Thread by @Henni147

I promised a summary thread about my top 4 Yuzu programs in the different program components and here it is.

I’d like to give some general comments about Yuzu’s programs and skills and what I observed while creating these threads.
#PCSanalysis #YuzuruHanyu𓃵

Skating skills (SS):

Yuzu’s greatest strength here is the high complexity of his skating movements and ability to vary the speed through his knee action and edge control only. He hardly needs basic stroking to accelerate, which is amazing.

Transitions (TR):

He is able to enter every type of element from difficult steps and also exit them with enough speed and control to continue with another difficult movement. The latter is an aspect that often gets overlooked.

Another big strength of his is the ability to maintain a high skating quality throughout the program. There is no drastic quality drop outside the step sequence. Also, the choreo sequence is not grotesquely isolated, which proves his very good and balanced transitioning work.

Performance (PE):

Yuzu’s biggest strength here is his projection skill and clarity of movement, matching the music piece in style and narration. You can logically conclude from his steps and gestures what he wants to express.

Another very strong skill is his ability to stay in focus and not let himself distract by a mistake or another unforeseen event.
In recent years he also managed to maintain the same power level throughout the program and not visibly regress in energy (in TenChi especially).

Composition (CO):

Yuzu’s programs strike out for their great concepts, logical layouts and high quality music cuts. The musical phrasing is very advanced as well, which is the key to a deep connection between skater and music.

Notable is also the accessible placement and balanced distribution of his elements. They are visible to all judges and placed in different corners, some in the middle of the rink. And he addresses all sides of the audience equally with his skating, not only the judges’ side.

Interpretation (IN):

Yuzu’s strongest component. He not only pays attention to timing, but also translates tempo, pitch and volume changes.
He even adapts the smoothness of his stroking to the timbre if different instruments are used.

Observation 1:
Jeff’s choreos escalate in SS, TR and IN.
Shae’s choreos excel in PE and CO.

That’s probably the reason why Rondo is such a strong program across all five components. It got the best input from both choreographers and there’s even some room to grow.

Observation 2:
Looking at the table above, it’s 18 different programs of 20 in total. Only Ballade and Rondo appear twice.
This wasn’t intended at all when I created these threads, it just turned out like this. Especially in the IN column you could put almost any of his programs.

This is
a) a testament to the greatness of Ballade and Rondo
b) proof that Yuzu has no one “hit” program, but a huge set of valuable programs with different strengths and great polishment throughout the years.

Observation 3:
There’s a good number of programs in the table that were not skated clean.

Most striking among them is Olympic TenChi with two falls. Yes, for me it’s still the only free skate that deserves a CO score above 9.50. Composition-wise it’s the most perfect program.

Also, that one fall at the end of POTO at GPF 2014 didn’t impact the overall interpretation of the program negatively at all. The fall itself was right on the beat and he got up quickly, almost nothing missing from the planned choreo.

That’s why I’m no fan of these PCS caps.

An error should only have a negative impact on
- SS if you need many basic strokes to get your speed back
- TR+CO if a significant part of the planned choreo is missed
- PE if the error is out of character and you lose focus
- IN if the error and following movements are off beat

So that was my final review. Thank you very much for reading! I hope, you liked it 😊

Now my questions to you (you can respond here or via QRT)
a) Which component is your favorite and why?
b) What additions or changes would you make in the five columns? (correct answers only)