Posts by Raf

On March 30, a send-off party for Masayoshi Manabe, 58, who has been appointed as the coach of the Japanese women's volleyball team, was held in Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture, for the media.

Manabe will return to the NT for the first time in five years since the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, set his sights on finding a star player, saying, "I will search for and nurture the second Saori Kimura." Mr. Manabe, who led Japan to a bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympics, said, "Time is short this time (with the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics). First, we have to win the qualifying round," he said, as he set about rebuilding the team.

source

Here goes the pitiful "Second Saori Kimura" cycle. I get the sentiment behind it but he needs to understand why it's problematic and creates toxic pressure to compare anyone to Saori or any other notable players for that matter.

You don't see Russians saying Arina is the next Gamova... She's free to grow as herself not confined to be like another player.

Quote from Hassan Kadem

Who is Taeyeon?

Quote from sitenoise

I think she is still a foreigner, but we don't know if having been high-schooled in Japan erases that issue

Does Okayama treat their Chinese player as a foreigner? Didn't she also go to HS in Japan?

Quote from sitenoise

Rina Hiratani?

Kozue Omori. Her mother iirc was Korean-Japanese and was a professor. Oddly enough I came across her because of Taeyeon's fan who was an exchange student and Omori's mom was her prof.

Hassan Kadem

I wish she played a little longer but I guess she was one of those college types who only saw volleyball as an extracurricular activity

I had a crush on Nanami Wasai before she was unbelievably poised. Not a freaking strand out of place. She was/is bestfriends with that pretty Kurobe chick who I also had a crush on but I forgot her name now.

Quote from sitenoise

Hasn't the league done away with that nonsense?

The number of outright transfers is going up, maybe not Sarina Koga level stars, but :

Actual stars rarely ever transfer clubs keep those to keep the club relevant. Somewhere along Maiko Kano's level

I mean I don't blame her. Drews played like she wanted the game to end quickly because she needed to be somewhere else😂 I would not want to be that poor unfortunate soul that gets hit by her ball

lmao the frustration is real. next thing you know they'll be putting a million watermark on a 200x200 image and their highlight clips will be just 10 seconds

i remember someone complained that vleague took down their screenshot of santiago's face claiming it was an intellectual property violation. vleague definitely owns their souls

This conversation with Inoue took a wild turn lol

What about Airi Miyabe? is she not someone who Manabe should consider looking at? Does she not want to play in Japan anymore?

Quote from sitenoise

I'm happy/surprised at how well Valdes seems to be improving the rest of her game. I think it's a good thing that (beyond individual awards) she hasn't won anything and she plays for PFU

It's important to know how to lose and still keep your head on straight

She's ranking too. Equaled Drews in points atm. Not exactly BCS but "foreign player" indeed

Quote from Hassan Kadem

I would put Hayashi and Valdes ahead of Nishikawa

I just put her as the main example since she's also with Toray. It wasn't like that with Hisamitsu's trinity because each of them knew their limits so they weren't trying to best each other but with AiMayu they're clearly clashing for superiority.

Quote from sitenoise

Manabe might dig deep, looking for another Ebata. There's a lot of psychological stuff we know nothing about, but if you watch these players a lot you can see if they at least look smart and mature with team-leader-get-along-vibes action, along with skills ...

Megumi Fukasawa

Suzuna Kawasaki

Ami Takahashi

One high schooler, One Uni girl, one V2

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I hope he does this since Nakada was too lazy to do it. Someone no one knows except you lmao

Honestly I'm not so sure about her taking so long. The reality would be that if she did take a year off, time would be completely against her. For example someone like Nishikawa gets into the roster and grows by leaps and bounds it again would be another thing to compete for which is what Kurogo makes it - inside competition. If you're always at that state then the unity tears off. Fans and pros alike were complaining that the T20 OG had no chemistry well there's your answer.

But I do get that rushing mental issues does more harm than good. Hopefully she realizes by now that comparing herself to others is what will hold her back. They can't all be jack of all trades. She should stick to what she's already good at and continue honing it.

Quote from Playmaker

Sakae might be Hisamitsu's worst veteran setter lol. The other girl who retired with Zayasu and Iwasaka used to be better than Sakae but still inferior to Chizuru Kotoh. I know her and Miyu are bffs since they went to HS together but it's funny how Miyu doesn't like to be paired with her and links up with Inoue instead. People weren't happy with that choice last season. Inoue got a lot of flack

kojima was it? yeah maybe. i don't remember her style very well.

one of their inoues should use their first name instead. so many inoues in division 1.

Quote from Hassan Kadem

I'm not sure why Saga is doing so well... Ohtake is pretty good. Shirasawa is their Shinnabe now

tbh im a little surprised they paired sakae with shirasawa. her toss is on the low side. they should pair her up with mandai since nagaoka only trusts setter inoue.

imamura and arisa inoue have improved their reception. i feel like those 2 try to outpower each other in a good way, hirayama and hamamatsu also have the same vibe, both capable of strong hits.

kurobe is not communicating with each other at all. you don't really see any of them connecting on the court. for a sec i thought kanasugi transferred to kurobe but i remembered she's in victorina.

Quote from Phoenix

https://www.jva.or.jp/index.php/topics/20211022-1

"I am truly proud to be able to take on the challenge of carrying the Hinomaru flag again for the sake of Japanese volleyball. Based on our 10th place finish in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, I have a considerable sense of urgency; we will start in the spring of 2022, and the qualifying round for the Paris Olympics will begin in the summer of 2023. It is a very tight schedule. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games did not require the host country to compete in the qualifying rounds, but the Paris Olympic Games will require the host country to win the qualifying rounds. The Olympic qualifying rounds will be even more pressure-packed than the Olympics, and the games will be extremely difficult. I would like to overcome this difficult situation with all Japan team members. What we can say now is that the minimum requirement is to qualify for the Paris Olympics. I would like to set a new goal for the Olympic Games after assessing the situation as well as my thoughts. In terms of height, it hasn't changed much from five years ago, but technically, their serve-receive has become more stable and the maturity of most outside hitters have improved. In particular, France's mens team and Argentina (who won medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics) are not very tall, but they were cohesive with few losses. There were many hints for Japan's women's volleyball.

Japan has a lot of young players, including gold medallists from the 2019 World Junior Championships, and I think they have a lot of potential. I believe that Japan has a lot of potential, and we can definitely make up for it and recover if we go into the All-Japan team. In terms of team building, I would like to solidify the core players as soon as possible and actively promote new players. It is also important to deploy staff who can help solve problems. Because of Japan's short stature, we cannot win by doing the same things as the rest of the world. We want to pursue an original Japanese women's volleyball team and a new Japanese women's national team."

Yours Truly, Manabe xoxo

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Takeshita was in her mid-30s by London right? I was worried he's gonna go the ageist route here (Miyashita) but I think there's a good chance he'll have her change her toss

icb nec's new mascot is a lifesize vape

Quote from akitoakie

Bring back Miyashita and Arisa Sato

very unlikely for Sato. there are younger liberos better and far more faster than her.

sitenoise if I sub to VTV will I be able to dl the videos? there are people on twitter complaining about VTV but i don't understand what issues they're experiencing. i can't stream live most of the time but i wanna be able to dl some of the matches i like.