Posts by Karl

Quote from brahmin

There is a Deaflympics, which is sanctioned by the IOC. Per wikipedia, "To qualify for the games, athletes must have a hearing loss of at least 55 dB in their "better ear". Hearing aids, cochlear implants and the like are not allowed to be used in competition, to place all athletes on the same level."

Paralympics per Wikipedia, "The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, vision impairment and intellectual impairment."

Going back to deaf volleyball, I was the head coach of volleyball there in 2010 and 2011 at the Oregon School for the Deaf (OSD), which plays sports in the lowest level of high school sports in the State of Oregon. "Lowest" level in the state of Oregon is for the number of students attending the high school. In Oregon there are six levels, 6A has at least 1000 students enrolled, while 1A has 74 student or less enrolled.

It is a unique environment as most of the students live on campus during the week (Sunday night to Friday afternoon) and return to their homes on the weekends. Some students do live in the town or their parents will drop them off everyday. This includes kids from elementary through high school in this environment. Because we were so small, we had the middle school and high school do things together, but usually focused on ball control, serving and spiking (from anywhere on the court). Also trying to get kids to read the ball (depth and pace) without being able to yell in out, deep, left, right was something that we had to teach and observe. I had one player who would be in the front row and get out of the way with a serve because she thought the ball was going back row, and it would land right where she started.

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I've always wondered how deaf players signal each other in a team game. Not just volleyball but all team games. Do they require a different kind of referee?

I've seen deaf hockey at my university years ago, our uni team was out so they used the rink for practice. There wasn't really any significant difference as far as I could tell but I'm not much of a hockey enthusiast myself. The only thing I noticed was that their matches were a lot shorter than the usual 2 hr hockey game (intermissions included)

Quote from Hassan Kadem

I read that as dead and almost choked on what I was drinking. Reading through my phone is always a bad experience

I don't even know what to say to that but maybe I should rephrase it?

Miyuki Kano brought her deaf volleyball team... I don't know what the politically correct term for that is... during the JT home game last January 21.

Her team is registered with JVA but I saw an article that deaf players do not qualify at paralympics to prioritize other disabled players so JOC created Deaflympics specifically for deaf athletes. I'm still not sure how it works. If I remember correctly Naomi Masuko's deaf team would play against other "normal" students.

Quote from Hassan Kadem

ive honestly never heard of her until now. im kinda curious

Where do I even begin

Omura was tall but agile and fast. The only MB that played like a real OPP. I'm not sure exactly what happened to her during the year she retired but after that it would take years again for her to appear in anything. She hasn't been involved in anything volleyball-related *that I know of* but Sano posted on IG last year that she's holding a training camp with Omura and Nagaoka in Fukuoka.

Here's Sakoda interviewing her in 2021

Quote from gkv

Why do you use OG? what's that mean?

It's a Japanese term that literally means 'Old Girl' and for men it's OB which obviously means 'Old Boy' I'm not even kidding I thought it was ridiculous too when I found out from a friend who studied in Japan. You may have come across this when clubs tweet about former members

That's legendary MB Kanako Omura

http://www.fivb.org/EN/volleyb…ms/VB_Player.asp?No=10011

There was a debate in the past on who Japan's ultimate MB of all time is, her or Araki. Personally I would choose Omura. She's a Hisamitsu OG but I don't think Miyu was already in Hisamitsu when she was still active

Quote from Raf

not to nitpick but both nakada and manabe are notoriously superficial as well. i mean who tf buys their team perfume as a gift? i was honestly a little weirded out when manabe did that during their time in france. fragrance is such a highly personal thing which is also connected to hygiene. it just seems like he was telling them they stink or something. im probably overthinking it but that was still cringe.

I must've missed that since I had no idea he bought the girls perfume. But yes all 3 have very particular preferences of how the overall team should be carried in terms of aesthetic since they're way behind the men in visuals. Image and reputation of a team especially the key members are a top priority.

Is it a mistranslation when he said "it doesn't affect much" ?

Kawai doesn't have a coach's logic, he's all about image so I didn't really expect much from this interview. He's a highly superficial person who values what can be made popular. Not a bad thing at all for JVA since he's a charismatic person who can deal with corporate people unlike the previous president.

Out of respect for both players Manabe isn't going to make them extras. He never did that to Ebata. He also gave Yuko Sano some time when he finally let her go in the NT before she eventually retired.

Yoshihara became timid when she was in Italy, it didn't bring out the best in her. I think that was also the period when she dislocated both her hands.

Quote from Hassan Kadem

what reaction vid? during the match?

john who?? i had to read that last sentence 5 times

You can tell Erik doesn't know any of the Japanese players

Shimamura's nickname is John or Jon however its spelled. I won't use it anymore to avoid confusion.

After rewatching VNL and WCH and also Erik Shoji's reaction vid of the Brazil match there's a clear change in Inoue's pace. I feel that she's more comfortable and more competitive around Mayu than she was with Koga. Hayashi is from what I've noticed the only member that remains the same regardless of the lineup changes, meaning she doesn't choose which setter suits her best she does whatever it takes, she doesn't collide with any of the other spikers. There's no holding back on her part.

I wasn't too taken by either liberos during WCH. I'm also not sure whether Nichika is an on/off player but I want her to be used more than Ogawa and any other middles including John.

Quote from Jules

I realized that you japanese speaks and put a lot of attention in player's hairstyle specially when they change

Only the Japanese give so much meaning to whether they cut the hair or not. But with Mayu I assume she paid homage to Saori's Rio Olympic braided ponytail now Arina's signature hairstyle

It's concerning that Koga is becoming injury prone.

But this brings us back to her backup should something like that happens. Miyabe is not going to work out. Why didn't Manabe bring someone more capable instead of Airi or her sister. They were already struggling to close the gap against Colombia. His lack of any concrete strategy is nauseating. This team will go down hard.

Quote from Phoenix

Btw in case anyone's wondering Nakada didn't disconnect from the volley scene. She's super vocal about the current NT and is still apparently part of JVA. I think she might return as a coach somewhere.

A week before her birthday, Nakada held a training camp at Kobe with Nomoto.

Is she not part of Springs Academy?

Quote from volleyb

Based on tweets of someone in the venue, Japan won in straight sets vs Belgium.

This account on instagram also posted a lot of video clips of the match on their IG stories (https://www.instagram.com/ogsvolleyball/)

I think I mentioned this here before. OGS or OHCA was co-founded by Gen Kawakita where he also held training camps while staying in the US. When he left, former volley player Mayumi Watanabe took over as co-founder.

Quote from Nghiphong

Hahaa, you'll be even more in awe to know Miyuki's husband lol.

Beijing squad's flop was mainly because of Shin who was kinda low and not well enough to perform as expected. Losing valuable starters like Kana Oyama and Ai Otomo while both Saori and Princess Meg remained unstable as ever also did not help at all. Yanagimoto was so lost before the Olympics that he decided to bring in the mediocre Miyuki Kano along with 4 MBs inlcuding 2 veterans Tajimi and Omura. It was a time when there's no decent OHs/OPs around while plenty of good MBs playing in the local league. The situation was so lame that Saori was switched between positions all the times depending on the availability of MBs/OPs/OHs.

However, the Yanagimoto's JPN miracles you referred to were actually chosen specifically by JVA for intensive grooming since late 2002 after 2 consecutive disappointment in OG 2000 and WCH 2002. The team included Megkana duo, Saori and Kano. Only Saori survived safe and sound while the rest were stuck in injuries. Yet, Kurihara and Kano's injuries and the comeback of Ai Yamamoto gave Manabe opportunities to try different tactics and new talents got added. If both Kurihara and Kano played, he'd defly stick with his 2009 Euro high ball style.

Manabe took in Maiko Kano who is far more mediocre than her sister. I don't know what it is about these sisters I really don't know how they got so far. Maiko somehow made it past Nakada and Nakada being the ultimate powerhouse coach at the time took her into the golden era of Hisamitsu Springs thanks to having a sister from Yanagimoto's squad.

Megumi Kurihara on the other hand has always, A-L-W-A-Y-S been mediocre. Yanagimoto's insistence on having her in the team and making her core was an absolute disaster. He said she displayed qualities of European players when her only redeeming quality was her height which made her a candidate as one of the "Miracles" but she was slow as hell, unsuitable for Japanese style, did not help with blocking, had attitude issues etc. He relied on her heavily for firepower all because of her displaying "European qualities"

Quote from Hassan Kadem

Who's #9? I don't think I've ever seen her before

Maiko Kano's older sister, Miyuki (OH)

Quote from Hassan Kadem

Isn't #2 Hitachi's coach?

Yeah. Asako Tajimi

A little throwback

Before Manabe rounded up the London squad Yanagimoto already introduced "Japan's Miracles" who unfortunately flopped in 2008. The London squad was very much Yanagimoto's star squad, there was already a foundation. Manabe added Sakoda, Shinnabe and a nobody called Ebata.

This was not the strongest team (in terms of offense) since Kurihara did not deliver as expected but they were a stable team and also the tallest in history