Japan - V.League V1 (Division 1, Women) 2018-2019

Being stronger is actually a skill, not all Europeans hit the same km/h when you can hit +100km/h that's sure a skill. Being taller itself is not a skill however taller people usually have a higher spike reach which makes them able to spike better and usually they reach the block better/easier as well, this all ofc unless you're called Mireya Luis.

Foreigners improve the league a 100%, a lot of these foreigners teams beat the Japanese at Wch or even Club Wch which means some are 'better' than them. The Japanese learn a lot of skills actually from the foreigners, their defensive skills only become better, they learn how to stop a Mihajlovic spike which is a lot harder than a Koga spike f.e. They will observe how a player like Akinradewo jumps and try to imitate that somewhat etc. etc. of course the foreigners improve the league as they bring something to the court that most Japanese can't and the locals end up having to adapt being still able to play well despite that. If it was only locals the Japanese NT would probably look like a bit better version of the Filipino one.

Though I highly doubt they change the amount of spectators.

Think of Major League Baseball. Japan (NPB) and South Korea (KBO) have has their own professional leagues. The Yomiuri Giants in the mid-1960s in Japan, started a 9-straight run of championships. The owner of the Giants felt that they were the best team in the world. Often in the past an individual or all-star MLB team would come to play exhibition games after the season. The Baltimore Orioles won the 1970 World Series Championship and accepted an offer to travel to Japan to play the Giants after the MLB season in 1971. The expectations were that the Orioles would be the Champs and the Giants would be Champs in Japan at the same time, creating a true world championship with 11 games (out of 18 games, 7 with all-star teams). Well, the Orioles lost in the World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, they still went on the trip. The Giants had two of the greatest Japanese players of all time in Shigeo Nagashima and Sadaharu Oh, and Giants fans were looking forward to beating the second best team in the States. In those 11 games the Orioles won 8 and tied 3 (games were called a tie after a certain amount of innings or time played). All star teams did win 2 games, but the Orioles finished 12-2-4 on the trip. The gap between Japan’s best and MLB’s 2nd best was huge. NPB in those days had limitations on the number. Of foreigners playing with only 2 per team, 1 pitcher and 1 field player. Now it is usually 2 field players and 1 pitcher per team, with certain players after playing a number of years becoming a domestic player (without gaining citizenship) and not counting as a foreigner.

Many Japanese baseball players now want to see how good they are and play in MLB, but in the past many did not want to take or could not take the chance. MLB is really the best baseball league in the world. Japan has since won the World Baseball Classic twice, and been the semifinals in the other two editions.

If you play against better players, you improve hence why the Japanese staff want players going overseas before the Olympics. Saori Kimura went to Turkey, Araki to Italy, because they wanted to win medals in the World Championships and Olympics and they did do both. Japan went 32 years without a medal in the World Championships (2010) and 28 years in the Olympics (2012). The standards for Japanese volleyball are already high with past Olympic gold medals in 1964 and 1976. Japan’s League is a good technical league, but the best in the world are playing in Italy and Turkey.

I think it is important for V-League to have foreigner players. They do bring something the Japanese players does not have it. Height and athleticism. Mostly important they can challenge the Japanese players in a way they (Japanese) can not challenge each other. And I bet they to be challenged.

But of course just bringing the foreigners without a plan and goal.... means nothing. Just take the Turkish League as example. The local players have the height and athleticism, they get to play and practice with some of the best players and coaches....but at the end of the day mostly of them simply get nowhere. But this is not the case with the Japanese....they know what they are doing and they are getting what they want out of it.....(unlikely the Turkish).

In the usa....Ice hockey league only 25% are Americans. Last time I heard in the soccer league 50% are foreigners. In the basketball league there`s over 100 foreigners. Around 30% in baseball league are foreigners.

Having foreigners is something "natural"...... they usually bring something the locals don`t have it. I think it is "fine" as long as they are not taking the place of the locals.....and this is not happening with the Japanese for sure.

But I do think it is stupid to pay the foreigners more than the local players....some leagues does that. Of course players like Zhu, Boskovic, etc will be making more than everyone as they are the best in the world....but I don`t think the "average" foreigner should be making more. But in Japan I think it is understandable if they make more because they do carry the team every night.

You are interesting as a fan sitenoise because you seem to have a unique perspective. I'm sure you want the Japanese players to be "the best" they can be but its more important that they're "the best to watch" for you. After all, that's why you support them in the first place. You also seem to have little regard for the perceived "value" of a competition and though I understand that point of view it's actually quite the opposite of mine.

I agree that Japanese volleyball has a particular style and culture and by introducing more foreigners it puts that at risk. There's a reason you watch this league more than the others and you don't want to see it become like the others. However, I do agree with the other users that exposure to different players and different styles can help players grow their skills, if not their abilities.

But yes, you make a very strong point that the skills are there already to the extent that the NT can challenge the best in the world despite their lack of physical attributes. Is it realistic that more foreigners in the league would enhance their chances of an Olympic medal or whatever? Maybe a little bit. Is the loss of some of the unique quality of the Japanese league too high a price to pay for slightly increasing the chances of that goal? Well that's a matter of perspective. I guess for you the answer is a firm "No" and I'm not going to tell you you're wrong.

The thing that the Japanese have taught the volleyball world is non-blocking defense. Without a doubt, Japan has an incredible ability to extend points. By extending points, Japan is trying to give themselves chances to kill the ball. If Japan ever lost this, then it would be damaging to Japanese volleyball culture. However, in Japan, players are taught from a young age that lots of practice will improve your technique, which is true. So, players really focus on the group and in a team sport like volleyball, it makes sense.

Yet at the same time, Japan is very group oriented, so you don't see many players sticking as individuals. Not many Japanese players (except maybe on the men's side) have a let's go mentality to carry the team. I love Saori Kimura, but she's not that kind of person and expecting her to lead that way is not smart. Even now, looking at the Japanese national team, I'd say Araki is probably the only one that can do that. She's also been there and done that, so she speaks from experience.

The reason why we say that everyone has something to teach the Japanese is as follows. If you grow up learning one thing only, and you see that something else is working better, would you not try to adopt some of those things to improve yourself????

When Manabe came into the national team as the head coach, he really changed the thinking of the team to be very data driven, having an ipad in his hand on the sideline to let players know what he wanted on a point-to-point basis on defense if needed. Now every team in V1 has analysts to help look at data and tendencies. Not saying that the data was not available before Manabe, but his use of it changed Japanese volleyball. When Nakata came in, she switched the offense to a fast paced offense. It is still a work in progress, but she is getting wins against the big teams (Brazil, Serbia, Netherlands). They are not far off right now.

If you put Egonu on Japan, she'd make a huge difference because she would be the focus of the offense. Right now, Japan spreads the ball around, but Kurogo seems to get the most sets. Still Kurogo against tall teams is a loss in my mind. Egonu's jumping ability and powerful swing would change the game if she was on Japan's team.

sitenoise does not have anything against the foreigners. The problem is that they take 80 swings a game. So the game plan is based with them scoring.

And that is actually boring and annoying....They get hundreds of bad sets and every out of system all. But instead some of these sets should be going to the local players. But unfortunately that is not the case.

Why is everyone bored with Novara this season? Because Egonu takes 100 swings per game and everyone else plays cheerleader... And this is what happens in the V League with the teams with Mihajlovic, Neriman, Kulan etc.... The teams with a foreigner middle actually Playa a much more fun and enjoyed game.

Quick question here. Where did KYK play before she went to Japan? She played at home in South Korea. She wanted to improve her play with the national team. Even at an early age, she was identified a super star (once in a 100 year player in video that I've seen in Japanese in 2010). So in 2009 she goes to JT Marvelous to play.

They asked her in a interview what has happened since you've come to Japan.

The exact translation of what is shown on the screen my spiking, serve receive and serving have all grown here (interview in 2011 after Tsunami).

In the next shot, she even says that world level players come to Japan to grow.

She went from JT to Fenerbache in 2012, but the South Korean club team that she played for said that she was still their property (which may have been true as she was probably loaned out to teams). KYK basically paraphrasing said, "I would rather retire than play for your team. I am in the best league in the world, which helps me be a better player, which also helps the national team."

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/s…am-over-contract-dispute/

Zhu Ting was a great player to start with, but many Chinese players do not go outside of China to play. This is due to the national team being strong. Zhu wanted to see if she could improve, and she made the trip to Turkey. Brazilian players know that their domestic league is strong, but in order to earn more money they have to go overseas. USA players have had to go overseas because their is no domestic league (not including NCAA because it is a step or two lower than a pro league).

Japanese business have a history of learning from foreign businesses in its growth and then adding to it through continuous improvement. They took the automotive industry knowledge of building cars, and basically retaught the world how to build a better car.

You have to look at Japanese history to understand that it was a closed country for 250+ years before the Black Ships came. Japan was able to adapt multiple times through its history by looking outside and then modifying it to their culture.

Sure having a single player get all of the sets is annoying, but I would put that on the coach and not the player. Some coaches believe that a team needs to spread the ball around.

I yell and scream at the Japanese women's teams because they don't use the middle as much in freeball situations. However, they believe the outsides will score more than the middle. When Italy played Japan in the third round of the 2018 World Championship, which I attended, Araki led the team in scoring with 17, 14 of which were kills (2nd on the team). I loved it because it showed that she was a force to free up the others.

We forget though that in leagues with foreigner restrictions, they are hired guns and therefore the team tries to adapt to them. If a middle like Foluke is signed, then the offense does not have to be changed as much.

Nk YouTube page has a video about Victorina from the beginning of 3 players to winning V2 and a portion of the video included walking and make-up. They want the ladies to look their best when on team events and to look like professionals. This way the represent the club and their sponsors well. It could be a little sexist, but Manabe wants this team to succeed on and off the court.

Not all the foreign players go to Japan to learn, some just want to make a quick and deep money as Japan offer more than what they get in Europe or somewhere else.

I am sure both Japanese players and foreign players can learn from each other when they actually be "into" the team. If you come to Japan only like "I am a superstar to help Japan to score or no one can score but me", then you got nothing to learn from. However if you go to Japan to be into the team, work together as a team, I am sure Japanese player will learn something while foreign players will l grow as well.

Look at Kubiak in Panasonic, the team needs him and he grows with the team. Players like Fukuzawa definitely get to learn from Kubiak too.