Hi!!! I want to ask if you know whether Yuma’s blade model affects his stability or not? Saw someone said his blades are shorter than others which cause instability and that’s why his jumps seem to be unstable in recent seasons (plus mental reasons). And he seems to have different blade model (Ai) even among YS blades users too (Shoma and others use Sho model?)
Hello! yeah iirc he switched to his current model (YS Ai like you say) in 2023. (Before that he was on MK Phantoms I think.) I don't think he'd have stuck with them if they were a significant contributor to instability, but his blades are interesting.
With the Ai model, I think people are probably referring to the fact that the rocker radius is really short compared to a lot of other blades. You may well know this, but in case other people reading don't; the rocker radius is how the upwards curve of the blade is measured. It's telling you that if you kept following the blade curve and drew a full circle, the radius of that circle would be x number of ft. So a smaller radius means a smaller circle, and therefore a steeper curve. So when you have a smaller rocker radius, you have less blade-to-ice contact, and therefore it's more effective for turns and precise skating. So it makes sense why someone like Yuma would prefer a smaller rocker radius, as his skating skills are so central and he needs to have really good control.
Quick comparison of some relevant blade makes:
YS Ai: 6.6ft (Users: Yuma)
YS Sho: 7.2 ft (Users: Shoma Uno, Kao Miura, Miura/Kihara)
John Wilson Gold Seal Revolution: 8ft (Users: Ilia Malinin)
John Wilson Pattern 99 Revolution: 8ft (Users: Yuzuru Hanyu)
MK Phantom: 7ft (Users: Patrick Chan)
(Side note: Dance blades often have a smaller rocker radius; the YS dance blade (Yui) is 5.9ft, for example, which makes sense considering the quality of skating is kind of the most important thing.)
But would this affect his landing stability? It might do a little bit, yeah; less blade-to-ice contact is never gonna be helpful when landing from a physics POV in terms of distributing the force evenly. (I think about it in a very layman way because I am a dirty humanities student, so it's an extreme example, but I always picture if you tried to jump down onto one of those bosu balls with the flat top. You're more likely to go flying across the room than if you tried to jump down onto a flat rectangle.) But it's about finding the balance that suits your purposes best.
And to be honest with you I don't think it's been the blades making him fall. Unfortunately, Yuma is all mental. If you watch him enough you can predict what's gonna psych him out. It's often the 'hardest' thing. Like, in 24/25, he could skate a clean short coz he knew he could, but then would get in his head about the 4F in the free. He'd mistime it (either rushing, which makes him pop, or overcompensating and going too slow, which makes him fall), then get upset because 'now I've failed the flip I can't get anything else wrong' and then mistime other stuff, and then things would spiral from there. In 25/26, he was always fighting with the second half 4T in the free because he flopped it a couple of times early in the season so it turned into a mental hurdle as well as a physical one. Significance is Yuma's enemy; we are always in significantly more danger on the first/last/hardest jump. He is way more likely to struggle more when there's a sense of 'Okay You Can't Get This Wrong Because Then You're A Flop And We Hate You', which is not true of course, but he unfortunately seems to feel it keenly and apply it liberally. He's gotten better, because if 24/25 Yuma had shown up to the Milano free it would have been Incredibly Over, but...yeah. I don't think the blades have much to do with it. I think Yuma's 23-26 was almost entirely mental.
there's discourse over ilia and alysa not taking a photo together at the TIME event... fstwt needs to understand that they are not friends and that's okay!
mm I've noticed some fans get very preoccupied recently with 'how does every skater feel about ilia, are they his friend, do they like him, etc.' idk if it's like a defensive thing against hate? or a validation thing? but it's not worth doing. we can't know, and even if we did know, it doesn't necessarily mean anything grander. idk if alysa and ilia are friends or not but I do know it's much better just to not read into this kinda stuff.
My fellow journalists, we have recently learnt that there is a fourth skating discipline. It is called...now hang on, let me get this right...I have it here...ah, yes, ahem. "Ice... Dance.' Apparently we, Japan, do not win things in 'Ice Dance'. Well, this is very strange, because our skaters are so good at dancing on the ice!! Who here remembers CYBER SWAN!! Haha the good old days...yes, and apparently you don't even jump in ice dance! And we are so good at jumping! So I can't imagine how we are losing... Yes, we could research this, but I don't think we will. People are still getting to grips with The Rikuryu Discipline, we will only confuse them— what is it, intern? oh— My intern is telling me The Rikuryu Discipline is called 'Pairs'. Haha, these interns, such sticklers for technicalities! So eager to prove themselves! Well, anyway, I hear there are some Japanese skaters in Ice Dance, but they didn't qualify for the Olympics, so they must be flops. And you know what our mission is here: 'Another Day, Another Singles Skater to Squish With Our Trusty Giant Boulder Labelled 'Atarashii Ace (Win Us Stuff Or Else)'! We only believe in the mighty! All together now: Shoulder The Boulder! And soon we will Shoulder The Boulder in Ice...Dance, too! Because Many Marketable Singles Skaters are now moving to do Dancing On Ice— what? that's something else? Who the hell are Torvill and—As i was saying, many Singles Skaters will be doing some Ice Dance! Are they good at Ice Dance? Well, they can skate, can't they? I'm sure they will be world medallists before the year is out! After all, people buy shit with their faces on it, so people will click on articles with their faces on! And article clicks an Atarashii Ace Makes! Alright, meeting over! Get cracking on that Ice Dance explained article; make sure to shit on all these alleged 'Dance Teams' we already have on the middle paragraph; maybe they should learn a thing or two from Marketable Singles Skater!
I’ve never seen you participating in any. But I was talking about Nika’s post
yes I'm very well behaved now.... as to that, I winced when I saw it and it is over the line in my view. didn't like the lengths some people went to defending it.
hmmm idk if it's cheating to say a combo but I love the 3F3Lo best when he hits it. I love the flow of a good -Lo combo it's so crisp. Plus it's kinda rare so I always look forward to seeing it, I'm glad it made it back into his layout consistently this season. He gets suchhh a good snap off his loop edge when he's on. also it gets bonus points for kind of saving his life in milan.
maia needs to see more positive feline representation that doesn't just symbolise the weight of the imperial burden and that's why I propose we send bagpuss to the ethuveraz
Can I ask what about Yuma’s skating that you think makes him stand out from the rest to be become one of the greatest? 🤔
(will combine this with the person who asked me 'what makes yuma the greatest skater of all time in your opinion' as they're kind of covering the same ground. )
I don't know if you're meaning this in skating as in skating skills or skating overall, but his exceptionality in pure skating skill is pretty much without question. The key things are the appearance of effortlessness and also the balance between speed and precision. He can generate speed extremely easily and quickly, and his accelerating/decelerating isn't abrupt. he doesn't need to do furious crossovers to get up to speed and he doesn't grind to a halt when he has to do more complex steps/turns. He has better control over his higher speeds than lots of other skaters. He can skate quickly without hopping loads of turns or everything becoming shallow and rushed. Even when he has very fast and complex clusters and demanding musical accents to hit (hello I Wish) he can hold it together, because his command of his skating is so good.
One of the things I find hardest to watch in skating is when someone reaches their step sequence, but they're tired and maybe behind the music, so they're kind of scraping and grinding out the necessary turns and barely covering any ice and it's all a bit frantic. I sound so mean saying this but it like genuinely stresses me out a bit lol. It makes me feel physically impatient and it kinda feels like pressure on the front of my brain? I think that sounds deranged lol. It's probably the OCD. But it's the best way I can think of to describe it. I never feel that with Yuma.
Overall, though, I think inevitably the question of 'the greatest' is to some degree subjective and depends on what you value. Probably I think he's the best because all the things I care about and think are important in skating, he does lol.
I care about:
Good flow and cohesion throughout a program
A sense of effortlessness
Attentive musicality and pace
Attention to, consideration of, and interest in program subject matter
Consistent high quality across all aspects of skating
Yuma has:
The ability to make all of his elements, including his jumps, flow together into a coherent whole. His landing running edge is one of his greatest assets to this end.
The above also aids the sense effortlessness across the board.
Accurate musicality across multiple genres, and adjusts the speed of his skating according to the tone and pace of the music.
Investment and interest in his programs, clear opinions on his material (both positive and negative lol) and understanding of what he is presenting. He is also interested enough in the choreographic process to want to do it himself, which I admire.
Beautiful jumps, with quality maintained even on his quads, good spins, and good steps, and rarely drops levels. Has no glaring weaknesses.
I think to be great you need to be able to balance the scales across all aspects of skating. In the last few years, Yuma's found that balance imo. Not every time, but when he does, it is exceptional.
If I were to give him any criticisms, I would say:
I don't even know if anyone else has noticed this, but he must breathe through his mouth when he's skating because he almost always has his mouth open. sometimes it's a bit distracting or hinders facial interpretation imo.
Yuma I don't mind you fiddling with the choreo here and there but please stop accidentally blasting through small details especially when you get excited
Stop showing the audience that you're disappointed when things go wrong. I find it endearing that you gaf but honestly you have to pretend it didn't happen for the IN score man
I've tried to articulate this very clearly and justify my thoughts, but I also think that in sports like skating, when performance and the individual is such a huge part of it, sometimes people just touch your heart and that's the end of it. I think that's also indispensable to be a great skater; people have to feel something. It's very intangible and difficult to define but necessary. I am quite a critical person who is not very good with strong emotions, so it's easier for me to talk about this kind of stuff in a more distant, technical way, but his approach to skating just has a particular sincerity to it that makes me care.
i’m ruminating on the possibility of yuma’s possible paths here and wanna ask if there was any skater who retired the season right before the olympics? 🤔 like i’m thinking he can either (1) come back for one season and say ‘that’s fun but goodbye’ or (2) he can do all 3 years? because why would you retire right before the olympics if you can have the last moment then go at the olympics 😔 mostly i don’t want to entertain the (1) path because i haven’t been able to see him much 🥹
yeah I actually can't think of anyone major who has retired in the pre-olys season off the top of my head... I'm sure people have, but it's not that common because of the 'well I've done 3/4 so let's just go one more' line of thinking. most common years for retirement are the first 2 years of each quad. I think if he comes back he'll probably do more than one year but who knows. I couldn't say what he'll do now, he's still being cagey about 2030. It might depend on where he fits into the men's field upon returning, or more on just what he wants; does he actually want to try and medal again or does he just wanna skate and not worry about placements, or is he not interested at all, or what? we'll see.
where did yuma say he wanted to use werther as an sp?
omg thank you for asking this because it gave me the kick up the ass I needed to actually go find the article lol. I've been meaning to do it for ages. Anyway I found it, it's from press he did during Prince Ice World 2023, which was the first place he skated it. It was his first appearance post injury since 2022 Nationals in fact.
