Last night I had a great time seeing an old friend of mine.  She was actually an athletic trainer for the women’s gym team for one year during my sophomore year.  She came all the way out (2 hours) to the university to visit me during training.

Speaking of athletic trainers, I’ve learned that most universities in Japan do not have personal athletic trainers for each athletic team.  On the other hand, most or all NCAA teams in the US has a trainer that assists during practices and travel with the team for competitions.  I think it’s great that we have such a strong support system in the US but at the same time, I think that it works against us because we get spoiled and start to rely on it too much.  Because the Japanese don’t have athletic trainers (they exist but you have to go to a clinic) on hand at all times, they need to think more about what they’re doing in terms of training, body condition, etc.  I’ve realized that they’re more in tune with their own bodies as they don’t have trainers monitor everything.  In other words, this type of situation makes them train smarter, making them much more responsible as athletes/people.  I also felt similarly when I learned that they clean their own training environment twice a week…they take care of what is their own.

It’s a different culture but I’m definitely learning a lot of good things!