Mountain Climbing and Running

I was invited by some family friends to go to the Odani Castle Ruins on the last day of the three day weekend.

We were planning on driving to the top of the mountain to see the ruins but because of the holiday the road was closed. We didn’t put much thought into it and decided to climb the mountain from the bottom. It was a big mistake haha

After climbing my legs were blown out and completely tired so I went to Coach Kawamura for help haha

With his help my leg muscles could relax and each step was much lighter than before.

While I was there I asked Coach some questions. “What’s the easiest way to climb?” “How do you reduce stress to your knees when going down the mountain?” But without fail Coach answered my questions.

The key point seems to be keeping a loose hip joint.

He showed me the difference between people who climb stairs with ease and those who don’t. I think I’ll even start enjoying climbing stairs now.

 

While we were training Coach Kawamura showed me a video of Yoshinobu running.

 

The first video,

The second video,

After we finished watching

Kobayashi: In the second video his running form is much better!

Coach: Right! After having him focus on his form while wearing geta his form has changed this much!

Even though Yoshinobu doesn’t run very often we felt like he had the potential to be a long distance runner and after checking the video again we saw that in the second video his foot is directly under his hip.

People who know more like Coach Kawamura can notice more changes but even an amatuer like myself can see the difference.

After joking about how interesting it would be if Yoshinobu became a marathon runner we started talking about the Women’s All Japan Long Distance Relay this past weekend.

Up until recently, I wasn’t interested in marathons or long distance relays and never watched them on TV but after becoming more conscious of walking and running form it was very interesting to watch the relay this past weekend haha

Kobayashi: That olympic runner’s form was so good!

 

Coach: Ichiyama right? Did you understand?

 

Kobayashi: Her body position whenever her foot hit the ground was really good. There wasn’t any unneeded movement.

 

Coach: Yeah, she is very smooth.

Coach: Did you see Hironaka run?

 

Kobayashi: No, I only watched just a bit part way through.

 

Coach: You should definitely check it out. Her back isn’t stiff at all. It’s amazing

Coach: She must have been raised completely freely haha

 

This got us started on talking about the environment of raising kids.

 

Specifically talking about when babies are able to hold up their head and when they are able to sit on their own.

Babies are extremely flexible and because of different reasons we all forget this. By telling children “Don’t do that!” “Do this!” we are introducing stress into areas that are flexible and because of this we lose flexibility and lose performance later in life.

Coach Kawamura taught me a lot things today that I wish more adults and coaches knew.

 

Freedom is so important.

 

-Kobayashi