You guys are all welcome.
About FS Life vol.21, this blog post shows an image of the 1st page of Sota interview as a free sample.
https://ameblo.jp/shelley39/
Translation:
-First of all, I would like to ask you to look back on this season. What kind of season was it? (Interviewed at Chukyo University in March)
S: Hmm, let me see .... The big change is that I began to put the quad salcow in my program. Also, I got my programs choreographed for the first time overseas. These are the most memorable things.
-You did the quadruple salchow from the end of last season, didn’t you.
S: Yes, right after the Challenge Cup ended a year ago. In April I started practicing after a long time, and I was able to land it quickly. From there, my goal was to add salchow next season.
-This season you had good results such as the first place in the short at the second Challenger Series in the early season, and did you feel confident that you would do well this season?
S: I was getting better since around autumn and I was getting more confident gradually, and I guess my confidence helped me in the short at Finlandia. But after the free, I found some issues and realized that I still had plenty of room for improvement. It was a great experience to be sent to two competitions.
--And NHK Cup this year for the second time. Was it different from your first outing at the NHK Cup last year?
S: The first time I was at NHK Cup I wanted to have a good time and I didn't care about the result very much. But I competed at this season’s NHK Cup trying hard to get good results. But I ended up in the same 6th place, so I thought it was difficult to skate well while worrying about the results.
-How did you like to be in the same competition as Yuzuru Hanyu?
S: It's been a while since I competed with him, and I learned a lot. I learned from everything he did.
-What did you learn, for example?
S: There are too many things to name a few (laughs), but I learned so much during the time from his warm-up to his performance. I learned many things such as movements on the ice at practice by trying my best to watch him.
-What did you think was the most amazing about him?
S: As others have said, Hanyu senshu has very springy legs, which seem to have something to do with the way he jumps on the ice. I noticed that he was able to move very quickly, and I came to think that was one of his strengths.
-Did you notice that during warm-ups?
S: Even when he was just walking, how can I put it, he was agile (laughs). When I'm in bad form, my movements tend to lose sharpness or become sluggish, so I'd like to learn from him to get my weakness under control.
-After that, the Japanese National Championships. What do you think about it?
S: Hmm, I thought that I was able to do 100% of the layout I wanted to do, and I started to have the desire that I wouldl get good results by delivering good performances. In that sense I competed out of the desire to achieve results...but I ended up with unsatisfactory results. It was the season I got to be hungry in a positive way, though.
ー Did you feel down after the short?
S: Hehe (laughs) I guess so. I was really nervous in the short. I fell so far behind that I couldn't reach the placement I was aiming for, and I realized that that’s all I’ve got. I wondered if I hadn't reached the ideal place I had hoped for, or perhaps I was not even at the start line.
-Why did you get nervous?
S: I was too concerned about the result. I was working hard and doing okay in practice, but it doesn’t matter if you cannot skate well in competition. I figured that I would have to practice hard to go beyond self-satisfaction and to be able to deliver such good performances that the people around would recognize me as a good skater.
It has to be tough to force oneself not to think of the scores and placement when he knows the junior trio of Kagiyama, Sato and Miura is storming the world stage already and the eyes of the Federation will naturally be drawn to them when it comes to Beijing considerations. Yet I root for Sota, always.
Then I double-checked...
