2019-20 Japanese Men's Figure Skating | Page 5 | Golden Skate

2019-20 Japanese Men's Figure Skating

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Are we still pretending that Shoma is rotating his jumps? It's beyond me how can someone claim that a skater who is constantly getting away with his flaws "a level above" others. Where does this belief come from? Let's not insult skaters with better technique like that, please, skaters who rotate their jumps and actually work on their flaws but doesn't get as much support from the federation because they weren't meant to be the "chosen ones" .
The plan was to have someone to replace Yuzuru when he once retires, but the last years showed that Shoma is not that person and the judges slowly get it too. But the next generation is here, lets give some deserved love to them

He is still rotating his jumps. Look at the protocols. He’s still executing clean quad toes and quad flips, and even has a 3A+4T in the works. Yeah yeah yeah some don’t care for his technique - whatever... as long as he’s doing what needs to get it sufficient for tech panels those are really the opinions which should actually matter to him at the end of the day and not the opinions of those who dislike him or criticize him for not quite measuring up to Hanyu.

Lol @“the plan”. Shoma (or the other Japanese men) aren’t some failsafes to keep fans still invested/interested/satisfied if Yuzu happens to not be competing in a competition, or when he ultimately retires. They are their own unique skaters with their own careers, as is Yuzu with his. The same toxic comparison rhetoric is used when everyone was wondering who would replace skaters like Kwan or Kim or Asada, and was supremely disrespectful to skaters who were just trying to do their thing and not be mocked or criticized simply or put under severe pressure for not matching up to their country’s illustrious decorated predecessors/contemporaries to ensure a smooth transition of winning-ness or whatever is according to this “plan” you speak of.

Anyways if we are talking about ones to watch, I’m quite impressed by Yuma this season. Smooth jumps with deep landings and I can see in him artistic inspiration from a lot of the top Japanese skaters, including Uno (who is still around - I mean even skating subpar he was 4th at Worlds!).
 

surimi

Onward and forward, Sota!
Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 12, 2013
Chuubu sectionals results are up, so congrats to Ryuju Hino on winning Sr Men with 215.26, which is not a bad score considering there was no quad (probably planned a 4T but tripled, if that's even a word. Still, nice to see him back!). Congrats also to Tatsuya Tsuboi, still no 3A or quad after his ankle injury, but 198.13 is a nice place to start regrouping from. I'd also say congrats to Hiroaki Satou on winning Tohoku-Hokkaido regionals, but he probably hoped for a better score than 186.37.
Nothing comparable to Yuuma, Shun and the others, but I just wanted to give a nod to the lesser known Japanese men.
 

CanadianSkaterGuy

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
:laugh2::laugh2:

Good joke!

Those protocols get him his hardware, and not the fantasy protocols of those who like to dislike him. He won both his GP events, silver at the GPF, a 3rd straight national title, and became the first Japanese man to win Four Continents in 5 years. Worlds was his only finish off the podium and it was still a respectable 4th. So if anyone’s laughing, he is. :laugh:
 

Ali81

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 11, 2018
Country
United-Kingdom
:laugh2::laugh2:

Good joke!

Shoma Uno has been on the podium 23 out of the last 24 competitions that he has partaken in , and the majority of these have been silver or gold.He has overscored decorated skaters including Javier Fernandez and Patrick Chan numerous times . His skating skills have been lauded by Legends such as Virtue/Moir . So I think we can safely say he is in a different league !
 

Interspectator

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
Though the placements have not been on the podium, I'm quite taken with Kazuki's performances at Skate America.
And as always, his Exhibition programs are a treat --what can he do to stabilize his jumps?
 

readernick

Medalist
Joined
Dec 5, 2015
Though the placements have not been on the podium, I'm quite taken with Kazuki's performances at Skate America.
And as always, his Exhibition programs are a treat --what can he do to stabilize his jumps?

Kazuki is a nice performer. I think in addition to stabilizing his jumps ... he needs to work on SS. He does not have the classically beautiful Japanese SS.
 

KiraraChin

Medalist
Joined
May 5, 2018
Though the placements have not been on the podium, I'm quite taken with Kazuki's performances at Skate America.
And as always, his Exhibition programs are a treat --what can he do to stabilize his jumps?
Kazuki is a nice performer. I think in addition to stabilizing his jumps ... he needs to work on SS. He does not have the classically beautiful Japanese SS.

I'm very pleased to let you know he's already working hard on improving both SS and jumps :)

After his success at Worlds 2018, he personally approached the Federation and asked to work with Misha Ge. They have been working together not only on improving his performance and choreography range, but also skating skills. Although he's not yet "there", if you watch last season's performances and this season's back-to-back, you can definitely see improvement in edges, speed and flow. Not to mention he used to get Level 2/3 for StSq quite often and now at Skate America he got Level 4 + 1.00/1.11 GOE in both StSq (incidentally, his spins improved a lot too)

As for jumps, he's been working with a personal trainer to re-model his body, and get more strength and stability for his jumps. As a result, he's now able to land the 4T (a jump he's been trying to conquer since 2015!), and he's on the way to land the 4lo.

The issue he's having now is that because he's stronger he's having to re-learn how to control his jumps.. You can see this happened with the first axel in his FS, for example, he put more power than he needed and ended up not being able to control his landing.

But in general, his jumps are looking very nice in practice, as you can see in this run-through:
https://twitter.com/fuguesque/status/1185592361037860864?s=19
https://twitter.com/fuguesque/status/1185592740458856448?s=19

It's just a matter of time IMO until he settles in his new body and relax enough that he can jump as well in competition as in practice. I think what he did at Skate America was a great step in this direction :biggrin:

So there you have it. That's the reason he's been so inconsistent since last season - he's been basically re-tooling all his tech. It's slow, painful work, but hopefully we will start seeing the results soon 🙏
 

Dreamer57

Record Breaker
Joined
May 20, 2018
Good luck to Yuzuru and Keiji in Kelowna!!

And although he is retired, many congratulations to Nobunari Oda and his wife on their new baby daughter yesterday! :)
 

TallyT

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Country
Australia
Good luck to Yuzuru and Keiji in Kelowna!!

And although he is retired, many congratulations to Nobunari Oda and his wife on their new baby daughter yesterday! :)

Baby Nobu? Oh how adorable.... heaps of congrats!!!
 

TallyT

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Country
Australia
Nothing about the 1-3 in Canada, and Keiji's wonderful courageous FS to pull back onto the podium after what he's been through this week?
 

Interspectator

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 25, 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onGIU6S0_rs Dropping the medals ceremony here so that the Keiji-Yuzu celebration can continue.
It's been so tough for Keiji, getting into a crash, no matter how minor (which this one wasn't) is jarring on the nerves but he pulled through like a champ! I'm hoping the knowledge that he did it can help him push through the mental barriers for the rest of the season.
The GPF spot is still within striking distance for him.
 

Dreamer57

Record Breaker
Joined
May 20, 2018
But given his 2nd in Nationals last year, he should still be eligible this year yes? I admit, the Japanese way of selecting confuses me rather more than calculus....

Yes, he has a bye because of his podium finish last year :)
 

readernick

Medalist
Joined
Dec 5, 2015
Saw Shoma's SP at IDF and his falls were really concerning. I hope he is okay.

I hope he was examined by a medical professional. That 3A fall was frightening. And then, he was all by himself in the K&C. It was heartbreaking.
 
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