“The Power of Sports is Open to All”
Guided by its founding philosophy “Anima Sana In Corpore Sano”—a Sound Mind in a Sound Body, ASICS aims to realize a world where all people can achieve happy and healthy lives, both mentally and physically. To fulfill this aim, the ASICS Group is promoting initiatives for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) across the entire Group with a view to creating a society where everyone, regardless of disability, can participate in sports equitably.
As one of those initiatives, ASICS hosted a wheelchair basketball experience program for elementary school students with Renshi Chokai, an ASICS brand ambassador and professional wheelchair basketball player, serving as a guest instructor. This event was held at the Shinjuku Sports Center, which ASICS Sports Facilities Corporation has contracted to manage and operate. It provided the children with a valuable opportunity to learn and become more aware of disabilities while enjoying their first experience with a parasport.
The more difficult the first experience with a sport, the stronger the feeling of achievement
A total of 22 elementary school students, from first to sixth graders, participated in the program. Since this was the first time for most of the children to use a wheelchair, the program started with practice in basic movements. At first, the children tried to move the wheelchairs hesitantly, but Mr. Chokai’s tips on how to control a wheelchair enabled them to gradually increase the speed and change direction.
After they became somewhat accustomed to controlling their wheelchair, they were assigned the next challenge: to play “wheelchair tag” and move around in cooperation with other participants. Playing the role of “It,” Chokai chased the children in pursuit of the ball, and the children tried hard to escape so as not to have the ball snatched from them. Soon after the game began, the children often bumped into each other and dropped passes. However, they gradually improved their teamwork through communication, devising a strategy together with each other and moving according to it.
In the final part of the program, Chokai joined the children in a wheelchair basketball game between two teams! During the game, the children’s expressions changed impressively, looking serious when attempting to score a basket and smiling when it was successful. Chokai occasionally demonstrated a professional play, such as cutting or dribbling, and also gave the children words of encouragement, livening up the game.
Message from Chokai: Take a further step beyond your awareness
During the Q&A session toward the end of the event, the children asked the instructor many frank questions that arose from their experience, about topics ranging from practice to everyday life.
Q: How long do you train a day?
Chokai: “About 10 hours a day. I make sure I do wheelchair runs and take at least 300 shots a day.”
Q: What difficulties do you face while using your wheelchair?
Chokai: “Traveling on steps and slopes is difficult with a wheelchair, so I use an elevator. If you encounter a wheelchair user in the same elevator as you, please clear a space for them when they are entering and leaving. This will help them get on and off more easily.”
Q: What is your daily life like?
Chokai: “My daily life is quite like yours. Just as you do, I have meals, take baths, and go to the toilet. I just do such everyday things in my wheelchair.”
“I just use a wheelchair and am not someone special.”
By emphasizing that, he provided the children with a new, significant insight.
The event was capped by his following message to the children:
“I believe this experience program has made you aware of the difficulties wheelchair users face. I hope you will become able to notice those who are facing difficulties around you and help them without hesitation.”
The essence of his message to the children: People with disabilities live “together with them” in their neighborhoods
After the event ended, we interviewed Chokai.
Q: What is your impression of today’s experience program?
Chokai: The children looked nervous at first, but I was impressed to see their expressions changing—looking serious when making plays and smiling when successfully shooting a basket. What delighted me the most was when they said, “I really enjoyed the program” and “I want to play again.”
Q: What was your main message to the children in this experience program?
Chokai: The very essence of my message was that people with disabilities live together with them in their neighborhoods. I hope that the first-hand experience has made the children aware of what is difficult about maneuvering a wheelchair and what problems wheelchair users face. I also hope that today’s program allowed the children to take their first step toward full awareness of such things.
ASICS' aspiration to spread learning through sports
We believe that their experience of playing on the same court as the professional player Chokai and his message that people with disabilities are their neighbors instead of being special have inspired the children to think of disabilities as something close to them rather than something unrelated or unfamiliar.
We also believe that the large number of questions they asked Chokai resulted from their first-hand experience of riding a wheelchair, which aroused their interest and curiosity. In this sense, the event also reminded us, as the organizer, of the power that sports have as an opportunity for learning.
ASICS places high value on providing people with this kind of opportunity to experience diversity. We organize experience programs focusing on various parasports, including goalball, sponsor various parasports competitions, and make ASICS-organized events universally accessible.
We will continue our initiative to expand opportunities for learning through sports to engage with many more people.
