<Nana Takatsu profile>
Member of Aoyama Gakuin University Swimming Club, Swimming Club Team Style1, Fin Swimming AQUA FinD
Started swimming at the age of 3, and began fin swimming in parallel with competitive swimming in the first year of high school. In the swimming junior Olympics in his third year of high school, he placed 5th in the 50m butterfly and 6th in the 100m butterfly. In December of the same year, he participated in the Asian Championship in the senior division. Won 3rd place bronze medal in women's 4x100m surface relay and 2nd place silver medal in mixed 4x50m surface relay.
At the Finswimming World Cup held in September 2018, he became the first senior to win a bronze medal in the 50m surface.
“I started playing fins because I thought it would be fun to make use of my kicks.”
Basically, I thought, "If you don't enjoy it, there's no point in doing it." I've always been good at kicking, but swimming doesn't have a kick event. When I happened to learn about finswimming, I felt like my wish had come true, saying, "I can use my kicks with this!" For me, the appeal of finswimming is that I can make the most of my kicking power rather than my arm strength.
“My style is to have fun while incorporating other sports.”
Swimming is the only swimmer for most athletes, but I also love other sports. I think that the way the body is treated in other sports is useful in swimming as a result. Until the third year of junior high school, I competed in skiing as well as swimming, so I still continue skiing to improve my core and leg strength. You want to be physically active, such as marine sports in the sea in the summer and skiing and snowboarding in the winter. I want to have fun pushing myself, so when I don't feel like swimming, I take the initiative to play a different sport, and the next day I try swimming again. I'm going out! You may think that, but in the end, I think it would be nice if I could train in my own style and get the best time!
“While eating various types of food, adjust your diet without reducing the amount you eat.”
I am conscious of not biasing my diet and changing my diet according to the time and situation. If you leave it alone, it will eat all the foods it likes, so make a conscious effort to actively eat a variety of foods. Also, make sure you eat plenty of protein and carbs. I don't reduce the amount, but I think about the content from time to time. Conversely, after the competition, I eat whatever I want.
"When you're in a slump, focus on what you're doing right now."
When I was in the third year of junior high school, I was able to swim in the national finals for the first time in a swimming competition, but in high school I could hardly get the best, so I was worried because I could not change myself. "Why do you keep going when it's not fun?" But I had a goal ahead of me, "I want to be a top player!" First find out why it doesn't work. And I think it's important not to get too hung up on the results in front of you. I made a conscious effort to confirm what I was doing, even just a little, and come up with a concrete plan to improve what I wasn't doing. Also, when things aren't going well, I ask my coach to give me an objective perspective. If I'm the only one, I tend to focus on the small things in front of me and lose sight of my future goals.
“Ever since I was in elementary school, I have been thinking about how to prepare myself for the race.”
Since I was in elementary school, I have been thinking about how to prepare myself for the race in order to achieve results in the competition. I think the important thing is how you feel about the race. I don't think I practice that much, but anyway, I think, 'I'll do my best in the game.' On the day of the race, I can't change the amount of practice I've done so far, so I'm confident that I can do my best in my regular practice. I think the result depends on whether you can confidently think that you can do it.
“My future goal is to become a person who can stand shoulder to shoulder with athletes from powerful countries.”
I have a new record in Japan, but I think I still have a long way to go when I look at it from a global perspective. In the future, I would like to be conscious of world-class times in order to set new Japanese records. As a finn player, I don't have enough experience, and I'm small compared to players from strong countries. The closest goal is to reach the finals of the World Championships and qualify for the World Games. And I want to be on par with players from powerful countries. From now on, I would like to actively engage with athletes from around the world. In order to communicate with them, I want to study English so that I can say what I want to say and hear what I want to hear.
- Takatsu's favorite WEAR -
Nana Takatsu (from Tokyo)
■Event: Fin Swimming Surfis / Apnea
■ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nanatakatsu/
