on communication. This is even more important for skaters like Yuzuru who have great talent. I think there are coaches who demand that “this skill must be done this way”. But for me, each skater has different techniques already in possession, so the coach should adapt to each skater. So for Yuzuru, I do not say you must jump with this method but we search for the method that is best for him.
Y: That’s right. I discuss everything with Brian. For jump practice, first a video is taken, then both of us watch it together. Brian would ask, “What kind of feeling was that?” and I would answer, “My bodily sense felt like this.” Then Brian would give me some advice, “Ok how about trying it this way?” So this is done over and over again in the process of making my jumps.
B: The important thing is “a good feeling”. I realised it in the time we skated together, Yuzuru is like me when I was a skater, the type that places great value on the “feeling of the jump”. The training method suitable for this type is to video record the “good feeling”(jump), analyse it objectively and identify the pattern that succeeds. The breathing at that time, the condition of the body, the rhythm, the use of the knees, the path of set-up, the form when jumping, we explored all these things.
[apologies to Brian and Yuzu if I did not translate it well.]
[I also translated the foreword here: X ]
Edit: do not use or re-post without my permission
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