To Our Friends in Wrestling Around the world
By William May
(Japan Amateur Wrestling Federation, Public
Information Committee
Kyodo World Services, senior sports writer:wmay52@hotmail.com)
JWF BOARD DECIDES TO SEND TEAMS TO RE-SCHEDULED
WORLDS
SENDAI - The Japan Wrestling Federation board of
directors gathered for
a special meeting on October 14 in Sendai
and decided to send teams to the world championship
meets that had been re-scheduled in the wake
of the terrorist attacks of September 11
in New York and Washington.
The world championships
-- freestyle, greco-roman and women -- had
been scheduled for New York City in late
September, but in the wake of the attacks,
the FILA Bureau decidedto re-schedule the
freestyle and women's meet for November 22-25
in Sofia, Bulgaria and the greco-roman competition
for December 6-9 for Patras, Greece.
At the Sendai meeting,
the JWF board decided that it would ascertain
the will of the athletes, continue to gather
information on possible dangers and ensure
a safe means of travel to and from the competitions.
All of the wrestlers indicated that they
wanted to attend the world meets, except
one of the wrestlers on the greco-roman national
team who had earlier scheduled his wedding
on December 8.
The JWF board also decided
that it would dispatch the women's national
team to the inaugural World Cup of women's
wrestling in Levallois, France on November
3-4. Again, the JWF directors said
they will continue to monitor the international
situation in order to ensure the safety of
the delegation members. The board decided
to send Japan's top wrestlers at each weight
to the World Cup even though it is only three
weeks before the world championships in the
hope of winning the championship in the historic
event.
The JWF decided to send a select team
of top wrestlers to the Clansman International
in Canada in November and to the Henri Deglane
International in France in December. The
Japanese sports world, shaken by the attacks
in the United States and nervous about retaliation
for the U.S.-led military air-strikes in
Afghanistan, has decided against participating
in a number of international events this
fall and winter. The relevant sports
governing bodies have opted not to send teams
to the world championships in gymnastics,
rhythmic gymnastics and weightlifting while
judo and swimming have cancelled their overseas
tours.
YAMAMOTO LOSES AGAIN TO YOUNGER WRESTLER
SENDAI - Seiko Yamamoto may be one of the favorites heading into
the women's world championships in Sofia
at the end of the November, but the two-time
world champion continues to struggle at home.
Yamamoto, the defending world champion at 56 kg,
lost by technical fall to junior world champion
Saori Yoshida in one of four women's wrestling exhibition
matches held at the National Sports Festival
in Sendai.
The one-sided loss by
Yamamoto, who was also pinned by 16-year-old Kaori Icho at an invitational meet in April, has JWF
officials wondering about her readiness on
the eve of the World Cup in France and the
world championships in Bulgaria.
The matches were staged
at the National Sports Festival as exhibition
matches since Japan's national version of
the Olympic Games has not yet included female
wrestling on its official program.
SPORTS FESTIVAL DONATIONS REACH $2,000
SENDAI - About $2,000 in donations for the victims
of the September 11 terrorist attacks in
the United States were collected at the wrestling
venue during the National Sports Festival.
The JWF said it would send the donations
to the U.S. through USA Wrestling, the national
governing body of wrestling in the U.S.
S. BELAGLAZOV VISITS FOR WRESTLING CAMP WITH
AGU
TOKYO - Russian national team coach Sergei Belaglazov was invited to Japan by the Aoyama Gakuin
University wrestling alumni association to
conduct a wrestling clinic for the Tokyo
school October 4-14. During that time, Belaglazov,
who also coached in Japan from 1994 to 1998,
had a chance to observe the national collegiate
dual meet championship tourney. When asked
for his impression of the wrestling in the
meet, Belaglazov lamented that the level
of wrestling in Japan continues to sag and
described the wrestling as "too weak"
for college-level competitors.
The following day, Belaglazov
began his clinic by stressing the fundamentals
of defense. In addition to the team members
from AGU, wrestlers from Waseda, Takushoku,
Kokushikan universities and the Self Defense
Forces visited the school in Tokyo's Shibuya
Ward each day to learn from the popular coach.
Japanese national team coach Takahiro Wada, a former protege of Belaglazov's, also
took part in the camp as the Japanese wrestlers
listened intently to the Russian coach's
logical presentation of wrestling techniques.
"A wrestler must
drill the fundamental movements of wrestling
over and over again with the concentration
of 100% of all his strength. Further,
a wrestler must practice as if he were in
a match. If he doesn't, there is no
way he can perform these things in a match.
It is important to drill the fundamental
movements 1,000 times. Of course, this
kind of practice is extremely tiring,"
Belaglazov told the wrestlers.
During the camp, Belaglazov
taught a number of techniques and explained
several of the finer points of wrestling
strategy to the Japanese wrestlers. Even
with the single leg and the tendency to think
that it is fine to move around in front of
the opponent and then grab a leg, Belaglazov
stressed that it is important to learn how
to control the opponents hands and arms
and how to train so a wrestler can be offensive
and defensive at the same time. Without
this, a wrestler's techniques will not become
reliable.
While there should be a symmetry in the
movements when a wrestler attacks the right
leg or the left leg, some wrestlers will
use the same tie-up on the left and the right
to attack the legs while other wrestlers
will use different tie-ups for different
attacks. Belaglazov stressed the need
to understand some of these general ideas.