Sometimes,
Vincent Zhou is a study in contrasts.
A philosophical, serious guy with a wicked sense of humor. Teenaged, but possessing an older man's thoughtfulness and tenacity. A quadruple jump master who yearns to fully develop as a performance artist.
"Magical performances that trigger emotion don't happen when I feel like a robot going from end to end doing quads," Zhou wrote in an email interview a few days before he left Colorado Springs, Colorado, for the 2019 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama, Japan.
"Rather, the emotions build through movement and interpretation of the music, combined with successful jumping passes. When it all comes together, that's when great moments happen."
It's been a year of growth, not all of it easy, for the 18-year-old from California's Bay Area who now lives full-time in Colorado Springs. A stunning free skate lifted him to sixth place at the  Olympic Winter Games 2018, but back problems hurt him at the 2018 World Championships, where he placed 14th. Back issues also limited his training last summer.
New rules have technical panels scrutinizing jump rotations more closely than ever this season, resulting in greater deductions for many skaters. Sometimes, it seemed as if Zhou had a target on his back: under-rotation calls likely cost him medals at Skate America and NHK Trophy, where he placed fifth and fourth, respectively.
"I think after last season, fueled by my incredible Olympic skate, I expected a lot out of myself for this season," he wrote. "I kind of had to reevaluate and start from the bottom up again. Now the Olympics feels like a lifetime ago, because of how much I've grown and improved since then."
By the second half of the season, Zhou was more comfortable with his programs: a short, choreographed by Lori Nichol to "Exogenesis" by Muse; and a free skate created by Jeffrey Buttle to Asian-themed music, including selections from the
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack. While a few under rotation calls were still present, there was also improved performance quality.
In January, he won his second U.S. silver medal. Less than two weeks later, he had a breakthrough at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2019 in Anaheim, California, skating a clean, personal-best short including quad Lutz and quad Salchow to grab the lead. A few under rotations crept into his free skate, but he came away with another personal best and a bronze medal in a stacked international field.
"At the start of the season, when focusing on ingraining new choreo into muscle memory, it was much harder to skate freely," Zhou wrote. "But now that my body has learned the movements and the patterns are solid habit, the potential energy starts to become kinetic, so to speak – but only if I put in the effort."
The skater leaves few stones unturned. While his coaches at the Broadmoor World Arena – Tammy Gambill, Christy Krall and Tom Zakrajsek – focus on elements and overall "packaging," Zhou turns to Mie Hamada, coach of Japanese stars Satoko Miyahara and Rika Kihira, to address his knee bend and arm movements. During her visits to Colorado Springs, he has worked with her on building speed.
Other World Arena professionals have helped Zhou further hone his performance quality, musicality and skating skills.
"What makes Vincent so unique is he finds out what he wants and then he goes after it," Ryan Jahnke, a two-time U.S. medalist who now coaches in Colorado Springs, said.
"Five days a week, I teach a skating skills class – 20 minutes, at 10 a.m. When he's in town, he takes it. He's the only Olympic-caliber skater that comes. He's not too big to work out. He left for Worlds on a Wednesday, and I think he was in the class that Monday."
Nichol, who is based in Toronto, watched Zhou's performances this season and supplied the skater with detailed notes on his short program. Jahnke helped Zhou achieve the choreographer's vision.
"Vincent is willing to open up and do full performances in practice," Jahnke said. "I never see him do half work. He's taken ownership, with the goal to peak at worlds."
"(Nichol) gives him visual pictures that help him reach toward his maximum, beyond his normal range of motion – 'Lean your head to the right; reach up to the rafters; go further, go bigger.'"
Tom Dickson, who has choreographed for skaters ranging from 1995 World champion Chen Lu, to current competitors Miyahara and Kihira, likens his efforts with Zhou to "untying the knots in his body and his mind."
"It's about getting him to perceive skating as movement, a more pleasurable journey," said Dickson, who began working with Zhou in October. "If you always look at it like it's a massive labor, it's harder to let the audience enjoy what you're doing."
Dickson encourages Zhou to transfer upper body tension from his neck and shoulders to his core, to help the skater move more efficiently and enhance his natural body line.
"Sometimes you just glide, open up and embody your space," he said. "The biggest revelation for Vincent is there can be moments of less. You need to build to a crescendo, to get to different movements and energy that relate to differences in musical energy… Even when you do hard, intricate movements, you shouldn't feel your mind is boggled by it. There has to be a simplicity running through it."
To fulfill that vision, Dickson urges Zhou to apply Buddhist imagery and feeling to performances of his Asian-themed free skate.
"There's a lovely section of music when (cellist) Yo-Yo Ma is playing; I tell Vincent, 'Feel you are in a temple, breathing correctly, not holding everything in your shoulders. Skate like you're in a beautiful temple,'" he said.
Zhou's scores have risen over the course of the season, but that's not the primary way he measures the success of his efforts with Hamada, Jahnke and Dickson.
"Scores are too subjective to measure improvement," he wrote. "Once I start to feel better about my
skating – not jumping – it gradually shows more and more. Eventually, others start to notice, and as long as I keep pushing myself to develop my artistry, changes will occur."
Reporter's notebook
- On a March 11 teleconference with media, Zhou told reporters his right boot broke down shortly after he arrived at Four Continents. He immediately switched to a backup pair, making a few necessary adjustments. He brought two pairs of boots to Saitama; both, he said, "Work just fine."
- The skater has formed an unofficial partnership with Children's Hospital Colorado, currently under construction in Colorado Springs: "It's a relationship I'm very interested in …. I've visited patients at their Memorial Hospital and am looking to make many more visits to kids at the new Children's Hospital when construction is finished."
- After doing a few stops last year, Zhou has signed on for the entire Stars on Ice tour this season. He plans to perform an exhibition to Joji's "Slow Dancing in the Dark," choreographed by Joshua Farris: "I was adding new music to my playlists and came across this song that kind of spoke to me … I absolutely cannot wait to share my performances with audiences."
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