Tomono and Yamamoto on Japanese men

[gsk8]

Fa captures gold on home ice at Grand Prix de France

2022 Grand Prix de France – Men Adam Siao Him Fa of France rose from third place to capture the Men’s title at 2022 Grand Prix de France on Saturday […]

www.goldenskate.com

Three Grand Prix events have been concluded, and each event had a Japanese skater on the podium. This shows the depth of field in the men's discipline for Japan, and both Yamamoto and Tomono were asked what their "take-away" was from this event.

"This season I'm trying in practice the quad flip which I did not include in this competition," said Yamamoto. "Even without the flip, I did made mistakes and I know that it's not competitive enough yet. With this layout right now, I need to give much better of a performance overall and hopefully I can practice a little bit more to include the flip in the program one day."


"I believe coming into this season, the Japanese skaters are all doing very well," noted Tomono. "Anybody could end up at the top of the podium a lot of the younger skaters have many different quads. This season for me to compete, I think my strategy will be that my program layout needs to be perfected. Now of course, next season, I might have to consider two to three different quads and I will probably do that."


"With this current layout for my program, I want to push my limits and really perfect it, Tomono continued. "Figure skating is not only about triple and quad jumps. I know what my arsenal is, I know what my weapon is, so I know I just have to hone my technique and improve everything I can at this moment to be competitive and score high points.

What are your thoughts on the Japanese men? How would you rank them from 1-5 (or more) in terms of where you think they will place at Japanese Nationals?

 

[ladyjane]

I love the Japanese men (and quite a few of the women too for that matter). Shoma is an absolute favourite, but I love the others as well. They never just do jump after jump but also take great care of the other skills involved in a skate. Generally they are versatile. Anyone see Yamamoto's great 'Spanish' exhibition programme? And I am not even mentioning Kazuki's wonderful exhibition. I am sorry. I am not able to rank them. I just love them all!

 

[el henry]

I love Kazuki's approach to skating as quoted above:

With this current layout for my program, I want to push my limits and really perfect it, Tomono continued. "Figure skating is not only about triple and quad jumps. I know what my arsenal is, I know what my weapon is, so I know I just have to hone my technique and improve everything I can at this moment to be competitive and score high points.

The Japanese men have an embarrassment of riches with a variety of strengths!

 

[surimi]

Good points by both boys. In such packed fields as GP or JNats, 4F, 4Lz and 4Lo are high risk elements, and not worth experimenting with unless one a) has nothing to lose, or b) has a great success rate in trainings. I support Kazuki and Sota focusing on going clean.

Japanese men are a deep field, but with the exceptions of Uno and Kagiyama (if healthy), there are no reliable guesses for Nationals.

Right now, Miura seems poised to become Japan's #3 man. He's shown his strength and defeated top skaters the caliber of Messing, Cha and Rizzo. He's quickly gained reputation, and it will show in his scores, unless he makes costly mistakes. I'm not sold on his skating yet; I want to see more expression, elegance and musicality, and even more so, prettier spins. But he has lots of potential if healthy, lots of power, lots of speed, and jumps big when on. I have to say he draws me in more than Sato and Kagiyama.

At this point, my guess for #4 for would be Tomono. He has been improving step by step, and as he says, he tends to peak late. He's been doing very well at Nationals in the past few years, and could well become the first alternate for WC again. Looking at protocols, I personally would have some of his spins lower, but his PCS higher, especially performance. He's IMO the most musical Japanese male skater at present. I feel his musicality is innate and not learned (especially when dancing to upbeat music).

Tomono is currently pressured from behind by Yamamoto and Sato. Those two would be my tips for #5 battle, maybe higher if Kazuki gets nervous. Sato's main enemy is his health, and Yamamoto's his nerves and a streak of underperforming at Nationals in either SP or FS. The silver from Angers could prevent implosions like last year's FS, and with the experience that goes with that medal (= to never give up), Yamamoto might have finally found the stepping stone to cracking the top 6 at Nationals again. And from there, it is only a small step to the big events he dreams of. He's been my favorite male skater for years for his soft effortless glide, lovely posture, spins and overall elegance.
If Sato remains healthy, he'll be a serious contender for #4, 5, or 6 at worst. He has the technical goods. Artistry- and performance-wise, he's not there yet, and his programs sort of blend into one for me. I'd like to say we'll know what to expect next week when he gets his first GP, but even more than Miura, Sato is a wildcard.

Miyake has lost some steam with his current results, but if clean, he'll challenge for top 6 again, and could easily end up as high as 4th. The men with higher tech had better watch their consistency. A clean Miyake will get high PCS, as he should, especially for performance. After last season's Nationals, I definitely don't count him out for top 6.

Tsuboi and the upcoming juniors have been a bit too vanilla for me, and I don't see them challenging for top 6 unless they're squeaky clean and the more experienced skaters make costly mistakes.

Shimada will likely get good PCS even if TES isn't there. I guess they're partly deserved. I'll leave it there as JSF's biased assignments come to my mind whenever I think of him, which is a pity.

 

[surimi]

Anyone see Yamamoto's great 'Spanish' exhibition programme?

About to see it in a few minutes as the gala is finally shown on my TV right now.
The gala is an old competition program from his last junior season, and Lambiel helped with its creation back then. Sota's wanted to try skating to it as an adult. :]

 

[lariko]

Shoma Uno was always my favourite, with Kazuki Tomono being a close second. Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to watch anything national from Japan, so apart from these two big stars I mostly just know and like the guys who competed in JGP, like Shun Sato and Yuma Kagiyama, and the young athlete from this year, Nakata. This year, I also really liked Miura and I think last year there was another guy both last and first names started with T who will be in the later stages of GP yet. On the whole, I’d say for me, Japanese men, junior and senior, have more individuality on ice than their female colleagues. I like how the Japanese skate, but I miss huge wild jumps from them which are more American/Russian. And, like… seriously, Japanese want to show their depth? Put competitions on YouTube. Otherwise…

 

[yesterday]

I love the Japanese men (and quite a few of the women too for that matter). Shoma is an absolute favourite, but I love the others as well. They never just do jump after jump but also take great care of the other skills involved in a skate. Generally they are versatile. Anyone see Yamamoto's great 'Spanish' exhibition programme? And I am not even mentioning Kazuki's wonderful exhibition. I am sorry. I am not able to rank them. I just love them all!

Yep, his gala is

 

[rabidline]

As a Shoma fan, I always thought the Japanese Men's field is deeper than it looks, especially from Worlds 2018 onwards. It's really just a matter of everyone getting it together at the right time to grab the opportunities available for them. And they all have different strengths and performance styles too, which makes the Japanese Nationals always a favorite (also the most stressful) for me to watch. Together with the ladies, there's really something for every fan, and all with great, flowing skating that has always been the trademark of Japan.

As for ranking them- ice is slippery, so I never want to put my predictions on paper I do hope that when they all compete, they're able to all skate clean or cleanish though- much more preferable than any splatfests. Then we'll see how it all shakes out.

 

[Weathergal]

The great, flowing skating that you mention being a trademark of Japanese skating is just so wonderful to watch! I've found that even some of their more junior skaters look less "juniorish" in many cases because they have some nice skating skills.