Tokyo Fighters B.C Members Explain What Draws People to Wheelchair Basketball
The Motto: "Win and Enjoy Yourself"
Tokyo Fighters B.C is a wheelchair basketball team founded around 1979. It distinguishes itself from the many teams in Tokyo with its long history and has participated in many tournaments, including the Emperor's Cup national championships. One notable aspect of the team is its variety: it has 10 players, including both those with and without disability, men, women, and members of various ages. The team even includes one player who competed at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, and another who will participate in the Paris Paralympics this year, both in the women's national team.
The team's motto is "win and enjoy yourself," according to captain Morooka Shinnosuke. They do not just want to have fun playing the sport but also to focus on being a winning athlete, training 2-3 times a week in order to become the top team in Japan.
In many sports for people with disabilities, players are divided into classes according to their level of impairment. In wheelchair basketball, however, five players with different degrees of disability play as a team. Therefore, each player has different tactics depending on the severity of their disability. Players freely move their wheelchairs, making full use of steady passes, intense contact, and wheelchair-friendly techniques to play fast-paced, aggressive matches.
Morooka describes the appeal as "people being able to compete in the same arena in a wheelchair, regardless of the severity of their disability or lack thereof." He continues, "For example, a woman about 150 cm tall can block an attack from a man over 180 cm tall. I think it's a different appeal from normal basketball because with skills, even a small woman or a player with a severe disability can defend."
Trainers Maximize Players' Skills
In wheelchair basketball, players collide with each other and sometimes fall. In such an intense sport, support staff are crucial. Tokyo Fighters B.C has three assistants who manage preparation and cleanup before and after training, booking hotels for trips, etc. as well as four trainers who provide technical guidance, health management, injury prevention, and rehabilitation.
Inoue Ryuki is a physical therapist and one of the trainers for Tokyo Fighters B.C. He says that being a trainer for athletes with disabilities requires knowledge of training as well as an understanding of each athlete's disability.
"Even athletes in strenuous sports need considerations for their disabilities. For example, they may have difficulty with urinating, or they may need environmental accommodation for showering, so it's essential to consider such sensitive areas. They also tend to suffer from fatigue and pain more easily than the able-bodied. To provide care while keeping these points in mind is challenging but also rewarding."
The challenge for Inoue is "how to provide care for the players to maximize their skills," he says. He also voluntarily participates in training courses to utilize his skills and know-how to aid players. "I'd like to contribute to the players by continuing to put effort into what I can do as a trainer and realize the players' goal of competing in the Emperor's Cup (held from January 31 to February 2, 2025)."
Sights Set on the Emperor's Cup
Tokyo Fighters B.C. used to be a regular participant in the Emperor's Cup, the only tournament to determine the best wheelchair basketball club in Japan. However, it has not been able to play since 2013 due to a lack of young players joining or the number of available spots in the championship being cut.
Morooka shares his future ambitions: "I love the Tokyo Fighters B.C, and I care about it like a family, and that's why I want to go to the Emperor's Cup with this team. I want to lead the veteran players who trained me back to the championship, and I also want to give the younger players who joined the team to play with me a chance to experience it, so I'm going to keep pushing our team as its captain."
For those interested in wheelchair basketball, one of the players, Kashiwagi Minoru, says to "give it a shot, for starters." Many people might worry that they cannot play such an intense sport, but head coach Tamura Nobuya, who is also a player, has a message for those people, with a quote that represents the spirit of the Paralympics.
"Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, who is called the father of the Paralympics, once said, 'It's ability, not disability, that counts.' Instead of giving up because you have a disability, why don't you gradually increase what you can do despite your disability? It can also be an opportunity for able-bodied people to learn how to operate wheelchairs and see from the perspectives of people with disabilities. If you are even slightly interested, I hope you will give it a try."
We hope to see Tokyo Fighters B.C qualify for the Emperor's Cup next year.
Tokyo Fighters B.C
