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Once a Thing of the Past, Midwife Care Enters the Hospital U.S. News & World ReportBy SHARI RUDAVSKY
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — When their plans to buy a house in Greenwood fell through, Bailey and Clay Orander found themselves moving from the south side to Fishers. The one hitch was that Bailey, 26, was expecting the couple’s first child and the midwife she had seen for the first 30 weeks of her pregnancy worked at Community South Hospital.
Bailey knew she wanted her child delivered by a midwife, so she and Clay considered making the 30-mile trip down to Community South.
But there was no need, it turned out. Community Hospital North had just opened a four-person midwifery practice allowing Bailey to seamlessly switch providers. Just a few weeks later, on Dec. 13, Millie Kate Orander became the first child born to the practice.
“I wanted low intervention, to do it the most natural way possible, and I know midwives are a huge advocate for that,” Bailey Orander said. “They really listen to what our preferences are, and they try to work as they can with those.”
Two area hospital systems — Community Health Network and Indiana University Health — are also listening to what their women patients want. And what pregnant women want, they believe, is the option of using a midwife to deliver their babies. Midwives have cemented their reputation for offering a natural, woman-centered approach to birth.
Community North — which delivers about 3,800 babies a year, more than any other facility in the state — opened its midwifery practice in November. IU Health has one midwife on board, expecting to deliver her first baby at IU Health Methodist in the coming days, and plans to have three additional midwives on staff by April.
“Every hospital system should have midwives on staff delivering babies,” said Shannon Greika, a board member of the Indiana Midwives Association and a midwife on the south side. “I think moms are getting more fed up with how medical things have gotten with birth, and they’re seeking to go back to a natural experience.”
The rate of births by cesarean section has skyrocketed in recent years. Nationally it hovers around 30%, and in some Indiana hospitals almost half of the babies are not delivered vaginally, Greika said. Experts attribute the rise in c-sections to multiple factors, including provider preference, a decrease in vaginal births after c-sections, and women's own preferences.
Interest in home births also has increased in the past decade, said Greika, one of five midwives in Central Indiana who do home births. She helps about 25 mothers deliver in their own homes a year.
Traditionally, hospitals in the United States have not embraced midwifery care, leaving most deliveries to obstetricians. In other countries, though, midwives bear the responsibility for the majority of deliveries.
When IU Health decided to build a maternity and newborn center at Riley Hospital for Children, shifting deliveries from its Methodist Hospital, hospital administrators wanted to provide a full spectrum of care, from the lowest risk pregnancies to those that required the most comprehensive services.
“We have Riley Hospital on board; we feel like we have the high risk piece covered,” said Darla Berry, manager of midwifery services for IU Health. “Now we need to go to the other end of the spectrum. …. I think every health care system owes it to the women that belong to their system to bring midwifery services to the table.”
About a dozen midwives from HealthNet, a clinic that focuses on providing care to low-income patients, have been delivering at Methodist Hospital for years.
The new IU Health practice will cater to privately insured patients who might otherwise seek an obstetrician for their care, said Berry, who formerly worked at HealthNet. In addition, the IU Health midwives will work with medical students and residents, broadening the experiences they have on their obstetrical rotations.
Berry is looking for a downtown space to open the practice.
Community Health’s clinic, based on the fifth floor of its women’s center, which opened two years ago, is already up and running. The midwives can provide care not just for pregnant women but for all women and of any age.
In general, midwife care is cheaper than care provided by a doctor because the office visits are billed like those with an advanced practice nurse, said C’Aira Hermesch, the manager of operations for maternal fetal medicine and midwifery care.
The midwifery exam rooms do not look like typical sterile medical exam rooms but aim to appear more warm and inviting. The walls are painted purple, a hue often associated with midwifery, and instead of a bed, patients sit on a couch.
“We really wanted to make the clinic more of a calm environment,” she said. “We wanted to make it as homelike as we could.”
Care also differs from that provided by doctors, midwives say. Jill Kocher, one of Community’s certified nurse midwives, said that she spends half an hour to an hour at each visit with her patients, delving into a range of lifestyle issues to ensure that they are as healthy as possible during their pregnancies. She may address spiritual and emotional issues that arise, as well.
Women also can opt to meet with each of the four midwives so that they have met in advance with whoever winds up delivering their baby, said Amy Wire, Community’s vice president for women's care. When it comes to time to deliver, midwives spend a lot of time by the woman’s bedside, whereas some obstetricians do not enter the room until the final stage of birth.
“We look at it (delivery and birth) as a natural process versus a condition,” Kocher said. “We’re looking at the whole woman.”
Obstetricians prefer to have women deliver in stirrups on a labor bed, but midwives are more willing to let their patients labor on birthing balls or stools. At IU Health midwives give women the option of water births, allowing them to deliver underwater. At Community, women can go through labor under water, but when it comes time to push, they have to get out, Hermesch said.
If a woman needs a physician, there’s an obstetrician available 24/7 in the hospital and one who reviews all of the midwives’ charts. When needed, midwives might refer a higher risk patient to an obstetrician and provide care alongside the physician.
It’s not a matter of either a doctor or a midwife but often the two professions working in concert with one another, Berry said.
“The most important thing to emphasize is this is not about competing. Sometimes there’s a misconception that a midwife is trying to compete with physicians," she said. “Midwifery and obstetrics, we share a common goal: Supporting mom and baby, and we come at it from different sides.”
Not that using a midwife means sacrificing the possibility of an epidural or other pain management if that’s what a woman wants.
Midwives also frequently partner with doulas, who provide additional support to the laboring mother. The growing use of doulas at births in part led Community officials to open the new midwife clinics, hospital officials said. If patients were so fond of doulas, they realized, they might appreciate the low-intervention, relationship-focused care midwives offer.
“This is just another way we can deliver high touch care for our consumers,” Wire said. “This is one addition to a comprehensive women’s health program.”
In its first year, Community North midwives will deliver about 100 babies, Wire said. Eventually each midwife will deliver 15 to 20 women a month. Down the road, Community plans to extend the midwifery program to other hospitals, Wire said.
The parents of Community’s first baby birthed by a midwife could not be happier. When Bailey Orander started having contractions around 1 a.m. on her due date, she called her doula first, who monitored her over the phone for a few hours and then said, now. Around 8 a.m. Bailey and Clay headed to the hospital.
As Bailey labored throughout the day, her doula and midwife helped her with pain management, showing her different ways to position her body and offering her essential oils. Midway through the afternoon, they noticed that the baby was affecting a nerve in her hip, causing her great pain. They raised the question of an epidural.
“They did an incredible job at not pushing either way,” Clay Orander said. “It was whatever Bailey wanted to do and what we wanted to do.”
Although the midwife they originally saw was not on call, the Oranders bonded with Kocher, who stayed by Bailey's side for most of the day.
“I was very impressed with our midwife,” Orander said. “She was just able to come into the room, and it felt like having a sister, a mom there.”
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Their careers become more intertwined every year. They have been traded together twice, their careers have both taken off with the Pacers and now they share NBA All-Star status.
But it's what lies ahead for Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo that's the really intriguing part of their story.
The announcement of Sabonis' selection to the Eastern Conference team on Thursday gave him something else in common with Oladipo, who until now had been the only Pacer to have filled out an All-Star uniform. It made Sabonis happy, of course, but seemed to thrill Oladipo as well.
"I think I'm more excited than he is," Oladipo said following Friday's practice at St. Vincent Center. "We've kind of been travel buddies on this tour. This is big for both of us. We both knew we could play at this level."
By this level, he means an All-Star level. Getting there was just a matter of opportunity, backed by a lot of hard work.
Oladipo got there in his first season with the Pacers as their leading scorer, best defender, and deadliest clutch shooter since Reggie Miller. Escaping Russell Westbrook's enormous shadow helped, too. Now Sabonis has joined him after moving into the starting lineup after playing two seasons off the bench. His per-minute scoring average is down a bit from last season, as are his field goal and 3-point shooting percentages but playing nearly 10 more minutes per game has made his contributions blatantly more obvious to the world.
"They gave me the opportunity to have a bigger role this year and I tried to take advantage of it," Sabonis said.
Sabonis is on the last year of his rookie contract but signed a lucrative four-year extension last fall. The security of that deal has not softened his approach, however.
"That's never been my mindset," he said. "I always want more. I always want to get better. I'm still real young, 23; my mindset is to go out and get better every day, every summer."
Pacers coach Nate McMillan reached out to some fellow conference coaches to encourage them to cast a vote for Sabonis as an All-Star reserve but discovered he didn't need much of a sales pitch. The Pacers' record, a surprise to some, helped his cause. Of course, his play has been a major part of the reason for the record.
"The team has done a great job of contributing to him making the All-Star team," McMillan said. "I talked to some coaches. For them it was a no-brainer. They felt the team had earned the right to have someone representing in the all-star game."
Oladipo likely would have represented the Pacers as well had he been able to play most of the season to this point. He returned with familiar flair on Wednesday by hitting a 28-foot 3-pointer that forced overtime and will continue to play off the bench for no more than 24 minutes in all but one of the seven remaining games before the All-Star break. He'll sit out one of the games in the back-to-back set.
Now that he's back, and now that the Pacers have two All-Stars and a couple of other players approaching that status, imaginations can be forgiven for running a little wild. If Oladipo can continue his rehabilitation successfully and then blend into the intended starting lineup that has yet to play together, the Pacers have the best opportunity of any team in the East to improve their place in the standings. They are now fifth, 11/2½ games back of third and fourth place and three games back of second.
"We just have to continue to grow," Oladipo said. "Once we start clicking at a high level it's going to be special."
That's what Oladipo had in mind on that July day in 2017. He had just stepped off an airplane at the airport in Atlanta, a stopover on his way from Oklahoma City to his home in Orlando, when he learned he and Sabonis had been swapped to the Pacers. Barely more than a year earlier they had been traded together from Orlando to OKC on the night of the draft.
It could have been disheartening, being traded twice in 13 months, particularly when the second deal was made under the duress of George's trade demand. Oladipo, however, identified the silver lining when he called Sabonis at his hotel room in Orlando, where the Thunder summer league team was playing.
"I said, 'Man, look, if we go (to the Pacers) and we change it around they're going to embrace us like nothing you've ever seen before," Oladipo recalled. "I guess I knew what I was talking about a little bit, huh?
"It's crazy to see how far we've both come."
Oladipo came from being a second overall pick who was somewhat of a disappointment in Orlando, averaging 16 points in his third season while playing 20 of his 72 games off the bench. He started the next season in Oklahoma City, but garnered no special notice while averaging 15.9 points.
Sabonis came from being the 11th overall pick in the draft who averaged just 5.9 points as a rookie. He came off the bench in 17 of his final 19 games that season and was a non-factor in the Thunder's first-round loss to Houston. He played a combined six minutes in the first two games of the series and not at all in the final three.
Not many Thunder fans would have believed then he would ever be an All-Star.
"He's more comfortable now," said Oladipo, his teammate that season. "He's used to the game, he knows where his strengths are, he's smart.
"The one thing you can't teach, Domas just wants to play. He wants to play, and he wants to win. He doesn't like coming out of the games, he doesn't like sitting out … he wants to play. I really don't know another human being like that other than myself. It's awesome to be around him. He's like my long-lost little brother."
Photo Credit: NBAE/Getty Images
Oladipo said he recovered well from his season debut on Wednesday — after a day off on Thursday.
Oladipo said he was physically and emotionally exhausted after the game against Chicago. He had not slept well in the days leading up to it and the furor surrounding his return, highlighted by his magical moment, left him under the weather for a day.
Oladipo is limited to 24 minutes per game by the Pacers' training staff. He played 20 minutes and 57 seconds against the Bulls and could have returned for part of the overtime but was shut down by the trainers.
McMillan had taken note of his minutes played and planned to bring him back for the final two or three minutes of overtime but was denied permission.
"I was going to use him those last three minutes, but they basically said he's done," McMillan said. "That's kind of what we're going to be dealing with. If there's a point we feel he's had enough, they're going to pull him. I don't think I'll be allowed to go over the 24 minutes."
Oladipo was up for returning but didn't protest his banishment.
"I don't think my body was ready for an overtime game yet," he said. "They didn't want to take any risks. Which I understand. At the end of the day, it's been a year. My first game back, overtime game, it probably wouldn't have been for my body. This is for something bigger."
T.J. McConnell was able to joke about his technical foul in Wednesday's game following Friday's practice, but he wasn't feeling to happy with it at the time.
McConnell was called for a charging foul by referee Evan Scott with 5:03 left in the fourth quarter. He was enraged, running to Scott and screaming in his face to earn the technical.
"I certainly got my money's worth," he said Friday. "I blacked out, kind of."
It was potentially costly to the Pacers. The Bulls scored off the technical free throw and then got a 3-pointer to move their lead from two to six points. Their lead peaked at seven before the Pacers fought back to force overtime.
McConnell apologized to Scott during the next timeout and acknowledged part of his anger stemmed from disappointment over his own play in the game.
"I told him what I thought about the play, told him it's never personal," he said. "I would never attack someone as a man and their character. It was heat of the moment.
"I could have played better. As a point guard and one of the leaders I have to be better."
The NBA fines players $2,000 for each of their first five technical fouls.
"I cost my wife a new couch that she wanted," McConnell joked. "I'm not her favorite player right now."
Have a question for Mark? Want it to be on Pacers.com? Email him at askmontieth@gmail.com and you could be featured in his next mailbag.
Mark Montieth's book on the formation and groundbreaking seasons of the Pacers, "Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis," is available in bookstores throughout Indiana and on Amazon.com.
Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Indiana Pacers. All opinions expressed by Mark Montieth are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Indiana Pacers, their partners, or sponsors.
JACKSON, Tenn. — This is the 13th year for the Do the Write Thing challenge in Jackson and Madison County.
City leaders, teachers and students were at Jackson City Hall to celebrate the kick off Friday morning.
“Violence in our Jackson community is impacting our children. Our children have trauma experience that come out in the academic success,” Dr. Teresa McSweeney, principal at Rose Hill School, said.
The Do the Write Thing challenge gives middle school students the chance to write and talk about youth violence in our community and ways they think it can be changed for the better.
They kicked off the event with a prayer and a quick description of the challenge.
Then former student ambassadors with the Do the Write Thing campaign got up and talked about their experiences with the program.
Laila Houston was a student ambassador in 2018, and she got the chance to go to Washington D.C. with Do the Write Thing.
“As soon as I got to Washington D.C., me and my mom headed straight to the Lincoln Memorial. I found out the statue of Lincoln is much bigger than I expected,” Houston said.
Bansi Govin, a student ambassador from 2017, talked about how her experience in middle school prepared her for the March For Our Lives campaign in 2017.
“We joined the students from our local schools and other schools around the country in a peaceful 17 minute walkout to honor the victims of the Florida shooting,” Govin said.
Since the program started in Jackson, more than 10,000 students have accepted the challenge and submitted an essay.
The last day to turn in your packets is March 20.
Sightings of the mysterious drones reportedly flying over eastern Colorado are down.
Morgan, Yuma and Weld counties have all noted a drop-off or an end to reports of the drones. The Colorado Department of Public Safety also said their reports are way down.
Sightings of hundreds of drones above Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming made national headlines just a few weeks ago. Residents across the area, plus law enforcement officers, reported seeing the vehicles fly above their homes.
Some of those who say they've seen these drones gathered in Facebook groups like one now called, DRONE Intelligence Center COLORADO NEBRASKA WYOMING and all other states. The consensus there seems to be that reports are down because people got tired of being discredited or "trolled." Residents are still posting sightings and theories in private groups, according to group member Rod Miller.
The sightings caused anxiety in residents over safety and privacy. Area law enforcement teamed up with the FBI and Federal Aviation Administration on a task force to investigate, with no result.
Taskforce leader and Morgan County Sheriff Dave Martin said Jan. 22 that there was no plan for the workgroup to meet again.
The Colorado Department of Public Safety, which was conducting its own investigation, issued a news release on Jan. 13 saying that most of the confirmed sightings were determined to be planets, stars, commercial aircraft or small hobbyist drones. The department said it could did not find evidence substantiating reports of large wingspan drones traveling in groups.
The CDPS report said only there were only four sightings confirmed by law enforcement that didn't have an explanation.
The department said its investigation also determined the drone that came close to hitting a Flight for Life helicopter was a hobbyist's drone unconnected to the mystery.
The Air Force, Google, Amazon and Uber have all denied the drones were theirs.
The CDPS is still accepting reports of the drones but has halted active investigations.
この連載では書籍「リアルビジネス3.0～あらゆる企業は教育化する～」から好調な企業のビジネスモデルを紹介・分析します。モノの時代が終わった日本では、製造業はサービス化し、サービス業はより進化したサービスを展開してきました。モノを売り買いしていた時代が「1.0」だとすれば、サービス化の時代は「2.0」、そして教育化が「3.0」と位置づけられます。新しい時代の一つの方向性が、「教える」という要素を事…
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The premise of Google’s streaming service, Stadia, is simple: play a game wherever you want, whenever you want. That remains an attractive pitch, but as evidenced by growing complaints in the months after launch, reality is more complicated. Google has promised Stadia will get better—it has nowhere to go but up—but in its best form, Stadia is a limited platform; the games that you already own cannot take advantage of Stadia’s technology.
Which brings us to a tweet I saw going around yesterday:
Excuse me? GeForce Now is the currently-in-beta streaming service from graphics card manufacturer Nvidia, and it’s actually been kicking around in various forms for years—all the way back to 2013. Previously, it was a service that’d been tied to the company’s handheld device, Shield. It works like Stadia in concept. You click a button and a stream whizzes to life, letting you play a video game the same way you start to binge a show on Netflix. But GeForce Now has a key differentiation: it takes advantage of the games you already own on Steam, uPlay and Battle.net, which means GeForce Now has access to a huge library.
For example, Darksiders Genesis is a game available on both Steam and Stadia. If you want to play Darksiders Genesis on Stadia, you need to buy it for Stadia because it’s a unique platform. If you’ve already purchased Darksiders Genesis on Steam, that doesn’t matter.
But that’s not how GeForce Now works; it’s a gateway to other storefronts, not a storefront in and of itself. When you click on the Darksiders Genesis log into GeForce Now, you’re asked to input your Steam credentials. From there, GeForce Now takes over. The game spins up.
Steam itself has a streaming service of sorts called Steam Link, but it requires you to already own a powerful gaming PC—it’s spitting a video signal out from the PC that it’s already connected to. Steam Link works remarkably well for what it is, but what if you don’t want to spend $1,000 on a PC? What if you want to buy a game in a Steam sale and just play it?
With some caveats, that’s basically what GeForce Now is, and it sounds potentially great.
The ramifications of this are enormous. Take The Witcher 3, for example. I signed up for GeForce Now last night, and after “installing” The Witcher 3 to whatever computer had been assigned to me by Nvidia—you literally watch the game download and install to a computer that’s in some server warehouse—I was able to start playing with my existing cloud saves.
Here in the VICE offices, using extremely spotty Internet, I was able to pull up my most recent save for The Witcher 3, a game I’d put nearly 150 hours into, without a problem.
Again, the Internet here isn’t great, so performance was iffy, but at times, it worked like a charm. It looked good enough. Given that, I can’t 100% vouch for how well GeForce Now performs, arguably one of Stadia’s best strengths. (I know others have run into problems with Stadia, but in various environments, including at Starbucks, I had great experiences.) That said, I have talked to several folks who’ve used GeForce Now in more ideal scenarios and report it’s entirely playable. Plus, that tech is only going to get better. That’s not a big worry.
GeForce Now has its own limitations, of course. It doesn’t not give you access to every game in your Steam library, only the ones it supports. Right now, that library is pretty small. There are lots of big games beyond The Witcher 3— Fortnite, PUBG, Destiny 2, Borderlands 3, etc.—but you are at the mercy of the games Nvidia deems worthy of supporting, instead of being able to just flick a switch and start streaming any game you have bought on Steam.
The real dream, I suppose, is Valve themselves offering a service that lets you pay to play everything you own through the cloud, but in the absence of that, GeForce Now sounds like it has the potential to deliver more of what people wanted from the potential of a thing like Stadia. And potentially $5 a month? Heck, free if you only want to play around for an hour?
Nvidia declined to comment when asked to confirm the specifics of this rumor, but it almost doesn’t matter if the rumor is off. GeForce Now is a very real technology with a very real service, and all that’s left is for Nvidia to figure out how they want to monetize it. If it can deliver on the idea of letting me play games I already own from anywhere? Take my money.
Follow Patrick on Twitter. His email is patrick.klepek@vice.com, and available privately on Signal (224-707-1561).
昔話は勉強になる。
発売中のNumber「ラグビー再入門」で、神戸製鋼の記事を担当して、そう実感した。新しいと思っていることでも意外と昔から大事にされていたり、当たり前にあるものは色んな人の思いが詰まって続いていたりと、再確認させられた。
V7時代と、30年後の今と、共通することは何か。V1～V3のSHで、ヘッドコーチとしてチームを3度の日本一に導いた萩本光威さんに、故平尾誠二ゼネラルマネジャーの思い出話を聞いているときだった。
愛情と厳しさを絶妙のバランスで同居させるご意見番は、こんな話をポロっと口にした。
「平尾とは同志社の先輩、後輩だから話しやすかったのか、主将になってすぐの時に“今、部が停滞している”と言ってきたんですよ。当時は、高卒の選手が多く、その選手が萎縮しているから、“何か部が活性化することを考えてください”と。
練習前や遊びでタッチフットをやっていたから、これを1つの題材にして、社内外の人間、家族、女性を呼ぼうと考えた。我々部員がホスト役で、バーベキューをしておもてなしをして。そうしたら会社の人も社外の人も“楽しかった。またやってください”となったんです。若手選手も参加して、実際、活性化しました。こういうのも、平尾の発想の1つですよね」
平尾さんが主将に就任した1988年のことだ。後に地域社会とスポーツの交流なども考察していく故人のひらめきを、萩本さんが具体化し、部の垣根を越えた交流につながった。
このイベントはチャリティーフェスタとして現在も残る。昨年11月の開催には、神戸市の埋め立て地、灘浜グラウンドが人、人、人で埋まった。その数、2000人。OBが出す焼きそばの屋台は、早々に完売した。
NTTドコモとの練習試合では「イヤボイ！」という声援が聞こえた。声の主たちは、間違いなくW杯を見て、ラグビーを好きになってくれた方たち。山中亮平、中島イシレリ、ラファエレティモシー、アタアタ・モエアキオラの日本代表4選手のサイン会は、イベントが始まってすぐに定員100人に達した。
Here are 11 things -- all "likes." This is a week to appreciate the beauty and ruggedness of the game.
The power of Giannis Antetokounmpo: He can morph into any player type depending on what Milwaukee wants, and perform each at an All-Star level.
Need him to masquerade as a traditional drop-back center so you can play maximum shooting around him?
Uh oh. That is, like, expert-level center pick-and-roll defense from someone who is not a center. Giannis flashes at RJ Barrett, extending his giant left arm toward Barrett's face. That freezes Barrett. He slows and picks up his dribble. With Antetokounmpo appearing to commit, the lob to Mitchell Robinson should be available.
But just as quickly as Antetokounmpo appeared in Barrett's driving lane, he's back at Robinson's side. Barrett notes that on his descent, and flings a desperate layup. Antetokounmpo devours it.
You play good defense by reacting on time to each offensive action. You play great defense by manipulating the choices the offense makes. Opponents are shooting an absurd 43.5% at the rim with Antetokounmpo nearby, the lowest figure among all rotation players who challenge at least two shots per game. Ridiculous.
Mike Budenholzer has leaned more into Antetokounmpo-at-center lineups this season, even those that don't include Ersan Ilyasova as a second big who can guard centers. Antetokounmpo is taking that assignment more often alongside Ilyasova, anyway.
On offense, Antetokounmpo plays the same role in every lineup construction: taller and more explosive variant of the point-forward prototype. But that length opens up possibilities -- shots, passes, pockets of air -- that exist only for him:
You see that every game: Antetokounmpo dribbling side by side with his defender, not quite escaping the shot-blocking radius. But then he reaches that arm as far as it goes, and an angle to the rim appears that wouldn't be there for any other player.
He does the same thing with passes. He tightropes the baseline, leans out of bounds, unfolds his arm that way, and bam -- suddenly he has access to all kinds of inside-out dishes. The court is 94 feet long for most players, and about 100 feet for Antetokounmpo.
Cherish this guy every night. We have never seen anyone like him.
A lot of teams would have considered Robinson a finished product as a shooter, and focused on rounding out the rest of his game.
The Heat gave equal time to turning Robinson's one "A" skill into an "A-plus." Rival organizations have taken notice, and expressed admiration for Miami's approach.
One part of that approach: turning Robinson into a serial screener, on and off the ball. Ace shooters from Kyle Korver to Stephen Curry learned to use the threat of their jumper to create open looks for teammates by screening for them. Not every shooter is willing. Some can't read the game well enough to set them in the right places, at the right times.
Robinson is a roving menace:
One back screen for Jimmy Butler generates an open corner 3 for Kendrick Nunn. Robinson's defender -- Barrett -- won't risk straying an inch from Robinson; he can't help on Butler's cut. The job falls to Nunn's defender. Boom.
Robinson does not touch the ball, but he creates this shot.
Another classic:
Meyers Leonard feigns a pindown for Robinson, but it's a ruse! Robinson fakes the curl, and dives into his own pindown for Leonard.
Robinson even has a burgeoning pick-and-roll partnership with Bam Adebayo -- little guy screening for chiseled strongman:
I am a sucker for any inverted pick-and-roll. This has a chance to become the Eastern Conference version of Jamal Murray screening for Nikola Jokic.
Put Robinson in the 3-point shootout, or we riot.
Wood's per-minute numbers had always popped, but his strong play in Detroit marks his first sustained success as a rotation mainstay.
He has flashed a well-rounded, nimble offensive game playing both big-man positions for a Pistons team that seems to need a new rotation every night because of injury. Wood has hit 37% from deep on decent volume, and more than half of his long 2s.
He's taking big men off the bounce, and drawing heaps of fouls with a bruising, shoulder-first face-up game:
That is quite rude. Wood is averaging seven free throws per 36 minutes. Detroit has outscored opponents by four points per 100 possessions with Wood on the floor -- and lost all other minutes by 5.9 points per 100 possessions. There is a ton of noise in those numbers, but nothing to suggest Wood's impact is hollow.
Detroit's defense gives up fewer profitable shots -- 3s and attempts in the restricted area --- with Wood on the floor.
Wood might be semi-trapped between positions on defense -- too slight to man the middle, not quite rangy enough to chase stretch power forwards. That might prove more troubling as a starter. It hasn't really manifested this season, though Detroit's offense has been mediocre with Wood and Andre Drummond together.
Wood has carved out a place in the NBA. He'll be a free agent this summer, and a lot of teams are curious whether the skidding Pistons -- six games out of the eighth spot -- might trade Wood rather than risk losing him for nothing.
These guys developed beautiful chemistry last season. They have added wrinkles upon wrinkles, growing one of the league's most dangerous two-man games from the compound effect of McDermott's shooting and Sabonis' passing.
The simple act of McDermott sprinting around a Sabonis pick busts entire defenses:
Opponents have no good choice, other than having two elite defenders who execute with airtight perfection. Fall behind chasing McDermott over that screen, and he'll rain fire. Dipping under is not an option. Trap McDermott, and he'll slip a pass to Sabonis, allowing a genius big man facilitator to play 4-on-3. Switch, and Sabonis mashes some poor sap in the post.
Climb on McDermott's back early, and he might veer into the paint before even reaching Sabonis:
Only 11 duos have paired up for more off-ball screening actions, and the Pacers average about 1.17 points per possession on any trip featuring such a play -- a mark that would lead all half-court offenses, per Second Spectrum data. The Pacers are plus-5 points per 100 possessions with Sabonis and McDermott on the floor.
Someone will lose minutes with Victor Oladipo back, but it shouldn't be McDermott.
I don't have a ton to work with here. Bazley is shooting 30% from deep and 45% on 2s for Oklahoma City. He has 39 turnovers and 28 assists. It is really hard for a rotation player -- especially a non-center -- to record so few dimes.
But there is something about Bazley. The rookie moves his feet on defense. He changes direction without conceding momentum. He seems to read the game -- to rotate without falling behind, pausing to figure out his next move, or zipping to the wrong place.
Combine all that with a 7-foot wingspan, and you have the ingredients for an interesting multipositional defender. It is hard to drive around Bazley when he arrives on time, arms spread wide.
He's also a smart cutter on offense, with a knack for anticipating when an alleyway will open.
Teaching feel is harder than teaching skill. I am always intrigued by rookies who show an early foundation of feel.
The "Spain" pick-and-roll has swept the NBA over the past decade. The Mavs use it the most. It is basically a normal pick-and-roll, only with a third player -- Tim Hardaway Jr. below -- back-picking the man defending the screener (Ivica Zubac, technically guarding Kristaps Porzingis):
The ideal outcome is for that back screen to spring Porzingis for a rampaging lob dunk. Defenses know that. Over the past two years, they have gotten smarter keeping that defender -- Zubac -- deep in the paint, urging him to burrow below the back screen. That way, the defense can play the central pick-and-roll 2-on-2 and stay home on everyone.
Offenses have found a bunch of counters for that. The most obvious: If Zubac is hanging way back there, why should Porzingis rim-run at all? Just flare out for a 3-pointer!
Drain one or two of those, and the defense has to scrap its plan. It might pressure, exposing passes and driving lanes. It might switch into bad mismatches.
Another favorite: when the back-screener slips out of his pick early, and darts away for an open triple. Bojan Bogdanovic is a master at this:
The instinct of Bogdanovic's defender is to linger in the paint in case of a crisis there. Bogdanovic leverages those good intentions against the defense.
When defenses know the back-screener is a threat to pop for 3s, they sometimes try to engineer triple-switches on the fly. The more complex the switchcraft, the greater the likelihood of a mistake.
One sub-note: Before the Mavs acquired Willie Cauley-Stein to fill some of the Dwight Powell void, Porzingis was logging more time at center as the lone big in smaller lineups. (He is still starting there.) The Mavs and Porzingis seem ambivalent about that arrangement. It does open driving lanes for Luka Doncic; there is no second big man lurking on the baseline as a help defender.
Doncic took advantage right away after Powell's injury, attacking one-on-one in wide-open space. He's so strong, and so crafty, he doesn't need to get past his guy to finish around the rim. Just getting him backpedaling is enough.
Lillard is a bad, bad man. I would have included his stats from Portland's past six games, but my laptop caught fire when I looked them up.
Lillard has some Kobe in him, doesn't he?
No strand of Chicago's strange, disappointing season carries more long-term importance than Markkanen's stagnation. Chicago's announcement last week that Markkanen would miss at least four weeks because of "an early stress reaction of his right pelvis" was almost a relief. It is clear -- has been for a while -- Markkanen played most of this season dinged up.
He never found a groove on either end. His place in Chicago's offense became murkier. He got fewer opportunities in the pick-and-roll, and looked sluggish with the ball. He drifted.
I was high on Markkanen last season. He looked like a potential strong No. 2 on offense -- a pick-and-pop big that could bend conventional defenses. I remain confident there is a good player in here.
This is a week to celebrate cool stuff, and Markkanen is a sneakily stylish defensive rebounder. He's 7 feet tall, with long arms and an appetite for nastiness. He is really good at coming into the scrum from nowhere, out-leaping everyone, and snatching rebounds from over the heads of ground-bound enemies. It just looks awesome:
Markkanen's defensive rebounding rate hit a career low this season, but the advanced data is interesting. Chicago's team rebounding hovers around the same (below-average) level whether or not Markkanen is on the floor. Jim Boylen's aggressive blitzing scheme often leaves his big men flying far from the hoop, out of rebounding position.
Tracking data from Second Spectrum has Markkanen snaring more opponent misses than expected based on his positioning when a shot goes up -- perhaps confirming the eye test that he is a skilled and aggressive board tracker.
Anyway: Markkanen is an interesting and crucial player. Get healthy, big fella.
At 22, De'Andre Hunter is the oldest of the three young wings handpicked to surround Trae Young. Cam Reddish is 20. Huerter is 21. It is going to take a long time. You have to remind yourself of that.
Be careful pigeonholing Huerter as a spot-up threat. He is running 21 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions this season, up from about 12.5 last season, per Second Spectrum. He has good vision and timing as a passer -- including the ability to whip crosscourt lasers with either hand. He should grow into a capable secondary ball handler.
He also has a fun feistiness to his game. He's 6-7, and plays bigger than opponents seem to expect. He enjoys lunging into rebounding battles, and he's snagging an above-average number of defensive boards for his position -- and many more than expected given his starting point when each shot goes up, per Second Spectrum.
He's a physical defender who knows how to use his length without fouling. Take Huerter lightly, and he might toss your stuff right back in your face:
Huerter is shooting 39% from deep, and every peripheral in his game is trending the right way. Lloyd Pierce has dabbled recently in starting his young core lineup: Young, Huerter, Reddish, Hunter and John Collins. I wouldn't mind seeing more of that as we hit the stretch run. (That group is plus-9 in 116 minutes -- too few to mean anything.)
The Hawks have big decisions to make about Collins -- what position he plays, what sort of frontcourt partner he requires, and how committed they are to him as a foundational player. Collins is eligible for an extension this summer, and I'd wager his representatives demand something close to the maximum salary.
The Young-Collins pick-and-roll, surrounded by shooting, is a problem. But opposing offenses attacking the Young-Collins duo in the pick-and-roll is a problem, too -- especially with Collins at center.
Brooks has his flaws. He's thirsty for long 2s, and he doesn't shoot them all that well. He can bulldoze through almost every guard, but his finishing at the rim once he gets there is only so-so.
But damn, do I love watching this dude play. He brings an old-school toughness and physicality that seems genuinely unpleasant for opponents. He leaves a mark. Guard this guy -- or have him guard you -- and you feel it the next day.
He relishes contact. Look at this:
That's Julius Randle. Randle has warts, but the man is a freight train. You think it's fun for a wing giving up some weight to jostle on the block with Randle?
It's probably fun for Brooks. He fronts Randle, and refuses to concede that position even when Randle hip-checks him -- a jolt that would dislodge a lot of guards. That is a winning play.
The tradeoff to Brooks' NFL style is a heap of fouls, but I'll take a few hacks any day if it comes with this kind of effort.
Oh: Brooks is also Memphis' third-leading scorer, a point behind Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., and he poured in 21 per game in January -- tops on the team.
This hints at the promise of Garland:
Ante Zizic sets that pick a few feet across half court, unlocking the possibility of an extra-long, Lillardian pull-up. Gorgui Dieng is so deep in the paint, Garland can dribble almost to the arc. But he has hinted at longer pull-up range; only 16 players have dared more shots between 26 and 30 feet from the rim, per Second Spectrum.
Garland has launched 121 total pull-up 3s, 25th in the league, and 127 catch-and-shoot triples -- an even split, suggesting Garland is confident in the pull-up. He hasn't shot it particularly well, but he looks comfortable.
Everything changes once a ball handler establishes that shot as a threat. Big men defending Garland's screeners have to venture beyond the arc, out of their comfort zone. Garland's defenders get antsy. They listen for footsteps. They gird themselves to chase Garland over the pick. In their impatience, they might open their stance early -- revealing a driving lane. They become susceptible to fakes.
Garland already understands this. Kevin Love is an expert screener who sews even more confusion by flipping the direction of near-logo picks at the last second. Things like this start to happen:
Garland has some spice and craft to his game. The hesitation dribble into a one-handed gather is delicious. He has a real chance.
Garland has a bit of a clearer long-term trajectory than Collin Sexton, his backcourt partner. He's ahead of Sexton as a passer. Garland can pound the ball -- a Sexton bugaboo, too -- but there is a bit more purpose and vision to it.
There are early worries around the league about whether Sexton and Garland can coexist. Cleveland doesn't have to panic yet. They are so young. But it's never too early to start asking the question.
All this time we were trying to force Jay Cutler to be a great NFL quarterback when really we should have been letting him fulfill his destiny as a perfect reality TV character. On his wife Kristin Cavallari’s reality show, Very Cavallari, we met the real Jay: animal lover, sometimes-supportive husband, man whose ultimate goal in life is to do as little as possible. It was a glorious revelation—and now he’s back. Welcome to Season 3—and welcome back to this blog, where we’ll once again go on a Jay Journey to discuss his highlights and lowlights and best quotes, and hand out an award for Jay Cutler’s Most Jay Cutler Moment of the Week.
The king hath returned—Thursday night’s episode of Very Cavallari saw Jay Cutler and Kristin Cavallari travel to Chicago, where, weirdly, they were not welcomed back with a parade. My theory: This episode was filmed before the NFL season began, in a time when all of Chicago had yet to comprehend the Trubisky-induced hell they were living in, and thus, how lucky they had been to have ever had Jay Cutler.
While in the Windy City, the Cutlers get dinner with former football player Zach Miller and his wife, Kristen (presumably, Jay and Zach’s friendship was forged solely on their wives having almost the same name). Miller is also retired now—if you don’t remember, he’s the former Bears tight end whose career was cut short after he injured his leg so badly that there was genuine concern that it might need to be amputated—so of course the dinner conversation turns to how both guys are spending their golden years. And once again, Jay Cutler does not have much to add.
“I’ll figure that out soon,” Jay responds when asked how he’s filling his time, as if he hasn’t been retired for more than two years at this point. Lawn-mowing and driving the kids to school are mentioned as two things Jay Cutler has picked up since retiring, but uh, those are things that most regular people with jobs also do, so they don’t exactly count as rewarding post-retirement hobbies.
“It’s just a lot of time to fill,” Jay advises Zach, “and I think some people figure it out pretty quickly and some people don’t.” It’s unclear from the way Jay says this which category he thinks he falls into. Either way, I’m really not sure Zach Miller should be taking advice from a guy who (a) once said he was trying to do the opposite of staying busy and (b) is wearing this shirt:
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While in Chicago, Jay Cutler and Kristin also make time to stop by her mom’s house in Barrington. Kristin, you see, lived there until her early teen years, when she was sent to Laguna Beach to live with her dad because she was “getting into too much trouble” in Illinois. (Incredible “what if” to consider here: If Kristin isn’t a teenage dirtbag, she never gets sent to Laguna, never appears on MTV’s Laguna Beach, and then The Hills, never gets famous, never meets the quarterback of the Chicago Bears, they never get married, and this show never happens. What I’m saying is thank you for smoking so much pot in middle school, Kristin—this blog wouldn’t exist otherwise.)
At Kristin’s mom’s house, the trio reminisces about her rebellious years, which included sex, drugs, and literal arrests. Eventually, the conversation turns to what Jay Cutler was doing in high school, and it becomes incredibly clear that he was NOT COOL. The only time he got in trouble, he says, is when he slightly missed curfew after graduating. What a lame. Even Kristin’s mom thinks so—she spends the next few minutes dunking on what a dork he was, while he makes this face:
During the Very Cavallari Christmas special, we covered the fact that Jay Cutler designed a bracelet for Uncommon James, and that it was the most confounding piece of metal I’d ever laid eyes on. “I don’t really understand how the whole half-bracelet, half-bottle-opener thing works?” I wrote. “I’ve watched the above video several (107) times, and I still can’t tell whether this piece of jewelry is just a bracelet with a gigantic bottle opener hanging off of it?” But now I know: The bracelet isn’t also a bottle opener—they are separate entities and you NEED THE BOTTLE OPENER TO PUT THE BRACELET ON.
Is this a revolutionary approach to bracelets? No. Absolutely not. It’s the dumbest thing in the world.
I considered making this the entire blog post. I probably should’ve.
Early on in the episode, Kristin’s friends ask Jay Cutler whether he worked out that day. “Basketball,” he replies, articulately.
“Are you good at basketball too?” one of the friends asks.
“I’m OK,” Jay responds sheepishly.
Fast-forward to the dinner with Zach Miller, where the details get filled in a little more—apparently Jay Cutler is playing ball with the other dads at his kids’ school. At the dinner, though, Jay Cutler is far more confident about his game.
“Are you getting buckets, though?” Zach asks, to which Jay self-assuredly responds:
So what is it, Jay? Are you just OK or are you getting these buckets? Are you the Jay Cutler of basketball or are you … good at basketball?
I tried to answer these questions to the best of my ability (by Googling “Jay Cutler basketball”) and I found this video of Jay Cutler dunking:
Therefore I am compelled to conclude that yes, Jay Cutler is getting buckets.
The Zach Miller dinner was full of good nuggets—part of the chopped-up conversation was hard to follow, but it seemed to indicate that Jay Cutler and Zach Miller once got so hammered the night before a football game that they “didn’t feel normal until midway through the third quarter”—but the best one is a story Zach and his wife tell about someone asking Jay Cutler for an autograph: “She was like, ‘It’s my mom’s 50th birthday, she’s the hugest fan of you, Jay, can you please take a picture with her?’” Kristen Miller recounts. “And Jay goes … ‘No.’”
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Seeing as one of the more infamous Jay Cutler stories is the time that he yelled “DOOOOOON’T CAAAAARE!” at a man in a public bathroom, of course this is the Most Jay Cutler Thing That Happened This Week. There is nothing more Jay Cutler than this.
Until recently, “craft lager” might have sounded like an oxymoron. After all, lager — you know, like Budweiser, Coors and Corona — was the very thing that the craft beer revolution defined itself against. The industrial lagers were flavorless, wan and dilute; craft beer, by contrast, would be rich, complex and delicious.
But over time, that desire for intense flavor turned beer drinking, once a leisure activity, into an endurance sport. Aggressively hoppy IPAs now dominate tap handles at Bay Area beer bars. Everything is aged in bourbon barrels, infected with brettanomyces or brewed with sour cherries or pineapple or lactose. It’s no longer uncommon to see alcohol levels creep into the double digits.
These craft beers are much more flavorful than Budweiser and Coors. But is there such a thing as too much flavor?
“They’re palate wreckers,” says Rob Lightner, co-founder of East Brother Beer Co. in Richmond, of the current craft-beer landscape.
His brewery is part of a growing movement in California to provide an antidote: craft lager. Open since 2017, East Brother is the rare craft brewery that actually specializes in lager (which includes subcategories like pilsner). That means it doesn’t often get to participate in the craft-beer hype machine. “We’ve watched the glitter beers, the brut IPAs, the hazy IPAs all take off,” Lightner says.
But they’ve stuck to their guns, and it’s working — not just for East Brother, whose lagers “outperform” in their taproom, Lightner says — but for craft beer as a whole.
Lager remains the most popular beer style in the U.S., but the macro-lagers — the Coors and Buds — are on a downward trajectory, shrinking 2% by volume in 2018, according to industry analyst IWSR. Within craft, however, lager is a growth segment, says Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association.
“Lager is a way for craft breweries to reach this light, refreshing portion of the beer market,” Watson continues. “Craft has reached a certain market share where it has to reach out to different consumers — so they’re moving into the biggest space in the U.S. beer market, which is still light lager.”
A lager’s greatness comes from subtle complexity. It should be bright, crisp and clean, finishing dry. Some Bay Area craft lagers are emphatically hoppy (Russian River Brewing’s STS Pils comes to mind), while others are less so (think of North Coast Brewing’s Scrimshaw Pilsner). Recently, we’ve seen a spate of specifically light lagers, even from hazy IPA havens like Fieldwork Brewing and Humble Sea Brewing.
But the major defining trait of the current wave of California craft lagers is maltiness, which can come across as a subtly grainy or biscuity flavor. That maltiness is also what differentiates craft from industrial lager. Craft versions like Local Brewing’s SF Lager and East Brother’s Bo Pils are brewed entirely from malted barley. Meanwhile, the macro-lagers rely heavily on adjuncts, like corn and rice, which are cheaper. (Bud Lite has been flaunting its use of adjuncts in a recent ad campaign. To promote the fact that it doesn’t use corn syrup, it spells out its ingredients: hops, barley, water and rice.)
And lager is a broader category than many drinkers realize. The style invites plenty of experimentation: San Francisco’s Local Brewing Co. produces a red lager, a black lager, a dry-hopped Mexican lager and, as a Beer Week special, a whiskey- and oak-influenced lager. East Brother has a seasonal lager series, which includes maibock, festbier and even Baltic porter (which, yes, is also a subcategory). Of course, pilsner may be the breakout star; everyone from Lagunitas to Firestone Walker is making one now.
Still, lager isn’t sexy. It doesn’t drive cool Instagram posts. It garners mediocre scores on the beer-rating site Untappd. “No one in my circle is ever sitting around and saying, ‘Hey, have you had this lager?’” says Regan Long, founder and brewmaster of Local Brewing Co.
For a brewery, in fact, lager can feel like a thankless labor. It’s more difficult and more time-consuming to produce than many other beer styles. Because lagers must be fermented at colder temperatures, they take considerably longer than ales. “The reality is you can turn a standard West Coast IPA in two weeks, but a lager is taking four to six weeks,” says Long. “They take up a lot of space. For a lot of breweries, they just don’t make a lot of sense.”
Unlike an IPA, whose assertive hops might be able to mask other flavors, lagers are unforgiving. “If there’s an off flavor, if you rushed things, there’s nothing to hide behind,” says East Brother head brewer Paul Liszewski, whose license plate reads “LAGER.” He likens it to the difference between making a barbecue sauce — just throw together ketchup, chile powder, Worcestershire, brown sugar — and a beurre blanc sauce, which has fewer ingredients but relies on precise technique.
Craft lager may look like a new trend, but Watson, the Brewers Association economist, sees lager as having been in craft beer’s DNA from its inception; think Sam Adams Boston Lager. “For much of its history, craft brewing hasn’t been avoiding lagers so much as it’s been trying to go in an opposite direction of American lager and light lager,” he says.
Then, as now, the difference, says Watson, “is just that craft has been trying to add a little more flavor.”
Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob
写真：荻村伊智朗氏/提供：アフロ
故・荻村伊智朗（おぎむらいちろう）氏の現役時代の卓球ノートが自宅から発見された。
荻村氏は選手時代に世界選手権で12個のタイトルを獲得、引退後はITTF（国際卓球連盟）会長も務めた日本卓球界のレジェンドだ。
本企画では、長男・一晃（かずあき）氏が、「ミスター卓球」とも呼ばれ、Ogi（オギ）の相性で世界中から親しまれた父・伊智朗氏の人生を、“世界一の卓球ノート”から読み解く。第7回となる今回は、荻村が卓球以外のスポーツ（陸上、テニス、体操、水泳、バスケ）を見て、卓球にどのように応用したのかをご紹介する。
＞＞【歴史を作った卓球レジェンド】Mr.TABLE TENNIS 荻村伊智朗＃1選手編
Ogiは自らの卓球を完成させるため、他競技を見ながら「スピード」と「戦術」に関する理論武装を進めていく。ノートには以下の記載がある。
最も良く見えるだろう事実はスピードかという点だ。
次にはその戦法に於ける方向として
自己の調子を整える事と共に、
相手の調子を崩す事が、大きな意味を持って来た事だ。既に陸上競技に於いてはマラソンが長距離化している。
中、長距離を見ても最初から飛ばして、
一気にゴールに入らんとする様になって来ている。
これはスピード化という事だ。次にザトペックの走法を見よ、映画は明確に物語る。
彼の走り方は、一週400のトラックのラップはいつも同じ様なものだ。
だが、その走り方は20~30米をぐっと出て又20~30普通に走り、又20~30ぐっと出る。
そして一周毎のラップは変わらぬ様にしている。
これは勝負を念頭に於いて、”相手のペースを崩すペース”を作った、と見て良い。テニスを見よ。
甚だしく近代化の遅れた日本テニス界を呆然とさせたのは、
かのゴンザレスの時速110マイルの超スピードサーヴィスではなかったか？
更に凡失を無くすに汲々としている日本テニスプレイヤーの目を射たものは、
ゴンザレス、セッジマンに依って代表される近代テニスのネット迄の前進ではなかったか？体操を見よ。
ローマに於ける田中敬子の優勝は何を物語るか？
姿体フォームのみに頼る様式的な美は、
スピード、ボリューム、力に依って征服されたのではないか？
いや、置きかえられる可能性が体操にもある、と言うに止めよう。水泳を見よ。
息が続かず、へばる事のあるのにも拘わらず
潜水泳法が世界記録を生んだ。
又、古橋はその圧倒的な記録によって、
○○○○（※）をして”今までとは違うが合理的なフォーム”と認めざるを得なくせしめた。バスケットを見よ。
戦後数々のティームの来日を見る毎に識者の
”リードしていてもなおかつ積極的にプレイする”と
彼らのゲームの新しさを覚めた聞いた。
※ノート不鮮明にて判読不可
荻村はスピードは絶対的な得点の要素であるという事と、
卓球は対人競技であるが故に得点の方法は多面的であるという事を確認している。
自分の得意な事が100で相手は90の場合にその差は10しかない。
逆に自分が得意ではない事が70で相手は50の場合にその差は20もある。
たとえ得意な事ではなくても、得点のチャンスはどちらが大きいのかという事を認識しながら戦術を考えるというわけだ。
指導者となったOgiがたびたび口にしたのが”おまえはカッコつけすぎる”という指摘だった。
これは”自分が理想とする点の取り方にこだわりすぎる”という意味で、
攻撃選手が攻撃でしか得点方法を考えない場合によく言っていた。
ドライブ攻撃の選手が表速攻の選手と対戦した時、
1セット目が終わった後に「絶対に先にドライブをするな。相手が打ってから（上回転にしてから）始めるラリーにしろ。」
という命令（団体戦だったのでアドバイスではなく指令）を出した事もあった。
負けたらOgiのせいだと半ばやけくそになりながらその戦術を徹底した結果、
対戦相手に初勝利をあげた選手の目から鱗が落ちた日だった。
写真：故・荻村伊智朗氏（右）と中国の世界王者・江加良氏/提供：荻村一晃
Ogiの卓球理論への強いこだわりが読み取れる記述がノートにあった。
日本は天才藤井の出現に依って、その卓球戦法に革命をもたらした。
彼が意識するとしないとにかかはらず、彼の存在意義は“どちらかと迷う時は100%missの無いやり方をえらべ”から“40本打ち19本ミスしても21本抜ける公算が立つなら、やれ！”という考え方を許容させる様に卓球の考え方を幅の広いものにしてしまった。人は藤井を天才という。そして天才は如何なる時代に於いても真似の出来ないものだと云うものもあろう。
然し、一時代の天才は、次の時代には常識である。
西欧はおくれている。
東欧は進んでいる。
アメリカの戦法は独特な社会的背景に依るもので、理論的発展の結果とは考えられない。
ただし、日本に於いても藤井は偶然かも知れない。
しかし、荻村から確立するだろう。
イギリスでは僅かにカリントンのアメリカ選手論に見受けられる。
1954.10.1
藤井選手を持ち上げてから落とす、という事から始めているところが恐ろしくもあり、Ogiらしい。
確かにOgiは先輩選手に教わるために長時間汽車に乗り、たった一言だったり、
たった一振りだったり、という形の教えをいただいた経験があったという。
その様な受取手に任せた理論（アドバイス）ではなく、
万人が理解できる理論を構築したいという思いをOgiは強く持っていた。
指導者時代には選手の練習メニューを見て練習する理由を聞く事がしばしばあった。ペンのドライブマンが裏面でカットをする練習を見ても、ふざけているとは取らず「なぜその練習をしているのか？」と質問をし、それに対するアドバイスをするわけだ。
フォアに大きく動いた後にバックに来たボールをやむを得なく裏面でカットをする状況の練習だが、質問は「なぜフォアに大きく動かなければいけなくなったか？」という所から始まる。“やむを得ない状況になる事を減らす努力”を同時に行う必要があるという意味でもある。その結果、練習メニューも練習時間も倍以上増えるという状況に追い込まれるので選手も大変だ。
自分の意見もはっきりと言うOgiだが、他人の話も興味を持って良く聞いていた。海外の監督・コーチ・選手などと意見を交わしたり、時には自らレシーブやラリーを行っていた。自らの理論を構築するためには、他人の意見を聞いたり実験的な試みも行っていったからこそ、その発言に重みがあったのだろう。体や手で隠さないサービスルールを考える上で”バックハンドサービスのみ”の国際大会を開催するなど特徴的だ。
（続く）
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文：荻村一晃
企画協力：Labo Live
