インタビューvol.1 フィンスイマー松田 志保 選手

Interview vol.1 Fin swimmer Shiho Matsuda


<Profile of Shiho Matsuda>

Member of fin swimming team God Phoenix
Started swimming in 3rd grade. Active in junior Olympics and national competitions. In 2013, he encountered finswimming in his fourth year of university, and in July 2018, achieved his long-awaited advance to the final of the 50m beef fin at the World Championships, setting a new Japanese record. New Japanese record in 50m apnea. He holds multiple Japanese records in relay and short course events. I am working towards becoming the fastest fin swimmer in the world.

“I was overwhelmed by how fast it was! and started fins.”

I started finswimming in 2013. I've been swimming competitively since I was in elementary school, but I've never seen fin swimming before. I discovered finswimming through Tetsuro Tanigawa when I was a university student. When I saw it for the first time, I was overwhelmed by how fast it was!

Shiho Matsuda

Shiho Matsuda_2

"I've never thought it's hard to balance, I'm doing it because I want to do it."

Now I am balancing my work as a fin swimmer and swimming coach. I work as a swimming coach 5-6 days a week, so I usually wake up at 8:00 a.m. every day, have swimming lessons for adults in the morning, and have children's swimming lessons in the afternoon after a break. Depending on the day, there are times when I do muscle training after that. People often say, "It's hard to be both a player and a coach," but I've never thought of it as hard. I'm doing it because I want to do it, not because I have to do it! Of course, when I first started working as a coach after graduating from university, it was difficult to get used to balancing sports and work. By the way, I have a finswimming race tomorrow, but I'll be working as usual today (laughs).

Shiho Matsuda trainer

“Don’t stress yourself with food, training, and care.”

Basically, I hate stress (laughs). The most important thing for me is not to put stress on my diet, training, and care. I love chocolate and ice cream, but I don't like the stress of putting up with it, so I eat what I like and adjust the amount. There are times when I don't practice or do muscle training when I don't feel like myself. I can't practice well when I'm tired or in a bad mood, so I try to do it when I'm physically and mentally healthy according to my condition. In order to take care of the body without pain and stress, we incorporate stretching and acupuncture using Dr. Air Pole.

Shiho Matsuda

Shiho Matsuda

"Swim comfortably and comfortably by following your own senses."

It's similar to saying I don't like stress, but I value being close to my senses. The same goes for deciding whether to practice or not, and how to train. "If you do this, you'll feel like you're going faster and easier, so let's keep practicing!" Whether you can swim easily and comfortably, whether your body feels cramped, etc. I sometimes ask for advice on how to swim, but if I take it in and think, "That's not right. It's hard to do," I stop. If you can swim happily and comfortably, I think you will naturally get good results.

Shiho Matsuda

"Days of trial and error after being overwhelmed by the championship in the first year."

I didn't do well at the championship in my first year of finswimming. I thought I could do a little bit more, but I was devastated when I didn't get any results. I honestly licked it. At that time, I thought, "I'm not good at swimming in the first place." It was trial and error from there. At that time, I didn't know anything about finswimming, so I studied how to swim by watching videos of athletes from powerful countries and watching Tetsuro Tanigawa swimming without permission.

Shiho Matsuda

“The World Championship final was so much fun!

 And I was finally able to make it to the finals at the World Championships, which was my fourth year since I started finswimming. Until then, I thought No. 11 was the best and I still couldn't compete in the world. Anyway, that World Championship was so much fun! Being able to make it to the finals in the relay on the first day was a lot of fun, so I was able to enjoy swimming in the individual events on the third day as well. I was happy to be able to compete on my own, and I was really excited to see myself on the screen with music playing. It was a situation where I couldn't make it to the finals unless I did my best, but I think I was able to get a good result because I was able to swim comfortably and happily.

Shiho Matsuda

Shiho Matsuda

“I do it not because I am forced to do it, but because I enjoy it.

First of all, I think that having fun is the most important thing in order to achieve goals and leave results. Even people who have known me since my days as a competitive swimmer said, “You look like fun!” Until college, there was a time limit of four years, and there was pressure to set a time, so I think I was a “compulsory swimmer”. Of course, I still want to leave behind the results, but I don't have anything to carry that kind of meaning. Fast or slow, it's up to you. I think it's become a sense of [I'm doing it because it's fun] instead of [I'm being forced to do it]. If you are under the stress of "I have to produce results", you will not be able to achieve a time or anything.

Shiho Matsuda

“In the future, I would like to do activities to spread awareness of finswimming.”

In the future, of course, I want to achieve results as a swimmer, but I also want to actively increase activities to increase the number of people who know about finswimming. In Japan, there are still few places where you can swim with fins. That's why I want to create a place where people can see finswimming and leave results that can be picked up by the media. Finswimming is a sport that is fast and fun to use the equipment. I would like to know more about it.

Shiho Matsuda

- Matsuda's Favorite WEAR -

Shiho Matsuda

■Event: Fin Swimming Beef Fin / Surface / Apnea

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http://matsudashiho.com/

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