The Story of Sato Nobuo: “The good judge of talent’s competitive days.” (From Number #892. Original article written by Jojima Mitsuru.)

He won 10 national titles, made two Olympic appearances, and came as high as 4th place at the World Championships. With his brilliant results, he was a pioneer of figure skating in post-war Japan; however, there were numerous challenges along the way. The man, who is a good judge of talent and has raised many famous skaters, shares with us his memories of his competitive days when he was still an unknown.

If he were to sum it up in words, it would probably be, “gori, gori, gori.” (T/N: Like a scraping sound.)

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How do you train a grown-up Asada Mao? Coach Sato: “It’s trial and error.” (Source: Asahi)

As a competitive skater, he won ten national titles and made two Olympic appearances. As a coach, he has a career spanning fifty years. Coach Sato Nobuo, who currently trains Asada Mao and others, shares with us the beauty and difficulty of figure skating and his experience as a coach.

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(This was the first interview in Figure Skating Life’s special coaches spread. It was published in Vol. 2, and the second was with Yamada Machiko & Higuchi Mihoko in Vol. 3. I posted that one a few weeks ago here.)

Together with his wife, Kumiko, World Figure Skating Hall of Famer Sato Nobuo has raised and trained four world champions—Sato Yuka, Arakawa Shizuka, Ando Miki, and Asada Mao. There have been seven Japanese world figure skating champions in total—therefore, they have trained over half of them. They share with us here their 50 year-long career as renowned figure skating coaches of Japan.

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Mao: What’s the world record (for SP) again? Coach Nobuo: You are the one who set the world record…

Cr: sparkle1200 on twi

synchronized fistpumps starring taka and mr. & mrs. sato ↳ 2011 worlds → 2014 nationals

Nobuo Sato Four Continents Championships 2012

Mao Asada: I wanted to put the medal on Nobuo-sensei

One month after the Sochi Olympics. The prodigy who stands at the top of the World Championships podium, in accordance with her wish, has put the gold medal around her coach’s neck. Is this the end of a journey begun by the two of them in 2010, or—

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Skaters sending messages to their (former) Coach Nobuo Sato and making him cry

Nobuo Sato (（インタビュー）真央と歩んだ４年　浅田真央選手のコーチ・佐藤信夫さん：朝日新聞デジタルから)

i swear i lived