Vincent Zhou began his eventful off-season with a fall: stepping out of the dark backstage area and on to the ice at the
Stars on Ice show in Long Island, New York on April 20th, he tripped and injured his left knee. The misstep took him off of the tour and limited his training for several weeks.
"I took it very slow, getting back on to the ice," he said. "We didn't want to re-injure anything."
That brief break didn't hurt Zhou at all. Ever since that stumble, a whole lot of good things have come  the World bronze medalist's way.
First, he committed to attend Brown University starting this fall, a decision he discusses in the August/September issue of SKATING Magazine.
"I'm really looking forward to making friends outside of the skating world and hearing their stories, finding out what their lives are like," the 18-year-old said. "I've talked to some people who have gone to college and started figuring out life outside of skating. They've all said it's refreshing and really cool to connect with people who don't know skating."
"It didn't surprise me at all," Tammy Gambill, Zhou's longtime coach, said of the skater's Ivy League choice. "He's very intelligent and education is important to him. When he was four or five, he was always skating around as fast as he could to show off for me, watching the big boys at the rink and doing what they were doing. It's always, 'I can do that' and pushing himself to do more."
In May, Zhou traveled to Toronto to choreograph a free skate with Lori Nichol to music from the
Cloud Atlas soundtrack, a choice Gambill calls "magical." Canada's four-time World champion Kurt Browning contributed to the program's steps and movements.
"My intention is to explore new styles and try some cool movements, make my skating more complex," he said. "Lori is a very, very special lady. Anybody would be extremely lucky to work with her. She has her ways of bringing out cool stuff from skaters."
For his short, set to "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons, Zhou worked for the first time with Shae-Lynn Bourne, creator of
Nathan Chen's widely acclaimed short programs the past two seasons.
"She makes you re-think your limits and also makes you explore your inner creativity," he said of Bourne's work. "It brings out innovations you didn't know you had."
"His programs are in two different genres this year and he's loving it," Gambill said. "The short is a very high-energy and fun program. He's matured with his skating and music and style."
In June, the hits just kept on coming. Japanese real estate conglomerate Kinoshita Group announced it would sponsor Zhou, the first time it has chosen a skater outside of Japan.
"Financially, skating is a big struggle, so I am super grateful that there are people that are willing to support my journey," Zhou told
The Japan Times.
The sponsorship was fostered by Mie Hamada, coach of Japanese stars Rika Hongo and Satoko Miyahara, who has worked with Zhou the past two years. For the 2019-20 season, the skater formalized the relationship, announcing Gambill and Hamada as his primary coaches.
"Reaching out to different places helps me absorb new information constantly," said Zhou, who has also worked with Tom Zakrajsek to improve his jump technique and with Tom Dickson, Ryan Jahnke and Josh Farris on his skating skills and performance quality. "Working with Mie, she helped me take off in a direction I was hoping for."
Gambill looks forward to sharing coaching duties with Hamada.
"Everybody has something special they bring to the table," she said. "Sometimes a different way of saying something inspires him. Mie is wonderful with all of her edgework and training (techniques)."
Zhou's chemistry with Hamada was on display at the ISU World Team Trophy 2019 in April. After the 2019 World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama, Zhou remained in Japan to train with his Japanese mentor. The result was career-best programs, including the first quadruple Lutz ever done with both arms aloft.
"It's basically using very simple biomechanical principles and applying them to my skating and, in turn, using that good alignment on basic skating to help with the jumps," Zhou said of Hamada's training drills. "It's the way I stack myself for a jump, the way I take off and land."
"I randomly just decided to start doing the Lutz (with arms overhead) a few days before the competition. I had nothing to lose," he added.
Having executed four different quads – Lutz, flip, Salchow and toe loop – at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2019, Zhou seeks to make more incremental changes to his elements as he looks to the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
"As it is, I already have enough content to do pretty much the maximum possible (in the free skate)," the ever-analytical skater said. "The best use of my energy and health is to focus on the quality of things, the smoothness of the landings, and the cleanliness of things. I know my jumps aren't the most esthetically pleasing. Every time I watch my videos I try to think how I could make them look better. I still have lots of room to grow."
"I think I made some pretty big progress last season in the second mark (Programs Components Score) in terms of program quality and making things flow better, but it's nowhere close to where I would like things to be," he added.
Zhou has had more chances to exercise his performance muscles this summer, with trips to Japan to work with Hamada and perform in shows, including
Dreams on Ice early this month and an upcoming stint on Mao Asada'sÂ
The Ice tour.
"I'm so glad he's getting all of these opportunities in Japan," Gambill said. "I was hoping he would be able to work more on his maturity on the ice, entertaining audiences. It's great he's getting that experience he wasn't able to have with
Stars on Ice."
"Being able to do the really good quality jumps in conjunction with a true performance, that is going to be my ultimate goal going forward going into the Olympics," Zhou said. "It drives me to try and do better every day."
And just how will Zhou balance his burning desire to improve his skating, with hitting the books at Brown? Ice time will be available on campus at Meehan Auditorium, and about an hour away in Boston. Both Gambill and Hamada will be available via FaceTime.
"I'll be flying out to work with him and I know Mie Hamada said she will be, as well," Gambill said. "Mark (Mitchell) and Peter (Johansson) will make ice available to him (in the Boston area) and watch out for him when I can't be there, so there's a lot of help reaching out."
Zhou is scheduled for back-to-back Grand Prix events in China and Russia in November, and will likely also compete in a preparatory Challenger Series event. If he qualifies for the Grand Prix Final in Montreal in December, the schedule will be even more daunting. He only plans to do it once: using Brown's leave-taking option, Zhou can attend for one semester, and then defer his remaining education until after the 2022 Games. This season, he would finish up classes by late December, in time to return to Colorado Springs (or Japan) to train for the 2020 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.
"I'm actually looking forward to the challenge," he said. "It's exciting to see how much I can accomplish on my own. I've been led around my whole life and told what to do, and what not to do. It's exciting, also a little intimidating. I've gone up against worse.
"I've struggled in the past with finding the direction I really want to go with my skating, with my training, but now that I have the opportunity to skate on my own a little, I think it's going to be a good test of my will and desire to succeed."
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