[Feature: Youth and Sports] Roundtable Discussion: Play Well, Learn Well, and Grow Strong

Today, I would like to discuss "Youth and Sports" with all of you.

Since you are all individuals who are currently or have been very active in Keio sports and physical education, I would like to start by having you talk about what you feel are the current issues in your respective daily fields. Mr. Ueda, could we start with you?

I stepped down as the manager of the Keio University High School Baseball Team five years ago. Based on what I felt during my tenure as manager, the players who enter Keio High School—including those from internal advancement—have an incredibly high number of injuries. Particularly in the elbows, lower back, and knees. If anything, there are many recurrences of injuries sustained during junior high school, and many players underwent surgery while in high school.

Taisei Tsuruzaki, who was selected by Rakuten from the university baseball team in the recent draft, was doing well until his second year of high school, but in his third year, his elbow hurt so much he couldn't throw, and he eventually had Tommy John surgery (ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction). It turned out well because he blossomed in university and made it to the pros, but there are players like that.

When I ask those players, they say things like, "In junior high, I pitched all five games in one week during summer vacation by myself." It hurt even then, but they pushed themselves to keep throwing, and the injury recurred in high school.

Furthermore, I am currently a coach for the university baseball team, and when I take injured players to the doctor and listen to them, they say, "I've been pitching three games every weekend since elementary school." Because they are the ace, you see. Children who have overused their elbows like that often get injured in high school, get injured again in university, and ultimately end up having surgery.

This is a problem that needs to be considered by the entire baseball world, but because each sports organization is devising measures on its own, there is also the problem that no progress is being made beyond that.

This is an old yet new problem. I'm sure the instructors aren't making them do it because they want to break the players. The children say they "want to throw," and the parents also have a strong desire to "make their child win," so I think it is very difficult for instructors to suppress those wishes of the individual and their family to make them rest.

However, on the other hand, hearing what you just said, it is clearly overdone. This is because if an elbow is broken during the growth period, it will leave irreversible aftereffects. How is it in the world of tennis, Ms. Matsunaga?

What became a topic of conversation in the high school tennis world last year was that the rules for the Inter-High School Championships (Inter-High) were changed midway through. In the case of tennis, the team competition is held first, and the individual competition starts the next day. Therefore, players who participate in the team competition and then in both singles and doubles for the individual competition have to fight while completely exhausted.

In the midst of such a schedule, last year was extremely hot, so several people collapsed from heatstroke during the team competition and were taken away by ambulance. In the process of devising countermeasures, the conclusion reached by the tournament organizers was to change the finals and semifinals, which had been played as three-set matches for many years, to one-set eight-game matches.

In the individual competition of the Inter-High, they play as many as four matches a day. I experienced that myself in high school and was once taken away by ambulance due to full-body convulsions. Even though everyone knew this was absolutely impossible, it continued, but last year there was finally a slight change.

It hasn't become a fundamental improvement yet, but the fact that they changed it to be somewhat more in favor of the players makes me hope that things will continue to change from next year onwards.

How much of a difference is there in the time it takes for a match between a three-set match and an eight-game match?

If a three-set match goes to a full set, it can take nearly four hours in long cases. But with an eight-game match, it's about an hour and a half to two hours at the longest.

Besides heatstroke, are there cases where people break their elbows or shoulders due to over-practicing?

Yes. As expected, elbows and wrists are common. Also the lower back and lower body.

Ms. Sasaki, what are your thoughts?

The year before last, the "overdoing" of club activities became an issue at the Japan Sports Agency. I was slightly involved in the discussions to propose "what length of practice is appropriate."

Among children, there are, of course, those who do not play sports. However, for those who do, it is often a case of "overdoing it," and it is becoming polarized. Therefore, unless we create guidelines, such as having at least two rest days a week and keeping each practice within two hours, they will practice endlessly in order to win. So, we proposed something that would serve as a guideline. The length of practice time for club activities is certainly becoming a problem.

However, there are parts that cannot be easily decided by numbers. I also researched the situation overseas, but the systems are different to begin with, so it wasn't very helpful.

At the Graduate School of Health Management, a master's student once conducted a complete census of club activities at junior high schools in Nakano Ward. As for the problems, first, the number of instructors is extremely limited, and those instructors are so busy they don't even have time to be involved in club activities. Furthermore, matches are often on Saturdays and Sundays, and they have to be involved in all of them.

It's practically a "black" workplace (laughs). Most of the instructors are teachers who are not specialists in that sport, and it seems they are often in a state of true exhaustion. However, if you rely on outside help, there is again the issue of their qualifications, which makes it difficult.

Organizations like the Japan Sport Association also say that it is important for instructors not just to teach the skills of the sport, but to build a foundation as an instructor, or rather, as a human being. To that end, they seem to be changing the instructor training system and incorporating things like active learning, but I think it is still difficult for this to permeate down to schools nationwide.

Mr. Ueda and Ms. Matsunaga, as you are both instructing on the front lines, I'm sure you experience this often, but the influence of an instructor is very large—not just on children, but even if the other person is an adult—in both good and bad ways.

Therefore, the qualifications of an instructor are by no means just about having experience in that sport; they must also have the perspective of an educator. So, I also think it's not that simple. On the other hand, as people often say, "I'd like to try being a high school baseball manager once," there is no doubt that it is a very attractive field.

In that sense, the training of instructors is an extremely serious issue, but in the case of Keio University, I think we are blessed because there are many highly qualified people like Mr. Ueda and Ms. Matsunaga.

In the case of Keio, I truly feel that the fact that graduates follow up and provide support is also very significant.

The topic of children who don't play sports also came up, but for example, do you feel that the physical strength of Yochisha Elementary School students is declining?

I only have about 10 years of experience here, but intuitively, I don't feel it has dropped that much.

Aren't the children coming up from the lower levels of Keio surprisingly good? Keio, including Yochisha, has a tremendous understanding of exercise. For example, at the Keio Futsubu School and Chutobu Junior High School, students can moderately belong to multiple clubs several times a week. They have created a good system, and since the goal is for the student to move up to high school and continue sports until university, I think this is a good trend.

At Keio, the phrase "First, develop a robust body, then cultivate the mind" from "One Hundred Discourses of Fukuzawa" is often quoted. Yukichi Fukuzawa's teaching that a weak prodigy is no good and that health and physical strength after becoming an adult are important is also a big factor.

I feel that when looking at university students as well. My classes have many women, and in physical education class, the students I think "can do anything" are usually from Yochisha. Even if they haven't specialized in a particular sport, many of them have no resistance to moving their bodies and can do things skillfully. I think that kind of form is ideal.

In general, even children who play sports often only do one sport, but I think it is a very good thing to be doing various sports.

It is often said that today's children just play games instead of moving their bodies when they have time. However, it seems Yochisha is different.

Right now, jump rope has started for the third term. This is something that both children who like it and those who hate it absolutely must do. For fourth graders, there are 13 events in total, such as forward jumps, double unders, and backward double unders. Many classes set a goal for everyone to clear all of them, and almost all students are doing it in the morning.

That is one of the events I thought was really great when I came to Yochisha. Since we use real rope instead of plastic, you can't do it unless you sharpen your senses and use trial and error. When I see the Yochisha students doing that, I think, "Ah, this is fun."

There are two good points about jump rope. One is that, for example, children who are fast runners are fast from the first to the sixth grade, and it's rare for a child who was last in the first grade to work hard and become a relay runner in the sixth grade. However, with jump rope, the more you practice, the better you get.

This is educationally very excellent. Therefore, even for a child who is a slow runner, if they practice jump rope and clear it, it becomes a great source of self-confidence.

Particularly short children are often good at jump rope.

The other point is what is recently called "high-impact sports"; exercise that applies impact to the lower limbs and leg bones is very important for strengthening bones.

For example, in the case of girls, the event of menarche occurs. To put it very roughly, before menarche, growth hormones are more dominant than sex hormones in girls. If they do high-impact sports during that period, bone is formed on the outer circumference of the bone, making the bone thicker. However, there is research showing that once sex hormones become dominant after menarche, bone is formed predominantly on the inside of the bone, so the bone does not get much thicker.

In other words, although it hasn't been proven yet, it is said that doing high-impact sports around the lower grades of elementary school promotes bone growth, which should have a positive effect when that person becomes elderly. In an era where extending healthy life expectancy is emphasized, instead of curing osteoporosis after it occurs, we should strive for primary prevention to prevent it from happening. To that end, it is considered important not to create children who dislike exercise when they are young.

Swimming also has many wonderful points as a sport, but even if you swim all year round, gravity is canceled out in the water, so while the body gets stronger, the bones do not. Jump rope is ideal for strengthening bones. It is an ideal exercise in those two respects.

It's not that we are forcing it on them; the children start jumping from the morning while having fun, and they really love it. Even for children who have cleared the 13 events, there are Yochisha records, and they challenge the records set by their seniors.

There are records like 118 minutes for forward jumps. At Yochisha, there is an official rule that if you are in the middle of a jump rope record attempt, you don't have to attend class, so even children who dislike studying work hard at it (laughs). The fact that past physical education teachers kept solid records is also a big factor.

That's an important thing. To prevent children from disliking exercise, we need school teachers to work hard and introduce things like jump rope, allowing even children who are not very good at sports to experience achieving a goal. If they have such successful experiences, children will not grow to dislike exercise, which will lead to maintaining a healthy body even after they become elderly.

From the perspective of your specialty, developmental behavioral science, Ms. Sasaki, are cases often seen recently where children fall in ways that didn't happen in the past?

Originally, children perform a truly wide variety of movements. Adults walk, sit, and at most run, but children perform dozens of types of movements. However, it seems that opportunities to experience diverse actions are steadily decreasing.

For example, when they are young, they learn with their bodies, not their heads, how to use their bodies to avoid falling when they lose their balance. However, if the entire environment is flat with no bumps, such movements become unnecessary. Therefore, there is an increasing number of children who have never performed movements that would have been done out of necessity in the past. It is said that when they experience complex movements for the first time after getting a bit older, they cannot control their bodies well, which may lead to injuries.

It also seems that bones are actually weakening. I heard a story just recently about a case in an elementary school physical education class where a student fractured their wrist the moment they put their hands on a vaulting box.

That is likely a condition called a greenstick fracture, which is characteristic of children. Instead of snapping like a dry tree branch, it's called a greenstick fracture because it's like trying to break a living, supple tree branch—it bends and splinters. Because children's bones are soft, that happens. I suspect that bone strength has also weakened, making greenstick fractures more likely to occur.

To prevent that, rather than practicing the vaulting box, there is no choice but to have them move their bodies in their daily lifestyle habits.

The fact that they no longer play outside is a very big factor. There are also circumstances where they cannot be allowed to play outside.

There's no space, either.

Also, nowadays parents both work and have little time to spend with their children. In that case, they can't just leave them outside, so it seems that movements experienced naturally in nature are decreasing.

Therefore, recently we have been proposing that we should be more conscious of "play." In the past, one could naturally experience intense movements through play, but those things are disappearing, and there are fewer playmates, so they don't play in groups.

It is also said that this has a huge impact not only on the physical side but also on the mental side. If they start from play and moving their bodies becomes fun, it can lead to sports later on, or they can just enjoy it as recreation. I think the beginning is important.

That's true. In the prevention of dementia and such, "dual-tasking" is often mentioned. In other words, doing something else while doing one thing. For example, the function of not just walking, but walking while doing something, is the first to decline as a cognitive function.

Conversely, children's traditional play is like a cluster of dual-tasking. And it was also a place for practicing human relations. The fact that such places do not exist is indeed a major problem.

If they understand that a group contains various children, including older and younger ones, I don't think they will become exclusive toward those who are different from themselves. If they are only given limited, set groups like a school class, I think reactions like ostracizing often occur when a child with different elements enters.

There is something I wanted to ask Mr. Ueda. For example, in high school baseball coaching, there is a way of thinking that if you want to make them strong, you should impose strict practice. But what you advocated in your coaching was "Enjoy Baseball." I thought that meant that unless the children practice voluntarily, they won't become strong in the true sense, although I'm sure it contains various meanings.

When you were actually coaching the Juku High School baseball team, what were you conscious of, not only in terms of practice volume, frequency, or content? In fact, you led the children to Koshien four times, winning through what can be called the most competitive district in the country.

In a word, I suppose it's about keeping it at about eight-tenths full. On a sunny Saturday, they gather after classes are over. If I say, "The weather is nice. Shall we take today off?" they keep practicing forever (laughs). If I had worked them to the bone and they were exhausted, no one would stay after it's over. So I think it's the opposite.

I also don't like saying, "You guys just do everything on your own," and I think that's impossible for high schoolers, but if you take them to the launch pad to some extent, teach them how to do it, and then step back a bit and watch, they start doing it themselves. That's the best part. They even change the signs on their own. When I think, "An unfamiliar sign is being given," they say, "We changed it yesterday." I tell them, "Tell me about it!" (laughs).

Many people say it's impossible at other schools, but I think it can be done at any school if you let them try. Yukichi Maeda (former manager of the Keio University Baseball Team) also used to say that often. An instructor should keep it at eight-tenths full and let the students think and devise things for themselves.

Nowadays, they take videos of themselves and exchange opinions, or research by watching YouTube. I think that's the interesting part.

If you use a coaching method that makes them eat until they are stuffed, today's kids will either quit the club or get injured. Nothing good comes of it. Restraining the instruction to about eight-tenths full—this is a great lesson.

Then, they will do it until I say, "Stop." It's strangely the opposite. My job was to say, "Go home early, go home."

That probably isn't limited to baseball. Recently, terms like small-group education or interactive education are frequently used in educational settings. For example, if you divide them into small groups, give them a theme, and have them discuss it, unexpected ideas often emerge. It's said to be more fruitful than memorizing through lectures.

On the other hand, there are times when necessary knowledge must be drilled in, but the importance of discussion is frequently mentioned and practiced in educational settings. What you just said is exactly that. Create the space and tell them to give it a try.

Teach and then pull back, teach and then pull back.

And that actually improves the children's baseball skills.

I agree. The most interesting thing is when a player who didn't bloom in high school says, "I want to do it in college." I try to stop them at first, saying, "Maybe you should go down a different path" (laughs). Then, they become a regular in college, play in tournaments, and come to me looking happy with a trophy for being an outstanding player, saying, "Coach, you told me to quit, didn't you?" (laughs).

Since he was the type of kid who did weight training diligently, he shot up in college and seemed to be used at just the right timing.

There is a graduate student named Eri Nozawa who was a high-level tennis player—even making the Japanese national team—during her active years. Now, while working as a tennis coach, she wants to level up her abilities as an instructor, so she is researching under me in the Doctoral Programs at the Graduate School of Health Management.

She is one year my senior.

Regarding her research theme, she says that when she coaches college students, even if they were great players in high school, some grow steadily after entering college while others don't grow at all. She doesn't think the innate talent itself is that different, so she wants to investigate what makes the difference and apply it to coaching.

In Ms. Nozawa's hypothesis, high-level tennis high schools are boarding schools or similar environments where they have solid instructors, and their practice methods and times are managed, allowing them to lead a life immersed in tennis, so to speak. In a sense, it's an ideal environment, but in such an environment, children who can thoroughly reproduce what they are told will grow.

However, in college, the environment changes to one where independence is required, including food, clothing, and shelter. They must manage their daily lives properly on their own and face tennis while thinking for themselves. Children who can do that grow further, while those who think, "Unlike high school, college doesn't teach me anything," do not. She thought it might be a clean polarization.

I agree. In the case of tennis, there are many families where parents have been with them since they were juniors, taking them to schools and tournaments or watching them one-on-one, so I think there are many situations where everything is set up for them until about middle school without the child having to think about anything.

Even in high school, some parents are still very enthusiastic, and some children cannot fully become independent. When they become college students, they really have to be independent, but I think there are indeed people who can't think for themselves when that happens.

There is the term "life skills." I think it's fine to think of it as the problem-solving ability necessary for living. As the next step in Ms. Nozawa's research, she interviewed nine people who were top-level students during their college days within four years of their graduation.

She asked what those people learned from their coaches or managers during their college days, or what they learned on their own, and how that improved their problem-solving abilities. As a result, it turned out that introspection ability, communication ability, and the ability not to take what the coach says at face value are the keys.

I can understand that well.

When you are told something different from what you have been taught so far, whether you can judge how to digest and incorporate it within yourself, or whether to discard it.

This is an ability that cannot be acquired just by playing tennis. I think it would be good if instructors viewed baseball or tennis as tools to plant those seeds, so to speak.

Hearing what you said earlier, I thought that Mr. Ueda is also providing human education while coaching baseball.

Often in winter and such, I would have someone who does management—someone with high problem-solving skills completely unrelated to baseball—give a lecture. They are given a theme like: "A 7-Eleven opened near a bakery and bread stopped selling. What should be done to revive that bakery?" and they talk in groups. Some kids say that was the most fun part of their three years (laughs). It's not about baseball at all.

But those things also translate into baseball. In other words, they start to think about how to get better. I was doing nothing but that. Since they didn't have to practice, it was easy, so they were probably happy to do it (laughs).

I have been the manager of the School of Medicine Basketball Team for about 20 years. Since all students in the School of Medicine become doctors, they have to study even more after graduation than they did during their student days. Rather, their student days are a time when they can take time away from studying, and the significance of playing sports there is very large.

Rather than cultivating problem-solving skills while facing patients and diseases after entering society, I think there is great meaning in experiencing defeat and frustration during student days and training to think about how to overcome it—that is, how to win a match even one more time. Basically, the people in the School of Medicine are all excellent, so if they think hard, they usually find solutions.

I believe that trial and error in sports during student days, and things not going as planned, is what's important. If things don't go well after becoming a doctor, it's already over (laughs). A doctor is a profession where you must only play matches you can definitely win. But as a student, you can experience losing a match.

I also serve as the director of the Keio University Athletic Association Basketball Team, and encountering adversity before hitting various problems after entering society is a chance in life. I think it will surely be useful in their later lives for members to experience and learn what to think and what to do at such times.

I want students to cultivate human strength through such experiences. Even if you say, "I am a graduate of Keio University," it won't get you anywhere in society. I always tell them at graduation to become the kind of person where, when someone says, "That guy is pretty good. What's his career path?" and hears, "He's from the Keio Athletic Association. I see," it makes sense.

Sports are fun in themselves, but I think they are also an unparalleled tool for education, and there's no reason not to use them.

I think if I told this story to Yochisha (elementary school) students, they probably wouldn't understand (laughs).

It is exactly as you say. It may be difficult to convey it in words to Yochisha students, but there are times when I feel that even elementary school students feel a sense of unity and excitement when they win at a sports day, or a sense of self-affirmation. I approach my instruction wanting to give them many such experiences.

Rather than trying to make them good at tennis as elementary schoolers, they study through tennis. I treat it with a sense like "Japanese, Math, Science, Social Studies, Tennis."

The difficult part is that if they don't actually get better at tennis, the children's eyes won't sparkle. "Being able to do what you couldn't do" is one of life's greatest joys, so it's important to make that happen for them.

Another point where sports are excellent as an educational tool is in their interactivity. Even if the other person is an elementary school student, when you teach something, something always comes back to the person teaching. So there must be many things where you are learning while you think you are teaching.

What I think while actually teaching college students is that in physical education, individual past experiences are quite different, and it also differs depending on what kind of feelings they had when taking physical education classes until then. I am in charge of aerobics, and there are quite a few kids who aren't very good at exercise but thought, "It doesn't look like there's competition, so maybe I'll try it."

In my classes, I never say, "This is wrong." We just keep moving, and they imitate the teacher, but when I say, "It's okay if you can't do it," quite a few kids are surprised that they don't get angry even if they can't do it. Once that anxiety is dispelled, they can realize that they "could do this much," and I can see that even for college students, that becomes a great source of confidence.

I see, that's interesting.

This feeling of "I did it" is common to everything, so I try to have them understand that setting small goals for themselves like "I want to do this much" and being able to clear them leads to confidence and fun. I tell them that if they do that, they can tackle things enjoyably even if it's not exercise.

Whether you can create this "motivation" yourself is very important, and I think that in sports, being able to feel yourself changing by moving your body can be one big trigger. Exercise definitely changes you if you do it. And if you do it properly, it almost never makes things worse, so even college students can gain some confidence.

I think that while there are many kids who do physical education because they like it, there are quite a few kids for whom it is painful. I want to at least dispel that when they are college students. If they go out into the world still hating exercise, the number of people who "don't exercise at all" will increase.

It's especially common among women. They can't take the fact that they "couldn't do it" lightly. When I tell them, "It's okay to be like this," they realize, "Oh, I see," and they change completely. It's exactly the same for children.

That's an important thing. It's bad if you give a task and evaluate those who can do it as A and those who can't as C. All the kids who can't do it will end up hating it.

In particular, there are huge individual differences in bodies, and advantages and disadvantages exist at the starting point to begin with. So, I think if each person can have slightly different goals, they can each work hard.

Regarding Mr. Ueda's story about "eight-tenths full" earlier, is that something you devised from your experience? Were you pushing them hard at first?

At first, I set the menu strictly. Even things bordering on harassment (laughs). Now, when I say these things, people say, "I can't believe you're saying that."

But from a certain point, I thought, "These guys have the ability to think, so it's easier for me if I utilize that." Even after I go home, they are doing proper, safe practice. They think for themselves properly, and it's amazing. They read books on nutrition, anatomy, physiology, etc., and they are extremely knowledgeable about things like physiology. They also think about training theory.

I don't know if starting from the head is good or not. I tell them, "Even if you know it, it's the same if you don't practice" (laughs).

So, you gradually went in that direction through the process of your experience.

I failed before. As expected, I made them throw too many balls and caused injuries. In the summer of 2005, there was a time when we were one win away from Koshien. There was a pitcher named Nobuaki Nakabayashi (now JFE East Japan). In the semifinals, it went into extra innings against Tokai University Sagami, and we won that, but the next day, luckily a typhoon came and there was a day off before the finals, so I asked, "Can you go?" Of course, he said, "I can go." Because it was one more win to Koshien.

During the game, he said, "I heard a bit of a strange sound," and I changed him in a hurry, but because of the injury at this time, his start in college was delayed a bit. He says, "I don't regret it," but even now I think, "I should have changed him a little earlier then."

I've said "I'm sorry" to him about 100 times, even now when I see him. He won 20 games in college, so he says he doesn't mind, but it's difficult because I'm full of regret.

There are stages in a child's growth, and especially for middle schoolers, there is a period called the growth spurt where growth occurs suddenly, and sports injuries occur frequently during that period. In high school, the speed of growth slows down, so injuries are less likely to occur than in middle school. I think there are appropriate ways to play sports according to each age stage.

For example, Mr. Matsunaga, you are currently teaching elementary and high school students. Of course, you must be changing your teaching methods, but is there anything you are consciously doing yourself?

I teach elementary schoolers five days a week and high schoolers two days a week. In the case of tennis, it is currently popular to use sponge balls instead of actual hard tennis balls for lower elementary school grades.

There are two reasons for doing so: first, the burden on the elbow is extremely reduced. The other is that the ball doesn't bounce too much. For elementary schoolers, hard tennis balls bounce high, making them quite difficult to hit. Using a sponge ball that bounces enough to be hit at hand level is just right.

Is there anything like that in baseball?

Only recently has something called Tee-ball come out, which is soft and doesn't hurt even if it hits you. Instead of a pitcher throwing, you put the ball on a batting tee and hit a stationary ball, then everyone goes to pick it up and sits around holding hands. A teacher from Tsukuba devised it and is trying to spread it.

In tennis, if you use sponge balls, you can set up simple nets and create four simple courts on one full court. Therefore, many people can enjoy tennis in a small space.

Without teaching how to hit forehands or backhands, we start by saying, "Anyway, anything goes, just try playing a game using this sponge ball and net."

In the old days, we used to do it with our hands (laughs). With a soft tennis ball, just playing around popping it back and forth.

It's an image close to that.

But it's closer to playing tennis than doing practice swings. As a result, the fun of tennis is conveyed better that way.

That's right. It's very fun even when played between adults and children, and it's quite hard for an adult to beat a child; it becomes a pretty good match.

That's great for the children.

Mr. Ueda, you are now teaching middle and elementary schoolers as an instructor for youth baseball rather than high school. How does it change when the age of the audience changes? Is it the same as high school and college students?

No, it's completely different. Elementary schoolers completely look down on me (laughs); they hang off me or kick me from behind. It's like I'm playing together with them like that.

If I only taught rules or gave instructions like "this is how you swing a bat," they would never come near me. If I say, "Let's play like this for a bit," they say, "Wow, I want to do it!"

It's a good experience. They don't listen to people at all. Even if I explain earnestly, they are looking the other way and playing, and it's hard to get them to gather (laughs).

So you must not say, "What are you guys here for? Listen properly."

I must not. But it's interesting. They hold meetings on their own, and when I let them play a match, they say "Time out" and gather, imitating professional baseball and trying to change defensive positions themselves; it's interesting to see the potential.

In children's baseball, adults shouldn't get too involved. I think letting them do it within play is the best way for them to grow.

But it takes quite a bit of courage for an instructor to provide that kind of instruction, doesn't it? One tends to think they must teach the basics first, or that the bat should be gripped like this.

They even hold it backward and swing (laughs).

It seems that if you let them move as they wish first, and then after a while say, "Okay," and gather them to teach basic things, the children will come and listen properly. If you start with "Okay, listen" or "Okay, do this," they don't seem to listen at all.

Professional baseball players are no good because they try to teach properly. I think those people really don't understand (laughs). Even if they think the kids will listen because they are pros, it doesn't matter to a child who comes.

Mr. Matsunaga, you are a former professional player, but did you feel any gap at first when instructing Yochisha students and high school students?

As expected, there were parts where I was pushing the image of the school education I was taught onto the children as is. I interacted with the children with a feeling that I had to say something educational or that I had to be a teacher, and since I went with a stance of teaching them, there was indeed pushback.

I thought this wouldn't do, so I read John Wooden's book on basketball coaching and studied in my own way, thinking that maybe if I interacted with them like this, it would go well.

Ultimately, it is the players who play the game, so no matter how much the bench tries to intervene, they cannot win the game themselves.

Speaking of basketball, those who come from elite schools are often more deeply influenced by their high school teacher's style. In high school, for example, when a team is about to lose, a good coach was one who could take a timeout and give precise instructions like, "Do this play." In university, you cannot win with that alone. A team where players can think for themselves about how to respond to the opponent's play is the one that is truly strong.

From my perspective, the members of the School of Medicine Basketball Team are very intellectual. To be honest, their level is not high, but when they take a timeout and return to the bench, there is almost no time for the coach to interject (laughs). Specialized terminology that I don't even understand is flying around. This is especially noticeable when they are losing a game they expected to win.

That's fantastic. It's ideal.

In reality, they aren't actually that skilled. However, hearing the words flying around during a timeout, you'd think, "Are these guys pros?" (laughs). I think that is a very good thing. That's why things go better when you let a student, chosen through discussion among the students, act as the coach.

Baseball in America is completely different from Japan. In Japan, coaching for children often focuses strictly on the basics, with a lot of "You must do this," but in America, it's more like "As long as you can hit it far" or "It's fine to catch it with a backhand."

I think this difference largely stems from the fact that they play sports on a seasonal basis from a young age. Instead of doing just one sport, if you think of it as just looking after them for three months, you think, "I'll make it fun so these kids will want to play baseball again next year."

In Japan, people do one sport—and if it's baseball, only baseball—all year round, focusing entirely on winning and never teaching sportsmanship at all. Even for elementary school students, it has become something like a martial art.

Indeed, if it's baseball, they do nothing but baseball all year round. Originally, it is important to do various sports. Diversity is especially important during the growth period, but is a seasonal system difficult in Japan?

With the current sports organizations, it's probably impossible. It would be good if someone could organize it for elementary school students at least. I think even just two seasons would make a significant difference.

The mindset of the instructors needs to change. For example, even if a child initially joins both soccer and baseball youth clubs, once they reach a certain grade, they are told to choose one. The desire to do both isn't accepted. I feel sorry for them and wish there was an environment where they could be allowed to do both.

Baseball became linked with Bushido, and with blood, sweat, tears, school spirit, and self-sacrifice combined as a form of discipline, it became "Yakyu-do" (the way of baseball). If anything, Keio is more Americanized; there is a history where Yukichi Maeda advocated for "Enjoy Baseball," and that idea spread.

But I wonder. Isn't the ratio about 9 to 1 nationwide? (laughs). If you mentioned "Enjoy Baseball," you were mocked. You'd be called strange just for having long hair. At the Koshien opening ceremony, they march like the military. It felt creepy, so when I said, "It's fine, just act normal," they got very angry and made me write an apology letter.

That is 100 years behind the times.

As an initiative of Keio University, I have been providing sports medicine consultations at our affiliated schools for over 20 years. When people go to a hospital for a sports-related injury, they get an X-ray and are told, "There's nothing wrong. You're overdoing it, so take a rest," and that's it. But for the individual, that doesn't solve anything.

While continuing these consultations, I realized the most important point is to dispel the anxieties of the parents. In other words, when children come home saying their knees or back hurt, the mothers are at a loss. When they go to the hospital, they are told nothing is wrong. But it hurts. If she says, "Then take a rest," the child says, "I don't want to miss practice." All that stress accumulates on the mother.

Those are symptoms of over-exercising, and while they aren't severe and the pain will go away with rest, if they return to play without changing their physical conditioning, it will recur 100% of the time.

First, I have the child, who is the party concerned, understand this. When I say, "You don't have the basic physical strength yet to keep up with the Keio Senior High School baseball team's practice, which is why your back hurts. Try building up the basic strength needed to keep up with practice first," the child says, "I understand," and goes off to run. When the mother can understand that as well, her stress is greatly reduced.

By doing so, the child understands why it hurts, so recurrence naturally decreases. If they only practice pitching intensely, children's elbows and shoulders will break. It's not just a matter of pitching form; it's important to build a body that can perform a proper kinetic chain, strengthening the area around the hip joints and the core to transmit the power of the large muscles in the lower limbs all the way to the fingertips of the upper limbs.

I believe that being able to conduct initiatives like sports medicine consultations as part of improving the educational environment is something unique to Keio University.

Not limited to the Athletic Association, I strongly feel that I want those who were involved in sports at Keio to either continue sports themselves after graduation or be on the side of the spectators, but also to definitely move into the area of nurturing children. In addition to "Shin-Gi-Tai" (mind, technique, and body), I strongly hope they become graduates who "learn and pass it on."

I think it was very good to hear various suggestive stories today based on everyone's experiences in the field. I sincerely hope that Japanese youth sports will move in a better direction in the future. Thank you very much for today.