SECOND WIND
The idea of the Japanese coach as some sort of Zen Master probably began with Kiyoshi Nakamura, the legendary advisor to 1980’s marathon superstar, Toshihiko Seko. That image, nurtured by Nakamura, and promoted both by Seko and another devotee, Japan-based Kenyan Douglas Wakiihuri, has become so implanted in the western mind that when Mari Hirata turned up, first at the New York Marathon last month, then at the Athens Classic Marathon a week later, the notion of a female Japanese coach seemed nothing short of novelty.
But that is not the only novelty about Hirata and the Second Wind club of which she is a member. Second Wind AC is a revolution in Japanese athletics.
Most athletes across the world will have discovered their talent in school, during junior or secondary education, ie up to age 16. But after that the system varies wildly from country to country. In Britain and Germany, the athletics club was born in the second part of the 19th century, when the increase in leisure time for the masses gave rise to the creation of a multitude of ‘voluntary’ associations or clubs.
The US on the other hand owes much if not most of its success to the college sports system, and the scholarships for the gifted. Like in many other countries, Japan had another variety, the corporate club, or jitsugyodan.
These appear to be less like the civil service clubs, Armed Forces, Prisons, Post Office, etc, which are still the focus of athletics in emerging nations like Kenya, but more of a recruited elite, to represent the company.
There are scores of such jitsugyodan in Japan, and their creation is linked to the almost century-long tradition of ekiden relays, the first of which were run over huge distances, eg from the former capital of Kyoto to the current one of Tokyo, a distance of close to 500 kilometres.
But Second Wind AC has broken the mould. Yet it was born out of one of the jitsugyodan, that of the Shiseido cosmetics company. When the economic recession began to bite a couple of years ago, Shiseido decided to cut back on its non-core activities, and their athletics club was the first to be threatened.
Head coach Manabu Kawagoe didn’t wait to be pushed. Having coached Team Shiseido for a lengthy period, culminating with victory in the national women’s ekiden in December 2006, he left the corporate umbrella at the end of the fiscal year three months later.
According to Brett Larner, a Canadian born musician and long distance runner, who lives in Tokyo, “Kawagoe announced that he was leaving Shiseido to try a new, more runner-oriented approach. With him went four of Shiseido’s best runners, Kiyoko Shimahara, Yuri Kano, Akemi Ozaki and Kaori Yoshida.
“Assistant coach Shigeto Osamu studied the business model developed a year earlier by his Waseda University acquaintance Taro Agui, founder of the Harriers athlete club, in which amateur runners pay to receive regular coaching from experienced professionals 2-3 times a week in a group setting. Where Harriers’ coaching staff consisted primarily of retired pros and the national duathlon champion, Osamu and Kawagoe took the model and moved it one step beyond, using his elite women as coaching staff”.
Mari Hirata also went with Kawagoe to Second Wind. Hirata, a former 2.14 schoolgirl 800 metres runner had long decided that she was going to be better as a coach. Now 30, and one of Kawagoe’s assistants, she went to New York with Kano who had a bad fall, but still managed to finish in ninth place. Hirata’s trip to Athens was far more fruitful, since another Second Wind elite, Ozaki won the Classic Marathon.
The day before the race, Hirata explained the philosophy behind Second Wind. “It is a sort of running school. We have a handful of elite runners, currently seven, and around 700 ‘student’ runners, We train in Yoyogi Park, and around the Emperor’s Palace (two popular central Tokyo training grounds). The elite runners contribute 30% of their prize money to the club, and the other members pay 6000 yen ($65) per month, in order to train with the elites, and benefit from their experience”.
Larner underlines the novel approach. “From a pro standpoint Second Wind became something very new in Japan, a group of successful pros who existed outside the jitsugyodan system and, without a single corporate sponsor like other teams, no obligation to spend time in the ekiden circuit. Another factor also made Second Wind different, its agent, American Brendan Reilly. The presence of a foreign agent and the absence of corporate pressure to stay in the Japanese race circuit and generate TV exposure for the sponsor’s logo meant that Second Wind’s women could race overseas whenever the opportunity arose. Although Shimahara and later Kano ran in major marathons such as Boston, Chicago and London, the group also took the unusual approach (for Japanese) of frequently racing second-tier races, which they could win. Shimahara, Yoshida and Ozaki all recorded overseas marathon wins this way, and the group became the most common Japanese faces overseas.
“In one week at the end of (this) summer, Second Wind also dominated the Japanese women’s scene. With Akemi Ozaki’s younger sister Yoshimi winning (marathon) silver at the Berlin World Championships, Kano was the second Japanese woman to finish, in seventh. A week later Shimahara ran a PB and set a new course record to win the Hokkaido Marathon, with Akemi Ozaki second with a new PB of her own. The three women’s achievements were seen as a validation of Kawagoe’s ideals and methods and generated new interest in the club both domestically and internationally”.
The club’s agent, Brendan Reilly is one of the more serious and interesting managers on the circuit. Like Larner, Reilly is a fluent Japanese speaker, and his Boulder Wave company has also represented Romanian elites, including Olympic champion Constantina Dita for many years.
Reilly was in Yokohama last week for the inaugural women’s marathon, where coach Kawagoe watched one of his Second Wind elites, Shimahara finish second. Reilly wrote, “I’ve been working with head coach Manabu Kawagoe for 10+ years…. As for Kiyoko Shimahara, Yuri Kano, and Akemi Ishige, I’ve been working with them during their entire careers. This includes arranging and assisting many of the overseas (i.e. altitude) training camps, overseas racing, and being together at a fair number of their domestic marathons and ekidens. As for the team’s overall success, basically, I think they have done a remarkable job, and some other athletes and sponsors should sit up and take notice of this new model”.
That echoes Hirata’s final comment to us, “We get free shoes and clothing from the equipment companies, but we could do with a major sponsor”.
Any takers?
