Chapter 11 On the Modification of the Edge: The Method of Modifying the Edge for the Hook Jump

On the ice rink, Yang Yiyan extended backward along the outer arc, making sure she could hold the ice before touching it.

Xia Yuezi stood aside and shouted, "Xiao Yan, I told you to press the outer edge along the arc, not to twist it when you enter to fool yourself. Look down at the ice mark, is it S-shaped?"

After returning from Ya Gong, Xia Yuezi focused on Yang Yiyan's blade modification. Her daily schedule changed to spending three hours in the morning supervising her physical training and ice training, two hours in the afternoon accompanying Feng Simai to find the axis, and the rest of the time with the other children.

Yang Yiyan pursed her lips. Whether the technique was up to standard or not, the athlete knew better than anyone else, but she was also very aggrieved.

Every time she pressed down on the blade, she felt a sense of loss and impending fall. Her body reacted instinctively, choosing the more familiar and safer method.

Seeing the little girl's dejected look, Xia Yuezi hardened her heart and, unusually, did not comfort her: "Xiaoyan, you need to know that the required jump for this year's World Youth Championships is the hook jump, and we don't have much time left."

Each season, the World Junior Championships selects one of three jumps—lo, F, and lz—as the fixed single jump for the short program. This year, it's lz's turn.

If Yang Yiyan can't suppress 3lz, it's still okay if she's judged to have a blurred blade. 3lz's own bv is 6 points, and even if the goe deducts a few tenths, she can still have more than 5 points.

However, if a player is judged to have used the wrong blade, their GOE score will be reduced by at least half. Moreover, after the Pyeongchang cycle, not only will the GOE score be affected, but even the base score will be reduced by 20%.

The hook jump has the highest score after the Axel jump, mainly because its technique is awkward. When pressing the outside edge, the body will instinctively rotate clockwise inward, but when taking off, it will rotate counterclockwise.

This has led to a lot of players not understanding the hook and jump technique, but the referees will be lenient with players who have nationality benefits. For example, Nina from the United States has both F and LZ double blades, but the referees have almost never caught her in international competitions.

For players like Yang Yiyan and Mengchuan Liya, who are not from noble nationalities, the only way to beat them is to avoid making mistakes.

Xia Yuezi watched a few more sets and found that she was either using a flat blade to scrape the ice or tapping the ice to instantly return to her inner strength, which was basically just deceiving herself.

She called people over and demonstrated it herself.

The original owner's physical condition was quite good, and she did not relax her training after retiring, which was enough to support Xia Yuezi to jump 3LZ. Even though she landed on both feet in the end, at least she did not make any technical mistakes.

She turned to look at the little girl: "The blade doesn't have to be so deep, but you must make sure the referee can see that you're pointing it outwards, so they don't have a chance to make a wrong call."

Xia Yuezi was also a member of the deep outer blade group before the developmental stage. She controlled her weight well during development. Although her blade depth was not as deep as the original T, it was still noticeable.

Yang Yiyan nodded, wanting to continue trying, when she heard the coach say, "See the red circle on the ice? Practice gliding around that arc, just one jump is enough."

The notebook records Yang Yiyan's entire gliding trajectory from the beginning of the blade modification to the present, and it is very clear that Yang Yiyan's problems can be found.

During training, she can control her body and consciously press down on the edge, but during the competition, her mind starts to fight against her muscle memory.

Therefore, it is now necessary to help Yang Yiyan update her muscle memory and train her to be aware of when to use ice.

If this habit isn't corrected, it's possible that the entire jump might become a flutz, confusing F and lz jumps, resulting in using one tool for two purposes, or even a distortion of the technique.

Xia Yuezi didn't want to see Yang Yiyan like some other skaters, lifting her toe leg way too high when doing a hook jump, sticking her butt out and lowering her body to stabilize her center of gravity, and landing in a way that was so ugly it was unbearable to watch.

"Xia, come here for a moment."

Li Tan's voice came from behind. Xia Yuezi came back to her senses and turned around to see him walking over with a document in his hand.

"This is the venue for this year's junior Grand Prix events, and the Skating Association has decided to send Xiaoyan and Simai to participate in the first event in Latvia."

Xia Yuezi took it but didn't look at it immediately. Instead, she asked, "Are we going to make Meng Yi a double-line character this year?"

Players who turn 15 before the start of the season can be promoted to the adult group. For example, in the upcoming 2011-2012 season, youth group players are required to be 13 years old before July 1, 2011, while adult group players are required to be 15 years old before that deadline.

However, the age range for the youth group is thirteen to nineteen years old. If a country does not have enough outstanding athletes and does not want to waste its quota, athletes will have to compete on two fronts.

Li Tan shook his head: "Meng Yi's condition after retraining is not ideal. She is not physically fit enough for fighting on two fronts."

The implication is that Zhang Mengyi will only compete in the adult group this season.

Xia Yuezi silently flipped through a few pages of documents, then asked, "What about the next few stops?"

The senior Grand Prix consists of six legs, usually held in six countries: China, Canada, Japan, the United States, Russia, and France. The junior Grand Prix typically consists of seven legs, with each season hosted by a different country.

Li Tan looked at the girl still practicing around the red circle on the ice rink, his voice tinged with bitterness: "The higher-ups said there aren't many spots this year, so we'll allocate half of them according to the National Championships quota first, and then register them as substitutes for the next few races. If they do well, they can take their place."

This season, the junior division only filled the 14 spots in pairs figure skating, 7 in men's singles, 6 in women's singles, and even fewer in ice dance.

Hearing this, Xia Yuezi's eyelids twitched. She felt that this move was very familiar. It seemed that some national skating associations liked to use it. Every time, the main skaters were followed by a string of substitutes. She didn't expect that her own people had also learned it.

However, this gave others an opportunity and also allowed the Skating Association to have more flexibility in its planning, so Xia Yuezi didn't say much.

"I just checked, and the women's singles includes Polina and Nina, while the men's singles includes Fujiwara Yoshino. This match won't be easy to compete in."

Polina is a Russian athlete who just moved up to the junior group this year. Before the start of this season, she released a training video of herself performing 3A, but it's unclear what her success rate was. At least in Xia Yuezi's memory, this girl always seemed to have a lot of woes during matches.

Japanese athlete Yoshino Fujiwara, also a second-year junior, has an exceptionally high talent for jumping but his performance is mediocre. Some describe his performance as that of a pre-programmed robot, which is neither flawed nor watchable.

In some ways, he's quite similar to Jiang Shuyu, except this guy truly loves figure skating. Even at the end of his career, he braved injuries to skate into the Beijing Winter Olympics, spending almost twelve years on the international stage. If his body hadn't given out, he would have been aiming for the next cycle.

“But if you flip through the pages, there are plenty of top skaters in the second and third stops as well. The requirement is that if you make it into the top five, you get two stops.” Li Tan turned his gaze back and stated the Skating Association’s requirements.

The finals are based on a points system, with rankings determined by the sum of points from the two preliminary rounds. If there are ties and the rankings exceed the limit, the highest score from the two rounds will be used for comparison.

Generally speaking, if you want to enter the finals, you should ideally be on stage in both preliminary rounds. In extreme cases, you might win gold in one round and finish fourth in the other.

Being in the top five is indeed not unreasonable.

Xia Yuezi put the document in her notebook and replied, "Okay, I'll discuss it with the children and have their parents ask for leave."

With only two weeks left until the Latvian leg of the competition, making major changes is unrealistic. The only thing to do is to control their weight and prevent their jumps from deforming.

……………

In a hotel abroad, a tall but youthful-looking young man dragged two suitcases into the room first, followed by a baby-faced woman who was pulling a suitcase with her left hand and holding the hand of a girl whose eyes were barely open.

A baby-faced woman stood at the front desk, spoke fluent English with the person there, and received a room key with a series of consecutive numbers on it.

She gave Feng Simai a card first, then gently patted the girl who was leaning on her shoulder and almost dozing off: "Xiaoyan, let's go to the room to sleep."

The journey from Beijing to Latvia involved over twenty hours on the plane, including a layover. It's the young girl's first time competing abroad, and she had to sit for so long; it's no wonder she couldn't adjust.

Yang Yiyan rubbed her eyes groggily, mumbling something. Xia Yuezi couldn't hear her clearly, but seeing that she couldn't go far, she could only pull her onto the elevator.

As soon as the door opened, Yang Yiyan couldn't wait to lie down on the bed. Xia Yuezi looked at the little girl's sprawled sleeping position, helplessly walked to the door, and took the box from Feng Simai's hand.

"It's getting late, you should go back and adjust your time zone."

Feng Simai didn't linger. He yawned, picked up his suitcase, and went into another room.

Xia Yuezi placed the suitcase in an open area, tucked Yang Yiyan in, and left only after confirming that the room's doors and windows were in good condition.

The men's and women's singles short programs are on the same day, with the men's singles starting first.

When the two went to the ice rink to get used to the venue, many people subconsciously looked at the two Asian faces.

The reason is simple: Feng Simai's height is out of place among a group of male singles players.

Fujiwara Yoshino glanced in that direction and then shifted his weight back onto the ice. He leaped and landed with a 3A foot.

His coach, Yamada, nodded in satisfaction. Last season, Fujiwara Yoshino made it to the Grand Prix Finals with one silver and one bronze medal, but failed to reach the podium. He then went back and worked hard on triple A medals in order to win a medal this season.

Xia Yuezi was not surprised at all by Fujiwara Yoshino's performance. Besides the triple A, Fujiwara Yoshino should also be training for the quadruple jump, otherwise he wouldn't have dared to attempt the quadruple T at this World Junior Championships.

She turned her attention to her own child. After this period of training, Feng Simai's muscles had become firmer, and his weight changes were kept within a controllable range. The elongated visual effect of the black training suit and ice skates made his jumps pleasing to the eye.

After skating for a while, Xia Yuezi noticed that several ice skating fans had pointed their cameras at him.

During pre-competition training, fans can enter the stadium to watch, but they cannot applaud and shout like they do during the competition, as this would disturb the athletes' training. Several blonde girls were just holding cameras and whispering in the stands.

After training, a girl who recognized Feng Simai asked him in English if they could take a photo together. Feng Simai was pleasantly surprised and blinked at the coach. Xia Yuezi took the camera from the girl and gave the person next to her a push.

After the girl left happily, Xia Yuezi glanced at her second brother, who was still immersed in joy, and couldn't help but remind him: "It's fine to sign autographs and take photos with fans, but you should be careful about your words and actions."

It's common knowledge that people abroad have a more open social atmosphere. Previously, a highly successful pairs figure skating partner was dating multiple girlfriends simultaneously, including some of his fans. It was also revealed that he had repeatedly accepted luxury gifts from these fans, leading to a massive online backlash from rival fans and his female partners' fans.

Therefore, Chinese athletes are always strictly supervised when they go out to compete, especially the youth group athletes, who are in a stage where their values ​​are not yet fixed and they like to learn from others. Coupled with the rebelliousness of adolescence, the coaches can only keep instilling in them the idea that "it doesn't matter if you lose the competition, but you can't lose face for the national team."

Feng Simai gave an OK sign: "Don't worry, Coach, I know what I'm doing."

After returning to the hotel, the two went straight to the restaurant. It was the women's singles practice time in the afternoon, and Yang Yiyan had already reserved a spot for them.

Yang Yiyan woke up naturally and was in a very good mental state. Even when faced with a white meal that didn't look appetizing, she was able to finish everything on her plate.

But Xia Yuezi couldn't. She slept later than the children and had to accompany Feng Simai to training in the morning. She was already standing in front of the bar, desperately needing coffee to keep her going.

After hearing her request, the staff stared at the woman in front of her with a very strange look for so long that Xia Yuezi felt uncomfortable before the staff finally spoke: "We do not provide coffee to athletes."

Xia Yuezi was stunned for a moment, not expecting such an answer, and her feelings were equally complicated: "I am the coach."

After saying that, she reached into her pocket and took out her work badge to prove it. The other person picked up the badge and looked at it at Xia Yuezi for a long time before handing her the coffee.

Yang Yiyan noticed the coach's strange expression and asked, "Coach, are you still jet-lagged?"

Xia Yuezi took a sip of coffee, and the energy she exuded was just as intense as the bitter taste in her mouth.

If this happened to her own body, she would at least post it on her WeChat Moments to brag about it, but this is someone else's body, and she doesn't have that much face.

Then, Yang Yiyan heard her coach say, "It's nothing, it's just that the coffee abroad is too bitter, I'm not used to it."

A note from the author:

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