Posted by by Hirobumi Daimatsu, 1964 Japanese National Women ‘s Coach1
PRACTICE AT MIDNIGHT
If they practice five hours, we must practice seven. I don’t know how hard the Champion of Sumo (Japanese Wrestling) Wakanohana practiced. Anyway, people often compare the hardness of my volleyball training with that of Wakanohana. Here, one thing, I think is neglected, that is that Wakanohana is a professional while I am an amateur. A professional can devote himself to practice, while an amateur can practice only at his leisure time. And the Russian team which we aimed to defeat, is professional.
The opponents being physically and technically excellent, can devote themselves to volleyball. While we all have jobs. We have to perform our duties in offices. So it will be impossible to defeat such opponents with usual practice and strategies. If the Russian team practices five hours a day, we must practice six or seven hours. We work from eight to six. After that we practice
desperately.
Thus we started our fight against volleyball and what people call “practice at midnight.” In order to win, we could not help but do it.
SHORTEN SLEEPING HOURS
In fulfilling something, what is most important is that one should be in his best condition to do it, which is true of any sport. One of the things that I have learned through overseas playing tours is
that insufficient sleep decreases vitality and disturbs their physical condition. In order to prevent this physical disturbance, I think one should be accustomed to short sleep. Hence, the Nichibo girl’s schedule was as follows:-
8:00 – begin to work
16:30 – leave the office
17:00 – start training
18:30 – snack
18:40 – training again
23:00 – dinner
24:00 – washing
1:00 or 2:00 – sleep for five hours.
WE WILL DO WHAT IS IMPOSSIBLE:
We endured the hard training and five hours sleep, to win the World volleyball Championship. When I considered their play insufficient, I made them try over and over again, however late it might be, until they could play sufficiently and completely. That was my way of training, though the severity of our training often made bystanders shut their eyes. I cried, “Do you think you can defeat the Russian team in such a clumsy manner?” Many times we practiced until the eastern sky became bright. It was getting late, they could not do what I asked them to do. Even their Captain, Miss Kasai, sometimes protested against me. “Coach! Do you think we can do such a thing?” If I had given in to her and softened the hardness of training, all our suffering up to that time, would have come to nothing. I rejected her protest. “Do what is impossible!”
DESPERATE ROLLING RECEIVING:
“My heart ached to see their terrible hard training.” Mr. Nishikawa, president of the Japanese Volleyball Association said when he saw us playing volleyball. Those who came to see their rolling receiving often advised me, “How about teaching them Judo before asking them to do rolling receiving, or they will terrible injuries?” I rejected their advice. When I became the coach of the Nichibo team, I made up a monthly schedule of training and tried to teach them step by step. Thus half a year passed, but the expected effect was not gained. I reflected and found that I still took too much account of the fact that they were women however hard I might seem to be training them, and that there was no need to draw distinction between men and women, they cannot become great if I treat them as women. Only when they practice as hard as men do, they can excel (against) other women. When I realised this fact, I stopped to consider them as women. They got used to being treated not as women and strangely enough, the harder the training, the stronger they became, both spiritually and physically. I imposed (on) them my way of training. For me to make them move around was to move my hands or legs. However tired I may be, I walk with my legs, I hold with my hands. So however tired they might be, I made them move and play volleyball.
GET USED TO INJURIES:
Don’t fear injuries, get used to them. It might be right to teach them judo as a fundamental technique for rolling receiving, but we did not have much time for fundamental training. We have to master various volleyball techniques. Falling ball, player dashing to it, rolling, standing up again, the third ball, the fourth ball. I shouted to a staggering player, “Come on! Continue!”
Even then they did not give up volleyball. At first they hit the hips, bruised elbows, swelled their backs: even then they did not stop practice. They continued to play volleyball with cushions on their hips or backs–what they called “Nichibo-style cushion.”
Two months passed, and the rolling receiving which seemed impossible became possible for them to do.
EDITOR’S2 NOTE: The author of the article is the man who has become almost legendary in the volleyball world. He was instrumental in taking the Japanese women’s team from the comparative of the Asian Games Champion in 1958 (still playing the nine-a-side system) to second place in the Rio de Janeiro World Championships in 1960. The same team, sponsored and employed by the Nichibo Kaizuka Co. in the following year undertook a lengthy tour of Europe. Nicknamed “Oriental Witches3“, the girls were victorious in all 24 matches played on tour and included among their victims the world champions from the U.S.S.R. as well as all the great teams of Eastern Europe. By way of contrast the All-Japan men’s team undertaking the same tour without commercial sponsorship for the last time, managed a meager two wins out of 24 matches. In 1962 came the big test against the USSR in the Moscow World Championships resulting in a complete triumph for the Japanese and earning the first of three World Championships.
Instead of a well deserved break, Daimatsu’s harsh training schedule continued unabated. To combat the superior height and power of the U.S.S.R. team his ‘amateurs’ had to perfect the ‘Japanese roll’ and squeeze the ultimate fraction of a second and ounce of energy from mind and body. The crowning achievement was the Olympic gold medal, clinched before a delirious home crowd with a four set victory against the USSR.
After four years of continuous, almost super-human effort the team dispersed never again to represent Japan and eventually most members found their way into the powerful “house wives” leagues, very popular in that country. Other players took their places to continue the unrelenting struggle against the U.S.S.R., which after five World Championships and three Olympic Games stands deadlocked with four wins and four seconds to each team. Almost certainly the pattern will be repeated in Montreal and one of these teams will take the lead in this epic contest between two different races (sic), doctrines and playing styles, united in a single purpose of dominating the sporting arenas of the World.
For the uninitiated this article may provide a tiny glimpse of the requirements placed on a volleyball team which aspires to reach the top. If there is an easier way it has not been discovered.
Links to video and other articles on the team can be found here.
Tagged Volleyball History
The total of 82 practical Coaching Tips can be found here and here.
Read about the great new Vyacheslav Platonov coaching book here.
- This article, including Editor’s Note, appeared in the Australian Volleyball Journal, Vol. 1 No. 2, June 1976. It is reprinted from the York University Clinic, June 14-17, 1973. ↩︎
- The editor and publisher of Australian Volleyball Journal was Walter Lebedew. At the time he was Vice President of the Australian Volleyball Federation and having been its founder 13 years earlier. Among many, many other volleyball activities, he translated the Platonov coaching handbook from Russian. ↩︎
- Seriously. ↩︎
At Home On The Court 