LIHU‘E — Island School volleyball player Brittany Valentino got to learn the game from a global perspective during Wednesday afternoon’s instructional volleyball camp at Island School gymnasium.
The camp, which features instructors from a Japanese-based volleyball company, OHCA Global Support, came and taught kids at Kapa‘a, Waimea High School, Island, and Kaua‘i High techniques in Japanese-style volleyball.
The lessons were valuable, according to Valentino, and 8th-grader, trying to learn a different style of play.
Valentino was one of the estimated 40 kids to learn from three Japanese instructors, including full-time volleyball players Shun Nakamura, Reiko Tomizuka, and Nobuko Yonemura, along with co-founder Sachiko Miyake.
“It felt good learning a new style,” Valentino said. “Not everyone on the island gets a chance to learn another style like we did because it is a small island. It’s neat to see players from around the world, and players from a high level of volleyball, come and want to teach us the style of volleyball from where they are from.”
Miyake, who co-founded OHCA Global Support, learned about Kaua‘i when the Ike Loa volleyball club team visited Osaka last year to scrimmage with local teams in Japan.
After Ike Loa club director Josh Mecham learned about OHCA Global Support, he invited them to come to Kaua‘i to put on an instructional clinic, teaching the fundamental elements of volleyball.
Miyake, who played club volleyball at the University of Washington, founded her company in 2016, which helped place seven volleyball players into scholarships in the United States.
She noticed a difference in philosophical approaches between the United States and Japan’s style of volleyball.
“When I was playing club sports, I was shocked to learn how much fun volleyball could be in the United States,” Miyake said. “In Japan, you get nervous about making a mistake, and over in the US, when someone made a mistake, everyone was encouraging. In Japan, a lot of players only concentrate on playing volleyball when they are younger, and it is hard for some of those players to get jobs after (their career is over).”
Miyake hopes the island kids come away with additional skills from the instructional camp.
“We spend a lot of time with basic training, and it’s not about who wins or loses. It’s about ball control, form, and lots of basic practice we spend time with,” Miyake said. “Volleyball is one of those universal languages, and by playing it, you can learn, and make friends with each other.”
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Jason Blasco, sports reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or jblasco@thegardenisland.com.
