"Growth-First Team Design: Growth is Keio Baseball"

In the summer of 2023, Keio Senior High School won the Koshien championship for the first time in 107 years, and the phrase "Enjoy Baseball" became widely known. However, I feel that its true meaning is not fully understood. Often, only the smiles during play or the length of the players' hair were highlighted, with comments suggesting that we were "enjoying ourselves without caring about winning or losing." I interpret it as "let's enjoy baseball at a higher level." Our team goal is to be "KEIO Number One in Japan," and we are obsessed with winning.

However, we draw a line at a win-at-all-costs mentality. We aim for a fair and square victory after acquiring and fully demonstrating sportsmanship. While we feel pressure and tension, I believe we can play with a "good look" on our faces because the joy and gratitude of playing against wonderful opponents on a grand stage outweigh those feelings. What we must train are the mind, technique, and body, and I believe hair length has no impact on that. We make it clear that things to be pursued as a team should be pursued by everyone, while things that should be left to individual discretion are left to the individual.

Now, what is the value of sports? Seizing victory in a match, or achieving a new record. Those are important, but it is not the resulting "win" or "achievement" that matters; rather, because we pursue them seriously, what we gain in the process is the "value." That includes sportsmanship, an unbreakable spirit, integrity, and independence. The term that encompasses all of these is "personal growth." For sports instructors in charge of the developmental generation, the top priority should be the "growth" of the athletes in front of them. I poured those thoughts into the book title "Growth-First Team Design."

People involved in sports should communicate more about the value gained through sports. If we cannot directly answer the question of what the value of sports is, the raison d'être of sports will diminish in the future. Sports have great charm and great value. People can grow through sports. Life becomes richer. Society also becomes richer. There are things I can do for that purpose. I will continue to do my best.

Growth-First Team Design——Growth is Keio Baseball

Takahiko Moribayashi

Toyokan Publishing

262 pages, 1,980 yen (tax included)