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| 2005.12.22 Column Series by Ken Odashima No.02 “Promises with Akira” |
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| I established SSA in June, 2002. It is an organization to support and push up athletes using the Salomon equipment with a basis on their training. I gave my willing consent on this offer from Salomon and immediately started on raising the motivation of one typical skier to lead him to the Torino Olympics which was coming up in 4 years. I flew to the headquarters of Salomon, in France. In order to remove the anxiety Kentaro Minagawa had towards the new equipment, I thought it fastest to communicate with the engineering and servicing staff at the headquarters. An engineer, Jon Maseli, already layed an eye on the high potential Japanese skiers had and contrived to seek what type of skis would best fit them. The result of this communication was to actually show the athletes several types of skis that is under development and persuade them with it. I showed him my gratitude, carried the skis and immediately went back to Japan. |
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| Upon coming back, I showed the skis to our service staff, Mr. Ito, and told him that these skis were the ones we will be competing in during this season. I showed the same skis to Kentaro Minagawa, who had injured his knee ligament in one of the national races in spring, went under surgery and was under rehabilitation, and his answer was to be equipped with these new skis and turn over a new leaf. Those words were enough to give us a great impact but Mr. Ito, myself, and Horikawa, who was in charge of equipment within Japan, all agreed that we shouldnﾕt tone down our activities at this point and to keep looking forward. |
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| Mr. Ito immediately contacted Akira, and told him that we were willing to give him the No.1 spot within Salomon Japan. After the contact, he visited our company, and as he repeatedly argued about his itchy dreaded hair, he also said:
“Now that I’m finally No.1, I have no reason to quit skiing. My motivation instantly went up. I’ll do my best”.
But we added to his reply:
“It’s obvious that becoming No.1 again is a positive situation for Akira, but what we need to make clear here is that we need to make a promise on what we are going to be aiming for, and what we need to do in order to achieve it.”
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| Akira’s skiing senses is without words excellent, his disposition as an athlete is satisfactory, and the high potential stands out from the others. But in order to bring up a top athlete, what is most important is the numerous period of time spent preparing for the actual race itself. Concerning this part, all that we can do is managing the athletes (schedule adjustments and bringing in sponsors, etc.) and setting up the equipment. The biggest point the athletes themselves must do by themselves is conditioning their body. This was what Akira was not well at doing the most, and as far as I had heard, his conditioning training was perfunctory and his meal management was very sloppy. |
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| “Let’s set our promise period at 4 years. This is not because the Olympics is coming up in 4 years. Divide the 4 years into 2 by 2years basis; devote the first 2 years in making the base for a tough body, and the latter 2 years are years to compete in races as a top athlete. It’s a broad idea, but this is the least promise we will need. Our relationship not need be just manager and an athlete being managed, but it is important to realize, in order to set foot on the center of the victory stand, an achievement not yet accomplished by any Japanese, that all that is going to happen is what we do together.”
That was just a part of the kind of communication we had. Here, Akira spoke out:
“Now that the rule is made, I’ll go into preparation starting today. I guess the first thing is making a tough body… boy, it seems so crucial…”
A word from Mr. Ito, who had been listening patiently to Akira:
“Ok Akira, let’s start with fitting your boots size by sizing down 1cm. We need to use a well fitted alpine type boots and not that of the freestyle use.
Akira is a well known “freestyle ski” lover and he would go into the half pipes or the snow parks whenever he had time to have fun. If the boots are well fitted, the toe nails would die from the shock of the landing of the freestyle jump. Akira wore 1cm larger sized boots on purpose to save him from doing so… being a high leveled skier!!
Akira, with a chuckle,
“Oh! Mr. Ito, you knew it all along!?”
He itched his dreaded head with a carefree smile.
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To be continued...
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