Yuzuru Hanyu BR: Hero’s Special on Mr Sunday

Hero’s Special on Mr Sunday. Great programme, so much of Yuzu’s wisdom, so I translated it to share. (If you know Chinese, the video has subs.)

skate15ylove.tumblr.

Yuzuru Hanyu became the first person in the world to do a successful quad loop jump, in both the short and free programmes (Autumn Classic 2016). He is a hero that keeps challenging his own limits and many junior skaters look up to him.

Girl skater: I wish I can also be like that.
Boy skater: How does he turn pressure into strength?

Kato-san went to Canada to ask Hanyu some questions from the juniors.

[14 September in Toronto]
Kato: I have a question from a junior skater in Japan for Hanyu-senshu (athlete), I mean Hanyu-sensei (teacher).

Yuzu: Ha…. Yes alright. (laughs)

Marin Honda: Hanyu-kun, I am Marin. [footage of Marin in competition and feeling the pressure] In so many big competitions, you always seem so strong. In order to give it all that you have done at practice, do you have a routine?

Yuzu: Routine…. in a way, I have, and in a way, I don’t.

Narrator: Before each performance, Hanyu does a gesture in the rink that looks like a cross. That is his routine.

Y: It looks like a cross and it’s a reminder to keep the axis straight from my head down, and to keep my shoulders and waist parallel. I do that every time. But even though I do it, there are times that I don’t perform well. So you should not be shackled to continue doing a routine, and instead, you should have the courage to change it if necessary. Or you can use it as a tool for focusing. There is also no need to hate the pressure too much.

K: (showing a past quote from him) This was something you said in the past. “I like that feeling when others have expectations of me. That is not pressure but ____.” What was the word you said?

Y: What was it?? …. Not pressure but…. support?

K: The answer is this! (the word is “a thrill”)

Y: A thrill! (laughs) Yes I know what it means. Well, I said it myself, so I know. (laughs)
Being supported means receiving a lot of power. I think I can definitely do a good performance precisely because of the pressure. So when I confront it, there is a thrill. In other words, I’m just an extreme masochist. (laughter)

K: Specifically which competition were you able to turn it into a thrill?

Y: Basically, all competitions are like that. Of course there are also times when I am so nervous that I am trembling, and I even laugh due to being too nervous.

A few words from his coach.
Orser: I learned from Worlds in Boston last season that he sometimes gets bothered by certain things, so what we can do is to get to the root of it, so that he can be free to skate. (t/n. I can’t hear his English fully, so half is translated from Japanese)

[footage from Worlds]

Y: People often say to me, you don’t feel the pressure? Well, it is impossible not to feel nervous. Like doing a TV interview like this, I also get nervous. And my words are not well-organised. (laughs) So I do get nervous but I know that one cannot help feeling nervous. In a sense, nervousness is a human instinct. So if you can make it an ally, it would be good; that’s how I think and I want to tell this to Marin-chan. I would like her to believe in her own abilities and work hard. She is really a very strong and talented skater.

Hanyu’s message for future heroes (he writes on a board): “Efforts tell lies, but it will not be in vain.”

K: I thought you were going to say ‘Efforts will NOT tell lies’.

Y: I can’t write that! (laughs)
If efforts do not tell lies, then the person who has worked the hardest would win every time. The recent Olympics (Rio), I watched various competitions. No matter how hard a person has worked, sometimes they just don’t win. Conversely, a very young competitor might win by momentum. It is also like that in figure skating. So in that way, efforts tell lies. However, the lies are not in vain. Because of the lie, you might have to make a different kind of effort or search for the correct understanding of your efforts. I think that is very valuable, isn’t it?
————-
Man in studio: Thank you for the privilege of learning this.
Kato: The weight of the words of 21 year-old Yuzuru Hanyu.
(this last part in the studio is at the end of this longer video)