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Men's Basketball - Kansas State University Athletics

Sitting basketball star: Kozai Hiroaki spearheads the Japanese wheelchair basketball team

Before turning pro in Japan and Germany, wheelchair basketball player Kozai Hiroaki was the star of his faculty at the University of Illinois. He now hopes to help the Japanese team win their first medal at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo.

Wheelchair basketball gets everyone's attention

Anyone who has watched a wheelchair basketball game knows that it is as fast-paced and uncompromising as traditional basketball. Players rush across the hardwood court at breakneck speed, spinning on the pitch, passing, sending the ball into the basket and creating a picturesque mayhem of human limbs and metal as they collide.

Wheelchair basketball is gaining popularity in Japan. The author of the cult basketball manga Slam Dunk Inoue Takehiko depicted the sport in his popular series Real , it is presented as a story of struggle and victory.

Japanese national team player Kozai Hiroaki appreciates the interest in his person, but prefers to draw attention to this sport with his game on the court. Over the 8 years spent in the Bundesliga, Kozai has earned himself a reputation as a real attacking star. And with the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics approaching, he has focused his efforts on leading Japan to its first medal in wheelchair basketball.

Bet on quick tactics

Kozai has competed in three Paralympic Games and knows it's not easy to win the podium. Two years ago in Rio de Janeiro, he, along with veteran center Fujimoto Reo, led the national team under head coach Oikawa Shinpei. However, despite the high hopes placed on the national team, the team left the tournament at the group stage.

This was a bitter disappointment for a player proud of his achievements in the professional leagues. Kozai explains that in Beijing and London, he was the youngest player on the team. “I always gave my best because I wanted to make sure my skills were world-class. But in Rio, my goal was different. I wanted to show my strengths to give the team momentum before the Tokyo Games. However, the performances of our team convinced me that we must completely change the approach to the game.

Kozai throws during the group stage game against the Netherlands at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (© Jiji)

After Rio, the team did not rely on individual skill, but on the tactics of quickly moving from defense to attack. To work with the national team, professional coaches were attracted, the purpose of which was to develop the mental and physical endurance of the players necessary for fast tactics. The changes also affected Kozai's professional career: he changed the club BG Baskets Hamburg, where he spent four seasons, to the best Bundesliga team RSV Lahn-Dill.

The team's efforts seemed to pay off when Japan defeated the higher-ranked teams from Australia, Canada and Germany in June this year to win the four-team Mitsubishi Electric World Challenge Cup held in Tokyo. However, just two months later, at the World Championships in Germany, the team was disappointed - it finished in ninth place.

Kozai admits that this result suggests that the team has a long way to go before it can be considered a real medal contender. “Our goal was to be in the top four! We could well beat such strong teams as Italy and Turkey, and we really lost to them by a minimal score difference. This proves that we are moving in the right direction, but we still lack the consistency and fortitude needed to develop an attack from the back line or stay on top of it.

Wheelchair basketball is dominated by teams from North America and Europe. Kozai's alma mater, the University of Illinois, not only boasts a leading wheelchair basketball development program, but is also a leader in intercollegiate competition. In Canada, there is a national academy for the preparation of players, and in the UK this sport is so popular that many cities have their own professional clubs. The professional leagues in Germany, Italy and Spain attract top players from all over the world.

However, even with such strong competition, Kozai is confident that the Japanese team has a chance to become the best. “Even though we didn't get the result we were aiming for at the World Cup, the team is ready to play with quick tactics. Our players have the technical skills necessary for a fast-paced game and if we continue to work on mental and physical fitness, we could very well count on a medal in 2020.”

Early start

Born in Chiba Prefecture, Kozai grew up as an active, sports-loving boy. He still wears number 55 when he plays for Japan, in honor of his childhood hero, New York Yankees player Matsui Hideki. Although he was born without lower limbs, Kozai believes that he inherited his athletic nature from his father, who was a player on the school's basketball team.

Kozai first hit the court at age 12 when his mother saw an advertisement for a wheelchair basketball competition organized by the local Chiba Hawks. He began attending games with his father and was fascinated by the specially designed wheelchairs used in the sport. “I was delighted,” he fondly recalls this time. “Sport wheelchairs were much lighter, faster and easier to drive than regular wheelchairs.”

During the competition, the captain and current assistant coach of the national team Kyoya Kazuyuki advised him to join the Chiba Hawks. A former professional player in the Japan J Football League, Kyoya became a wheelchair basketball star after suffering a spinal cord injury in a car accident. Kozai also caught the attention of his future mentor, Oikawa, who advised the hard-working youth on how to properly organize training.

Master of the Game

Kozai entered his first major training camp as an eighth grader. This camp, hosted by Oikawa in Sapporo, Hokkaido, was taught by legendary wheelchair basketball coach Mike Frogley. During the camp, Kozai's game received special recognition, which strengthened the boy's determination to dedicate his life to sports.

Kozai says that was when Frogley recommended that he train with him in the United States, and admits he didn't take the suggestion seriously as a teenager. However, after seeing the level of players around the world after he himself made his debut for the under-23 team while still a schoolboy, Kozai seriously considered inviting Frogley.

Persuaded by his father, who sensed his son's hesitation, Kozai decided to try his hand at the United States. After high school, he crossed the Pacific to train with Frogley, who was then head coach of the University of Illinois wheelchair basketball team.

The path to the pros

The days leading up to his departure were a real test for the emotional state of a teenager, and Kozai reluctantly admits that before leaving Japan, he "cried like a child." However, once in America and becoming a community college student, he immediately began to work on improving his communication skills in English. Two years later, he successfully entered the University of Illinois, where he specialized in sports management.

Frogley believed his players needed to be successful both in class and on the court. Looking back, Kozai notes that it took him the concentration of all his strength to play basketball and keep up academically at the same time. “However, I never even thought about giving up,” he says.

While playing for Illinois, Kozai was the captain of the team and several times in a row he was recognized as the MVP - the most valuable player of the national championship. Although he was pleased with his achievements in basketball, Kozai says that when he received his diploma, he experienced a feeling of honorably done duty. "I was proud that I managed to pass this test unharmed."

After university, Kozai decided not to return to Japan. He began looking for new opportunities to grow against world-class players in the German Bundesliga. After spending several seasons in Hamburg, this year he joined top club RSV Lahn-Dill with the very specific intention of stepping up his game ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

Kozai knows that his experience will be a key element for the national team to develop their own style of fast tactics. Together with his teammates, he will continue to hone his game and dream of winning gold not only in Tokyo but also beyond.

Interview photos taken by Hanai Tomoko, unless otherwise noted

Why is basketball so popular in the US? | Physical Education and Sports

At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, the US team won 65 medals (19 gold, 21 silver and 25 bronze). And at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010, the Americans pleased their people with brilliant performances, earning 37 medals (9 gold, 15 silver, 13 bronze). These victories are not accidental.

For most Americans, it is thanks to sports that the initial idea of life and the world is formed. Indeed, in sports such important values of American society as equality of chances for success, achievement of success, striving to be the first, competition, a healthy lifestyle, etc. are most clearly manifested in sports. and opportunities, as well as the ability to use them .

Most Americans are actively involved in sports also because they have long understood that maintaining health is much cheaper than restoring it. Constant and strict care of one's health has become an integral part of the American way of life, so sports grounds and swimming pools have firmly entered the local life. Love for sports, and especially for team sports, is instilled from an early age, especially great attention is paid to sports in schools.

Do you remember the 1991 comedy film Father of the Bride? On the eve of the wedding, late in the evening, father and daughter enthusiastically play basketball in their yard. When I first watched this movie many years ago, I was very surprised by this episode. But after living here long enough, I stopped being surprised by the craze for basketball. Although, according to official polls, the most popular sport in the United States remains American football (very similar to rugby, but with slightly different rules), which was named as a favorite by 30% of the country's residents, basketball , along with baseball, is one of the three most popular and developed sports . A frame from the film "Father of the Bride", 1991.
Photo: kinopoisk.ru

The popularity of basketball can be explained by a number of reasons.

This game is characterized by a variety of movements: walking, running, stopping, turning, jumping, catching, throwing and dribbling, which improves metabolism, the activity of all body systems, and forms coordination.
Basketball is less traumatic than American football or baseball.
Basketball can be played both indoors and outdoors, it does not require particularly complex equipment, expensive uniforms, that is, it is more accessible to all segments of the population.

Basketball poles with a basket on our street are almost every second house
Photo: Gertrud Rybakova, personal archive

In Houston, in residential areas with individual development, almost every second house, especially if children grow up there, has a basketball pole with a basket in the front yard, in front of the house, and in any free minute you can leave the ball, practice.

I often watch in my neighbors how a father and a five-year-old boy play in the evenings and on weekends. The boy began his "training" at the age of two. At first the basket was lowered lower, now it is raised almost to its full height. It is surprising that the kid almost without misses throws the ball into the basket, even from a distance of 5-7 meters.

My seventeen-year-old grandson can talk about basketball for hours and is ready to jump with the ball in any free minute. He knows all the great players in the NBA-NBA (National Basketball Association), and Michael Jordan (Michael Jeffrey Jordan) and Yao Ming (Yao Ming) are role models, especially since Yao Ming plays for the Houston Rockets.

And what's so surprising? After all, the United States is the birthplace of modern basketball. Although there is evidence that the Aztecs played a similar ball game in the 14th century. But the spread of this wonderful team game began in the United States at the end of the 19th century. A famous NBA basketball player's handprint compared to his grandson's. Orlando, 2008
Photo: Gertrude Rybakova, personal file

In 1891, at the Christian Youth Association Training Center in Springfield, Massachusetts , a young teacher, Dr. James Naismith, originally from Canada, came up with a new game to revive gymnastics lessons. He attached two fruit baskets without a bottom to the railing of the balcony, into which a soccer ball was to be thrown. He developed the first 13 rules a year later.

Already in December 1891, the first official basketball competition was held at the school in Springfield. There were 18 students in the group, two teams of 9 participatedhuman. The very first matches under these rules caused them to change. Shields appear (protection of the basket), because the fans on the balconies caught flying balls and threw them into the opponent's basket. In 1893, iron rings with a grid appeared. The game turned out to be so interesting and dynamic that in 1894 the first official rules were published in the USA.

Basketball quickly spread to other countries: first to the East - to Japan, China, the Philippines, and then to Europe and South America. Ten years later, at the Olympic Games in St. Louis, America, the Americans organized an exhibition tournament between teams from several cities.

In 1932, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) was created, and in 1935 the International Olympic Committee decided to recognize basketball as an Olympic sport.
FIBA headquarters, Switzerland
Photo: Christophe Badoux, ru.wikipedia.org

Basketball was added to the program at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin . The game's guest of honor was James Naismith, the creator of this game. Teams from 21 countries participated in the basketball tournament. Matches were played on open tennis courts. During this Olympiad, the first FIBA Congress took place, where the existing and adopted unified international rules of the game were considered.

Basketball is currently the fastest growing sport in the world. One of the reasons for this growing popularity is the activity of of the National Basketball Association (NBA) , which shows the most talented and popular basketball players performing their amazing sports feats on a high-profile stage.