Inevitable contact... Anguish of martial arts One year until the Tokyo Olympics

Inevitable contact... Anguish of Martial Arts Until the Tokyo Olympics July 23, 1 year 15:42

Japan's "home art" judo and wrestling are expected to mass-produce gold medals at the Tokyo Olympic Games, which has been held for a year. However, with the rapid spread of the new coronavirus infection, it has been pointed out that in high-risk interpersonal competition, the risk is high. Are bothered.

Judo, wrestling, and karate martial arts are expected to mass-produce gold medals in Japan at the Tokyo Olympics, but these martial arts are inevitable interpersonal contact between players and so-called "closeness" during competition and practice. In competition, infectious disease experts point out that the risk of infection is very high.

Amid the rapid spread of the new coronavirus infection, it has been one year since the Tokyo Olympics were held, but there are some competitions where even interpersonal training for strengthening has not been resumed.

Although each sports organization has established guidelines for resuming practice and is trying to take thorough measures to prevent infection, the sports organization is faced with a difficult decision because the number of infected people is increasing rapidly nationwide.

Among them, the Japan Wrestling Association once resumed the training camp for the Japanese national team from this month, but changed the policy due to the rapid increase in the number of infected people and decided to cancel the training camp until next month.

For the time being, the players will continue to practice at their bases such as their universities.

``In martial arts, once an infected person enters the practice field, it is unavoidable that the infection will spread,'' said Kohei Nakajima, a senior researcher at the National Sports Science Center, who was involved in the development of wrestling guidelines. "We should avoid going to high-risk environments as much as possible", and we must do it thoroughly. Both athletes and staff must have a strong will to protect their practice environment," he said. I pointed out that.

Until the new virus converges, it will be difficult for a large number of players to gather and perform a lot of practical exercises and lessons as before, and he added, ``By increasing the distribution of exercises with scientific content. Even in a limited environment, I would like you to devise a way to train for more fulfilling content,'' he suggested, such as image training, mental training, watching videos and focusing on motion research. It was

In addition, Dr. Nakajima said, “Even if the spread of the nationwide infection has stopped as it is now, it is possible that the same thing will happen in the future. It is necessary to leave better countermeasures as one of the challenges I was talking."

Measures that karate players are surprised

The All Japan Karatedo Federation has put together a practice that put the highest priority on the prevention of the spread of infection of athletes and related people since the emergency declaration was lifted in May, and guidelines for resuming the game at the end of last month. Notified groups nationwide that

This guideline includes a surprisingly thorough countermeasure for those involved in order to prevent infection by flying. In karate, there is a "spirit" that makes a loud voice when a technique is decided, but the guidelines require instructors to consider not to do this depending on the infection situation.

Although athletes and instructors have shown their understanding as a measure to prevent infections, they are confused as the characteristics of the competition may change.

Of these, the powerful player who has produced many Japanese national team players in "Kumite", the Karatedo club of Kinki University in Higashi-Osaka City, has been active for the first time in about three months according to the newly created guidelines from this month. Has resumed.

In order to avoid the so-called "dense" condition in the practice area, we narrowed the participants among the 39 members from grades 1 to 4 by the hour.

This is because I took measures to divide the members into several groups and practice. The members who participated in the practice of this day worked on basic exercises such as thrusting and kicking for about an hour without "feeling", but there was also a player who suddenly leaked his true intention, "I want to make a voice..." I was seen.

Captain Daiki Nakano said, "I don't think there is any help, but I'm not feeling good. I don't feel like riding at all, and I feel awkward. I want to practice hard. I was confused.

“Honestly speaking, the practice itself is not enough, but now I think I will just keep up with the guidelines,” said Yasuhiro Yoshida, director of Kinki University.

Karate medal candidates also raise concerns

Ken Nishimura, a 75-kg men's kumite class, continues to practice according to the guidelines of the All Japan Karatedo Federation. Even the medals candidates who have confirmed the Tokyo Olympics unofficial decision are unable to resume the practice of interpersonal training, which is indispensable for strengthening, and are worried.

The karate international tournament has been canceled or postponed one after another due to the spread of the new coronavirus worldwide, last year after the tournament held in Austria this February, and Nishimura has played for about half a year. not.

Nishimura, who is based in Osaka, worked hard on running and strength training at home for about 3 months from the beginning of April when the state of emergency was announced for 7 prefectures such as Tokyo and Osaka, and this month, After I entered, I resumed full-fledged karate practice, but since I followed the guidelines, I have not been able to resume interpersonal practice.

In this situation, Nishimura commented, “It's the first time that I can't practice interpersonal training even though my body is staunch and motivated. No matter how much I practice, I will grow only when there is a place for actual practice such as interpersonal training. I think that I can do it. I can not burn it out, I can not put it out. I may forget the feeling of karate," he exhaled in his anxious mind.

With thorough measures to prevent infection with the new coronavirus and limited practice time and content, what Nishimura is keenly aware of is to practice even more clearly.

By continuing to practice with this consciousness, it is possible to see the positive side.

Originally Nishimura was good at "upper kicks" aiming at the opponent's head, but overseas players were wary of this technique and often struggled at international competitions.

Nishimura, who consulted with his coach, began practicing "middle kicks" and "middle hits" in an attempt to increase variations in technique in order to win medals at the Olympics, while the content of practice was restricted by the new coronavirus. Now, I repeat the practice of kicking the mitt and checking the form, but when the infection situation has settled down, I will try it with interpersonal practice.

Nishimura said, “I haven't had an international tournament for a while, so I think overseas players will probably be working on new things and doing unexpected things in the next game. That is why I want to be fresh and try new things. Although it does not broaden the scope, it would be good if we could do what we could and accumulate various things."

There is no prospect of restarting Judo practice...

Due to the increase in the number of people infected with Judo nationwide, there is no prospect of a full-scale resumption of training, such as randomization in combination with other people.

Under such circumstances, Shohei Ohno, who is expected to win the Olympics for the second time in the 73kg class for men, said, "Honestly, I can't really think of the Tokyo Olympics next year. The situation is frustrating."

The All Japan Judo Federation has created guidelines for rehearsing and rehearsals including measures to prevent new coronavirus infections, and this was announced nationwide in late May.

In this guideline, the contents of the lessons accepted are determined according to the number of new infections by prefecture.

Basic training such as throwing in combination with the other party can be done only if the number of new infections per 100,000 population in each prefecture falls to 0.25 or less. Not.

While the number of infected people is rapidly increasing in the Tokyo metropolitan area, many universities where the Olympic representatives have been recruited have not been able to resume training in combination, and the number of infected people is increasing at local universities as well. As a result, it is not possible to raise the stage of training.

“The probability of infection cannot be reduced to zero, but it is necessary to eliminate the possibility of infection.” It's not possible," he said.

On the other hand, the top players who felt a sense of crisis in the current state of the judo world started to use SNS.

While we couldn't accumulate satisfactory lessons, in order to stop the thoughts of our juniors and children, we posted on our SNS a detailed technique that we hadn't made public until now, and watched the junior's videos to give advice. I am sending it.

Aiming to win the Olympics for the second time in a row, Ohno posted a video that he can make alone on SNS and told the children how to lower his head as much as possible and raise one leg at a high height when putting his strong inner leg.

Ono said, "It's easy to fall into a negative situation, but once again, I want children to reaffirm the importance of basics and basics."

Against this backdrop, Ohno said at Tenri University in Nara prefecture, where he is based, that he was frank about the situation one year before the Olympics. "Honestly, it is true that the next year's Tokyo Olympics are still unthinkable. It's been a long time, and we're setting goals one week ahead."

In the last three months, he repeated basic training all the time and continued to drive alone, so "this period, everyone is equal and there is a difference in how to feed it." Said the importance of stacking.

Regarding his thoughts on the Tokyo Olympics, he said, "I want a gold medal, but it is not the situation that I can say that. What I have to do as a judo artist is to once again stand on a tatami mat and embody a judo that conveys something. That's all."

Wrestling On the contrary, players who have found new challenges

Kenichiro Fumita, who is expected to win a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in wrestling, discovered his new challenges because he could not practice enough interpersonal practice.

Fumida has been the world champion twice in the past as a wrestling men's Greco-Roman style, and has been marked as a gold medal candidate at the Tokyo Olympics by players from all over the world.

His specialty is "sledding" in which he bends his body and throws the opponent backward, and the softness of his waist and back, which is called "cat wrestler," was a great strength of Fumita.

During the period of the declaration of emergency, I had to refrain from practicing in contact with people, and I couldn't do the throwing technique that I used to have every day. Still, I decided to focus on strengthening my physical strength during periods when I couldn't practice interpersonal training, and concentrated on being able to train near my home and run nearly 100 kilometers a day.

In particular, a new finding is that I have noticed that my hip and chest joints are stiffer than other athletes because of my flexibility. Fumida started practicing on the mat last month, and is gradually performing sparring, but as the practice time has to be shorter than before, he continues to practice individual training such as physical training and flexibility. That is.

Fumita says, "I was able to find out what I had not trained by leaving practice training once. Not only relying on my sense and characteristics, I was able to discover new clues for strengthening." ..

After that, he said, "I can't keep up with matting as I have done before, so I can see myself calmly, and I think it's important that I have more time to think about strengthening myself. I want to welcome the Olympics one year from now, by becoming more positive, rather than being positive."