I dont remember much of Ai Otomo but I watched her play during London and thought she was kinda okay, much better than the MBs Japan have today.
What do you guys think of Yamaguchi? She is kinda short but seems like she was a staple on the middle for Japan back then.
Yamauchi was someone who could be both an outside hitter and MB, so kind of an odd fit for many teams as you are one or the other.
it wasn’t like she was the focus of the offense, so she was to put it mildly, there. She would fill in at spots for Manabe when needed.
Otomo, Kaori Inoue and Araki were the main middles during the 2010-2012 run. Inoue is now a mom of two and married to a former goalkeeper in the J-League (he works as a youth coach) and has been working with and around Takeshita and Victorina and doing commentary from time to time.
Kano played in Italy and was an important on court player, just not as much as Kimura or Ebata/Sakoda.
I dont remember much of Ai Otomo but I watched her play during London and thought she was kinda okay, much better than the MBs Japan have today.
What do you guys think of Yamaguchi? She is kinda short but seems like she was a staple on the middle for Japan back then.
Imo Yamaguchi was a lot like Shimamura in the sense that she's good with attacks. She was a weak spiker but aggressive on the net, rarely able to block. She didn't start playing volleyball at an early age. I don't know how she got her start at Okayama Seagulls where that was mandatory.
Like most Okayama girls she wasn't too fond of being in the spotlight and rarely gave interviews. Hated doing any fanservice and didn't like attending V.League all-stars
Mai Yamaguchi right? she doesn't look like a volleyball player. Always had that warm suburban mom vibe
Mai Yamaguchi right? she doesn't look like a volleyball player. Always had that warm suburban mom vibe
Haha, Second that, I adore Mai and Kaori's calm and warm vibes on court the most out of all JPN players.
Another take on Maiko Kano who was groomed by JVA along with Saori Kimura, Megumi Kurihara and Kana Oyama right after the 13th place disaster at WCH 2002. She had potential but came with too much injuries along the way. Kano was always on the wide roster of Yanagimoto (2003-2008) but never made it to any tournement since she always got injured here and there. Coming out of the anke injury, Kano played her first full season with Saga in 2008-2009 and everyone already dubbed her the next Saori in the making, i.e. she was good.
In 2009, Manabe initially tried to adapt the Euro volleyball style with his new team. Megumi and Saori did not really take it too well but Kano on zone 2 delivered. Then She was injured yet again in the final week of WGP 2009 and it got worse during the Asian Championship 2009, subsequently failed to attend the World Grand Champion 2009. After this point, she would never be able to get her 2008-2009 form again. Kano said the situation was so depressing during this time and that's why she went to Italy and Turkey in 2009-2011. She managed to improve her condition a little bit in Montreux 2011 but Manabe already fixed Yamaguchi and Risa for zone 2.
After Kano's injury, Manabe looked for another OPP and Yamaguchi - a traditional MB was surprisingly called to take Kano's place. Before this point, she was never played OPP or recevice any serving ball at Okayama. So Yamaguchi was basically a hole in the Team back then with loads of serve-receive mistakes. Manabe even brought 2 extra liberos - Hamaguchi of Toray and Ino of NEC to substitute for her when she rotated to the back. But Manabe got his point. Yamaguchi with Inoue & Otomo played a varity of combination attacks from any possible place and fooled most of the blocking systems. This kind of play was JPN signature game in the 90s with the legendary Obayashi then coach Yanagimoto gave it another try in 2005. It also worked well for China in 2000s with the great Zhou Suhong and so did JPN in 2010.
In 2011, all other Teams already studied JPN's game real hard, then both Otomo (or Yamamoto back then) and Inoue got seriously injured, so this combination play could no longer be practical as before. Risa also gradually established her place at the Team. I read an interesting iterview at World Cup 2011 when Yamaguchi commented in 2009 and 2010, she mostly got either none or only one blocker in front of he, However, since 2011, she always faced at least 2 blockers so it was hard for her to kill the balls and that's why she mostly tipped it instead, lol.
I dont remember much of Ai Otomo but I watched her play during London and thought she was kinda okay, much better than the MBs Japan have today.
Ai Yamamoto in London 2012 was just recovered from a severe injury she got at the first match of Asian Championship 2011. So it's expected she could not play as good as before.IMHO, the maiden Ai Otomo in 2004-2005 was the best JPN MB, attacking-wise.
Kinda amaziing to read every new high potential player be dubbed The Next Saori. I enjoyed Saorii a lot. Her demeanour on court is very shy-ish, very lady like, but she gets the job done. One of the best all around OHs of all time. And her floater serves are joy to watch.
How did Saori rise to stardom happened? Looks like there are so many users here who really know their Japan’s volleyball history and I would love to know more about Saori. Sorry if this is out of topic.
V League All Stars used to be a huge event but it became smaller and cringier. In 2020 only the men's division had it plus that haikyu cosplay shit too
Shimaoka loves his boys too much
How did Saori rise to stardom happened? Looks like there are so many users here who really know their Japan’s volleyball history and I would love to know more about Saori. Sorry if this is out of topic.
There were very few spikers in Japan that were as tall as Saori and Megumi Kurihara, it was extremely rare. They were "The Miracles". If you're a fan of ladylike players then you might like Megumi Kurihara but I personally could not get into her as I prefer actual beasts.
Saori, Araki and Kana Oyama's generation led the rise of Seitoku as a volleyball powerhouse. Saori was the ace. As far as I can remember only Saori, Nagaoka and Yuki Ishikawa manage to win triple crowns as aces of their respective schools.
Saori is also youngest to ever participate at the Olympics.
There were very few spikers in Japan that were as tall as Saori and Megumi Kurihara, it was extremely rare. They were "The Miracles". If you're a fan of ladylike players then you might like Megumi Kurihara but I personally could not get into her as I prefer actual beasts.
Saori, Araki and Kana Oyama's generation led the rise of Seitoku as a volleyball powerhouse. Saori was the ace. As far as I can remember only Saori, Nagaoka and Yuki Ishikawa manage to win triple crowns as aces of their respective schools.
Saori is also youngest to ever participate at the Olympics.
What is Seitoku?
What is Seitoku?
Shimokitazawa Seitoku High School
If you're a fan of ladylike players then you might like Megumi Kurihara but I personally could not get into her as I prefer actual beasts.
If there were more ladylike players, women's volleyball will die. That kind of aura is exclusive to certain players but in terms of style it would look too lazy. Go play golf or something
If there were more ladylike players, women's volleyball will die. That kind of aura is exclusive to certain players but in terms of style it would look too lazy. Go play golf or something
Lmao I think they mean image. Naz Akyol is my ideal player with a ladylike image.
Euro elitists only took Japan seriously thanks to Saori. Nishida has the same impact but that was mostly thanks to anime and volleyballworld blowing up his reputation
Canadians still seething at that video with the title "Nishida destroying Canada ...." like bye
Ha! Great morning read. Funny and informative. Japan is tragic in their softness. Serbian player Stefana Veljković, who just announced her retirement, is my ideal of a ladylike beast. I had hoped Yamada might develop something like that, but ... oh well
Veljkovic was such a hottie too
Veljkovic was such a hottie too
There's still Zehra 
Lmao I think they mean image. Naz Akyol is my ideal player with a ladylike image.
I don't get Naz 
(her brightness was before my time) but I'd go for Tugba, and Hande, as 'ladylike' players not much bigger than Japanese ... but they swing like they mean it. I'm still convinced that Japan NT proactively works at removing violence from a player's heart
Saori Sakoda, why is it so hard for Japan to reproduce that? She's one hundred and nothing cm tall, a 98 pound weakling with "Get outta my way" written all over her face 
Going off topic but we out here dying for news anyway
My friend said Hande looked like the murderer Myra Hindley and I couldn't get that out of my head. She definitely has a strong appeal. But I prefer Zehra and that other chick what's her name Saliha? and Yasemin Guveli. I don't think she's Turkish idk....
If only Japanese players would get sent to play in Turkey.
Going off topic but we out here dying for news anyway
My friend said Hande looked like the murderer Myra Hindley and I couldn't get that out of my head. She definitely has a strong appeal. But I prefer Zehra and that other chick what's her name Saliha? and Yasemin Guveli. I don't think she's Turkish idk....
If only Japanese players would get sent to play in Turkey.
gtfo you really ruined Hande for all of us