Japan Women's Universiade National Team short-listed squad who will be participating in the 2017 Taipei Summer Unversiade Competition held a three-day training camp between 6 and 8 December in Shizuoka Prefecture.

In the previous Unversiade competition in 2015 (Gwangju, South Korea), the Japanese squad managed by coach MOCHIZUKI Satoru earned a bronze medal, and he will also be leading the team in the next year’s tournament. In their first meeting, a total 33 members were called up from 16 different universities.。

On the first day of training, coach Mochizuki advised the players ‘to constantly think about the actual game’, while the team practised shifting swiftly from offence to defence, and the vice versa. Furthermore, the emphasis was put on ‘recovering from errors’ and other game-time situations. They worked-out as if they were playing a real match.

On their second day, they held two practice sessions, one in the morning focusing on defence and the other in the afternoon working on offence. Similar to the first day, the coach emphasised the importance of thinking about the actual game-time situations, and they had five-a-side games and shooting exercises. In the meeting after practice, they reviewed their training so far, while being taught the significance of understanding ‘the international level’ and ‘the aim of each training session’. The day was also the birthday of HORIE Mitsuki (Shizuoka Sangyo University), and the team gave a surprise party with a birthday cake.

On the final day on the 8th, the team went through eleven-a-side match to wrap up their activity for this camp. Throughout the three-day camp, coach Mochizuki reiterated the importance of constantly thinking about the actual game-time situations. Furthermore, in the last meeting, he stated ‘we need to improve ourselves by changing our daily routine to become world-class players’.

The members of the Universiade team will compete in the All Japan University Women's Football Tournament in their respective universities, and they will participate in the All Japan University Women's Football Regional Competition as the All-Japan University Selection Team next February.

Coach's and Players' Comments

MOCHIZUKI Satoru, Coach
The environment was ideal for training. The ground, accommodation, food, and even weather were excellent. I sincerely have to thank all the people who supported this training camp. Our aim is to win the Unversiade competition. In order to achieve that goal we need to create a ‘team that can win the international tournament’. In doing so, we need to assemble ‘individuals that can create a winning team’. Furthermore, we need to look at each member of the team and figure out ‘what kind of players we need to develop in the team including their personalities’. Spending time on and off the pitch together for three days, we ended up having a fruitful camp sharing and exchanging many ideas. We are looking to develop ‘world-class players who can think on their own and make right decisions’. At the end of the camp, we promised that we would rethink and improve our daily routine to achieve that goal.

TANAKA Erina (Nippon Sport Science University)
Since there were many players who I practised for the first time, it was difficult to coordinate plays in the beginning. However, I tried to display my strength by actively communicating with my teammates. We were asked to create a game environment during training by imagining actual game-time situations including making transitions from defence to offence, and the vice versa. I further need to think and work harder to take practice as if it were an actual game. I will keep working on the things I learned in this training camp.

OKABE Yuika (Sendai University)
In this training camp, I was constantly thinking about ‘making decisions after seeing’. However, I found out that I wasn’t quick enough in making decisions. I also felt the need to further improve my plays if I were to compete at the international level. I will surely be reminded of the things I felt today and work even harder in future training.

SAIHARA Mizuki (Hiroshima University)
In the three-day training camp, I paid attention to thinking while playing in the high-level football environment and displaying my strength. During practice, coach reiterated the importance of ‘practicing as if it were an actual game, while keeping in mind the competition at an international level’. I learned that the quality of play changes by thinking and taking a different approach in training. After going back to my club, I will keep training with this in mind to improve myself further.

Schedule

*The schedule is subject to change due to the team condition, the weather, etc.