Taka Watanabe
My name is Takayuki Watanabe and I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. I lived in Sydney, Australia for four and a half years when I was in primary school, and it was during this time that I started playing tennis and discovered the joy of sports. I also felt that sports allow people to communicate with each other without the barrier of language, and in a sense, sports can be a language.
I have also been exposed to various other sports such as track and field, golf, and swimming. At the university, I continued to play tennis as an option and often represented the university in matches as a regular team member. I had always been physically strong, and my style of play was to make the most of it, so I trained harder and harder in pursuit of better performance. However, when it came to matches, I was always anxious, wondering if I could win, what people would say if I lost, or if the opponent looked strong, and as a result I often lost. The anxiety made my body rigid and prevented me from performing well, and I ended my first sports career without achieving my ideal results.
Release your Potential
Although I was self-aware that I had mental issues from that time, I tried to endure more rigorous practice as a means to win matches and to become a winner in competitions by gaining confidence through practice. I became interested in mental health, and by studying business coaching and psychology, I began to analyze the psychological factors of why I could not win my matches.
I put that psychological knowledge to the test in a match, and I could win the match easily. I was amazed at how much changing just one thing, changing my mindset about tennis and wiping away my psychological anxiety, could change the outcome of my game. I thought that if athletes universally had this kind of knowledge from an early stage, there would be fewer people who struggle with the mental aspect of the game. I then began my academic studies at the University of Western States, majoring in Ms. in Sport and Performance Psychology.
I feel that every individual has hidden potential, and to maximize that potential, training is necessary, I believe that mental training is one of the most important factors. Especially in the field of sports, I hope to help athletes understand themselves and create a situation in which they can perform at their best, and that the knowledge and learning that they gain in the process will be useful to them in their lives.