Japan Tour 2018 - Blog #3

Sunday, March 25, 2018

We had a great day at Shigakkan University yesterday.  We arrived in the afternoon after riding the bullet train from Kyoto to Nagoya.  We got on another train that took us to the Kyowa Station in Obu, Aichi Prefecture.  A final taxi ride took us to the university in time for an afternoon that was sure to leave an indelible mark on us all.

I’ve been in some pretty incredible wrestling rooms in my lifetime, but nothing can match this one.  It’s dripping with humility and prestigious power.  There are only two mats surrounded by wood and adorned with pictures of great champions like Yoshida, Icho, Sakamoto-Obata and Tosaka.  As a women’s wrestling coach, it’s a bucket list item.  The wrestling room at Shigakkan University has won more gold medals than any other wrestling room anywhere in the world.  To say it’s primed to make another elite run with a new crop of talent in an understatement.  Kazuhito Sakae sat in a comfortable chair matside bundled up in a Japan warm-up and Saori Yoshida ran around the mats during warm-ups with her nieces and Sakae’s youngest child.  The two of them didn’t miss anything that occurred during practice, though, and whenever they said a word, the athletes clung to it as if their life depended on it. 

Cadet and Junior World Champions rolled around with current Japanese National Team members who just returned from winning another gold medal at the World Cup.  This time in Tokyo.  Gold medalists Eri Tosaka and Haruno Okuna stayed after practice and did their own foot work drills.  Talk about high level wrestling.

The 2016 Japanese Olympic team left Rio with 3 gold medals and a silver medal.  All four athletes are from Shigakkan University.  In fact, 6 of the 6 Olympic Team members for Japan had trained in Obu at Shigakkan.

If this doesn’t stir the hearts of our high school girls, nothing ever will.

What’s even more impressive, though, is following practice, we ate with the resident athletes in their dormitory.  They served us and picked up our dishes and washed them by hand.  World champions on the mat and servants off the mat.  Moments like that are what we live for as coaches.

It’s a way of life in this country and the quintessential recipe for sustained international success.  It is such a stark contrast to the “entitled” athlete we’ve become so accustomed to in the United States.  And this isn’t the equivalent to a varsity high school kids rolling out or washing mats.  These are Olympic and World champions serving high school kids.  It was refreshing to see.

It’s only been one day, however, I hope the take away from this trip is much more than single and double leg takedowns and practice structures for our girls.  I hope the discipline, honor, humility and respect is what transforms us on the inside so that we can have even more success on the outside.