bro thinks he's esnupi

I'd give it like an 8/10 for a first effort. Will start with the good:

My first reaction to the music and costume was 'wow he is so tasteful and chic!' because his taste in pop music makes me doubt him sometimes ijbol He made a great music choice and obviously is clear-eyed about the kind of style he is good at (i.e. what I usually call his 'earnestness.') I was excited and interested to hear he's always wanted to do Cinema Paradiso. I wanna know what else is on his bucket list!

He has a good instinct for how his movement can convey appropriate tone and emotion.

Consistent flow throughout, very little of the 'standing still' choreo which plagues a good deal of exhibition choreography.

I appreciate how long he held the opening pose for; good to let things breathe.

There are some very lovely details. The toe steps in the first like 10 seconds as he exits the opening pose (which is very good too) really struck me as a nice unique detail. Also a big fan of the hand positioning in the ina bauer; one coming up to taking the other and coming down behind his head is fantastic. Adore the flying camel exit too.

Nice to see him trying some new choreo elements he's never done before, like hydroblading.

Full, varied use of space, directing attention to all sides of the rink.

He's very purposeful with things like line of sight and head positioning; I think this was something Carolina used to drill him on so good to see it's been retained!

(I would like to see it on a video where he doesn't keep randomly dying on jumps coz he got behind the music a bit after his mega death 4T fall and the other vid had 2 falls)

My main criticism would be that the range of movement he's pulling from is SUPER informed by his old programs at the moment. There's stuff he's doing where I'm like 'oh that exact movement is in xyz' and it happens just sliiiightly too often. (It's hard to describe some of them in words but one of them is just straight up From Werther lol. What, you think I forgot The Bible?) I don't like too much of this kind of self-recycling in programs, although it's not uncommon for ppl to do this, tbh (this is my main criticism of Jun x SLB, actually, that they're always in a shallow pool of movement.) It can create a clear identity for a skater but it's at the expense of a clear identity of the program. Also, in Yuma's case, it gives away that he's still early days in choreography, because he's still wearing his influences (Caro & Lori) on his sleeve very obviously.* But this is the case for every artistic form, tbh. Most artists / writers / musicians have very evident inspirations when they start out but find a more unique voice more over time. I believe he mentioned this as something to work on himself, so I have faith it'll improve, and it's not like it killed the program or anything. I think if one is less crazy than me it's not as noticeable anyway.

*I have a way I can spin this as a positive (or at least a point of interest) for the nostalgia piece I was mentioning because I'm a career yuma propagandist LMAO but objectively it would be better for it to reduce as he goes on.

If I were him, going forwards I would choose a particular aspect of the program each time to focus on and really try and innovate on. That might be a good way to build up a sort of 'reference library' of movement and ideas methodically. Like, one time go to town on the spins, really weird positions, see what he can do. He's a good spinner. And he can spin clockwise! Utilise that! Or impose some like weird rules on himself. Not competition ones, just stuff like 'you have to include this' or 'you can't do this', or 'you have to do three of these', to kind of push thinking in different directions. Def also keep trying new choreo elements he doesn't do very often; spirals, even split jumps (idk if he can do that but I used to think he couldn't hydroblade lol so).

He already said he wants to research different dance styles. Yep; watch hella videos and see what you can adapt to the ice. He's never done tango, for example. I'd also really like to see him revisit flamenco (you also said this yuma btw. after wtt 25. i remember buddy. just sayin). But most importantly imo: ENGAGE AND RESPOND TO AS MUCH ART AS POSSIBLE. Not only dance! All creativity is informed by other creativity! There's a whole world out there and he's got a year to find out about it! This goes out to everyone tbh! Read, watch films or documentaries and TV series, go to art galleries, go to the theatre, go to random stuff you see fliers for on the street. Even just for fun. I think it's so fun!! It's so important to think about how other people see the world, challenge your own views on things, think about the why and the how. I always sound like a broken record on this point but I consider it absolutely mega super crucial. But what the hell do I know tbf! He probably already does all of this.

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.

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