Sun, sand, beach, swimwear and a ball. Now, what comes to your mind? Ms. Minami Matsumura started to play beach volleyball seriously last April, and before that, she played volleyball for almost 10 years. She trains almost everyday to catch up with her sister in physical and technical condition. “My sister invited me to participate in the National Athletic Meet with her in 2006, so I decided to turn to beach volleyball. She is the one who made me want to become a beach volleyball player”, Ms. Matsumura said. Her sister has been playing beach volleyball longer than Ms. Matsumura and they are the only beach volleyball pair in Kochi - their pair is named “Queens of Beach”. They ranked in the top 16 at that National Athletic Meet even though it was their first appearance. Since then, Ms. Matsumura has been concentrating on training to make her dream come true, which is to make the London Olympics in 2012.

According to Ms. Matsumura, the most attractive point of beach volleyball compared to regular volleyball is that there are no substitutes during a game. “There are many more chances to touch the ball, put the ball in the opponent’s court and feel like I am the leading player of the game more so than in volleyball”, Ms. Matsumura insisted. She also told me that in the world of beach volleyball, the distance between the professional players and amateur players like Ms. Matsumura is closer than that of volleyball. She practiced with some professional beach volleyball players when she took part in the Phiten-sponsored Japan Tour at the end of last year. “I practiced on the same sand with professional players and even asked for some advice”, Ms. Matsumura said. However, there is an invisible barrier between volleyball professionals and amateur players. Their training is closed to outside observation, much less practicing with them and asking some advice!

As everyone experiences a difficult time in their lives, Ms. Matsumura is having a little bit of a hard time right now. “I can’t say definitely that I’m totally enjoying playing beach volleyball yet”, said Ms. Matsumura. Even though she played volleyball for 10 years, she is a novice beach volleyball player and therefore she is not good enough to play in her own way yet. Once she luckily got the opponents to fall in to her trap and told me that she felt so good. “I want to be able to make the opponents fall into my traps well, and thus I want to accumulate experiences as fast as I can to achieve a certain level. When I get to that level, I’m sure I’ll enjoy beach volleyball very much”, insisted Ms. Matsumura. Her present aim is to develop her physical strength to the same level as other players until her beach volleyball camp takes place in March in Kagoshima. “Now I’m just doing what my coach tells me to do, but I really want to be able to think and play games as I like”, noted Ms. Matsumura.

By the way, since Ms. Matsumura is a student in the Department of International Studies she has thought about studying abroad. However she gave this up and decided to play beach volleyball. Actually she was a student in an International Cultural Course when she was in high school, so her English is quite good. The reason why she chose that course is that, when she was a junior high school student, she liked English. But when she had a chance to talk with Chinese exchange students, she could hardly speak English at all and it was so regrettable for her. Because of that, she has become a good English speaker and she had a good opportunity to use English when she played in the Phiten-sponsored Japan Tour. In that tour, the top two teams from Indonesia were there and she was able to communicate with them in English though other Japanese players struggled because they couldn’t speak English. “I was happy that I can speak English”, Ms. Matsumura said.

“I used to think that I just need to improve my skills as a beach volleyball player so, frankly, I haven’t been studying so hard since entering university. But I realized that if I can’t manage what I’m supposed to do as a student, this might also be the case with beach volleyball”, said Ms. Matsumura. Needless to say, these words that Ms. Matsumura said have something in common for everyone. If you do things by halves, you’ll never be able to experience the feeling that gives you confidence. To enter the London Olympics, that is a really big dream. Most people can’t have such a dream, but Ms. Matsumura aims for it seriously and she is really working hard to make her dream come true. From talking with her, my guess is that it’s not just a dream but might actually be only a first step for her.

"It was a great opportunity for me to interview a student who is trying so hard to make her dream come true. I hope Kochi University students will be encouraged by reading this article and put their ideas into action."　Kaori Mine

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