As with Shoma Uno, I watched Yuma Kagiyama’s short program at 25% speed and took numerous screenshots. If you need explanations on what I did you can read the beginning of the previous post. These are the screenshots of Kagiyama’s program.
A notice on screenshots. In some cases I had problems loading them because they were too heavy, so I decided to cut them to lighten them. Obviously I always left the skaters visible. If reading the post the skaters appear cut off, you must click on the screenshot, because the image I uploaded is larger than the one the computer has decided to show you. I have no idea what caused this inconvenience, but the skaters are always visible (unless it was the TV shot that cut them).
0:27 start
I hate the cameras placed on the ceiling. This is the National Championship version. Beijing screenshot 9 matches Saitama’s 5.
I go back to Beijing.
I notice only one detail looking at screenshot 8. Still there is nothing complicated, Kagiyama has just started the program, in my opinion he has entered the atmosphere well, but what interests me is something else. He is standing upright. If I repeatedly complained about his butt in Uno’s post, Kagiyama has a correct posture. He bends his legs, keeps his back straight. If they perform two similar programs, with this simple detail Kagiyama deserves a score in components higher than that of Uno.
0:34 choctaw
Immediately after Kagiyama does a twizzle. After a crossover, at the National Championship Kagiyama had done a half-turn hop, here he does a mohawk. Is the new version simpler or the old version? I don’t know, in both cases he doesn’t do anything particularly difficult, what I do know is that I still have to learn a lot of things.
0:36 Kagiyama start to take speed, but his movements don’t scream “I’m working hard because I’ll do something really difficult” as the movements of Uno do, his posture is better.
For 9 seconds, between crossover and mohawk, Kagiyama just picks up speed (in a slightly different way than at Nationals). At 0:44 he does a three, then begins the preparation of the salchow. That three avoids the deduction in the GOE for long preparation, but what should we say about PCS? I remember that, according to the indications of the ISU, the score in Transition cannot be too high if there are parts of the program with no transitions of very few transitions (E.G. in anticipation of a quad). The same goes for Composition, in presence of part of a program where the skater is going back and forth in order to prepare jumps.
0:50 counter.
In the overall screenshot I had taken in image 1 there’s only the edge at the end of the counter, below I put two screenshot, the inside edge at the start, and it is a good inside edge, and the edge at the exit, screenshot 1 in the previous image.
The counter ends in a nice curve, followed by a few easy steps that are within the scope of Performance.
0:53 little hop (screenshot 2). Often Kagiyama does not do difficult things, so for SS and TR the score cannot be too high, but tries to interpret the program, to do something, and this raises the score of PE.
0:55 after a push there is a brief ina bauer (screenshot 9).
In screenshot 4 we see another hop with half rotation.
There are various push here and there, which I don’t mention, a three at 0:58 (first two screenshots), and a new run-up.
1:07 start of preparation of the combination. After 9 seconds of run, extended for the last part of the long side of the rink, the entire short side (30 meters) and almost the entire diagonal (67 meters). We are talking of around 95-100 meters.
Yes, at 1:04 of the previous series of screenshots (screenshot 1) there is a kind of choctaw. A kind because Kagiyama goes from a left inside backward edge to a right forward but flat edge, and only afterwards does he move up to the outside edge, when it is already doing a crossover. He avoid the deduction for long preparation, but at the PCS level, he doesn’t deserves a so high score.
1:13 hop (screenshot 9 of the previous screenshot). Some push, and the spin.
I think I have to watch this spin carefully. This is screenshot 3, but the others little screenshots give me bad thoughts too. Something for another day.
Edit: I did a poll on Twitter, doing my best for hiding skaters’ identity and asking an opinion on the position. On twitter I asked about six skaters’ spin, because I wanted do conceal to whom I was interested in. Obviously I was interested in Kagiyama’s spin. This is the poll and the result:
1:30 Kagiyama exit from the spin with a three (screenshot 8 and 9).
1:36 three (screenshot 3 and 4). I ignore crossover, mohawk and simple push.
1:37 after a mohawk there is an outside spread eagle. Good edge and good position.
Kagiyama holds the position, although at 1:40 the edge is almost flat, for five seconds, at 1:42 he comes out with a crossed step.
I did a new screenshot, between 3 and 4 of the previous image, because at 1:45 Kagiyama did a three and I wanted to see the edge.
Before and after, he run. He is fast, true, because he does crossover.
1:51 counter (screenshot 1-3).
Counter… I wanted to redo the screenshots to get a good look at that edge, and it looks pretty flat to me. At 1:51 Kagiyama begins to focus on the take off of the triple axel. The take off is at 1:53.
Kagiyama does a high hop, a three, then enter in the spin.
After the spin at 2:07 Kagiyama start the step sequence. I’m not going to look at the whole step sequence, as I already explained for Uno, I still struggle to distinguish what it’s requested to get the level from what is an addition of the skater (unless he does more twizzle than he should, or moves which clearly have choreographic value but are not on the list of difficult steps or turns codified by the ISU). I limit myself to a few screenshots, perhaps even several seconds apart from the previous or the next.
How can I define what it does? They are two skipped steps. There is a more correct definition? I don’t know. What Kagiyama does is not difficult, for SS and TR these steps do not count, for the other items they are good.
I won’t mention them all, but Kagiyama does numerous little jumps, he skates the step sequence with energy and his movements are appropriate to the music.
At 2:14 there is a lunge.
When I wrote that Uno doesn’t test his sense of balance… Kagiyama at 2:15 did more than Uno did (actually in the whole program he did more than Uno did).
Immediately after he did another little jump (no rotations).
2:19 Kagiyama stumbled.
I know, this post is on PCS, but let’s do the math quickly. Bullet 3, effortless throughout with good energy, flow and execution, is not there. When one stumbles, it is a sign that what he is doing is not effortless. Without bullet 3 the maximum GOE can be +3. I don’t even stop to think if there are the other bullets, I take it for granted that there are at least three (but the judges must not take it for granted, they must evaluate if they are there or not, even if to simplify my life I say they are there). Now let’s move on to the deductions. The deduction for stumble ranges from -1 to -3. The stumble is small, I give it a -1. I could also assign a -1 for Does not correspond to the music, surely when he stumbled he didn’t move in harmony with the music, but I choice to dont give this deduction. The maximum mark that Kagiyama could receive is +2. How is it that a judge gave him +3, four gave him +4 and four gave him +5? None of the judges has respected the rule. If the ISU wants serious competitions, that kind of thing shouldn’t happen.
2:22 choreographic jump.
After a loop (the step, not the jump) and a bracket Kagiyama does a few more hops. I point out that they are there but I don’t take screenshots, because the screenshots don’t convey the idea of the movement. There are several steps, some necessary for the level, some not, and a side lunge.
Kagiyama tries to put variety, liveliness and rhythm into what he does, even if they are often simple movements. The last element is the third spin.
Kagiyama ends his program with a little jump.
Kagiyama’s program was also analyzed by Roseline Winter and Elisa, you can find their considerations here:
For my considerations on their analysis, I refer you to the post dedicated to Uno, the link is at the beginning of this post.
Also for Kagiyama I made the graph relating to the number of steps in which the skater limited himself to looking for speed (power skating), to simple transitions and difficult steps. In the table on the left there is the number of steps performed by the skater between one element and another. 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.
If for Uno the number of pushes and transitions is almost the same, Kagiyama’s program is a little richer, the pushes are a little less, the transitions a little more, even if he tends to limit himself to doing things easy, or not to do two difficult things in a row.
Below I have made the table 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 passage (tr) or a difficult turn (D).
The last check I did concerns the time, and it’s based not on Roseline and Elisa’s analysis but on my screenshots. If I wrote everything down correctly, Kagiyama devoted 27 seconds to transitions of various types, while for 36 seconds he concentrated on reaching the speed necessary to perform the technical elements. Better than Uno but not a so difficult program.
