Shoma Uno: 2014-2024

[Arriba627]

Of course, it is not “every time”. It's sometimes, to introduce him to general people other than skating fans. Further, i dont know about the other countries, but it’s not unusual to see an athlete’s younger days on TV. Further, if an athlete is a promising kid, local TV finds him and keep filming as he grows up. Shoma is brought up in the region where figure skating is popular, so his hometown must have watched over him.

BTW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0MiLoKQI_g
This is newsclip (provably local TV)on Nov7. They asked people about his attraction (1. Looks, 2. Gap between on and off ice, 3. Technique..). I find their arrangement of the video is well done. They collect nice scenes.

I'm so jealous. The only time we would ever see anything about skaters on TV would usually be around the time of the Olympics. For example, Jason Brown is from this area, but we only saw stuff about him around the time of the 2014 Olympics. It has probably been fun for the people of Nagoya to watch Shoma grow up! I saw that video earlier today but had no idea what it was about - except for the one part where the 2 little girls seemed to be talking about the cantilever...My favorite old video is the one where they go to his home and meet his father. I just loved that one!

topic: BTW, did you get my PM about the magazine? I'm only checking because I know you were having trouble with your postings, etc. the other day.

 

[hamaguri]

I'm so jealous. The only time we would ever see anything about skaters on TV would usually be around the time of the Olympics. For example, Jason Brown is from this area, but we only saw stuff about him around the time of the 2014 Olympics. It has probably been fun for the people of Nagoya to watch Shoma grow up! I saw that video earlier today but had no idea what it was about - except for the one part where the 2 little girls seemed to be talking about the cantilever...My favorite old video is the one where they go to his home and meet his father. I just loved that one!

topic: BTW, did you get my PM about the magazine? I'm only checking because I know you were having trouble with your postings, etc. the other day.

Thanks! i was so moved by your report about SC, and late for checking the next PM. so touching! i wanted to reply a lot, but when i was trying to, the next information about yuzu or shoma comes up!. im sure the situation will calm down until NHK and GPF!

 

[hamaguri]

http://this.kiji.is/168607506286329863?c=39546741839462401

Shoma comes back to Japan. He says he can get ready for GPF with the different feeling from last year.

Is it already shared?
https://twitter.com/tokyo1005/status/795756319814782976
https://twitter.com/tokyo1005/status/795844859579895808

From Keiji's twitter
https://twitter.com/deka_1122/status/795872800137506817
https://twitter.com/deka_1122/status/795873526024540160

 

[Danibellerika]

http://www.shoma-uno.com/info#195
Is this a new Blog post from Shoma?

Did he say he has a cold at the end there? I see "風邪が流行っています"

宇野昌磨よりメッセージが届きました。

こんにちは、昌磨です。

ロシア大会お疲れ様でした。
グランプリシリーズが2戦とも終わり、今年もグランプリファイナルに行く事が出来て、
とても嬉しいです。
今回のロシア大会ではショート、フリー共に課題が残る演技でしたが
次の試合迄に出来る事を一つ一つクリアにしたいです。
少し悔しい気持ちが残っていて、早く練習したい気持ちで一杯です。
毎試合、皆さんの応援が頑張る気持ちを助けてくれています。
その応援に応えられるように精一杯努力をして試合でも精一杯の演技をしたいと思います。
有難うございました。
風邪が流行っています、皆さんも体調を崩さないようにどうぞお気をつけて下さい。



Also I'm late to post my thoughts! I thought Shoma showed some good fight. Some of his older free leg habits with his jumps were a little more prevalent here than at SA, but I'm glad he could qualify for the GPF!! If he was under the weather (as we had originally suspected before the competition) then even more kudos to him!

 

[deedee1]

http://www.shoma-uno.com/info#195
Is this a new Blog post from Shoma?

Did he say he has a cold at the end there? I see "風邪が流行っています"

宇野昌磨よりメッセージが届きました。

こんにちは、昌磨です。

ロシア大会お疲れ様でした。
グランプリシリーズが2戦とも終わり、今年もグランプリファイナルに行く事が出来て、
とても嬉しいです。
今回のロシア大会ではショート、フリー共に課題が残る演技でしたが
次の試合迄に出来る事を一つ一つクリアにしたいです。
少し悔しい気持ちが残っていて、早く練習したい気持ちで一杯です。
毎試合、皆さんの応援が頑張る気持ちを助けてくれています。
その応援に応えられるように精一杯努力をして試合でも精一杯の演技をしたいと思います。
有難うございました。
風邪が流行っています、皆さんも体調を崩さないようにどうぞお気をつけて下さい。

Translation:

A message from Shoma Uno:

"Hello, everyone. It's Shoma.

Thank you for all your support at Rostelecom Cup.
Two Grand Prix series were over for me now and I can advance to the Grand Prix Final again this year, I am very happy about it.
My performances at this Rostelecom Cup, both of SP and FP, gave me some homeworks to do, but I will train harder and make it cleared one at a time while preparing for my next competition.
Re the results there... a bit unfulfilled and regrettable, I would say. I want to go back to my home rink and resume my trainings right away.

All your support at every competitions I'm entering always helps me a lot and charges up my energy.
In order to repciprocate your kind support to me, I will train more and more, and will try to perform the best I can do at my future competitions.
Again thank you so much.

It's getting cold and the flu is going around, I hear. Please take good care of yourselves, everyone."

 

[demarinis5]

Hi deedee! Hope all is well with you!

Shoma sounds so determined. I hope he takes a little break and rests.
His words are so sweet to his fans!

Thank you for sharing!

 

[Arriba627]

http://www.shoma-uno.com/info#195
Also I'm late to post my thoughts! I thought Shoma showed some good fight. Some of his older free leg habits with his jumps were a little more prevalent here than at SA, but I'm glad he could qualify for the GPF!! If he was under the weather (as we had originally suspected before the competition) then even more kudos to him!

I forget which commentator it was who said Shoma has done a lot of work on fixing his jumps, but when he gets nervous, his old (bad) habits start to come back. That to me means free leg is too low on jump landings, take offs on jumps are off axis, and he saves the landings of his jumps with a super-deep knee bend (ouch!). Nerves! He had much better spring to his jumps at SA. Still enjoyed his programs though. Silver was a great finish. (ETA Pretty sure it was John Coughlin, former U.S. Pairs champion, who said this.)


Can anyone tell me if in this photo of Shoma, are the Kremlin and St. Basil's in the background?
http://www.shoma-uno.com/info#195

 

[hamaguri]

https://t.co/ThzsmEtsX9
Uno locks up GP Final spot; Murakami in free fall

Nice article. Still the attention to him is much less than that to the other top guys both in domestically and internationally. I find the situation is good for shoma. He can concentrate on himself without being annoyed.

 

[hamaguri]

I forget which commentator it was who said Shoma has done a lot of work on fixing his jumps, but when he gets nervous, his old (bad) habits start to come back. That to me means free leg is too low on jump landings, take offs on jumps are off axis, and he saves the landings of his jumps with a super-deep knee bend (ouch!). Nerves! He had much better spring to his jumps at SA. Still enjoyed his programs though. Silver was a great finish.


Can anyone tell me if in this photo of Shoma, are the Kremlin and St. Basil's in the background?
http://www.shoma-uno.com/info#195

Thanks for the info. I'm scary of his knees.
Does anyone watch CBC about cor? Kurt seems to be worried about his knees. His landing (landing in the situation still his body is rotating) burdens his knees so much.... further, some commentators seem to have pointed out it. I read this in Japanese Twitter. Anyway, hope he can fix his form. I want team yamada to rely on other instructors like Alex with his jumps more.

 

[Arriba627]

https://t.co/ThzsmEtsX9
Uno locks up GP Final spot; Murakami in free fall

Nice article. Still the attention to him is much less than that to the other top guys both in domestically and internationally. I find the situation is good for shoma. He can concentrate on himself without being annoyed.

Yes, let the others get the attention. This is what we call "flying under the radar". Don't know if everyone uses that expression, but the less pressure, the better!

Thanks for the info. I'm scary of his knees.
Does anyone watch CBC about cor? Kurt seems to be worried about his knees. His landing (landing in the situation still his body is rotating) burdens his knees so much.... further, some commentators seem to have pointed out it. I read this in Japanese Twitter. Anyway, hope he can fix his form. I want team yamada to rely on other instructors like Alex with his jumps more.

I was just gathering up a few quotes to put here, although I see some of them are already in that excellent, detailed Japan Times article, so I won't put them here.

CBC comments on FS (Kurt Browning)
--You can see his upper body is too far ahead of his hips. And speaking of the hips, you can see on this jump his hips are way back. His jumps are often over rotated and it puts a lot of torque on his knee. It also buys him time for the landing. But I can't imagine that his knees in five years are going to be very happy. This could be a serious longevity problem. (my note -- in other words, if he hopes to have a long career, this might be a problem)
--Happier comment -- That 3A, Loop, 3F at the 4 minute mark of the program is so impressive. I'm starting to get used to his brilliance!

USA HD (Tracy Wilson and John Coughlin)
--One of the reasons he can rotate so fast is that he waits until the very last second to break out of that rotational position. It sometimes leads to an almost "squirrely" landing where he doesn't get his free leg out quite soon enough. His free leg swings out and translates to a little trouble on landing the quad triple (referring to the 4T-3T in Shoma's SP)
--What a fighter! To have the presence of mind to be able to turn that second triple jump! You have the feeling that when he is skating like that, he can't be bothered with the error because he is so committed to the performance and the character behind it. Whereas with other skaters, sometimes you can see a program unravel because of "nickel and dime" errors on a landing. That is never the case with him. He is never out of the fight.

My note: So that knee thing seems like it could be a real issue. He has to keep continuing to work on that (with Alex, hopefully). Now that I think of it, it was probably John Coughlin (former U.S. pairs skater) who talked about how he goes back to his old habits when he gets nervous. I think a lot of the commentators try to point out that once in awhile, if a skater has a jump with a wobbly / off landing, they have to land with a deep knee bend to save the jump. But that shouldn't be happening all the time. If it is, you're using a technique that is hard on the body. But this is why he went to Alex in the first place, I think. So he needs to just continue to work on it and try to be able to incorporate the better technique, even when he's nervous! At Skate America, his jumps had much better spring to them, and I didn't see these problems where he was saving the jumps with the deep knee bend...I was listening to the Spanish ladies (Paloma and Susana) talk about his SP. They were saying "Not a perfect program, but even so - how beautiful, elegant, with such quality of edges, technique , spins. How he fought to get that triple in the 4T-3T combination. This was magnificent. He will give us a lot to talk about this season."

 

[georgia]

I think, it's time for him to see Dr RAF!

 

[Arriba627]

Dave from The Skating Lesson did a Rostelecom review with Mark Hanretty from B ESP. I know Dave isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I found Mark to be very interesting and insightful. Here are a few highlights of their remarks about Shoma. There was a lot more.

D: Shoma is anything but laid back and he is almost a little pocket rocket -- so quiet off the ice but on ice he is full of expression and skates with a ton of speed. Is he a dark horse to be the World Champion?
M: He has put himself in contention. The recent battle has been between Yuzu, Patrick, and Javi, but Shoma has put himself in the mix.
(then they talk about jumps)
M. My only thing is I question the 4F take off from a technique standpoint. Will the tech panel question Shoma's take off in the future? Will there be a downgrade because of the takeoff.
D: Well, you've brought this up now, so we'll have to take a look!
M: (laughing) Now I'm going to get Japanese skating fan abuse. Ok, I didn't say that!
D: Shoma has my favorite FS in men's right now. That program gets more and more confident, and I am blown away by Shoma's skating skills in the FS.
M: The free program - the complexity of it. I used to think of Jason Brown as the guy with the best transitions, but Shoma upped the transitions. He has always idolized Takahashi, and he has taken what Takahashi had and made it even softer with even more effortless glide across the ice. With a few crossovers he gets tremendous glide. I think his skating skills are underrated.
D: I think he has a very pure skating technique and the glide that he has especially.
M: (comparing jump technique to others) If you compare him to Kolyada, Kolyada is so steady and his landings are so great. Shoma's tend to curl and tend to be tighter. But then we see Shoma doing the spread eagle, 3A, spread eagle with great flow through that.
D: His 3A has been incredible and he has that 3A-Lo-3F where he does an incredible job. I think he has a little more performance quality than Hanyu with his free skate at this point, when comparing the two. I like Shoma's FS better. But we also haven't seen Hanyu skate up to his potential.
M: It will be interesting to see the J. Nationals. Hanyu is a little vulnerable with Shoma being the young contender underdog. It will be interesting to see how Hanyu reacts to being in direct competition with Shoma.
D: GPF and Japanese Nationals will be very exciting.

Here's the link . https://youtu.be/yH-6I6TA4JA (The part about Shoma starts at around 29:48)

 

[Arriba627]

I think, it's time for him to see Dr RAF!

I have a lot of respect for Raf, but I think Shoma will probably continue to work with Alex Ouriashev at this point. He has learned a lot from him I think, but he still needs to incorporate all that into his skating while under pressure. I sure do wish it only took a few days to fix some of these issues! I think the reality is that it can take months, if not longer.

 

[georgia]

I have a lot of respect for Raf, but I think Shoma will probably continue to work with Alex Ouriashev at this point. He has learned a lot from him I think, but he still needs to incorporate all that into his skating while under pressure. I sure do wish it only took a few days to fix some of these issues! I think the reality is that it can take months, if not longer.

I think that's Raf's forte. He makes his skaters do well under pressure!

 

[Arriba627]

I think that's Raf's forte. He makes his skaters do well under pressure!

He has had tremendous success with several of his pupils. I remember him saying in an interview he was teaching a new jump technique but then he didn't share his secret(s) - no big surprise there. One of the differences is that Adam and Ashley have lots more experience as seniors as opposed to Shoma being only in his second year. Hopefully he will continue to improve. What an interesting season we're going to have!

 

[hamaguri]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUl4vxmb1oU

OMG!
This recent news clip is so nice.
Around 1:15, they features his face off ice. Very touching to see Jason talking to him funnily to try to ease shoma. Further, at CoR, he got a lot of presents from children.
Around 4:40, he explains about his eagle. It’s very hard since he has the risk of falling down. About the eagle after 3A, he must do it without speed right after the jump, so it’s so difficult and he further says this is the only spectacle in short program.

Of course, the interaction between Tara and Daniel is so lovely.

 

[hamaguri]

He has had tremendous success with several of his pupils. I remember him saying in an interview he was teaching a new jump technique but then he didn't share his secret(s) - no big surprise there. One of the differences is that Adam and Ashley have lots more experience as seniors as opposed to Shoma being only in his second year. Hopefully he will continue to improve. What an interesting season we're going to have!

Who is raf?

 

[Danibellerika]

Who is raf?

Rafael Artunian. Ashley and Adam's coach.

 

[hamaguri]

Dave from The Skating Lesson did a Rostelecom review with Mark Hanretty from B ESP. I know Dave isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I found Mark to be very interesting and insightful. Here are a few highlights of their remarks about Shoma. There was a lot more.

D: Shoma is anything but laid back and he is almost a little pocket rocket -- so quiet off the ice but on ice he is full of expression and skates with a ton of speed. Is he a dark horse to be the World Champion?
M: He has put himself in contention. The recent battle has been between Yuzu, Patrick, and Javi, but Shoma has put himself in the mix.
(then they talk about jumps)
M. My only thing is I question the 4F take off from a technique standpoint. Will the tech panel question Shoma's take off in the future? Will there be a downgrade because of the takeoff.
D: Well, you've brought this up now, so we'll have to take a look!
M: (laughing) Now I'm going to get Japanese skating fan abuse. Ok, I didn't say that!
D: Shoma has my favorite FS in men's right now. That program gets more and more confident, and I am blown away by Shoma's skating skills in the FS.
M: The free program - the complexity of it. I used to think of Jason Brown as the guy with the best transitions, but Shoma upped the transitions. He has always idolized Takahashi, and he has taken what Takahashi had and made it even softer with even more effortless glide across the ice. With a few crossovers he gets tremendous glide. I think his skating skills are underrated.
D: I think he has a very pure skating technique and the glide that he has especially.
M: (comparing jump technique to others) If you compare him to Kolyada, Kolyada is so steady and his landings are so great. Shoma's tend to curl and tend to be tighter. But then we see Shoma doing the spread eagle, 3A, spread eagle with great flow through that.
D: His 3A has been incredible and he has that 3A-Lo-3F where he does an incredible job. I think he has a little more performance quality than Hanyu with his free skate at this point, when comparing the two. I like Shoma's FS better. But we also haven't seen Hanyu skate up to his potential.
M: It will be interesting to see the J. Nationals. Hanyu is a little vulnerable with Shoma being the young contender underdog. It will be interesting to see how Hanyu reacts to being in direct competition with Shoma.
D: GPF and Japanese Nationals will be very exciting.

Here's the link . https://youtu.be/yH-6I6TA4JA (The part about Shoma starts at around 29:48)

Thank you for the highlight! Mark is ex-ice dancer? I have trouble in listening skill, and it’s difficult to understand fully their talks. I feel graceful to your job so much! They praised his transitions and skating skills.
Further, Dave seems prefer his FS this year. So far, it seems the response by skating fans to his program isn’t so bad. I found his program this year was challenging last summer, but he can execute this program. My favorite part is steps! He really feels the music and express it with well controlled blades and upper body.

 

[Arriba627]

Who is raf?

Rafael Arutyunyan - He coached in Armenia, then Russia, now in the U.S. (in California). Over the years, he has coached many well-known skaters. In fact he coached Mao from 2006-2008, and also Michelle Kwan, Jeffrey Buttle, and others. He is currently coaching Ashley, Adam, and Michal Brezina. Nathan Chen was with him but has moved to Marina Zueva, and Mariah Bell has just moved from Kori Ade to Raf.

Just realized that I "accidentally" have a photo with Raf in it that I took on the 2nd day of practice at SA. https://pic.twitter.com/VGXOhq7Dir I was trying to get Shoma and Mihoko sensei, and here I have Shoma and Jason, and Raf is seen between the two of them.