AKARI head coach Taka Minowa made it a point to take the team’s pre-playoffs training sessions up a notch — the Japanese way.
The 33-year-old Fukui-born mentor upped the ante for the struggling Chargers’ preparations — one that lost six of its 11 prelims matches — by employing high-intensity Japanese drills mainly centered on defense.
“As a Japanese, I’m already used to lead high-intensity practices,” Minowa said.
“We already have intense practices, but before the game day, (our energy) is kind of low. Two days or three days (prior), it was much higher.”
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Such a leveled-up approach wasn’t just for the sake of rubbing off his Japanese ways on the rest of the Chargers.
Minowa deemed it necessary for his young team to be exposed early to the nuances of the international game starting with their practices.
“We’re a young team. We need to maximize the training time for building a team to make it better. Maybe in the future, they will also get used to (it). That's what I'm believing,” the Akari mentor said.
That all-out approach didn’t just reflect in training. Minowa played an intense tactical game by shuffling his deck of aces often over the two-hour, 21-minute contest.
In the end, he was able to crack Lerma Giron and the rest of the Highrisers’ strategy by switching up Akari’s defensive schemes and putting one of his top scoring aces in Eli Soyud in prime position to go for the jugular in Set 5.
“We are able to change the position, change the player, and everyone is able to play well, especially in the third set. They are also preparing for our outside hitter.
“And then, Eli, because that's also our plan from the third set or from the fourth set because every time we are passing, going to zone 4, and then also hitting, going to outside, the opponent already adjusts,” Minowa shared.
“We just change the rotation to maximize using Eli.”
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