The 2021 Summer Tokyo Olympic Games. The historic silver medal won by the Japan Women’s Basketball National Team has shown both inside and outside that it is possible to compete in the world even if it is small in this competition where the physique is a thing. Toru Ontsuka (43), who was an assistant coach, was entrusted with the successor to the commander Tom Hovasse (currently the head coach of the men’s representative) for the next Paris Olympics. His specialty is detailed data analysis and “exciting” coaching. From what kind of experience did you come up with a unique method that makes players want to do their best instead of trying hard?
It used to be a stuffy instruction
After graduating from University of Tsukuba, Mr. Ontsuka, who was a health and physical education teacher at Shibuya Educational Academy Makuhari Middle and High School (Shibuya Middle and High School) in Chiba City, took a step as a university basketball instructor in 2006. .. At Tokyo Health Care University, which was opened by a school corporation of the same affiliate as the junior high and high school, he moved to establish a basketball club himself, and started with five members in the first year.
For Mr. Ontsuka, who had a poor track record both as a player and as a coach, it was never easy to set sail. When he went to high schools around the world to greet players who would join the basketball club, he was wondered, “Who?” The students who join the club are not motivated because they didn’t choose this university because they wanted to play basketball in the first place. I had to persuade him for two hours at the family restaurant to increase the practice from three times a week to four times, and when he was promoted to the Kanto University Second Division League in the third year of the founding, he said, “Why morning, afternoon and one day? Do I have to practice twice? “
However, with logical explanations based on data analysis and passionate guidance, the team gradually began to unite, and in 2012, six years after the foundation, he participated in the All Japan Student Championship (Incare) for the first time. He won his first victory in 2017, and his breakthrough attracted a lot of attention.
“However, when I think about it now, I was giving a lot of stuffy guidance.’If you want to be promoted to the first division of the league, if you want to participate in Incare, you have to do it.'” I believed in the “no pain, no gain” value that only those who make efforts that people do not succeed. Such guts are common in the world, especially in the world of sports. was”
However, from the time he achieved his third consecutive victory in Incare in 2019, the smile on the player’s face disappeared, and he began to worry that he was exhausted even if he won. Due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, university practice was canceled and the Tokyo Olympics were postponed, giving us more time to spare. At that time, Mr. Ontsuka said that he randomly read books such as business books, brain science, psychology, and sociology that could be useful for coaching. The number is close to 400 books a year.
