new cleats!

I went to next town Tsuyama, and roamed the city, found a soccer shop, and got me a new pair of soccer cleats! They are two or three years older models, so I negotiated the price and it is mine!!! Nice little city. I shall visit again. they have a old castle ruins there, so should be a good walk abouts.
by the way it is Adidas.

Head coach returns

Our head coach has been on leave for her coaching license duty. As you all know I tagged along with her to Shimizu S-Pulse. It's good to have her back. For me, she is someone I can talk to and to ask question. Also, another former player who is similar to me. Nationality wise. but she's a Canadian. She can speak English but I reckon, she's bit more Japanese than I am. Should be interesting.
Training went well. For the allocated time, we worked hard. Goalie's heart rate was up around 130. Thing flowed. The flow of things went good, I think.
But as for me, when going to team training and playing 5v5, I sucked. need to keep working hard. Also my skills. I started working out. tomorrow buying a new cleats. Hope these things will help me improve. Quickly.......

on being soft

So, in Australia the word "soft" is used as like, not being stern on someone. or weak. You gotta be hard. I don't know if Americans use the work in the same content, but since my association with Aussies have been mainly thru rugby and they use that word often. When the training wasn't tough enough or opposition folds (give up). Or when you are discussing and you don't have your opinion. "Don't be soft, mate." is the term I heard it all the time.
Since the 5-0 thrashing done to us by Beleza, had two days off, and the training has not been "soft." Doing heaps (lots) of 1v1 stuff. But you can tell the girls were getting worn out after 4 days of hard work. Today was suppose to be another hard day, but I guess we changed it and kept it short. However, the intensity of 5v5 was up there.
I'm a GK coach as you all know and I was supposed to be given about an hour to work with the keeper. Just when we were about to do some drills we went into game type drills. Lucky we got our basics done. Oh, well, thing happen, that is out of your control. You move on. But that 5v5, you can tell they went hard out, but fatigue sat in rather quickly, so our coach's decision to cut the training short was a right thought.
Is my GK training soft? No, because one, we got National goalie who has lots of interesting and awesome drills and two, our back up needs heaps of attention on basic skills. Lots of talking communicating on both of them.

communication

I reckon Japanese people don't speak their mind often. They tend to keep it in and build it up. And then it explode! bloody hell!
I am Japanese but American. I understand both Cultures. And I need to let others know that I am an American who lives in Japan and understand Japanese culture. At the end of the day, I am an American. I need to express that.
So I need to talk to them and be myself. At the same time I need to keep working on my skills. and work on drills.
I don't think I impose myself as "No, you can't talk to me." I rather have them talk to me whenever possible or when they have a questions than they come to me with all that built up emotions and other crap.
I guess I can improve or come up with ideas or ways to talk to them so that they can feel at ease. create an atmosphere for open dialog.

speech and departing

I made a public speech for the first time in my life. Audience was Okayama Jr. and Sr. high school sports coaches. The title is "Role Played by Coaches in Coaching Youth." I spoke for total of 2 hours!! It was great!! Power Point presentation!!!

I had to leave shimizu for Okayama so I had to leave early, but both were great experience for me. I hope I was able to give back to the community.

Our GK has left for National Team. She voiced her concern regarding skills level going down.. Fair comment, but I just gotta keep trying to improve. She's gone for 2 weeks so keep trying with the other GK and improve her and myself.

Former Shimizu city now Shizuoka city

I am in Prefecture of Shizuoka and visiting a pro soccer team called Shimizu S-pulse. Currently they are in Division 1 of J-league and last season they finished I believe 5th. They are currently 5th. I watched them train and watched goalkeeper training. It was very good! Learned a lot. Can't tell you because this is top secret!! Visiting to another place is always good. Shimizu is home to famous soccer teams (high school) and the prefecture of Shizuoka is famous for soccer. town lives for soccer and fish. Yeah, they are one of the famous fishing port in japan. Sunny day and lovely weather only tonight is cloudy and suppose to rain. Bugger.
Shimizu has merged with city of Shizuoka, but this is where our head coach is from and so is the head coach for S-pulse. Actually she is year older, and they went to same elementary and Jr. high. funny eh?
meeting new people always energize me and I enjoy meeting new folks.
I took some pics but I don't have a cable to connect the camera so pics will be next time.

Confidence

Few days of preparing for a speech has kept me away from my blog, but few days off is not a bad thing.
Things on the paddock on the other hand is a different situation. I seem to lack confidence at the moment. I come up with decent drills but when it comes for me to do the kicking (ball), the accuracy goes all over the shop.....
I do practice and work on the form of my kicking and different types of kicks. But when I face Fukumoto, the National Goalkeeper, I get, I get, I seem to lose confidence? I need to relax and just watch the ball, but oh well, Lighten up bubba, and kick the damn ball.
Keep trying.

2 for 2 for my intuition.

Gut feeling, or whatever you want to call it, is something you need to follow through. So far this season, I had one bad feeling and good feeling. And that feeling resulted in bad weather and Opposition dominating the whole 2Nd half.
Yesterday, I had cautious optimism and we drew 0-0 against Reds. Since joining the top division, the Belle hasn't won a point against them. With draw, we earn a point in the league. (by the way, winning gets 3 points, losing you don't get none.)
At the rugby team, an Aussie coach said, "At games, you will see what you trained during the week. If the boys try to do something they haven't trained and if gambled and it works, and helps the team to win a game, people will say 'that guy has flair.' But normally it back fires. Especially in crunch time."
Our defence was good. We did what we trained this week and it showed on the field. the girls didn't try to do anything fancy and stuck to the game plan. We did bring our "A" game. We also had some good ball movement in attack. We could have scored. Well, so did they.
I'm not sure if they brought their "A" game. They looked bit disorganized.
Well, we still play them 2 more times and possibly 4 times depending on Cup matches and play-offs. It should be interesting next time.

Cautiously Optimistic

Tomorrow is another big match against one of the big 3. Big 3 in Japan's women's soccer are, Nittere Belezahttp://beleza.ameblo.jp/ , Tasaki Perulehttp://www.tasaki.co.jp/perule/ , and Urawa Reds Ladieshttp://www.urawa-reds.co.jp/ladies/ . Just for grammer's sake, They should change the name to Urawa Lady Reds, but I'm not the sharpest in grammer area, so I won't go much further.
So who are we playing? The gramatically challenged team.
They have four pro-player, 4 national team member, few under 23 girls playing so they are stacked. Yet, from watching the game, they like to play direct, Long ball football. when you have defenders and attackers who are on the National side, I guess it is simple to pass to them girls and let it happen. Mind you the other teams are playing retreating everyone is behind the ball stuff and hoping for Counter Attack and a lucky goal for a win or draw.
I feel cautiously optimistic about tomorrow. The training was good, we did attacking drills and defensive drills - more detailed than last few games. I hear that girls like to train alot to feel confident of themselve. Maybe this applies to Japanese girls. So we did lots of drills not for the sake of doing lots of drills. it was specified toward the game. Our girls were in good spirits for the last few days.

Fingers Crossed. Last week I had a bad feeling at the half time. Weather went sour and so did our game. Tasaki mauled us.
Like I said, I feel cautiouly good about tomorrow.

running out of ideas

I'm starting to realize that I lack in idea for training. Yesterday, I was saved by Goalie who is playing a semi-pro ball in Okayama. He has been coming to the team to coach once a week. And he is still coming. It is really good for me, because I can bounce ideas with him. At least I think my head and my thinking is okay. I just lack ideas and drills to do. Thank goodness for him.
He is young (25) but he has played at the highest level and coached one of the premier high school team in Japan for few years. So he brings wealth of drills and ideas. His thinking is awesome and I am glad to have him on my side.

I just have to keep recording the drills we did and keep working at it.

Rhythm, tempo, Accuracy

In last two days of trainings, it is really important to have rhythm. The Tempo, and the timing of doing drills. once you get the hang of it then you need accuracy.... And I lack all of them. must keep practicing. Tho, I am pretty good at myself and on the floor, I thinkth

Today's training we had our spot coach and he showed lots of interesting stuff. Glad to have him and his idea.

FYI today I am 32 years young. and in Japan for 5Th year since returning from US. Wonder how long will I be in Japan.

Pondering about my future.

筑前煮もどき similar to chikuzenni Japanese dishes

So Last night after training which was basically recovery session for those who played and fitness session for those who didn't. I decided to join the fitness session. Let's just say, that I still have it. after the session we worked on 2v2 from delivery from crosses - both sides. I still need to work on my left foot. I need to work out, too. Anyway, after that, it's free time for players to do whatever. Japanese are studious and that is true, after training just about everyday, they stay on and do some extra work. And No wonder our goalie is playing on the National side and starting. her work ethics, wow, phenomenal. She already has cat like reflexes but she keep working on something. She's been under the weather and last game was played in rain, so after consulting with Head coach, we decided to give her nothing; just recovery session, which is 20 minute run. But no, she stayed on and did some of her own work. she's a worker!!

After training, I went home and cooked me some Japanese dish. Chikuzenni, a Japanese style of simmered chicken and veggies. here are the pics. in the pan and the other on the plate. I got lazy and put the rice and the food on same plate. In Japan it's a no-no.But who cares, I'm all alone and ain't entertaining no one. Let's just say it was brilliant!!

MOMENTUM

In a game of rugby, football or grid iron, scoring just before the half time is crucial. Whether the score line is 1-0, losing 0-1 or nil - nil. Huge momentum swinger, I reckon. I was able to experience it first hand today. We were leading 1-0 to a top calibre team. And that is what really eats me. We let them get back to the game and in the course of the game, we allowed them to finish the game. We smelt blood, but we weren't able to finish it off. Call it young team or lacking of the depth, but still....... I don't have a good come back. CRAP!!
tough pill to swallow but, this is life. One of my mentor mentioned to me about momentum and said something like, "We build momentum and we have to seize that momentum and capitalize that opportunity when it arrives." I guess we all know now what happens if we don't. I don't have to spill it out do I?
By the way it was first away game of the season at Kobe. I've been to Kobe with the rugby team I once translated for (I was a team translator) But today was at a different venue.
@Kobe Universiade Stadium. This is where 1985 World Collegiate Games were held. It was cool to see some of the memorabilia. A Chinese women B-ball team player wore size 42 cm shoe, I reckon it's about the same size at SHaq!! whowa!! Too bad I don't have the pics to show for it. Well, we lost so, didn't feel like taking pics.

Communication

We all know communication is important, but we tend to take it for granted. Or we tend to think, talking is enough, I reckon. Listening is also part of communication. I reckon, it has to be two way. Questioning might be a good way to have two way communication, but don't make it too hard of a question, eh?

Watching head coach going around during practice and chatting with players, about nothing, or about tactics for tomorrows game or whatever, little things like that helps build trust, understanding, and open line.

It was a good example of what coach should be doing.

by the way, this is where we play (home ground)

kyo wa nihongo. Today is in Japanese - next time

Just so you know, I can also speak and write in Japanese. I figure I should write it in Japanese once in a while. And if you're curious to what I wrote, you could either a) translate it with whatever method of your choice or b) act like you know Japanese.
it is spring in northern hemisphere and also in Northern Okayama. I never really paid attentioned to the color green, but here in rural Japan, hill billy town, with all the mountains, you can see the trees with new leaves. The pine trees and the evergreens are dark green but the cherrys and other forms of trees are colored with bright green　萌える緑（moeru midori). Even at night, mountains looks like there is a shade under the moon light. You can see the clear distinction between the trees. I should take a picture, before, summer arrives and the color become more firmer green.
When you live in the city, you would notice leaves forming (?) on trees, but not really the color and stuff, perhaps because of city life. But not in country. It's right in front of you and you can't miss it. and it is beautiful. Gotta enjoy the season - Spring.

three games in 8 days

tomorrow is the second game of the three game in 8 days. We should win but who knows, game is played on field, not bloody paper.
I just got some kit and with my name on it! I am stoked!! I really feel like a part of the team. Although I lag in skills and experience.... Still, my name!!!! yippeeeee!

Lost the season opener

We lost our season opener to INAC 0-1.... We gave them the goal by heading a weak header back to our goalie, which was so telegraphed that ...... Anyway, they punced on the chance. We looked tight in the 1st half, but second half was much more fluid. We created chanced but they were determined. Bummer.

Look at the lost positively, INAC spent money to strengthen their team while we lost players during the off season. To lose to a team who fielded, 1 Brazilian 2, Koreans (all former National team members) and recruited few former JPN National team players, and their tactics looked like old fashion long ball (kick and run) style, and looked disoriented we should keep our heads high. I reckon the first half jitters were caused due to changing our formation week before the game, but we have 20 plus game to go. We will do fine.

Weather was fantastic. Great day for season opener. sunny and mild. If were a fan, I'd be drinking lots of cold one to enjoy the day and the game. Over 2000 spectator, albeit free, I thought it was fantastic. Too bad we couldn't win.

Here is the website for our team: www.yunogo-belle.com I have to warn you, it's all in Japanese.
The league's website is www.nadeshikoleague.jp
I'm looking to see if there is an english version to the website.