12.12.2010 情熱大陸：Kohei Uchimura

Narrator: With these hands he grasped the top of the world. Gymnast Kohei Uchimura. His callused palms are clear evidence.

Kohei Uchimura: I have two pairs of nail clippers, one for cutting my nails and one for cutting off the dead skin from my hands. This is really embarrassing.

Commentator: We can see the raging fire (i.e. his power)... He stuck it! Stuck it!

Narrator: At the World Gymnastics Championships that took place this October (2010) in the Netherlands, Uchimura became the first Japanese gymnast to defend the All-Around title. He is only the third gymnast ever to make this brilliant achievement. The name Kohei Uchimura swept through the gymnastics world. He is the man currently closest to the (All-Around) gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

Koji Gushiken (1984 Olympic All-Around Champion): No matter what area you look at--pick up--he has very clean, beautiful gymnastics. They make a picture. He must have eyes all over the place--where he is and how he is positioned, what he should do to stick the landing, all these things.

Narrator: What are "beautiful gymnastics"? Uchimura has intently pursued this. For this Uchimura, there is one title now that he desperately wants.

Kohei Uchimura: I know that Japanese Nationals and the World Championships are completely different, but everyone wants us to win Nationals, and we athletes also want the title no matter what, so...

Narrator: The World Champion, who does not let up at all, was focused on winning with his friends and teammates in his last competition as a student.

Question: Gymnastics is...?

Kohei Uchimura: I guess it's destiny? I feel like it's not too extreme to say that I was born so I could do gymnastics.

Narrator: Where does the road that the 21-year-old World Champion seeks lead?

(Nippon Sport Science University)

Narrator: The World Champion rides his bicycle to school from his dorm every day.

Kohei Uchimura: 'Morning.

Crew: Are you not a morning person?

Kohei Uchimura: I don't really get sleepy, so...

Crew: Oh really?

Kohei Uchimura: Yes. If I sleep, my body doesn't move well, so...

Crew: I see.

Kohei Uchimura: Yeah. This is my standard outfit.

Crew: You're wearing work gloves?

Kohei Uchimura: Yes, because it's cold.

Gymnasts: Good morning! 'Morning!

Narrator: Nippon Sport Science University Gymnastics Club. It is a renowned gymnastics program that has produced numerous medalists. Practices are held daily for an hour midday, and four hours in the afternoon. Uchimura is a senior and the captain who pulls together the 65 members of the men's division.

Gymnasts: Let's work together.

Narrator: (Only 13 more training sessions until) Japanese Nationals, which start on December 3. For Uchimura, it is the last meet he will compete with his friends.

Gymnasts: Together! Let's go!

Narrator: In the team competition in gymnastics, three athletes from each team compete on six events such as floor, the high bar, and still rings, and the total scores from those performances are used. Last year, Nippon Sport Science University allowed the "working adult team" to win, and finished in second place. And so especially, the World Champion was very focused on the last meet he would spend with his friends.

Koji Yamamuro (senior): He's very shy, but I think he's gotten a lot better.

Fumihiro Hosokawa (senior): There are parts of him that I don't get, but I do think that he's a great athlete who hides it when he gets down.

Masataka Aoyama (sophomore): You get the feeling that he competes against himself. He doesn't get nervous, and performs with confidence.

Narrator: On this day he went to a ramen place with the underclassmen with whom he lives in the gymnastics division dorms.

Masataka Aoyama: To be honest, we're definitely better than Kohei at still rings--

Kohei Uchimura: Shut up.

Takumi Sato (junior): Sorry.

Kohei Uchimura: First, these noodles--

Waiter: Noodles.

Kohei Uchimura: --and gyoza, five of them.

Waiter: Okay.

Kohei Uchimura: Fried chicken--fried chicken, three of them.

Narrator: They ordered noodles, gyoza, and fried chicken.

Crew: Are you a picky eater?

Kohei Uchimura: Oh yeah, definitely. Things I don't like...

Takumi Sato/Masataka Aoyama: Tomatoes...

Kohei Uchimura: Tomatoes. Green peas. Yeah, vegetables.

Crew: Which actors, comedians, etc. do you like?

Kohei Uchimura: Saki Aibu. Saki Aibu.

Crew: Usually when you go out to eat, do you split the bill?

(Takumi Sato and Masataka Aoyama shake their heads and gesture towards Kohei Uchimura)

Crew: Oh he treats?

Takumi Sato/Masataka Aoyama: The burden of being a veteran.

Kohei Uchimura: Hey you, you ate the fried chicken without asking, didn't you?

Masataka Aoyama: Thanks!

Kohei Uchimura: What are you doing, eating it?

Narrator: There is only a little bit of time left that he can spend with his underclassmen. Only ten more days until Nationals. During practice, one could often see him like this. His hands calmly move through the air without rushing, as if he is waving a baton.

Kohei Uchimura: That--I'm imagining the skills I will perform.

Crew: Images?

Kohei Uchimura: Yes. In my mind I can see how they should be best performed, so I guess I am continuously seeking those in practice? Yeah.

Narrator: (Born on January 3, 1989) By the time he realized it gymnastics was already a part of his life. His parents, who were both gymnasts, opened a gym at their house when Uchimura was three years old. Nagasaki Prefecture, Isahaya City. Even today, his parents continue to run their club.

Shuko Uchimura (mother): Go! Go! Very good!

Narrator: From here the second Uchimura may emerge.

Crew: Excuse us.

Kazuhisa Uchimura (father)/Shuko Uchimura: Welcome, come on in.

Shuko Uchimura: There are a lot of pictures. Come in.

Narrator: Pictures of their World-Champion son decorate every corner of the living room.

Shuko Uchimura: Well, when he focuses... even if something, a bomb, exploded right next to him, he probably wouldn't notice--he was a child with that kind of ability of concentrate. One sunny day he was sleeping underneath the high bar. I was so shocked, I thought he had fallen! Yes. I guess he'd gotten tired after playing on it for so long. When I looked he was sleeping underneath the high bar.

Narrator: His toy was the high bar. The first time he competed in a meet was when he was six years old. The result: last place.

Shuko Uchimura: He was crying at his first meet. Yeah....

Narrator: Shuko showed us a notebook.

Shuko Uchimura: So it's this... it's a notebook that child wrote in as he imagined skills.

Narrator: Uchimura's notebook from when he was in elementary school. Inside, countless gymnastics skills were crammed in. His gymnastics life that began with last place. Wanting to get even a little bit better, he continued to draw imagined skills whenever he had a chance. And that is linked to his beautiful gymnastics today. Of this beauty, Athens Gold Medalist says...

Hiroyuki Tomita (2004 Olympics Team Gold Medalist): Rather than flexibility, I think he brings out beauty in the way he precisely and quickly moves his body. On the high bar, in general--the height of his releases, the opening up of his body... those are his strong points. It's rare that a gymnast can do a Kovacs so high. In his landings, the moment before his feet touch the ground, his midair positioning is very good. Well, I think he is the best gymnast in the world.

Narrator: His superior midair sense and landings. Their origins lie in the trampoline he has loved since he was a boy. Even now, he first imagines new skills on the trampoline. Uchimura was attempting a new skill on vault. It is a new skill that no one has successfully done before. If he succeeds at it at the World Championships, it would be named the "Uchimura." This skill requires three twists in the air. At the moment, the hardest vault recorded is two and a half twists. Upon landing, the body faces away from the vault. If this becomes a triple twist, it is an additional half twist--in other words, the body will face the vault. The key to success is twisting quickly. However, because he focuses so much on this, he cannot get into position to land.

Kohei Uchimura: Was it too fast? I ended up trying to get around.

Coach: I don't think that it's that you can't get the twists in, but.... something, something's a little off. A little more.

Narrator: Even Uchimura, with the best landing technique in the world, struggles.

Kohei Uchimura: Vault is the one event where even I feel like I don't do enough, so if I could change that I think that I could get stronger... yeah. Whenever I'm training skills I can't do at all, it's like, 'When the hell am I going to be able to do this?'

Narrator: There was only a week left before Nationals.

Trainer: You shoulder?

Kohei Uchimura: Yeah. But it doesn't hurt that much.

Trainer: How about now?

Kohei Uchimura: It hurts. The same place as before.

Narrator: In fact Uchimura was dealing with the uncertainty of having pain in his shoulder. He has bitter memories related to injury. The All-Around at his first Olympics as a 19-year-old, in 2008 in Beijing.

Commentator: He can make it... He's starting with this move... And now, swiveling around the pommel horse. It's here--AH! As expected!

Narrator: A fall on the pommel horse.

Commentator: His uncertainty struck! And again! A second time...

Narrator: With the second fall, he finished with the silver.

Kohei Uchimura: At the time, my wrist--my left wrist--was pretty painful, and even in everyday life is was extremely painful. I was thinking that I would definitely fall on the pommel horse, and I performed, and to me it was like, 'Good thing it was only twice.'

Narrator: How to deal with injuries and pain--this is also the destiny of gymnasts.

Yoshiaki Hanakeda (coach): The parts of the body that aren't usually used--you bring your body into these positions and a lot of weight is placed on those parts, right? So as expected, those parts get damaged--even if you think about it normally, they get damaged.

Narrator: The still rings place over six times his body weight on both shoulders. In his current state, it is impossible for him to perform his routine through the end.

Teammate: Does your shoulder hurt?

Kohei Uchimura: It hurts a lot.

Teammate: Does it hurt more than it did at Worlds?

Kohei Uchimura: It hasn't really changed.

Narrator: He tries (the still rings) using a harness that relieves some of the pressure on his shoulders, but... There was one friend who watched over Uchimura through all of this. His classmate Yamamuro was called Uchimura's rival from the time they were in high school.

However, he is also a close friend who supports the shy captain.

Koji Yamamuro: Kohei, I think the pain got a lot worse probably this year, and so in the beginning he wouldn't want to train because it hurt, but as a team we really need him.

Narrator: His teammates' thoughts come across painfully clear. What should he do as a captain so that his team wins? Uchimura was thinking. Four days before Nationals. At Nippon Sport Science University there is a traditional ritual that occurs before meets.

Kohei Uchimura: Nippon Sport Science University~!

Gymnasts: Fight!

Narrator: This was the last time he would lead the yell to raise his team's competitive spirits. On the way to Yamaguchi, where the competition would be held.

Kohei Uchimura: I took it!

Narrator: This was the last trip he would take with his team.

Crew: As captain, or as an individual competitor, what are your goals?

Kohei Uchimura: To have fun.

Masataka Aoyama: To have fun, and also to perform beautifully...

Kohei Uchimura: That's true, beautifully.

(Yamaguchi Prefecture Sports Culture Center)
(December 2, Official Practice)

Narrator: The competition was three days. Both a team competition and individual apparatus competitions would take place. The day before the meet, Uchimura was undecided about whether he would enter the still rings event. Because of the pain in his left shoulder, he had not yet been able to do a full run-through of his routine. That night...

Teammate: You're going to enter the rings, right?

Kohei Uchimura: Yeah I'll enter.

Teammate: Is it okay, your shoulder?

Kohei Uchimura: Yeah, it's okay.

Teammate: Amazing, as expected.

Kohei Uchimura: Probably.

Teammate: Well, I hope you have fun.

Kohei Uchimura: I think I can do it.

Narrator: And so the day of the team competition. Uchimura's battle begins.

(December 4, All-Japan Gymnastics Nationals, Team Competition)

Narrator: December 4, All-Japan Gymnastics Nationals, Team Competition. From high schoolers to working adults, the twelve elite teams that had won their respective competitions participated. The arena was packed with people who wanted to catch even a glimpse of the World Champion.

Gymnasts: Thank you. Let's go!

Narrator: Uchimura's last team competition as a student began. His first event was one of his specialties: floor. He pulled off numerous difficult skills and set up his team. Buoyed by Uchimura's momentum, his teammates also performed cleanly.

(Defending Champions KONAMI Team)

Narrator: Last year's winners, the KONAMI Team, which is filled with members of the National team, also performed cleanly and put pressure on Nippon Sport Science University. Even now the uncertainty over his shoulder remains. Next, the rings. If he enters, he cannot make excuses. As captain, as World Champion, this was his moment to prove himself. The time of his routine: 67 seconds. Of all of the competitors (in the event), his was the second-highest score. In the stands were his parents. And the event that everyone anticipated was the final performance of the team competition: Uchimura's forte, the high bar. The most beautiful landing in the world was also stuck on that day. The winners: Nippon Sport Science University. It was not the title, but this moment with his teammates that he wanted.

Kohei Uchimura: I want to become an athlete who can perform without mistakes, and beautifully, no matter the timing, no matter what the circumstances. What I'm aiming for--what I want to express--is far, far above what I'm doing now, so I think there is a lot more to be done in those areas. Thanks.

Narrator: The individual events the next day. The number that indicates Uchimura's vault is 0. It is a new skill that no one has successfully competed. On the last day, he somehow managed to contain the challenging landing. Higher, and beautifully. The landing that he struggled for is phase two of his dreams. Kohei Uchimura--on the road he has started to run along, a huge sky awaits.

From the Archives: 12.17.2009 テレビ朝日：Kohei Uchimura Interview

This is almost a year old, but in celebration of November (?) and Kohei Uchimura's second consecutive World All-Around title... Please do not repost without permission.

Studio Announcer: And next, Shuzo Matsuoka.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Studio): Yes, thank you. Again this year, Japanese athletes really did well on the world stage. There was the WBC, and Ichiro... And there was this person, gymnastics' Kohei Uchimura, who won the gold medal at the World Championships. Where do the secrets to his greatness lie--well, it turns out he owns a 1,000,000-yen treasure.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): At the World Championships this past October, Kohei Uchimura won the All-Around gold medal. Between the World Championships and the Olympics, he is the seventh Japanese man to achieve this brilliant feat. Among these seven, at 20 years of age he is the youngest in Japanese history. Floor. Pommel Horse. Vault. Still Rings. Parallel Bars. High Bar. The All-Around is contested by the total combined scores across all six events. The athlete who wins rules gymnastics, and is given the name King of Gymnastics.

Koji Gushiken (1984 Los Angeles Olympics All-Around Gold Medalist): Those with lower body strength have no upper body strength, and those with upper body strength have no lower body strength. It's just splits up this way. The All-Around--the challenge is that you have to do all six events...

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): This 20-year-old gold medalist--what is the secret to his greatness? Uchimura, currently a third-year student at Nippon Sport Science University...

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): For example, "You have to win the gold medal," or statements like that--there is pressure coming in from around you, right?

Kohei Uchimura: Yeah. But even if people say things like that... I do listen, but at the actual competition, I'm only thinking about my performances.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): Did you have any doubts anywhere about being able to win the gold medal?

Kohei Uchimura: When it becomes the day of the meet, there aren't any doubts... Really, if I don't go in with full confidence, I can't do well.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): You know, I think everyone around here has felt it--in a good way, you're very low-key, aren't you?

Kohei Uchimura: Haha, I don't know.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): Is this how you normally are?

Kohei Uchimura: Yes.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): This shy Uchimura--his greatest characteristic is his landings. It is the one skill that is common to all of the events. Even a small break in his landings will result in big point deductions.

Kohei Uchimura: I first have to think about doing my routines well, but my focus on sticking my landings is almost just as strong.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): So how is Uchimura able to precisely stick his landings? Athens Olympic Gold Medalist, Hiroyuki Tomita, says that Uchimura's talent lies in the phases before the landing.

Hiroyuki Tomita (2004 Athens Olympics Team Gold Medalist): His midair sense is very good. For example, when you're in the air, if the timing of your twisting is off--being able to keenly pick up on that is one aspect of midair sense.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): In the air, even while rotating intensely, his ability to adjust his timing and form--this is what makes his accurate landings possible.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): This sense, where do you think you most honed it?

Kohei Uchimura: Well it would have to be the trampoline when I was little... Having played on the trampoline is a big part of it.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): Uchimura's starting point: in fact it was not a normal trampoline, but rather a gymnastics training trampoline 20m in length on which one can do an approach run. It was on this trampoline that Uchimura's gymnastics life was developed.
Isahaya City, Nagasaki Prefecture. The gym that his former gymnast parents is here. In one corner, That Thing was still there. Uchimura first jumped on this training trampoline when he visited a gymnastics club in Tokyo at the age of 5. It was a valuable piece of equipment that at the time was not yet commonly used in Japan. His parents say that they received quite a shock, watching their son jump around on that training trampoline.

Shuko Uchimura (Mother): He was a child who would do an abnormally wide range of things on the trampoline. He did a back flip!

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): On the trampoline?

Shuko Uchimura: Yes. And I remember even now, saying, "No doing back flips!" It was around when he was 4 or 5 years old. We said, "What?!"

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): He just did a back flip by himself?

Shuko Uchimura: He did one by himself.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): Being able to do tricks that were impossibly difficult on the floor--having tasted this sense of satisfaction, Uchimura would from then on plead for a trampoline every time they went to Tokyo. However, the price of a trampoline: 1,000,000 yen! (approximately $10,000) It was an item that could not easily be obtained. Yet on his eleventh birthday...

Shuko Uchimura: He would say, "I want that trampoline... that trampoline is so nice," so we thought that even if we had to sacrifice everything else, we wanted to just buy this for him. (We thought that it would be worth it) If on the trampoline, this child tried more and more skills, and with it actually mastered and retained something...

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): At long last Uchimura got his treasured heart's desire.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): What was it like, when you received it?

Kohei Uchimura: It was like a toy. It was like the swings at a park or something.

Shuko Uchimura: He was on the trampoline all the time. He spent more time playing on this trampoline than he did on any of the actual equipment.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): 'Next, I want to try that skill...!' His ideas grew and grew. What his mother brought out was a notebook Uchimura filled when he was in elementary school.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): Wow, this is amazing!

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): The notebook was packed with drawings of numerous skills. Full-twisting double back layout. Skills that Uchimura dreamed of doing, such as a double twisting double salto, were carefully drawn one by one. It was like he was a learned scholar of gymnastics. What he imagined and drew were always perfect-10 performances.

Shuko Uchimura: He would imagine, and draw by hand like this--he would draw figures, and say, "If I think I understand it, then I can do it."

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): Wow...

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): And Uchimura also regularly used this... a Pink Panther stuffed animal!

Shuko Uchimura: He was lying on the sofa, doing this (with his hands), so I thought, 'What?' And he would make noises as he did this--shhhhhh, like this--and when I asked, "What are you doing?" he said, "Image training." He would say things like, "Double twisting double somersault!" as he did it...

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): And as the dad, what did you think?

Kazuhisa Uchimura (Father): I thought, 'Is he going to be okay (safe)?'

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): One would worry a bit, right? So he played with it too much--

Shuko Uchimura: It turned all black, the color was almost charcoal grey--

Kazuhisa Uchimura: It became like a Black Panther.

Shuko Uchimura: And once, I thought, 'What?' because the Pink Panther was lying on his bed, and he said, "It was so dirty that I washed it." That was cute.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): He would try on the trampoline a skill that he imagined in his mind, and if could do it, then he would imagine a new skill. As he spent his days doing this, his competition results grew. As a middle schooler, he competed at the (Middle School) National Championships. When he was in high school, he dominated the (High School) National Championships.

Kohei Uchimura: It's kind of like I naturally learned the skills while I was playing around.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): Really, gymnastics for you, rather than contested events, is play.

Kohei Uchimura: I think probably yes. Play... it's like, play I take very seriously.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): And at 19 years old he was chosen to represent Japan at the Beijing Olympics.

Commentator: And at the end, a triple twist. He stuck it! An amazing performance from Uchimura!

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): In the All-Around, he won the first Japanese medal in 27 years. The midair sense he mastered on the trampoline had along the line become a weapon that translated onto the world stage.

Commentator: And in the All-Around, he's completed it all...!

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): Furthermore, Uchimura is now training new skills in preparation for the London Olympics in three years. The skill he is working on currently is on the floor event. Of the over 130 recognized skills, there are only two that are of the highest rank: huge skills of G difficulty.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): Now, what just happened now?

Kohei Uchimura: I rotated twice backwards in a tuck position, and twisted three times sideways.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): This... is a skill that people can do?

Kohei Uchimura: I was able to do it, haha.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Narrating): He has recently become able to successfully do this skill on the floor as well. Popularly known as the "Lee Johnson." He is twisting three times while rotating twice backwards! Please watch it one more time. Uchimura says that from here on he will start challenging himself to do the hardest skills not just on floor but on all of the events. There is no end to this determination.

Kohei Uchimura: If everyone does the same things, it's not interesting for those watching, right? I think that I have to find and perform my own trademark skills, appealing to people through my ability to do things that are different from what others are doing.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Interviewing): Appeal?

Kohei Uchimura: Yes.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Studio): You really get the sense that for Uchimura, gymnastics is truly a serious form of play, a beautiful art form. At the World Championships (2009), something happened that really represented this attitude: the last event (in the All-Around) was this high bar, and at this point there was already no question that he had won gold. His landing--it missed by a step. Even with this he won the gold medal. Normally, since he had won the gold medal, he could pump his fists, but he stuck out his tongue! When I asked him why he stuck out his tongue, he said that he wasn't satisfied (with himself). This wasn't good enough. Along with feeling that that because he is so focused he has these obsessions--you saw him training, right?

Studio Announcer: Yes.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Studio): The thing that left the biggest impression on me was his extra (overtime) training. Usually extra training carries a sense of being pressured, but he's turned his gym into an amusement park. It's so much fun for him! At an amusement park, you go on rides and have fun, but he has so much fun with just his own body, and as an athlete (Shuzo Matsuoka is a former professional tennis player) I was so envious I couldn't stand it! With that kind of attitude, I thought, of course he'll improve...

Studio Announcer: You get the feeling that his body has become an amusement park ride for his mind.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Studio): Yes, exactly. I think so.

Studio Announcer: But as fun as it may be, there must be struggles somewhere that he doesn't show anybody... And because of that it becomes even more fun.

Shuzo Matsuoka (Studio): All the more reason to be so focused.

Studio Announcer: Yes, it must be.

NHK Trophy 2010: Wake Me Up When March Ends

Thank you, Mao Asada, I always did want to start off a Friday with a heart attack. On one hand I tell myself, the Grand Prix doesn't actually matter... but on the other, I have no words.

And so I decided to occupy myself with the current glory of Japanese sport:

He's a great distraction.