Flying Report - The Ascent from the Bottom, Naoki Nakamura's Vow to Soar at the World Championships -

The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2021, held every two years, will soon begin in Oberstdorf, Germany.

Naoki Nakamura has been selected as one of the five national team members to compete in the biggest ski jumping event of the season.
This is also proof that he is recognized as having the ability to be in the top five in Japan today.

〈2021 Nordic World Ski Championships〉
● Men's Ski Jumping Japan National Team Members
Naoki Nakamura (23 years old) Tokai University Sapporo Ski Club
Ryoyu Kobayashi (23 years old) Tsuchiya Home Ski Team
Yukiya Sato (24 years old) Megmilk Snow Brand Ski Team
Junshiro Kobayashi (28 years old) Megmilk Snow Brand Ski Team
Keiichi Sato (22 years old) Megmilk Snow Brand Ski Team

● Ski Jumping Competition Schedule
2/25 Women's Individual HS106 Final
2/26 Women's Team HS106
2/27 Men's Individual HS106 Final
2/28 Mixed Team HS106
3/3 Women's Individual HS137 Final
3/5 Men's Individual HS137 Final
3/6 Men's Team HS137
※HS: Hill Size,
HS106 corresponds to the Normal Hill, and HS137 corresponds to the Large Hill

However, Naoki Nakamura's season has not been smooth sailing up to this point. On the contrary, immediately after finishing the Four Hills Tournament in January, he was wandering in a darkness he had never experienced before.

What kind of inner conflict was behind his ability to break out of that predicament? How was Naoki Nakamura able to escape that dark tunnel? On February 10, 2021, two days before the World Cup competition in Zakopane, Poland.
We conducted an interview by connecting via ZOOM from Tokyo to Poland. We bring you the honest, "live" voice of Naoki Nakamura, who is currently traveling the world competing as a ski jumper.

***

What Naoki Nakamura is thinking now, ahead of the World Championships

-- Thank you for making time for this interview despite being in the middle of the World Cup tour. First of all, how is your current form?

Well, it's better than it was for a while, and I think I'm in pretty good shape for this season.
In the last four competitions (the Willingen, Germany event on 1/30-31 and the Klingenthal, Germany event on 2/6-7), I felt that I was finally able to do things I hadn't been able to do before, so there were many takeaways.

-- We can see from the competition footage that your form is improving. You have also been consistently earning World Cup points.

It took some time, but I have completely broken out of the period where I wasn't getting results, and now I am able to jump with consistent performance.
I feel that if I can put together two good jumps, I can achieve some very good results.

-- With that good form, you were successfully selected as one of the five members for the 2021 World Championships. Now that you have made the team, please tell us your honest thoughts.

I was selected for the national team last time (2019) as well, but at that time I was the fifth-choice support member and was unable to compete in the events. I feel that the chance to finally clear away the frustration of that time when I couldn't compete has finally come around.

When I was left off the team last time, I truly felt a deep sense of frustration.

The four members are selected based on merit so that the Japanese team as a whole can go for the win, so I want to make the team this year and aim for a medal.

-- How are you informed about making the team?

Actually, I wasn't told at all on-site; I first found out I had been selected for the national team while chatting in 'Flying Laboratory,' the online community I run (laughs).

-- Through a chat with your community members!?

There wasn't really a meeting, so it felt like I only found out once the official information was released. While I was chatting, a member of 'Flying Laboratory' wrote, 'You've been selected for the national team! (^o^)'

I suppose for other athletes, they are working with corporate teams or similar, so information is sent from their team coaches, but since I am competing alone as the president of Flying Laboratory Co., Ltd., I think that part is just unique (laughs).

Regaining the feeling of 'being myself, Naoki Nakamura, and enjoying the jump'

-- You struggled quite a bit from the beginning to the middle of this season, didn't you?

That's right. It was hard to get results.

-- In particular, during the Four Hills Tournament in January, you couldn't advance to the second round and failed to earn World Cup points, which put you in a major crisis where you lost your own World Cup entry quota. What kind of mindset did you have while continuing to compete?

Back then, the phrase 'World Cup points' was always in the back of my mind... Looking back now, I think, 'I wasn't enjoying my jumps.' It was like I was in a state where I had no mental breathing room, thinking, 'I must get points no matter what!' I think one of the factors that caused me to struggle early on was being trapped by the feeling of, 'I need better results. More, more!'

—So, the pressure of needing to score points was affecting your mental state without you even realizing it.

I was in a situation where if I lost my points, the Japanese team's overall quota would decrease, so I felt that I absolutely had to avoid that. I was in a state of mind where I was obsessing over it on my own.
I tried hard to forget about the World Cup points, but in the end, those feelings would manifest in my jumps.
As the deadline for my World Cup points to expire drew closer, I felt like I was preparing properly for the competitions, yet the results just wouldn't come...
When I tried to raise the level of my preparation thinking, 'Then I must prepare even more,' I ended up overworking myself...
I think it was a period where I just couldn't find the right balance.

—It must be mentally exhausting to know that your own performance affects the entire Japanese team's entry quota...

However, I have that experience now, and if I hadn't gone through that process, I wouldn't be here today, so it wasn't a bad thing. On the contrary, I now feel that it was truly good to have had such a painful experience. Even though it's the same sport of ski jumping, my perspective now is completely different from back then.

The fact that I struggled and agonized back then, asking myself 'What is wrong, what can I do to improve?' and 'Why can't I jump well even though I'm preparing so much?' is the reason why my adjustments are going well now. So, I have absolutely no regrets, like 'I should have changed that back then.'

—What kind of discoveries led to where you are now?

At the time, what really stood out was the fact that 'things wouldn't go well when it came to the actual competition.'
When I looked into the reason for this, there were no glaring technical flaws.
I had been practicing since the summer and had been going through trial and error throughout this winter's World Cup, so it wasn't a case of 'I can't compete on the world stage unless I fix this technical issue.' The primary phenomenon was that 'I have good jumps in practice, but for some reason, I fail in the actual competition,' and to solve that, I realized I needed to incorporate not just physical training, but mental training as well. That's why I started working on mental strengthening in mid-January.

—So you decided to re-examine the mental aspect.

I had just lost my World Cup entry quota and was competing in the Continental Cup, which is one level lower. Usually, in such cases, it was customary for me to leave the Japanese team and travel to competitions alone.

But this time, the head coach of the Japanese national team, Hideharu Miyahira, accompanied me to the Continental Cup.
This was huge for me personally.
I believe that the discussions I had with Head Coach Miyahira during that tour, where we kept saying, 'Let's try this, let's try that,' are what led to me being able to jump consistently now.

Resurrection from rock bottom. The time spent with Head Coach Miyahira and a single coincidence became a beacon of hope.

—What specific initiatives did you undertake?

First, I talked with Head Coach Miyahira about what I was struggling with and what actions I had taken in response to that struggle.
It wasn't a formal discussion where we sat across from each other at a table and argued; rather, Head Coach Miyahira invited me in a relaxed way, saying, 'Why don't we talk while we go for a run?' We ended up having a casual conversation while training together against the backdrop of the European countryside.

--Perhaps Head Coach Miyahira realized that you needed to relax, Naoki.

Head Coach Miyahira also pointed out, 'If we assume your natural potential is 100, there is definitely some reason why you aren't able to display all of it.' On top of that, he shared stories from his own days as an athlete, saying things like, 'I was in a similar situation once,' which allowed me to hear things we don't usually get to talk about, and I feel like my vector started to shift in a positive direction little by little.

Also, I happened to have a book by Ichiro with me, and I saw a passage that said, 'Stopping your preparation is a betrayal of those who support you, so you must never compromise on 100% preparation.' Seeing that, I renewed my resolve, thinking, 'I won't lose to Ichiro-san in that regard!'
To explain 'preparation' specifically, it includes various items such as weight control to get into the best physical condition when facing a competition, muscle balance control, and flexibility.

Regarding pre-competition preparation, I had experienced failures the year before last and last year, so I was working on countermeasures for this season as well. I was able to continue training to maintain muscle strength and strengthen my cardiopulmonary function without cutting corners, even during the busy World Cup tour, so I proceeded while confirming with Head Coach Miyahira, 'I think I am preparing relatively well this season.'

--So you were able to rebuild yourself while taking a good, hard look at yourself.

In the midst of that, my return to the World Cup was decided.
When it was decided that I would return to the venue, I traveled by car with the head coach from Innsbruck, Austria, to a town called Willingen in Germany. It was a seven-and-a-half-hour drive.
I was in charge of the music, and I said, 'Coach, it's tough to just listen to music for seven and a half hours, isn't it? (laughs)' So, I used an app called Audible to listen to audiobooks and chose one about mindfulness called 'The Best Way to Rest,' which was exactly seven and a half hours long, saying, 'I'll play an interesting book from what I have.'

As we listened to it, the content of the book itself was a story very close to my own situation at the time.
The book discussed issues like 'why things don't go well' and 'what can be done to solve them' from a scientific perspective. As we listened to it together in the car, Head Coach Miyahira said, 'This content is exactly like you right now, Naoki. You're probably in this state.'
The book also presented solutions to the problems, so we were able to talk about it extensively during the seven-and-a-half-hour drive, with him saying things like, 'Naoki, why don't we try this mental approach next time?'

As a result, I am now working on mindfulness.
I wouldn't say that event was the turning point, but I think it was the event that significantly changed my state of mind right before I jump.

--I'm surprised that such a coincidence happened, where the content of the book you listened to during the drive happened to connect with your current situation.

I was able to link my own state with the content of the book one by one, and there was also the approach from Head Coach Miyahira. Because of that, there were many points where I had an 'Aha!' moment within myself.

--What kind of story do you remember most?

It was a story about 'a state where you are only thinking about the future and not feeling your current self.'
I think everyone has experienced this, like 'I have to get results' or 'I have to give a presentation next time,' but when you only think about the results later on, you become mentally unfocused; that is human nature, basically.
However, because you are the one who has to execute it, the methodology was to remind yourself of what you need to do now and to be able to execute it by firmly feeling your 'existence as yourself' at the present moment, and that really suited me.
To think about it specifically, when one athlete is sitting at the start gate and I am waiting, I can set aside distracting thoughts like 'I have to get results' or 'I have to jump further' by intentionally creating time to be aware of my own physicality, such as 'I'm wearing gloves, but my fingertips are cold, and my left little toe is there too.'

--So, it's like a realization in a very deep part of your mentality, or rather, the part where your thinking itself has changed has been brought out by mindfulness, and that is gradually leading to results; is that the state you are in now?

That's right. Just by being able to do in the actual competition what I was able to do in practice, I have started to be able to score points. I can say for sure that 'what I have been working on was not wrong.'
I would like to continue working on this kind of mental training in the future.

What does it mean to fight the world alone? And what do you gain from that experience?

-- Do you feel a difference in terms of competing in the World Cup on your own, as opposed to Japanese athletes who participate as part of corporate teams?

Of course, I feel the difference both mentally and financially, but in my case, every experience becomes my own nourishment, so it's definitely not a bad thing. I'm also grateful because I often get help from coaches and staff of corporate teams.
Also, in my case, I'm in a position where it's easy to talk to coaches from other countries (laughs). I actually go and ask them questions quite proactively.

-- That's amazing. Like asking, 'Tell me why Granerud is so strong?' (laughs)

I actually went to ask the Norwegian staff that the other day (laughs).

-- I was just joking, but you actually did it! (laughs)

You definitely want to know that, right? (laughs)

Ultimately, the biggest thing I gain is 'connections.' Since I have to fight in the World Cup alone, I desperately gather information, but by repeating that process, athletes and staff from other countries start saying, 'Nakamura is an interesting guy,' and that leads to us talking (laughs). In that sense, I want to continue creating more and more 'connections' in the future.

-- Come to think of it, I heard you tried living alone in Europe when you were away from the World Cup?

That's right. I rented an apartment in the city of Innsbruck and lived alone. There were quite a few things I was able to rethink, from my daily rhythm to my actions. It was also good to be able to watch everyone's jumps from the outside and use them as a reference.
Also, I thought my eating habits might have been erratic while traveling for the World Cup, so I tried cooking for myself.

-- It was incredibly interesting when you live-streamed your life alone on 'Flying Laboratory.' You even explained the ingredients you bought at the supermarket. I also love items that are 25% off (laughs).

You can't help but buy things that are on sale, right? (laughs)
Cooking was a particularly good change of pace. European athletes go back to their parents' homes during the season, and I was able to feel firsthand that they probably return to the front lines after relaxing quite a bit.
It might be an exaggeration to say I felt refreshed, but it was a trigger for me to get back to being myself.

-- How do you feel about the existence of the online community 'Flying Laboratory'?

I think I would have been truly lonely if this online community didn't exist. In terms of this season, everyone has been sharing in the trial and error I've been going through, and it has been a real encouragement.

When I interact with everyone in 'Flying Laboratory' through Facebook, I can talk without any tension, so it has become a time to take a breather and be released from the pressure of competition. It has also been a great help in terms of being able to properly switch ON/OFF as an athlete.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, when I think that 'if I don't prepare, I will be betraying the people who support me,' the faces that come to mind first are those of the members of 'Flying Laboratory'.
When I'm tired during the preparation stage or when I feel a bit of reluctance creeping in, I often think, 'I must not betray these people,' and that helps me push myself a little harder.

'Naoki Nakamura is someone who jumps with joy' — let's see a 100% jump at the World Championships!

-- Judging by the flow so far, your form is on the rise. You'll be heading into the World Championships in top condition, won't you?

That's right. After this, I will compete in four World Cup events before heading to Oberstdorf, Germany, for the World Championships.
I felt that my physical preparation, including conditioning, was close to 100% throughout this season, even during the times when I wasn't getting results. I want to continue with the same approach regarding that. It is important to pay attention to weight control while also doing strength training properly.
Based on that, I have been struggling all season with how to maintain the mental state that allows me to exert 100% of my physical power, but it was in the last two events since returning to the World Cup that things started to click. I want to make the mental approach I'm working on there my own even more through the upcoming matches. I am the one most looking forward to seeing if I can bring it to the point where it can be called a routine and put it into practice at the World Championships to achieve even better results.

-- What is your goal for the World Championships?

I have reached the point where I can break into the single digits in the training rounds, and I feel while competing in the World Cup that I am not inferior to athletes from other countries in terms of technique or physicality.
If I can put together two good jumps, advancing to the top is not a dream, and if external factors like wind and gate conditions align well, I think a podium finish is well within reach.
If I am selected for the team event, I expect to be the first jumper, the one expected to lead the charge, so I want to fulfill my role properly and give the team momentum.

At the World Championships, first of all, I will prepare myself thoroughly. And then, I will give more than 100% of my strength in both jumps.
On top of that, I am most looking forward to seeing how far I can go by having external factors like wind and gate factors on my side.

-- For those of us supporting you, the World Championships are something we are really looking forward to and can't wait for.

Now that I'm on an upward curve, my 'feeling about jumping' has also changed.
I used to pride myself on being 'the athlete who enjoys jumping the most in the competition.' But that feeling was missing until around January...
Now, while I have a part of me that says, 'Come on, let's enjoy it a little more!', I want to focus on ski jumping the moment I take off and exert the performance I am capable of to the fullest.

-- It really is true that 'Naoki Nakamura is all about flying with joy,' isn't it!

That's right. Especially when I'm able to show a good jump, it's a lot of fun.

-- Please make sure to show us that smile at the World Championships as well.

Yes. I will prepare thoroughly and do my best to make that happen!

---

<Reporting, Text, and Photos (Domestic Matches)>
Tomoki Sekiya (FlyingLaboratory member, known as 'Potayan', Twitter: @all_in_sekiya)

--------

● Online Community 'FlyingLaboratory'

● FlyingLaboratory Official Web

●FlyingLaboratory Official Note

●FlyingLaboratory Official Twitter

●Naoki Nakamura Note

●Naoki Nakamura Twitter