As I explained, I watched a few short programs at 25% speed, taking a screenshot every time the skater did something. What this something is, and how the skater did it, is something that varies from skater to skater and from moment to moment. This is Shoma Uno’s program.
The video does not always allow us to understand what the skater is doing at the beginning. Sometimes some detail is not visible, and in all the spins there is a terrible video from above. My screenshots start from the instant the music starts. The first seconds are an introduction to the program, some skater stay still, some start immediately with steps. It’s a choice, if it’s appropriate to the music that’s okay. The evaluation of the other four items of the components can only start from the moment in which the skater moves.
0:34 start
As I wrote, we do not see the beginning, the camera is too close. Since the program is the same one that Uno performed at the National Championship in December 2021, I take the images from there. It is not said that everything is identical, for example from December to February Hanyu has certainly modified the exit of the combination (I prefer the Olympic version) and the landing of the triple axel (what risk did he choose to take?), but we can make a idea, also because I doubt that Uno makes the same adjustments to the choreography as Hanyu does.
We had missed a push, with a slide in a nice position, simple but adequate for the music.
0:38 two feet
This screenshot is placed between 6 and 7 of the first image. I made a series of images containing 9 different screenshots, to get an overview of the movements without the skaters becoming too small and difficult to look at, but I also want to insert some larger images. We can imagine the screenshot with nine images structured like this:
screenshot 1 – screenshot 2 – screenshot 3
screenshot 4 – screenshot 5 – screenshot 6
screenshot 7 – screenshot 8 – screenshot 9
In some cases (and I don’t know why this happened only in some cases and not always) the blog forced me to cut the 9 screenshots because otherwise it would not upload the image. I’m sorry because the whole picture, in which you see the background, helps to understand how far the skater has moved, but there is nothing I can do about it. Beyond cutting the images in a way that the skater can be seen, I have always tried to make sure that at least one of the screenshots shows the time elapsed from the beginning of the video.
Nice position, two feet.
0:40 stop. Easy movement, nice for CO.
0:42 twizzle. Finally he is not on two feet. Difficult step, but what’s that butt out? I have some problems with the quality. Whenever I see a butt sticking out, with the back bent, the head held high (so it’s not a choreographic choice to be bend) and the legs straight or almost straight, I will point it out.
0:43 the twizzle is followed by crossover and various push, nothing important.
Okay, he’s got his knees bent, but he’s pushing to pick up speed, with an elegance that I think has remained in Japan, or perhaps Switzerland, because he forgot to take it with him in China. Notice the inclination of the back? And the butt? I selected screenshot 4, but I could have selected several others.
0:48 Uno raise the left foot for a slide on the right outside edge backward. The position is simple, torso and head are located exactly above the right foot, so there is no problem with balance. The left leg is straight, but not particularly high. Nice position but nothing special, and I don’t like the way he ended it. What I show you is screenshot 4, the one in which the position is most beautiful, 5 already leaves me perplexed.
0:49 Uno start his run. Really, he run. He does nothing more than that.
Did someone say butt? Screenshot 5
There’s a few mohawks, a simple step, and those mohawks are the only reason I’m not saying Uno’s 4F deserves the deduction for long preparation. However, while not lowering the GOE, 12 seconds of nothing cannot but affect the PCS, and even before this run-up it is not that Uno had done so much. I remember that for a good score in skating skills it needs a minimal use of two foot skating and that among common mistakes there is forgetting parts of the program with no transitions of very few transitions (E.G. in anticipation of a quad). For a good score in transitions it needs continuity of movement into a unit with no breaks, including entrances and exits of technical elements, and also in composition the score must be lower if for part of a program the skater is only going back and forth in order to prepare jumps.
1:00 4F
Right now I won’t go into the quality of the quadruple flip, even if Uno’s toe are not effortless and always make me think that he is throwing a pickaxe at the ice. With all due respect to those who use the pickaxe, because even that gesture can be done with elegance (for the record, I too used a pickaxe, in some archaeological excavations, so I know for personal experience what I’m talking about). But he do really need to have his butt sticking out all the time and show all the effort he needs for the speed? This is screenshot 9.
Uno continues to have a protruding butt, I have a vague suspicion that this is his normal posture. In screenshot 8 he shows us some choreography, with a slide on both feet in a pose so stable that I too could almost hold it.
I don’t consider crossed or mohawks, if I haven’t missed anything Uno makes a three and then a glide on one foot.
1:08 Finally Uno lifts his right foot for more than just a simple step. This time the screenshots I select are two: 2, to show the left outside forward edge, and 8: yes, the slide is long, Uno puts his foot on the ice at 1:12, after 4 seconds, and the leg has risen a lot , a gesture that he combined with a movement of his arms… but he lifts most his foot only after exiting the curve, when he is going in a straight line, and his back is straight, the movements he performs make a scene, but do not put a test to his sense of balance.
1:13 twizzle
Uno did a step on one foot, I can’t expect too much, right? After all, it is a difficult program… and therefore he glides backwards on two feet, with the back bent forward that I take as a choreographic choice without asking myself too much about the elegance of the position.
He does a backward glide of 2 seconds on two feet. Every now and then I have doubts about the correct word, especially the correct word in English. My grammar sucks, we all know this, but sometimes I also have doubts about the terms, especially when they are precise terms and are not the same in Italian and English. So what does Uno do? The glide is made by two swizzle, and I remember perfectly that the swizzles are among the first skating moves that my daughters learned (they called them “limoncini”) when they started skating. After, Uno glides backward for one second on one foot, he stretches upwards, but always paying attention to maintain an absolutely stable pose, on an almost flat edge (screenshot 9), then changes foot and direction.
1:19 three
Okay, sometimes Uno can also stand upright, as in screenshot 6.
1:20 Uno start to run again. With the butt outside, screenshot 4. And if it seems to someone that I am a bit obsessed with Uno’s posture… no, it’s not fixation. If you go and look at the post with the explanations relating to the criteria indicated by the ISU to evaluate the components, there is also carriage and clarity of movement, with two photos of a classical dancer, in an incorrect and correct position, so this is an important criterion. And when Hanyu was training with Nanami Abe, and during his first time in Canada, his posture was often criticized, referred to as sloppy. Often Uno’s posture is bad (and a lot worse of the posture of the then 17 year old Hanyu), and his score should reflect it.
Five seconds of a run.
1:25 a choctow, and screenshot 4 is the proof that if he want, he can do straight line with his back and one of his leg.
After another 4 seconds of run, he prepare his combination.
1:30 combination
After landing Uno does a three in which he regains balance, an inside spread eagle of 1 second (screenshot 7), and I remember that an inside spread eagle is easier than an outside spread eagle, then enters in the spin.
I hate the way they filmed the spins, on each spin there is a change of framing that prevents us from seeing them well. As far as I can see, Uno’s spins seem correct to me.
1:51 end of the spin. Must I write something about his butt in screenshot 2? No, this time I dont look at the detail.
1:52: choctaw + three
1:53 Uno start to run again.
No comment on screenshot 7.
But does Uno practice figure skating or short track? No, because judging by how he runs, doubt is legitimate, and I have nothing against skaters of short track. They are two different sports, that’s all, but in this case it seems that the only thing that matters for Uno is speed. Among common mistakes of the judges there is credit only speed and power, forgetting to evaluate how the skater achieved that speed. And this is screenshot 8:
2:00 inside spread eagle (screeenshot 4). After 7 seconds of run. And at the National championship he had made a more difficult outside spread eagle. At least at this point, in Beijing Uno simplified his program.
2:01 crossover
2:03 triple axel
At the landing there’s a three, then Uno enter in his spin.
2:18 end of the spin, start of the step sequence.
Here I really struggle to distinguish what is required to achieve the level and what is added by Uno to make the sequence most beautiful. I remember one of the statements made by Jenny Mast in the judges’ training seminar: Among common mistakes there are forgetting to evaluate the changes of the direction of the skating as well as one foot skating, credit only speed and power, rewarding deep edges, steps and turns that are only done in the step sequence when it is placed near the end of the performance. This should be everywhere! Performing a nice step sequence allows the skater to get the level for the sequence and the high GOE, the relevance for the components is limited. For the steps I didn’t take continuous screenshots, honestly it’s a long and tedious job. I limit myself to a few screenshots, which can be separated from each other by several seconds and several steps.
Nice inside edge on the choctaw.
Ina bauer (1 sec)
Inside spread eagle (2 sec)
Illusion turn
If Uno needs speeds, he is always elegant…
Waltz jump
I might have something to say about the depth of this rocker’s edge, but I wrote that I would ignore the step sequence, right?
Ehm… this is a choreo passage?
Hop, half turn.
Chasse. What I captured in the screenshot is the moment when it stretches the most, is more elegant, and tests its sense of balance the most.
Butterfly.
Spin.
Roseline Winter and Elisa made an extraordinary analysis of some short programs, including the one skated by Uno at the National Championship. There may be some small differences, but their analysis is interesting.
It is not possible to think that the judges, in the short time they have available, will be able to carry out an analysis of this type. But something can be done. I took the final document published by Roseline and Elisa and made a hypothesis. The computer program should be implemented, but I am convinced that for a computer scientist it would not be difficult, and the tasks of the technical panel should be rethink, but it would be feasible. I imagined the technical specialist with a series of four buttons in front of him. One for Power Skating (crossover and push of various types), one for the simple transition steps (mohawk, chasse and so on), one for the difficult steps and one for the elements. The technical specialist should just push the button every time he sees the skater making one of these moves. In this way through a computerized program the judges could immediately see a graph of the program structure, see if the skater has spent more time taking a run for speed or doing something meaningful.
In the table on the left there is the number of steps performed by the skater between one element and another. In the three columns there are the number of steps in which the skater limited himself to looking for speed (power skating), to simple transitions and difficult steps. The yellow line indicates the step sequence. The graph in the center is based on this table. The graph on the left just shows the total, not the way the different types of steps are distributed in the program.
The graph clearly tells us that, outside of the step sequence, Uno spends most of his time running.
I also made a table. I started from the data of Roseline and Elisa, the computer would start from the data provided by the buttons pressed by the technical specialist, with a closer look at the placement of the types of movements. The right column, difficult or element indicates the difficult steps and elements performed by the skater. The other three columns indicate, for each difficult step or element, whether that movement was preceded (top row) or followed (bottom row) by a push (PS), a simple transition (tr) or a difficult turn (D).
I checked what preceded and followed the difficult steps and the technical elements.
I would say that before and after a difficult step Uno tends to do something simple, while before and after the technical elements the only thing one does is pick up speed, so its components must take this into account.
Taking the screenshots I looked very closely at Uno’s program, something I had never done in the past. And I took note of the seconds. The calculation is not very accurate, I looked at the seconds that appeared on the screen, but I cannot distinguish between half a second or three quarters of a second, so the numbers must be taken with a little caution. I divided the time into two groups. On the one hand, I counted the time spent by Uno (outside the step sequence) making steps a little more complex than a mohawk, but also two-footed steps that have a choreographic value (spread eagle, ina bauer), on the other hand the time he spent running (crossover, but also mohawk) or in which he was on two feet without doing anything in particular. From the count I left out the elements, including the entry steps. If I didn’t make any mistakes, for 20 seconds Uno did something that enriched his program, for 46 seconds he focused on speed.
After I did my chart – and I did the others too, I just have to find time to write my posts – I had an exchange with Henni. She too has been thinking about the steps, and her idea seems to me better than mine. The skaters already present their layout with the placement of the technical elements. In my opinion that layout is the only reason the judges call quadruple toe loop one of Morisi Kvitelashvili’s jumps. He declares that he will do a toe loop, the judges decide to believe him on trust, and his score goes up. Here, according to Henni the skaters should also present the layout of the transitions in advance, so that the judges can know exactly how many they do, which ones they do and how they distribute them. The task of the technical specialist would be to check that they actually do what they have declared, with the possibility of only making changes not exceeding a percentage to be established, without seeing their scores drop.
I don’t think that Uno deserves the marks in the components that he received. What scores would he have deserved? Before saying what I think, I want to look at some other programs.
