rfisher
Let the skating begin
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What an amazing young skater. He and Nathan Chen are going to be an absolute delight to watch over the next (hopefully) two quads.
The Shoma Uno fan thread - Go for número UNO!
- Thread starter rosewood
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tamms
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Shoma was wonderful in JO! I bet he felt the pressure as he skated last in the group and after world champions. But holy smokes he was amazing!
I actually prefer his overall skating to Hanyu's.
One thing though that Hanyu has heads and shoulders above him is the steadiness of jump landings. There is something very unsettling about most of his jump landings. I am not sure if it is because he doesn't check out properly or because he doesn't land on a sure edge.
Get this fixed and he will be golden by 2018.
One thing though that Hanyu has heads and shoulders above him is the steadiness of jump landings. There is something very unsettling about most of his jump landings. I am not sure if it is because he doesn't check out properly or because he doesn't land on a sure edge.
Get this fixed and he will be golden by 2018.
LOL I wanted to post here earlier but it took me the whole weekend to get over THAT free skate
A few things I'd like to share from this weekend:
- Shoma skated his short program at the exhibition show the next day which you can see here (fall on 3A, 4T in second half clean!! and 3F). They completely changed the steps sequence which I guess was a result of the level 2 he got at US Classic for it? They also made other changes in the transitions and he seemed a little hesitant on some of it but overall it was a really nice skate
- Shoma apparently said that his performance at Japan Open was "sufficient" (he used the word "満足") but that he could do better (which sounds bonkers in a way but I actually kinda agree with him, at least from an interpretation point of view - more about that in another post when I have more time to elaborate)
- He was also at TV Asahi's presentation of the Grand Prix season (along with Mao, Kanako, Satoko, Takahiko and Daisuke Murakami) - videos of the moments when Shoma features can be seen here and here
- Mao commented at that presentation that because she's known him since he was 5 years old (note: she actually was the one who "discovered" him and got him to start figure skating) she really feels a bit like his mom and the press has run with this A LOT since (including in this piece of news/ fluff here where Nobunari says she truly has a motherly expression looking at him as he was taking his place in the center of ice before starting his skate)
- Also, in the excerpt of an article which is being publish in Figure Skating Best Scenes, he comments at one point that skating is "indispensable" to him and that he has no idea what he would be doing without it. Interestingly in this excerpt, as well as all recent interviews I have seen of him recently, he appears seriously committed to improving in artistry/ expression above all else rn
There is A LOT to be translated and I'll try to get there for the Shoma tumblr blog unless rosewood does so before me
There are also a couple of things I have noticed concerning the direction they seem to be going in with his skating but this post is already long enough as it is 
A few things I'd like to share from this weekend:
- Shoma skated his short program at the exhibition show the next day which you can see here (fall on 3A, 4T in second half clean!! and 3F). They completely changed the steps sequence which I guess was a result of the level 2 he got at US Classic for it? They also made other changes in the transitions and he seemed a little hesitant on some of it but overall it was a really nice skate
- Shoma apparently said that his performance at Japan Open was "sufficient" (he used the word "満足") but that he could do better (which sounds bonkers in a way but I actually kinda agree with him, at least from an interpretation point of view - more about that in another post when I have more time to elaborate)
- He was also at TV Asahi's presentation of the Grand Prix season (along with Mao, Kanako, Satoko, Takahiko and Daisuke Murakami) - videos of the moments when Shoma features can be seen here and here
- Mao commented at that presentation that because she's known him since he was 5 years old (note: she actually was the one who "discovered" him and got him to start figure skating) she really feels a bit like his mom and the press has run with this A LOT since (including in this piece of news/ fluff here where Nobunari says she truly has a motherly expression looking at him as he was taking his place in the center of ice before starting his skate)
- Also, in the excerpt of an article which is being publish in Figure Skating Best Scenes, he comments at one point that skating is "indispensable" to him and that he has no idea what he would be doing without it. Interestingly in this excerpt, as well as all recent interviews I have seen of him recently, he appears seriously committed to improving in artistry/ expression above all else rn
There is A LOT to be translated and I'll try to get there for the Shoma tumblr blog unless rosewood does so before me
There are also a couple of things I have noticed concerning the direction they seem to be going in with his skating but this post is already long enough as it is
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rosewood
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Thanks rayhaneh for a wonderful post! Feel free for posting translations. 
I'm a bit too busy following his mom's info. 
Here is my impression of the night in person. I was almost posting this on JO thread in GSD but that thread was sort of very serious if not a battle field, so I'm back here for posting this.
Javier's program fits him well. He looked comfortable during skating. I thought it was the winning performance of the night until Shoma skated. Shoma at JO was phenomenal. That long program is a winning program. People knows the music very well and it's predictable how he finishes the program. Around the last 30 seconds people didn't stop giving hands. Lots of people including me gave him standing ovations. Some people say he is a good junior skater, while, actually Shoma skated better than other senior skaters at JO. He had good speed, smooth change of edges, quads etc. And what's unique of him is he is capable of grasp people's mind by only a SMALL movement. That's what's actually difficult even for matured skaters. Patrick's comeback was very appreciated by the crowd. Shame his jumps were not there but his SS stood out. I love Jeremy's artistry and edges no matter what. You can easily recognize him during warm-up because of his great body lines and smooth skating. I was happy to watch Brian's that program again. A woman next to me gave him big hands enthusiastically. All the skaters, male and female were good performers, but the only one who looked skating through the program with BGM was Dice. Wish the program will grow with the season progresses. All in all, it was a very good competition.
On my way back when I was walking around the entrance of Saitama Super Arena, people were taking photos in front of big photos of the skaters. Before JO started, the most popular male skater was Patrick, but after JO it was Shoma. Well done Shoma! You got more fans.
TV crew followed Mao everywhere since it was her comeback competition. When she was in K&C, multiple TV cameras were shooting her & Team Japan skaters all the way. They were so cute together. All of them are gentle type but have blue flare in themselves. Maybe Shoma & Dice & Satoko will be get used to living as a star by watching/staying-around Mao through this season. Go rising stars!
I'm a bit too busy following his mom's info. Here is my impression of the night in person. I was almost posting this on JO thread in GSD but that thread was sort of very serious if not a battle field, so I'm back here for posting this.
Javier's program fits him well. He looked comfortable during skating. I thought it was the winning performance of the night until Shoma skated. Shoma at JO was phenomenal. That long program is a winning program. People knows the music very well and it's predictable how he finishes the program. Around the last 30 seconds people didn't stop giving hands. Lots of people including me gave him standing ovations. Some people say he is a good junior skater, while, actually Shoma skated better than other senior skaters at JO. He had good speed, smooth change of edges, quads etc. And what's unique of him is he is capable of grasp people's mind by only a SMALL movement. That's what's actually difficult even for matured skaters. Patrick's comeback was very appreciated by the crowd. Shame his jumps were not there but his SS stood out. I love Jeremy's artistry and edges no matter what. You can easily recognize him during warm-up because of his great body lines and smooth skating. I was happy to watch Brian's that program again. A woman next to me gave him big hands enthusiastically. All the skaters, male and female were good performers, but the only one who looked skating through the program with BGM was Dice. Wish the program will grow with the season progresses. All in all, it was a very good competition.
On my way back when I was walking around the entrance of Saitama Super Arena, people were taking photos in front of big photos of the skaters. Before JO started, the most popular male skater was Patrick, but after JO it was Shoma. Well done Shoma! You got more fans.
TV crew followed Mao everywhere since it was her comeback competition. When she was in K&C, multiple TV cameras were shooting her & Team Japan skaters all the way. They were so cute together. All of them are gentle type but have blue flare in themselves. Maybe Shoma & Dice & Satoko will be get used to living as a star by watching/staying-around Mao through this season. Go rising stars!
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clairecloutier
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Thanks so much for your reports from JO, @rosewood. Always interesting to hear from someone who was there!
The competition looked so fun & exciting. I love watching events held in Saitama. There's something about the way that arena is constructed--it makes it seem like the fans are close to the ice--the stands seem very vertical or something, compared to other arenas. Anyhow, that & the amazing fans in Japan give competitions there a festive, exciting feeling. Wish I'll be able to attend a competition in Saitama someday!
The competition looked so fun & exciting. I love watching events held in Saitama. There's something about the way that arena is constructed--it makes it seem like the fans are close to the ice--the stands seem very vertical or something, compared to other arenas. Anyhow, that & the amazing fans in Japan give competitions there a festive, exciting feeling. Wish I'll be able to attend a competition in Saitama someday!
tamms
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@rayhaneh and @rosewood : Thank you for sharing the translations and reports!
I'm glad he found his performance JO to be sufficient. It's always admirable to see skaters aiming for more difficult goals, but it makes me happier to see them happy with their own performance. Hope he doesn't become too harsh on himself.
As for Mao feeling like a mom to Shoma, I have to say because he's so adorable, it seems like many skaters like to treat him as a younger brother. He's lucky to have Mao as his mom!
I'm glad he found his performance JO to be sufficient. It's always admirable to see skaters aiming for more difficult goals, but it makes me happier to see them happy with their own performance. Hope he doesn't become too harsh on himself.
As for Mao feeling like a mom to Shoma, I have to say because he's so adorable, it seems like many skaters like to treat him as a younger brother. He's lucky to have Mao as his mom!
満足 could also mean satisfactory or satisfied
LOL Yeah, that too, sorry! It's probably closer to what he intended to say but my mind could only conjure up "sufficient" as a way to translate it this morning
tamms
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LOL Yeah, that too, sorry! It's probably closer to what he intended to say but my mind could only conjure up "sufficient" as a way to translate it this morning
Understandable. Even as someone who has learned and used Japanese for almost a decade, sometimes it's quite easy to get words mixed up when translating. The meaning isn't too off for me though.
Thank you for taking the time to translate!
MAXSwagg
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Love Shoma-kun's free skate this season! Hopefully he can improve his jumps because everything else is there and his presentation is so much better than last season!
rosewood
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According to reports Shoma did a clean SP runthrough today. This is a short clip of his spread eagle into 3A. His edge works and rink coverage are great!
https://twitter.com/DadeMeghan/status/657217478452473856
TV Asahi is tweeting about official practice & brief interviews with Japanese skaters.
https://twitter.com/figureskate5ch/status/657241194250964993
The reporter says Shoma looked sleepy when he came to the rink and the reporter wondered if it's due to jet lag. But he did wonderful & focused practice so the reporter was impressed by his focused face. As for the interview, Shoma forgot his official jacket of team Japan in his hotel room, so he borrowed it from Mura. LOL (Maybe the truth is he was actually sleepy.) Shoma answered despite he nailed a eagle-3A in the runthrough that he wishes he'll does even better one in the competition. So the reporter was impressed with his stoic attitude.
For those who have not read about Shoma's interviews regarding SKAM here is some info that I posted on Japanese news thread in GSD.
Go Shoma! Attack attack and attack!
His edge works and rink coverage are great!https://twitter.com/DadeMeghan/status/657217478452473856
TV Asahi is tweeting about official practice & brief interviews with Japanese skaters.
https://twitter.com/figureskate5ch/status/657241194250964993
The reporter says Shoma looked sleepy when he came to the rink and the reporter wondered if it's due to jet lag. But he did wonderful & focused practice so the reporter was impressed by his focused face. As for the interview, Shoma forgot his official jacket of team Japan in his hotel room, so he borrowed it from Mura. LOL (Maybe the truth is he was actually sleepy.
) Shoma answered despite he nailed a eagle-3A in the runthrough that he wishes he'll does even better one in the competition. So the reporter was impressed with his stoic attitude.For those who have not read about Shoma's interviews regarding SKAM here is some info that I posted on Japanese news thread in GSD.
Go Shoma! Attack attack and attack!
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Thank you @rosewood for all the information above ^-^
Meanwhile I've been busy translating a couple of short articles for the Shoma Uno tumblr blog here and here
I really recommend the second one in particular because the accent is on how much expression and his artistic development is important to him. So often discussion in Japanese media when it comes to figure skating is centered on the jumps, especially the quad for the men, so this is refreshing (I think in that respect the fact that Shoma reminds most people of Takahashi a little helps the media to pay more attention to his expression)
Also, from several of Shoma's tv and printed interviews, it is now clear that this year's programs have been very specifically designed to help him progress in artistry: his short is about him learning to skate and execute movement at much higher tempo (he himself says that he's normally not very at ease on high tempo music) while Turandot was chosen to help him learn to draw his audience in emotionally together with the music.
Finally he's been on tv a lot these days - so much so that it's almost a full-time job to keep up with all this There's this one that's showing a bit of yesterday's practice too (including Mura and Satoko)
Meanwhile I've been busy translating a couple of short articles for the Shoma Uno tumblr blog here and here
I really recommend the second one in particular because the accent is on how much expression and his artistic development is important to him. So often discussion in Japanese media when it comes to figure skating is centered on the jumps, especially the quad for the men, so this is refreshing (I think in that respect the fact that Shoma reminds most people of Takahashi a little helps the media to pay more attention to his expression)
Also, from several of Shoma's tv and printed interviews, it is now clear that this year's programs have been very specifically designed to help him progress in artistry: his short is about him learning to skate and execute movement at much higher tempo (he himself says that he's normally not very at ease on high tempo music) while Turandot was chosen to help him learn to draw his audience in emotionally together with the music.
Finally he's been on tv a lot these days - so much so that it's almost a full-time job to keep up with all this
There's this one that's showing a bit of yesterday's practice too (including Mura and Satoko)
rosewood
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SKAM SP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydQwPVtJgCU
After SP he was interviewed by TV Asahi. Despite the fall on 4T he said he did a so so skate today since he was able to get into the program. However, he added he needs to do jumps successfully tomorrow if he wants to leave good results. So he wishes to skate expressive like today as well as to nail all jumps in FS tomorrow. I'm not re-watching the video, so my summary is not exactly what he said but he said something the like.
GO Shoma! Win at least silver here so that you can leave a possibility to make GP final.
After SP he was interviewed by TV Asahi. Despite the fall on 4T he said he did a so so skate today since he was able to get into the program. However, he added he needs to do jumps successfully tomorrow if he wants to leave good results. So he wishes to skate expressive like today as well as to nail all jumps in FS tomorrow. I'm not re-watching the video, so my summary is not exactly what he said but he said something the like.
GO Shoma! Win at least silver here so that you can leave a possibility to make GP final.
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ChelleC
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GO Shoma! Win at least silver here so that you can leave a possibility to make GP final.
And he did it! Congrats Shoma on a wonderful Senior Grand Prix debut!
I had to give up on the idea of watching live because of the late hour and a persistent migraine but I am so happy right now he was so good and he skates so big I'm just so!
I've recorded his SP performances on Eurosport France and Eurosport Italy and translated the comments, as there were a few interesting points made in both (and both were very positive: in fact Alban Préaubert, who comments for Eurosport France, has been a Shoma fan since commenting Junior Worlds 2013).
You can find them here and here.
I'll try to do the same for the free skate today and post them here if that's ok? Just expect a lot of Alban gushing
I'll also try to help and translate a bit of the avalanche of material that will likely be coming our way from Japan although I'm not as good or as fast as @rosewood with that
But the best, funniest, and in my opinion most pertinent comment came from Eurosport UK here: I like that they don't care about the jumps but focused on his skating, his expression and the quality of his movement, which to me is what sets Shoma apart from the rest, even if he is still very perfectible in all these aspects
I've recorded his SP performances on Eurosport France and Eurosport Italy and translated the comments, as there were a few interesting points made in both (and both were very positive: in fact Alban Préaubert, who comments for Eurosport France, has been a Shoma fan since commenting Junior Worlds 2013
).You can find them here and here.
I'll try to do the same for the free skate today and post them here if that's ok? Just expect a lot of Alban gushing
I'll also try to help and translate a bit of the avalanche of material that will likely be coming our way from Japan although I'm not as good or as fast as @rosewood with that
But the best, funniest, and in my opinion most pertinent comment came from Eurosport UK here: I like that they don't care about the jumps but focused on his skating, his expression and the quality of his movement, which to me is what sets Shoma apart from the rest, even if he is still very perfectible in all these aspects
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kittyjake5
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Congrats to Shoma! He was wonderful!
DreamSkates
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Shoma - impressive skating and at such a young age. I bet one of his goals is knocking Hanyu off the podium.
topaz
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I am a fan of this young man's skating. Watching both his skates at the event live; his speed and flow are so smooth.
His free skate was a highlight from this weekend. If he would have don't better in SP, he would have won this competition. I felt he was underscored PCS too.
His free skate was a highlight from this weekend. If he would have don't better in SP, he would have won this competition. I felt he was underscored PCS too.
tamms
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Maybe it's just me but it made my day when I saw him do a fist pump and he was actually waving to the crowds with a smile after the FS. Of course he reverted back to his usual shy self on the podium, but at least we all know how pleased he was with himself after that performance.
His levels though. A bit concerned but he knows he needs to fix a few things so I'm not that worried.
Great start to his senior GP career.
His levels though. A bit concerned but he knows he needs to fix a few things so I'm not that worried.
Great start to his senior GP career.
danibellerika
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I am loving the Japanese singles skaters to death these days and Uno has easily joined that crop. He's like a baby Daisuke (who I ADORE btw). I'm a huge Yuzu fan but I can definitely make room for Uno and look forward to him developing. I love Yuzu's jumping abilities like I love Shoma-kun's artistry. I'm just a sucker for skaters who come out of juniors already polished (like Sasha Cohen who I was also a huge fan of). I watched his Skate America program over and over again. While I'm impressed he can do quad combos late in his program, I don't feel quite as comfortable watching him actually jump so I do hope he works a little more on securing the landings, but as long as he gets the job done I'm cheering him on! I could definitely see him on the podium this year if he keeps it up like that. He's already beaten a world champ.
Sylvia
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Interview in Barcelona:
Uno: 'I'm still in the process of making it complete'
Japanese star surprised to be at Grand Prix Final for second year in a row
Posted 12/11/15 by Jean-Christophe Berlot, special to icenetwork
http://web.icenetwork.com/news/2015/12/11/159403032
Uno: 'I'm still in the process of making it complete'
Japanese star surprised to be at Grand Prix Final for second year in a row
Posted 12/11/15 by Jean-Christophe Berlot, special to icenetwork
http://web.icenetwork.com/news/2015/12/11/159403032
Well, I am in Barcelona right now and just watched the Men free skate on video and let's just say I still can't quite grasp what happened, Shoma Uno's performance is amazing to watch but the shivers we all got in the arena were pretty mindblowing and I for one feel very privileged to have been there to witness it
I'll do a full report later on and I have taken hundreds of pictures of him at practice and competition which I need to sort out (and about 10,000 in total LOL) but I'll try my best to do that as rapidly as my schedule allows
In the meanwhile, here are two pictures that I shared with the Shoma Uno blog on FB here and here but expect dozens more to come LOL
I'll do a full report later on and I have taken hundreds of pictures of him at practice and competition which I need to sort out (and about 10,000 in total LOL) but I'll try my best to do that as rapidly as my schedule allows
In the meanwhile, here are two pictures that I shared with the Shoma Uno blog on FB here and here but expect dozens more to come LOL
kittyjake5
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^Thanks @rayhaneh. I look forward to your report and photos!
briancoogaert
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He is UNBELIEVABLE !
sweetsparky
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Shoma LP was superb. From the moment he did the cantilever all the audience started clapping him and keep it until the end of the program 
and then just raised to give him a more than deserved standing ovation. It was a magic moment.
and then just raised to give him a more than deserved standing ovation. It was a magic moment.
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D
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I was tearing up, that was a magical performance from Shoma, he was my the favorite performance on the night. I love Hanyu, Fernandez and Chan's performance, Uno for me had a little more heart.Shoma LP was superb. From the moment he did the cantilever all the audience started clapping him and keep it until the end of the program
