Perhaps a few final thoughts...
I've seen Shoma live many times, and I think this was surely the best I've seen him. His score here reflected that. It wasn't exactly perfect, but it was extremely impressive, he had tremendous speed and commitment throughout. He has thrown down the gauntlet, and staked an early claim as a serious contender for the Olympic podium.
There is much to admire in Shoma's skating, many aspects extremely impressive... and yet, I'm afraid he is one of those skaters (one of a great many, to be clear) who doesn't really "interest" me, despite great technical prowess. This is entirely subjective of course... but I just don't feel any "personality" in his skating (or off-ice either, actually. Most skaters are quite "approachable" epecially Team Japan, but Shoma typically looks "disinterested" and "kurai" as they say in Japan). To me, his skating feels too clinical, too much "what the choreographer instructed". I want to feel something from within a skater, coming out in their skating - but with Shoma I'm afraid I don't. (I felt the same about Zagitova here too). He also nearly always wears the same "serious face" when skating, with just an occasional change to "angry serious face". So he tends to leave me cold, and his programs end up feeling "samey" to me. Sorry Shoma fans, I'm just telling it as I see it... it's only my opinion, and I accept that others will see things completely differently.
Jason skated right after Shoma. I love how he cheered for Shoma as he came off the ice before him. (BTW, he also similarly did low-5 with Jordan, when Jordan was leaving the ice after his SP). For me, Jason has more personality and showmanship than he knows what to do with... and inevitably, irrepressibly, it comes out in his skating. He was fabulous and amazing as always, beautiful skating like a dancer. And he throws such BIG shapes, he is a photographer's dream - you just can't fail to come away with lots of spectacular photos!
Sadly though, by the end of the competition... I must have seen him attempt his quad about 20 times, and none of the ones I saw were clean. It's almost like he has trained himself to fall - he seems to have become very good at it - he does it almost gracefully.
...
I made some high speed (4x) full-HD videos of many skaters, with a long zoom lens. These then play back as "super slow motion", which is cool by itself - but you can also step through the video frame-by-frame to see movements in much finer resolution and detail than a regular video. It makes impressive elements, look really impressive... but they're also really good for spotting "issues" a skater may have.
I made several of Jason's quad attempts, and looking through them at the time (I didn't keep them), I thought he still needs a lot of work, but he was "getting there". He seems to make the rotation on some attempts, and axis OK... in those instances, it looked to me, like he just needed to control the landing, and he'd make it. But like I said, he looks like he's "trained to fall" now - as if he falls because he's expecting to fall... and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy :-/
By the way, my super-slow-mo videos also showed that Wakaba has a UR issue with her combo 3T's she needs to fix... Shoma continues to have a 1/2 turn or more pre-rotation on 4F before take-off... Graham Newberry needs to be careful of UR on his combo 1/2 loops... etc etc. My hope had been to get some impressive super-slo-mos of clean elements, but instead what I got was a demonstration of the fact that no skater is perfect! Seems they all have things they can/should improve! LOL
...
I saw Marien de La Asuncion here, he was wearing a pass that said "coach" and he was mostly with the French skaters. Interesting.
It was great to see how well most of the skaters got along, off ice. Many skaters came to watch and cheer after they skated - not just for their team mates, but also for their rivals.
Did I mention how cold it was in that rink? I measure it by how many layers I have to wear to keep warm, and it was a lot compared to other venues! And we were seated a few m back and above the ice... so it must have really cold for the judges, ice-level right next to the rink! 7 hours of Ladies competitions? I almost felt sorry for them ;-D
...
Regarding the location, for future reference...
The facility is clean and modern, but clearly not geared up for a lot of spectators - seating is "harsh", low capacity, and very few toilets.
The site is actually behind a bunch of derelict factory-type buildings, at the end of a road that is quite dark at night. I'd be wary of leaving late, alone.
There is a cafe/restuarant - they served cooked food the day I arrived (practice day) but seemed to give up on that during competition - but there were still hot and cold drinks, fresh fruit, pastries, sandwiches and the like... huge pizzas delivered, cut into slices and "toasted" onsite.
There is a big supermarket 10-15 minutes walk down the main road (near the railway tracks), and several restaurants on the way. I got most of my food and drink from the supermarket (they sell hot cooked food, as well as the usual groceries, fruit etc) - and there were no restrictions taking food/drink into the rink. No restrictions on camera gear either it seemed, and although they kept announcing that video recording was banned, lots of people were openly doing it anyway (I don't think anybody really cares, except over-protective Japanese media)
There are several hotels within about 20-25 minutes walk.
...
Well. All in all, a very worthwhile trip... I took a lot of photos, I'll start sorting them and uploding soon...
I've seen Shoma live many times, and I think this was surely the best I've seen him. His score here reflected that. It wasn't exactly perfect, but it was extremely impressive, he had tremendous speed and commitment throughout. He has thrown down the gauntlet, and staked an early claim as a serious contender for the Olympic podium.
There is much to admire in Shoma's skating, many aspects extremely impressive... and yet, I'm afraid he is one of those skaters (one of a great many, to be clear) who doesn't really "interest" me, despite great technical prowess. This is entirely subjective of course... but I just don't feel any "personality" in his skating (or off-ice either, actually. Most skaters are quite "approachable" epecially Team Japan, but Shoma typically looks "disinterested" and "kurai" as they say in Japan). To me, his skating feels too clinical, too much "what the choreographer instructed". I want to feel something from within a skater, coming out in their skating - but with Shoma I'm afraid I don't. (I felt the same about Zagitova here too). He also nearly always wears the same "serious face" when skating, with just an occasional change to "angry serious face". So he tends to leave me cold, and his programs end up feeling "samey" to me. Sorry Shoma fans, I'm just telling it as I see it... it's only my opinion, and I accept that others will see things completely differently.
Jason skated right after Shoma. I love how he cheered for Shoma as he came off the ice before him. (BTW, he also similarly did low-5 with Jordan, when Jordan was leaving the ice after his SP). For me, Jason has more personality and showmanship than he knows what to do with... and inevitably, irrepressibly, it comes out in his skating. He was fabulous and amazing as always, beautiful skating like a dancer. And he throws such BIG shapes, he is a photographer's dream - you just can't fail to come away with lots of spectacular photos!
Sadly though, by the end of the competition... I must have seen him attempt his quad about 20 times, and none of the ones I saw were clean. It's almost like he has trained himself to fall - he seems to have become very good at it - he does it almost gracefully.
...
I made some high speed (4x) full-HD videos of many skaters, with a long zoom lens. These then play back as "super slow motion", which is cool by itself - but you can also step through the video frame-by-frame to see movements in much finer resolution and detail than a regular video. It makes impressive elements, look really impressive... but they're also really good for spotting "issues" a skater may have.
I made several of Jason's quad attempts, and looking through them at the time (I didn't keep them), I thought he still needs a lot of work, but he was "getting there". He seems to make the rotation on some attempts, and axis OK... in those instances, it looked to me, like he just needed to control the landing, and he'd make it. But like I said, he looks like he's "trained to fall" now - as if he falls because he's expecting to fall... and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy :-/
By the way, my super-slow-mo videos also showed that Wakaba has a UR issue with her combo 3T's she needs to fix... Shoma continues to have a 1/2 turn or more pre-rotation on 4F before take-off... Graham Newberry needs to be careful of UR on his combo 1/2 loops... etc etc. My hope had been to get some impressive super-slo-mos of clean elements, but instead what I got was a demonstration of the fact that no skater is perfect! Seems they all have things they can/should improve! LOL
...
I saw Marien de La Asuncion here, he was wearing a pass that said "coach" and he was mostly with the French skaters. Interesting.
It was great to see how well most of the skaters got along, off ice. Many skaters came to watch and cheer after they skated - not just for their team mates, but also for their rivals.
Did I mention how cold it was in that rink? I measure it by how many layers I have to wear to keep warm, and it was a lot compared to other venues! And we were seated a few m back and above the ice... so it must have really cold for the judges, ice-level right next to the rink! 7 hours of Ladies competitions? I almost felt sorry for them ;-D
...
Regarding the location, for future reference...
The facility is clean and modern, but clearly not geared up for a lot of spectators - seating is "harsh", low capacity, and very few toilets.
The site is actually behind a bunch of derelict factory-type buildings, at the end of a road that is quite dark at night. I'd be wary of leaving late, alone.
There is a cafe/restuarant - they served cooked food the day I arrived (practice day) but seemed to give up on that during competition - but there were still hot and cold drinks, fresh fruit, pastries, sandwiches and the like... huge pizzas delivered, cut into slices and "toasted" onsite.
There is a big supermarket 10-15 minutes walk down the main road (near the railway tracks), and several restaurants on the way. I got most of my food and drink from the supermarket (they sell hot cooked food, as well as the usual groceries, fruit etc) - and there were no restrictions taking food/drink into the rink. No restrictions on camera gear either it seemed, and although they kept announcing that video recording was banned, lots of people were openly doing it anyway (I don't think anybody really cares, except over-protective Japanese media)
There are several hotels within about 20-25 minutes walk.
...
Well. All in all, a very worthwhile trip... I took a lot of photos, I'll start sorting them and uploding soon...