Yuri on Ice Episode 4

[adevyish]

The Grand Prix competitions in Yuri on Ice are in the same locations as they are for the real 2016–2017 season, but they’re in the wrong order! Rostelecom Cup and Trophée de France happen 3rd and 4th respectively, and Cup of China and NHK Trophy follow afterwards.¹

Some quick thoughts about Yuuri’s free program:²

• Not too unusual that Yuuri is doing a quad-double combo rather than a quad-triple, although I’m surprised Victor wouldn’t push for a quad-triple.


• Nobody puts both spin sequences in the first four elements of the program. This is mainly due to the stamina issue that Victor mentioned, but at the same time unless Yuuri is the best spinner in the world (Lambiel or Rippon level), I feel it’d turn the audience off the program.


• You would never, never have a triple axel (3A) combo after a non-combo 3A. The reason for this is that if you jump two of the exact same jump (3A, no combo), your second jump will not count. And if you fall on the 3A in a 3A combo, it counts as only a 3A without a combo. So what skaters will do is attempt the first 3A as a combo, and if they fail, attempt the second 3A as a combo.³


• It doesn’t make sense to leave the triple lutz (3Lz) out in favour of a triple flip (3F) or triple loop (3Lo), because the lutz scores better. Unless Yuuri actively sucks at lutzes, which I doubt as it hasn’t come up at all in the show and it’s not a common problem. (There are people who turn lutzes into flips, but that wouldn’t matter in planning for this free program.)⁴

Notes 2018/12/12:

¹ This originally came with accompanying screenshots of the Nishigori triplets’ drawings.

² This originally came with an accompanying screenshot of Victor’s notepad. The technical elements, in order, were 4T+2T, FSSp, 4S, CCSp, 3Lo, ChSq, 3A, 3F, 3A+1Lo+3S, 3Lz+3T, 3Lz→4T, and one last element the subs covered but it’s probably StSq.

³ As insk4te pointed out, the rules changed so that you simply get a deduction rather than zeroing the entire jumping pass; but the point stands—it’s still avoided when creating a program.)

⁴ As they also pointed out, I missed the 3Lz.