Sota Yamamoto | Page 52 | Golden Skate

Sota Yamamoto

Recent report by Yamaha Motor Foundation on some of their grant recipients:

特別講演 | 第14回 YMFSスポーツ・チャレンジャーズ・ミーティング | 公益財団法人 ヤマハ発動機スポーツ振興財団

講演テーマ自ら考え、課題を解決し、成長しよう。 河合レオ 氏 (公財)日本ラグビーフットボール協会普及育成委員会コーチング部門
www.ymfs.jp www.ymfs.jp

Several recipients are asked to choose a kanji character that represents what they values in life. Here’s Sota’s choice.

“I’ve written the kanji “幸 (happiness).” I’m a figure skater. This season the coronavirus pandemic has created a very difficult situation for competitions to be held, bit I was still able to participate in some competitions. Having gone through these events, this kanji came to mind. Besides my experience in competitions, this season has brought me a lot of happiness.”
 
Thank you Rainbow! It's hard for me to figure out how he could have been happy and depressed at the same time, but maybe he'll explain in an interview eventually.
Meanwhile, Sota updated his Instagram again, showing off some custom-made(?) gadgets, and his newly permed hair :ROFLMAO:
I look forward to seeing any images and news from today's Stars On Ice. So far, someone has written a Twitter post about Sota doing spread eagles and having good ice coverage, but I wonder what he actually skated to! :drama: My bet would still be Dark Eyes, however, the eagles don't make much sense there, I think there's just one in that program, a very brief one. Patience is a virtue but I actually feel :tantrum:
 
Seems that Sota has been performing 'Anthem' and 'Dark Eyes' at SOI, but sadly I haven't come across any footage!
 
Thanks, Kirara! I am so behind on commenting here :palmf: I cannot find anything online either, siiigh! Just a couple of photos that show Sota in the Anthem costume but with a Nathan-ish hairstyle, so they must be new O_O
So the coaching situation remains a mystery... :drama: Do the diligent Kazuki fans mention how the jump battle at least went for Sota?
 
Thank you for the updates, Kirara! :) I am relieved to hear that Sota managed to land a quad and a 3A in the jump battle. That means his physical condition is getting better. I am wondering if he has already quietly moved to a new training base then? That would be great. I hope he lets his fans know, eventually.
 
I do appraciate it! All the more so because he seems to be back to those curved blades (Edea? Revolution? My memory doesn't serve me well...) again, which didn't seem to be the case in other photos (well, more like thumb-ups, the usual aflo stuff).

Humm, so... warning- conspiracy theory thinking aloud coming. Folks say Sota looked happy at SOI. He actually landed some of his difficult elements like 4S (interesting choice BTW, I thought he preferred 4T, so I hope his toepicking ankle is okay). I find it hard to believe he's planning to coach himself at Chukyo long-term before his super important season if he wants even a small shot at the Olympic team. So... would that be too much of a stretch to assume, or hope at least, that he's found a new training base and coach for himself already? As to why it hasn't been revealed yet, we know he's secretive, and maybe he hasn't had much time yet to train at a new base? Just speculating of course. Incidentally, the past Sunday marked a year since Hayashi's arrest, so if he got a one-year ban, and supposing his centre is not closed due to state of emergency, then skaters who participated in SOI would be able to start training with him this week... hmm, I wonder. :popcorn::scratch2::pray:
 
I agree Sota seems to be in good mood and good shape at SOI!
Yesterday he performed 'Anthem' and landed a gorgeous 4S in the jump competition. Today, from what I read his quad attempt wasn't successful, but that might have been because Kazuki went before him and also didn't do well 😅
 
This blog update shares some excerpts from an interview with Sota & Taichiro in “Figure Skating Life” (Jan. 28): This interview is about the Nationals in December.

S: I…, I cried, in the car. My mother came to pick me up and on my way from the rink to the hotel I cried. I hardly ever cry, really. So I cried for the first time in a long time, since the time when I felt mortified as I could only jump single jumps when I returned to the ice after a long absence because of my injury. Ah, how should I say, I felt powerless. Rather than feeling mortified, I knew I really deserved what I got and felt powerless. I accepted the reality, but it made me realize again where I stood. (omitted). I had not made any progress and my performance was poor, and I was still 9th at the Nationals. I wondered if I could move forward.
S: One of my mottos this year is “Be pure” and I had been trying to genuinely face skating, live purely, and tackle skating the way different from before. But the event got me thinking that my training quality was not up to par. No matter how much I change my feelings, mindset, and my lifestyle, without bringing up the quality of training, I cannot produce results in competition. (Omitted) My takeaway from the event is that no matter how much I speak of my determination to motivate myself, it is training that matters. You just have to practice hard.
S: But I know, I know very well that when I get flustered, I blink more. When I’m focused, I open my eyes wide (opening his eyes wide) and I can see judges and concentrate on performing, but (omitted). I guess I didn’t practice enough. I guess I didn’t work (on downgraded content) hard enough in terms of time frame and quantity.
S: Although I could land my first jump, I couldn’t tighten the second jump because I was scared. But I didn’t pop it! I did finish the jump! I didn’t think I couldn’t jump. I knew I couldn’t, but I was like, “I should somehow tighten my core.” I fell down and my axis got tilted, and hitting jumps was not on my mind, though [laughter]. Besides, I got level 4 on spins in the short and the free.
--I think Yamamoto senshu was the only one who got level 4s on spins in both the short and the free.
S: Wow, I’m happy to hear that. I just thought it’s not good to talk about only negative things [laughter]!
 
Poor Sota, hope he manages to sort out his coaching situation and his practice routines ahead of the Olympic season :pray:

Meanwhile, someone finally uploaded one of his SOI performances!

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
youtu.be youtu.be
Love this programme 🥰
 
Hooray, and good catch! I haven't seen this video yet :giggle:
I feel so sorry for Sota, reading this excerpt that Rainbow kindly translated for us (thank you! 🌷 ) He really seemed lost. I hope he's found a direction from which to tackle his preparation for the upcoming season, but one of the recent blog posts mentions something about him being spotted in another skater's video at an independent rink. That would maybe make sense if many rinks in Osaka, Nagoya and Hyogo are shut down due to covid, but I wanted Sota back at Hayashi's rink as I think they're well-matched in terms of personality, and from what @rRainbow says, it seems that Nishinomiya is free to operate, not being in a restricted prefecture. Sigh, this would signal he's not back to Hayashi as I had wished... -_- I still have hope left that maybe he'll switch to Shoma's former coaches when the restrictions are lifted, but I consider him to be a better fit for Hayashi.

I wonder what question Sota was replying to by demonstrating the focused/not focused face? :biggrin:

I don't think I get the last paragraph about jumping. His axis was off and yet he wasn't thinking of jumps - huh, what? I don't have an issue with the translation, I just have no idea what he means. I should think a skater would be very concerned when his jumps are off, no?

That part about purity sounds like something Onishi came up with, because he called Sota that in an interview. Eh, I don't think an abstract concept like 'purity in life' is a good motto for a struggling skater, tbh. Re-inventing oneself, nah, that neither. Better if Sota is happy being who he is and embracing his real self. But he's right - he seems to be missing the hours of diligent work that are an elite skater's norm. Apparently he did train diligently, but the time he was allotted wasn't enough. I hope he can find a training center now where he can find a good time/intensity balance that would give him back his lost confidence. That would be 'purity' in focusing on skating indeed, but leaving Chukyo for a few hours a week at Rinkai, doesn't strike me as a good strategy. I hope he doesn't go back to that. Even a return to Howa would be preferable to that.
 
surimi said:
I don't think I get the last paragraph about jumping. His axis was off and yet he wasn't thinking of jumps - huh, what? I don't have an issue with the translation, I just have no idea what he means. I should think a skater would be very concerned when his jumps are off, no?
Click to expand...
Sota said 跳べる気せんかったけど which literally means the thought of being able to jump was not there, implying that he had no confidence in his ability to jump successfully. Sorry for bad translation.

Japan's 3rd State of Emergency covers 6 prefectures now. It originally covered Tokyo, Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto, and from Wednesday, Aichi and Fukuoka are added. The SOE will be in effect till May 31. Nishinomiya is in Hyogo prefecture, and Nishinomiya Ice Rink is closed to the public till May 31, and outside the business hours, rink reservations are honored only for those who have made reservations before SOE was declared. Osaka remains a hot spot where hospitals are overwhelmed. The vaccine rollout has been slow and only less than 3% of the Japanese population have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Let's hope this SOE will help reduce the infection numbers and things will turn for the better.
 
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Per his Stars on Ice interview, Sota has picked his old program, Anthem, to be his program for the new season. It seems he wasn't happy with how he skated it in 2017/8 after his injury (with triples and 2A), and now he wants to go for 4-3, 4S, and 3A. I hope he succeeds! :pray:

My domestic fellow fan made a face at the news, and seems to prefer Sota the Innovator. Myself, I acknowledge he is running a risk of not succeeding to land his jumps and still not being happy with the program... but, I am also excited. Anthem is a lovely program, one of Sota's iconic ones. I can't hear the music without remembering Sota's flawless (though simplified) performance at Nationals 2017. I'll always hear the commentator's excited gushing of 'sankaiten-sankaiten dekimashita!' ('succeeded at 3-3'). I hope to hear the commentator gush again this December! :pray: And I hope so so much I'll get to see Sota skate at a Challenger because it would mean a lot to me - to see with my own eyes the program that made me his fan. So far, I have seen Anthem costume on him when he was skating to Air (at Challenge Cup when his Air costume got damaged), and vice versa - Sota skating to Anthem but in black practice clothes (also at Challenge Cup). I'd love to see Anthem in Anthem costume now please :biggrin:

Okay, for the free, I'd love to see something new. Definitely not Dragon, that didn't bring him luck - although with a bit better music cut, it could be a powerful program for an older, more confident Sota. I could live with Nobunaga Concerto, but a classical piece or something akin to that, would be even better because it wouldn't be repetition. But the question remains of how much resources Sota would have for a new program and new costume, if he moved back to Nagoya and found a coach. Which I hope he did. If he has a training center where he's happy, even two reused programs could bring him great results.

Other fans' thoughts?

ETA, Shenlong's blog has some quality video content:
Anthem selections from Stars on Ice: https://twitter.com/MsNATARY/status/1398852296675454983 and https://twitter.com/MsNATARY/status/1398852582982836225.
Sota enjoying the end of the moustache group number (features a bit of Kazuki, too) - https://twitter.com/MsNATARY/status/1398857553056960515
A bit of Sota's interview - https://twitter.com/MsNATARY/status/1398853407880794112
Sota, Shoma and others backstage - https://twitter.com/MsNATARY/status/1398949853422526465
 
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I think Anthem is a good choice. It's a beautiful program and fits Sota well. For FS, anything would be fine with me as long as he feels comfortable with it and he can hit jumps and earn high levels on steps and spins. I'm hoping he now has a coaching team.
 
Yay! I'm really glad with this announcement, can't wait to see a more mature Sota skate to 'Anthem' in its full potential and higher content! :love2:
I agree he should get a new FS, hopefully something that suits him well, too.
 
Thanks, Kirara. FS Life Sota-Taichiro online talk show tickets are sold from June 4 thru June 13. 400 tickets are sold at 2,700yen.

The topics are:
・Ice shows they have been in
・What they are challenging themselves to, and their thoughts about the next season.
・Next season's programs
etc.
 
Sota's Anthem in SOI Hachinohe. The previous Anthem video was in SOI Yokohama.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

Additional backstage footage about the incident on day 1 of SOI Yokohama where Sota forgot to wear a false moustache.
3:53
Shoma: They've got started!
[Sota running to the ice]
4:10 [after the moustache dance]
Sota: It’s not what you think. It’s my fault, hehehe. I asked Shun-kun how many skaters before me, and I was told two. So, I thought I had plenty of time, but then I realized “Huh? I’m the next?” I ran to get prepared and I forgot to put on my moustache. It was a big disaster [laughter].
 
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