Shohei Ono won the gold medal in the 73 kg class of the Tokyo Olympics Judo Men. The top athlete has an image of positive thinking, but he took the opposite approach of thinking pessimistically and leading to a gold medal. It approached Ohno’s thinking about what kind of thinking, what kind of training and training he had accumulated, and what kind of consecutive championships he had achieved.
Saved by “The title of gold medalist will never disappear”
–In the previous article (“The ability to overcome the Olympics consecutive championship, Shohei Ono’s” winning, of course “”), you said that it was harder to challenge the Tokyo Olympics, which took consecutive championships, than the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Do you have any words or ideas that supported you?
To me, who is trying to win the championship in a row, “Ohno has won one gold medal, so even if he fails to win the championship for the second time in a row, the title of gold medalist will not disappear for the rest of his life.” Director Yasuo (at that time) said many times.
Inoue himself couldn’t win the Athens Olympics in a row, but he remembers winning the gold medal at the Sydney Olympics and being the director at the Tokyo Olympics this time. I think there are many. With that kind of experience and feeling, I think he encouraged me to take on the challenge without worrying about winning the championship in a row. Such words saved me and made it easier for me to concentrate on the lessons in front of me.
Also, the phrase “you don’t have to imitate anyone” helped me. One of the seniors at my alma mater, Tenri University, is Tadahiro Nomura, who has achieved the feat of winning the Olympics for the third time in a row. I would like to imitate if there is such a great senior in my immediate surroundings, but Director Inoue said, “Don’t imitate, think and act as if you were on a path that only you could walk.” Certainly, each person has their own way of aiming for consecutive victories. I think I was able to think for myself and choose the method that I thought was the best.
――What is your own way?
This is also influenced by what Director Inoue has always said, but he said, “To win the championship in a row, be abnormal.”
――What does anomaly mean?
Nowadays, we are in a world where we can practice and train efficiently using sports science. However, when I was a junior and senior high school student, I was able to strengthen my body and soul by repeating training and training of unusual quality and quantity, which would be unreasonable in this era. .. I grew up in such an environment, so I thought it was the best way for me to take on the challenge with courage and determination to become stronger. That’s why I tried to become abnormal in order to win the Olympics for the second time in a row. I thought I had to overcome it by imposing an extraordinary amount of training and training on myself.
――What is an extraordinary practice?
For example, I train before training, and when I am quite exhausted, I practice randori with my juniors at Tenri University and drive them thoroughly. Even if I work with students in a healthy state, I will not be able to train more strongly, so I will start full-scale training from a state where I do not have enough physical strength. In addition, I asked a student with a strong mentality who wouldn’t hesitate to come to me even among my juniors, and asked them to practice randori in a way that I didn’t like.
I was always thinking only about the situations and weaknesses that I would lose, such as “what would I lose” and “what kind of kumite would be disgusting and frustrating”. I also thought that I would be able to face the game by practicing kumite, which I don’t like because I was killed, and suffering my body and mind. The real thrill of judo is throwing, but the practice of throwing and feeling good is just a self-centered practice, and you can’t win on the big stage.
――Are you practicing to beat yourself?
that’s right. I knew best how I would lose, and by practicing in anticipation of a losing pattern match, I aimed to “make unexpected things within expectations”. ..
In other words, many of the causes of losing are when something you don’t know or is surprised. That’s why I put the highest priority on overcoming it in practice so that I wouldn’t be surprised or impatient if something unexpected or trouble occurs in the game.
――The accumulation will lead to the result on the big stage.
It’s a really steady and difficult task, but I have to keep doing it silently every day. From the perspective of others, my practice style may have been difficult to understand. I don’t think there are many players who will do this thoroughly.
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