すべてのカテゴリ

Sayonara...for now.

7/31/2022

This is the final Sabers AD blog post from me, Peter Heimer. I turn over the blog writing to Mr. Toshifumi Mitsuhashi, who will take over my athletic director duties with a new title of Director of Student Activities. Mitsuhashi-sensei is the right person to oversee the Sabers program. He will do a great job and I wish him and all Sabers athletes the best.

I am leaving SOIS and Minoh and Osaka and Japan to return to my hometown in Iowa, USA, where I will take on a new position as a high school English teacher. It was a difficult decision to leave a place I love so much. My professional career developed here. I got married and had a family here. I made so many international friends here.
I grew as a person here. I will miss SOIS and Japan very much.

My three grown children all live in Iowa now and my elderly mother needs someone to look after her, so being close to family is the main reason for our move. My wife and I want to start a new chapter in our lives, so off we go - leaving behind many great friends and fond memories. Don’t worry: I’ll keep in touch and visit as often as I can.

I’ve worked at SOIS since April 1994, about 28 years. I started as an SIS English teacher, and served a few years as the SIS English department chair, and I’ve taught SIS English the whole time. For 6 years, 2003-09, I was the OIS director of academic affairs (timetabling, grade reporting). For 8 years, 2003-11, I was the IBDP coordinator. Then,
for the past 11 years, 2011-22, I was the SOIS athletic director. For some years I was an OIS language support teacher. I was a homeroom teacher for both SIS and OIS, and I coached and refereed and led camps and read to elementary students and performed in school productions and helped build the SOIS School of Hope in Cambodia and did all the things all teachers do in a small learning community. It’s been fantastic.

What I love most about SOIS is my relationship with the students. My job was to teach students, but I feel like the students taught me so much more. One special group of students always were teaching me: the Sabers Sports Council (SSC) students. I will miss the SOIS students, faculty, and staff.

If you missed it, here is my “jumping jacks” send-off to the SIS student body. And I really enjoyed Eun’s OIS farewell speech for me.

Everyone has been so kind to me and my family. We hope you can visit us in Iowa someday. You can email me at peteheimer@gmail.com.

Sayonara, for now. Be strong, Sabers strong. And go-ooooo Sabers!

My new school in Iowa has a slightly bigger weight room!

School song: "Go Sabers!"

3/21/2022

Regular readers of the Sabers AD blog might remember a previous entry about an unofficial school song, one
written by a group of SIS students in 2001 to commemorate their high school graduation.

Well, we now have another musical piece that I think we can consider as an official school song. This song, entitled “Go Sabers”, was written by longtime SIS social studies teacher and Sabers baseball coach, Mr. Daisuke Nojima
(who goes by the musical pen name of Ryoji Haebaru). Nojima-sensei taught at SOIS since its opening in 1991.
He officially retired at the end of the SIS school year in March 2022 after a tremendous 31-year career. In his farewell speech to the student body, Coach Nojima played his own recording of the song, singing the lyrics of the chorus.
The lyrics of each verse he has left to the student body to write in the future.

A picture of Nojima-sensei is below, along with photos of his musical score and a letter of explanation. A CD of the song is in the AD office.

Thank you, Nojima-sensei, for so many things: your 31 years of service to the school as a classroom teacher, your many years of coaching the Sabers baseball teams to many victories, your long friendship with so many people, and your gift of music to the future of the school community. お疲れ様でした！

Student safety and unintended consequences, part 2 (of 2)

11/26/2021

In my previous blog entry I argue that the restrictions placed on strength training at SOIS - based on the belief that lifting free weights is dangerous - has the unintended, ironic consequence of putting our Sabers athletes in danger of physical injury by allowing them to compete while they are not physically prepared to do so. It’s a debatable point.

Here’s another debatable point about unintended consequences, also related to putting Sabers athletes in danger of physical injury by allowing them to compete while they are not physically prepared to do so. This argument is about the reduction of practice time for varsity athletes.

In August 2021, at the start of the 2021-22 Sabers athletic year, an administrative decision was made to reduce the number of weekly practices for Sabers high school teams from 3 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) to 2 (Monday, Friday). The reason for this reduction is that faculty meetings are held every Wednesday and all faculty members must attend, meaning that coaches are not available to coach on Wednesdays because they are attending meetings. (Before, coaches were allowed to miss faculty meetings.)

Students are required to go home at 4:30 on Wednesdays.

I disagree with this decision. Had I been given the chance, as the athletic director and a Sabers coach, I would have argued that it could be easily arranged so that coaches attend 90% of all faculty meetings. I would have pointed out that because the Sabers often play games on Fridays they don’t practice on Fridays; therefore, practices are often effectively cut to only once a week. I might argue that there aren’t always meetings for all teachers on Wednesdays. I’m tempted to cheekily point out that dozens of students play on the field after school on Wednesdays unsupervised and long past 4:30.

But my main argument is this: A reduction in weekly practices puts our Sabers athletes in a physically dangerous situation. Fewer practices will lead to more physical injuries. This is obvious and predictable. Anecdotally, it has happened many times before. If we know - or strongly suspect, or at least recognize the possibility - that reduced practice time will lead to a greater chance of injury, how can we in good conscience continue with this change?

One or two practices a week do not provide enough time to practice skills, to practice strategy, and to conduct physical conditioning (active warmups, cardiovascular conditioning, cool-down stretching). I predict that physical conditioning gets dropped and that Sabers athletes will get hurt in games.

So, another unintended consequence: To create more after-school meeting time for SOIS teachers, we reduce practice time for Sabers athletes and, unintentionally, increase the chance of injury. But this is a predictable consequence, one that we can intentionally avoid. Why don’t we?

Student safety and unintended consequences, part 1 (of 2)

11/19/2021

This is a controversial post, but as athletic director I feel compelled to express what I think is a vital viewpoint for Sabers athletics.

I am confident that the priority of the SOIS athletic department and all SOIS teachers and administrators and coaches is student safety. Student safety forms the basis of all decisions made about student activities.

Student safety and wellbeing can take many forms: physical, social, emotional, academic. For this blog entry, I am thinking of the physical safety and wellbeing of our Sabers student athletes, mainly from an injury-prevention standpoint.

All SOIS teachers, coaches, and administrators fully agree that student physical safety is paramount. Some of us have different points of view on how to promote or protect physical safety. These differences can lead to unintended consequences.

One specific example of different viewpoints is related to strength training and the role it can play in promoting physical safety. Some at school view strength training, particularly with barbells and dumbbells, or what we call “free weights”, to be a danger to physical safety. Others (only me?) view strength training to be essential in promoting physical safety.

What follows is a long roundabout route to my main point, which is this: at SOIS, strength training - with machines, free weights, and body weight - should be promoted and encouraged, not limited or prevented, as a key component to our shared goal of enhancing student physical safety.

Terms and facilities, as background:

The phrase “promoting physical safety” means the physical conditioning of Sabers athletes so that they are less prone to bodily injury, such as sprained ankles, twisted knees, pulled muscles, and heat exhaustion.
The school has two strength training areas.

One area is the original school weight room, located on the lower level of the school near the PE office and the boys locker room. The weight room is equipped with 8 large training machines, which were considered state-of-the-art when they were installed in the school prior to its opening in 1991, and some treadmills and stationary bicycles. There is a narrow closet attached to the weight room where some dumbbells and barbells and a power rack are located for students who want to use free weights.
The other strength training area is called the Sabers Fitness Floor and is located on the upper level of the gym. This area contains mainly only free weights: two power racks, dumbbells, barbells, plates, medicine balls, battle ropes, along with a stationary bicycle and a rowing machine. This area was set up in June 2017 after a long fundraising campaign.

The machines in the downstairs weight room are, in my opinion, outdated and dangerous. Their technology is over 40 years old. They are designed for a US commercial fitness club clientele of American-sized adults. The movement patterns of the machines do not mimic the full range of body motion required by athletes. Indeed, the machines restrict young and small students’ movements in a way that can pull tendons and ligaments in jerky, dangerous ways. I’ve witnessed this many times and have helped young students “escape” from a machine.
The narrow closet adjacent to the weight room has free weights. The space in the closet is dangerously small, less than 1.5 meters wide. There is not enough room for more than 3-4 athletes to exercise safely, taking turns. There is no outside visibility to the closet and it is not directly supervised. It presents a dangerous and unattractive training situation; therefore, it is often locked and unavailable to student use outside of class.
The Sabers Fitness Floor in the gym does not have machines. It is equipped with age- and ability level-appropriate free weights in an open, visible area that, in the past at least, has often been directly supervised by a teacher on the floor with the students or at least indirectly supervised by coaches on the gym floor. Students who wanted to use the Fitness Floor, at least in the past, had to go through an orientation session that emphasized safety. Training with barbells and dumbbells and body weight is the style of training promoted on the Sabers Fitness Floor.

OK, with the facilities situation now explained - my unbiased view of it, anyway! - I’ll move on toward making my main point.

When the Sabers Fitness Floor was first opened, after approval and understanding from administrators, the PE office, the elementary PE teacher, and the table tennis coach, some last-minute opposition to the Fitness Floor was expressed. The main objection was that lifting free weights is dangerous; you can hurt your back. Other objections were that using the weights after school would be too noisy for volleyball and basketball practice, that boys would create a distraction by taking off their shirts, and that lifting weights makes you short.

It is easy to counter these objections. Nonetheless, use of the Sabers Fitness Floor has been limited and restricted and sometimes stopped.

Despite modern prevailing thought, at SOIS there seems to be some underlying opposition to strength training with free weights. I can’t say for sure where this opposition comes from. I suspect it stems from a lack of understanding and experience, perhaps a fear of trying something new - which in almost every other situation at SOIS is NOT the case, which makes the situation all the more baffling.

Anyway, my main point: Studies and research have shown that strength training can help strengthen muscles, bones, joints, tendons, and ligaments. It can help develop balance, coordination, speed, power, and explosiveness.
It can help build confidence and self-esteem. It is a key component to weight loss and weight control. It can help prevent injuries on the gym floor and on the field. It is not inherently dangerous.

I think restricting the use of the Sabers Fitness Floor - and the related lack of off-season strength and conditioning - based on the belief that strength training is dangerous has the unintended, ironic consequence of allowing a truly dangerous situation to continue with Sabers athletics.

Allowing Sabers athletes to compete in WJAA and AISA varsity level competitions without proper training and conditioning is inherently dangerous. Allowing inexperienced 6th and 7th graders to compete with very little practice or training is dangerous. This danger is predictable. Injuries happen virtually every season. We know a young Sabers athlete will get hurt. Fortunately, over the years at SOIS, we’ve been relatively lucky in that most athlete injuries have been minor: sprains and bruises and scrapes. But we have had damaged ACLs, torn ligaments, dislocated shoulders, broken bones, concussions.

I know, I know: There is no way to prove that past injuries would not have happened if only our students had been strength training. And athletes around the world who do lift weights also get injured. I know this. It’s just that our athletes, at the start of a season, many of whom are beginners and some of whom have been largely inactive since the previous year, practice only 2 or 3 times before their first full-speed competition. This is not an ideal, safe situation. In fact, at many schools it is not allowed.

There are no easy fixes, I know. But wouldn’t some off-season strength and conditioning help at least a little bit? Yes, it would. Couldn’t we encourage use of the Sabers Fitness Floor rather than restrict it? Yes, we could. I think the benefits could last a lifetime. (You could ask OIS graduate Evan Shore.)

Starting Strength, barbell training, Evan Shore, and Miller Lite Beer TV commercials

5/29/2020

If you’ve spent any time on the Sabers Fitness Floor while I am there, you know that I can’t help myself from telling everyone “a better way” to do whatever it is they are trying to do. On the Fitness Floor, we promote barbell training (emphasis on the word “training”). More specifically: heavy barbell training with full range of motion, compound, multi-joint athletic movements. Even more specifically: squats, deadlifts, presses, cleans, and did I mention squats and deadlifts? We practice these kinds of lifts in order to improve strength and power in the belief that greater strength and power will lead to better and safer performances in the Sabers gym and on the Sabers field, not to mention an overall improvement in physical health and mental wellbeing.

(An aside: This approach differs from the use of machine-based single-joint isolation exercises, the ones where you get to sit down on a padded seat.
Don’t get me started on the topic of which approach I think is better.)

A guy can dream, can't he?

4/20/2018

Very few PE programs in the US in the 1960s were actually like the one at La Sierra High School, so don’t get too nostalgic about the good ol’ days. But, still, I wish we could implement a similar program in middle schools and high schools today.

A daily 12-minute routine with scientifically proven physical, emotional, mental, social, and academic benefits - with little cost. What’s not to like?

I know, I know: never going to happen. But a guy can dream, can’t he?

Check out the program's Facebook page and the documentary about the program.

Practice makes perfect? 15 tips

9/22/2017

We've all heard the adage "practice makes perfect." And many of us have heard an amended version: "perfect practice makes perfect." But, of course, no one is perfect and, in the world of sports, players almost never perform perfectly. Pro baseball batters fail 70% of the time. Pro basketball players miss over half their shots. Pro bowlers do roll a perfect 300 game, but rarely.

At Sabers athletics, we prefer the phrase "practice makes permanent." The way you practice leads to the way you usually perform on the court or field. If you always practice with proper technique and a positive attitude, you will play with proper technique and a positive attitude, Good practice leads to good play. On the flip side, poor practice can lead to poor play.

SOIS school song?

2/26/2016

SOIS does not have a school song. I wish we did. I wish I could write one.

Three SIS graduates (class of 2001; Mishima-sensei, Hirota-sensei, and I were three of their HR teachers; current SOIS school nurse Inoue-sensei was a member of that class) formed a band in high school called "Core of Soul." The lead singer wrote a song - "The Spirit of This Place" - to commemorate their graduation, and she performed it at the graduation ceremony with 2 classmates. The song is a sincere, heartfelt testament to the students' love of their school. And catchy, too, at least to this old man's ears. I consider this song, unofficially at least, as the SOIS school song.

The Spirt of this Place (YouTube)
Lyrics 日本語

What do you think of the song?

Lyrics, romaji
The Spirit of this Place
Nanigenaku itsumo aruiteta rouka ni
Mada osanakatta waraigoe ga hibiite wa kieru
Anna ni adokenakatta noni
Mou konna ni ookiku nacchatta yo
Ano koro wa nani mo kangaete inakatta noni

We are graduating!
Bokura wo tsukutte iru kakera
Sore ga kimi ya ano hito to no omoide
Bokura ga tashika ni koko ni sonzai shita shouko ga
The spirit of this place

Furikaette mireba itazura ni
Tanoshii toka tsumannai toka itteta kedo
Itsu shika bokura no senaka ni wa hitotsu zutsu
Iro no chigau hane ga haete kiteta
Betsubetsu no michi ayumu koto wakatteta noni

We're graduating!
Ookiku yasashiku tsuyoku hashiridasou
Hanaretemo bokura wo tsunagu omoide
Jishin okko to shite mayou toki ni mo
You have the spirit of this place
The spirit of this place

Naka niwa de no hirune
kafe no zawameki, the echo in the gym
Kowareta blinds goshi field wo utsu ame
Locker wo tojiru oto mo zenbu zenbu

Arigatou
Kenka mo kuyashinamida mo
Nakanaori no kisses & hugs mo zenbu zenbu
Arigatou

We're graduating!
Kono saki de machiukete iru michi no kaze ni
Nagasaresou ni nattemo makeru mon ka
Datte look at yourself
Ima bokura wa ichiban ni kagayaite iru
With the spirit of this place
With the spirit of this place

I know I will miss this place
& the time we spent together
Together...

Unofficial English translation
The Spirit of this Place
In the hallways we always walked through casually
The echoing of young laughter will disappear
Though we were so childish,
We've grown up already
During those times, we weren't thinking of anything

We are graduating!
The pieces that made us
are the memories of all of us
The proof that we were here for sure is
the spirit of this place

When we try looking back, we talked mischievously
of the fun & boring times
One by one, without realizing it,
different colored wings grew on our backs
We knew we'd walk on separate paths

We're graduating!
Let's run out larger than life, gently, strongly
Even if we separate, the memories hold us together
Even when you lose yourself & get lost
You have the spirit of this place
The spirit of this place

Napping in the middle of the courtyard,
the noises in the cafe, the echo in the gym
Over the blinds, the raindrops on the field
Even the sounds of the closing lockers,
[we'll remember] everything, everything...

Thank you
for the fights, for the tears of regret
The hugs & kisses when we made up, everything, everything Thank you

We're graduating!
Even if we seem to get swept away by the unknown wind that lies before us, we won't give in
So, look at yourself
Right now we are the ones that shine the most
With the spirit of this place
With the spirit of this place

I know I will miss this place
& the time we spent together
Together...

Matheny Manifesto

8/26/2015

As an educator, athletic director, coach, sports fan, parent of young athletes, and former athlete, I have many perspectives on the relationships between coaches and players. (Refer to my earlier blog posts about angry coaches.) The book The Matheny Manifesto provides good insight to this issue from the view of a former major league baseball player/current MLB manager who once coached a youth baseball team. Check out Mike Matheny's website for more info about his ideas of "transformational coaching" and "service leadership." If you don't have time to read the book, I've made a list of important quotations. (You're welcome.)

(Matheny’s writing won’t win him the Man Booker award, but his ability to take a fast pitch to the jaw without flinching might win him some “Man Tough” award. Don't watch if blood gushing from the mouth makes you queasy.)

Man D or not Man D: that is the question

6/26/2015

Here at SOIS, in the Sabers middle school and high school boys basketball programs, our coaches’ strong preference is to play man-to-man defense. Coach Ray, Coach Routh and I all believe that it is vital to teach young players the fundamentals of man defense at a young age so that they can develop into better players as they get older. (Our teams play zone D, too, at times.)

Many youth basketball coaches rely on zone defenses because they think they don’t have enough time to teach man-to-man fundamentals. But to play good zone defense, players – in addition to learning how to play their individual roles in the zone – must also have sound man-to-man defensive skills (lateral movement, close-out technique, passing lane anticipation, etc.). In the end, it takes just as much time if not more to teach players how to play zone defense, if done properly. What happens, though, too often, is that youth coaches skip the man defensive fundamentals. Marginal zone defenses can work at the intermediate youth level, but this is short-sighted thinking. What about our players’ progress for the future?

Angry coaches (4)

6/8/2015

An amusing read for my fellow WJAA ADs. Be sure to read the 2 pdf documents containing the heated e-mail exchange.
A few take-aways:

Even big-time university softball programs e-mail back-and-forth about schedules and weather cancellations – just like WJAA ADs.
Lesson: Complaining or trash talking via e-mail is never a good idea (and yet so many of us do so).
I want to give Coach Hirai a new title here at SOIS: Director of Softball Operations. (Coach Kobo already has that title at MBIS.)

Angry coaches (3)

6/8/2015

The Sabers have one “angry coach”. Here is video evidence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv7EEejE_qo

Angry coaches (1)

6/7/2015

UPDATE: The coaches of the vaunted Oregon Ducks football team have taken
a no-yelling approach.

Imagine this scenario: A teacher, let’s say a middle school math teacher – an adult, trained educator – stands off to the side of a classroom, yelling at students as they try
to complete a geometry test. “Good, good. Yes, A squared times B squared equals…?
You can do this. No, not a rectangle. that’s a trapezoid! Come on! What are you doing? We’ve practiced this.”

Angry coaches (2)

6/7/2015

More food for thought: another “angry coaches” Internet article. The author is direct and outspoken. Too harsh?

Go-getters

6/6/2015

Teaching is certainly not a 9-to-5 job, and teachers do not leave their work behind at the office when they go home. Sabers coaches, in particular, put in long hours working with our student-athletes after school and on Saturdays (and a few school holidays).

Some coaches (and many non-coaches, too, of course) are “go-getters”. Sabers coaches do not coach for pay, power, or prestige – they do it for the students; they are “go-getters”, and they enjoy what they do.

This The Atlantic article suggests that in many work environments being a competent go-getter is not fun.

Sabers AD blog

6/6/2015

This blog is written by Mr. Peter Heimer, the activities director for Senri and Osaka International Schools (SOIS). Coach Heimer has been the Sabers AD since 2011, taking over from Mr. Simon Parker. Before that, Coach Heimer has held various positions at the two schools, mostly as SIS English teacher and Sabers basketball coach. OK, after this paragraph, Coach Heimer will stop referring to himself in the third person.

I will write about various sports- and non-sports-related topics (but mostly sports-related). The views expressed here are mine only and do not necessarily represent opinions of the school.

Thank you for reading. Feedback welcome anytime. pheimer@senri.ed.jp

AISA expansion

6/1/2015

SOIS belongs to a 5-school international activities league called the Association of International Schools in Asia (AISA for short).
AISA information here.

Difficult - but fun, important - decisions: Sabers Awards

5/31/2015

The beginning of June finds the Sabers sports program winding down as we prepare for the annual Sabers athletic awards celebration.

SOISでは毎年6月、2部に分けてセイバーズのハイスクールのスポーツ選手を表彰する祝賀会を行います。
1部目では、シアターにおいて全てのチームの成功をスライドショーやスピーチで紹介し、それぞれのチームで、シーズン中最も努力し、その結果成長した選手に「若竹賞」、スポーツの技能、スポーツマンシップ、リーダーシップ全てに優れ、チームの向上、活躍に貢献した選手に「最優秀選手賞」を授与します。