Also I thought it was very interesting that his 3 most memorable matches were all loses! I think this really speaks to his character and his outlook on Table Tennis. It seems he makes a very concious effort to getting better and you can learn a lot more about your game from loses than you can victories.

Also I thought it was very interesting that his 3 most memorable matches were all loses! I think this really speaks to his character and his outlook on Table Tennis. It seems he makes a very concious effort to getting better and you can learn a lot more about your game from loses than you can victories.

- Why did you choose to be a defensive player?

Shiono: I wanted to play distinctively from other players. And also my father was very attracted to the chopper’s game. Although he played J-pen himself, he was inspired a lot by the chopping game of Mr. Norio Takashima, who played in the same prefecture [former province of Japan] as my father when they were students. Mr.Takashima had a big influence in this prefecture.

- Being the first great Japanese classical defensive player, what role did Norio Takashima play for defensive players?

Shiono: A very big role. I met him only once or twice. Especially his mentality is so great. I respect him a lot.

I am doing footwork practice with multi ball, mainly. I am not so tall, so footwork becomes a very important factor. My coach told me exactly how I should move when I joined the Tokyo Arts team. It is clearly far better now than it was before.

Who's the coach? Not Koji?

I'd love to know more about this part "My coach told me exactly how I should move". It'd greatly help my understanding of chopper game. Can we ask him again?

The coach is someone from Tokyo Art team, not Koji Matsushita. I'm going to send a 'thank you' mail to Shiono, so I think we can ask if he has more details about chopping (foot) movements. If there are other questions arising from the interview, please let me know. I think I can add two or three questions to my thank you mail.