-First of all, please tell us about your encounter with wheelchair basketball.
When I was in the third grade of elementary school, my friend invited me to start a minibus. I was born with a illness that deforms the bones of my right ankle, but my parents wanted me to spend the same time as a normal child, even if I had a disability. However, when I was in the sixth grade of elementary school, my legs hurt and it was a heavy burden, but I continued with patience.
So, in my second year of junior high school, I finally had a big surgery. In high school, I belonged to the basketball club, but soon after I entered the school, I got to know him and had him take me to the Australian tour of wheelchair basketball among the boys. There were some female players from other countries, and I thought it would be fun to work with them. Then, recommended by an interpreter, I started wheelchair basketball in earnest.
-Did you quickly adapt to different sports even with the same basketball?
I still wanted to play normal basketball, and even if I had a disability, I was hoping that surgery would be better, and if I did my best in unpleasant rehabilitation, I would be able to do it like before. I was there. Even if the doctor said “I can’t play basketball anymore”, I thought it was a “common threat to adults” somewhere. However, when the surgery was decided, I didn’t like the feeling that someone gave up my favorite basketball instead of myself, so I cried every day. Even so, I was lucky enough to be selected as a representative (of wheelchair basketball) and participated in the 2005 World Championship, but I couldn’t do anything more than I expected. It was frustrating and I practiced desperately.
-So, at the 2008 Beijing tournament, the team’s top scorer! Since then, he has been playing an active role as a core player in the national team for more than 10 years.
After all, I think that the team I belong to, myself in cocktails is the most important, and the evaluation and results are the representative. I think that basketball practice with cocktails is probably the toughest in Japan, but after all, I am a lump of aspirations, so I can continue to have a desire to grow and goals every day.
-While I feel like an athlete because of the strength of each word, I feel the cheerfulness and familiarity that is not the case. How about personality analysis of yourself?
Well, innocent. Full of curiosity. I will never miss another chance.
-Is there anything like a test-taker that will increase your motivation in games and practice?
When I do something special, I’m afraid when I can’t do it, so I usually wake up in the morning and spend the morning brushing my teeth and washing my face in the order in which I always act. Recently, I don’t even dare to listen to the music I want to listen to, and I just listen to the songs played on the radio. I don’t have anything to eat before the game.
-But when you look at the pictures, you always wear green socks, right?
Oh, that’s right. My hair was green a while ago (laughs) When I was in high school, I wasn’t good at bright colors, and I liked black, gray, and navy-like colors, but after I entered college, everything I thought was cute. It’s green. I don’t know the reason, but when I look back at the photos I had when I was little, all the yukata and kimono that my grandma put on were green. By the way, the contents of the bag are all green.
-It’s natural, including the fact that you like green. So what is the most relaxing time?
It’s time to have fun playing and chatting with my teammates. Also, now I’m trying not to go out carelessly, so when I’m watching my favorite anime or movie at home?
-The story changes, what is the depth of wheelchair basketball?
It is attractive that people with various types of disabilities are playing together. Players with severe disabilities and light people like me who can usually walk are classified from 1 point to 4.5 points in 0.5 point increments, and the total of 5 people on the court must be within 14 points. That’s right. People with severe disabilities are called low pointers and mainly play the role of guards. Every time the disability becomes lighter, it is called a middle pointer or a high pointer (Mr. Amimoto has a high pointer of 4.5 points), that is, the range where you can take the ball, tilt your body, and raise it increases, so you have more opportunities to be assigned to the forward or center. .. Of course, a big figure is advantageous for playing inside, but the position is often decided by the class with a disability.
-Every time you change members, you change your position by thinking about your score, and it’s a sport that uses your head.
Yes, I do everything, including guard positions. If you want to see your opponent and save your allies, you can make a pass or shoot. Maybe it’s a different way to use your head than normal basketball. You can move vertically, horizontally and diagonally with your own feet, but basically the wheelchair can only move back and forth, so when you pick or put on the screen, you have to worry about the width and where to change the angle of orientation. not. Also, if you don’t keep talking all the time, you can easily turn over (the offense and defense are switched due to a mistake on the attacking side) due to a communication mistake, or you will lose points, so I think it’s really a very tactical battle.
-The competition attracted a lot of attention due to the great leap forward this summer. Do you have any future goals as a leader?
After all, if the competition population does not increase, the base will not expand and the level of representatives will not improve. Healthy people have been able to play for about 3-4 years, and the population is increasing little by little, but I can’t participate in international competitions because I’m not qualified to participate in the national team. I think there are more than 500 boys in Japan now, but are there 100 girls? This is not limited to wheelchair basketball, but is an issue for parasports as a whole. In the past, many people started playing sports in the gymnasium next to the hospital as part of their rehabilitation, but now there are many tools that allow you to express yourself and communicate without exercising. Wheelchair basketball has become familiar, and while the hurdles to start have been lowered, there are more options, so it is important to first get people interested. I would like to send out a lot of things through the cocktail website I belong to, my SNS, and BEAMS. BEAMS designs the representative uniforms and cheering T-shirts of , but in the future I would like to design my own training clothes. Today, I was just talking about that with the president!
