INTERVIEW

The Keepers of Tradition
Sokeguchi, Kashima Youth Goalkeeper Coach

Antlers was founded in 1991, two years before the 1993 launch of the J-League. Because J-League clubs were required to have youth systems to develop players, the Antlers Academy was established. More than 30 years have passed since then—what kind of traditions have been passed down?
He rose through the ranks from Kashima Youth to the top team, where he guarded the Antlers goal for 23 years. His total league appearances number 533, far ahead of Masaharu Furukawa’s 125, which ranks second. Boasting the most appearances of any goalkeeper, he is truly a living encyclopedia of the club’s traditions. We spoke with Sokeguchi, now a Youth Goalkeeper Coach who guides the next generation of players, about his current work with the children as he strives to develop the stars of tomorrow for the top team.

A 12-Hour Bus Ride Became the Standard

―It has been six months since I started coaching at the Academy.

“My very first away trip as a youth coach was to Hiroshima. We took a bus for 12 hours each way, arrived in the morning, and played almost immediately. We stayed overnight and then came right back. We had to experience that right away. And it wasn’t even a large bus—it was a microbus. The players rode with us, but since Mitsu (Technical Advisor Mitsuo Ogasawara) and I couldn’t drive, we just sat there. I imagine it was even harder for Yanagi (Youth Manager Atsushi Yanagisawa), who was driving, and Coach Okamoto (Hideo), but we had to experience that right at the beginning (laughs). Then came the J Village Cup, where we traveled back and forth between Kashima and Fukushima by bus for three consecutive days. The other teams seemed to stay overnight, but we also had away trips where we spent about three and a half hours traveling each way every day.”

―That must have been tough, right?

“No, it was totally manageable. Once you’ve experienced that first trip to Hiroshima, you feel like you’ll arrive after just a quick nap (laughs).”

―I see (laughs). With your height, Coach Sokeguchi, traveling for long periods in a microbus seat must have made your knees hurt...

“That was fine (laughs). I had never traveled that far back in my youth days, so it was a first for me. But once you’ve done that Hiroshima trip and it becomes your standard, everything else is easy. We also had an away trip to Indonesia, but that was only a little over seven hours by plane. So, it might sound like I’ve been through the worst of it, but my standard for how tough travel can be has changed (laughs).”

―I see (laughs). At the top team, I was an assistant coach, but from this year on, I have become a Youth Goalkeeper Coach, responsible for designing training menus and coaching the players myself.

“Basically, I try to make sure the menus don’t become too similar, even if the movements are similar, by varying the drills. In fact, when I think about training menus, I look back at the kind of training I did when I was a player, and I surprisingly don’t remember much of it.”

―Really? That is surprising.

“Goalkeeping is built on a foundation of basic training. For example, improving a single movement can enable you to make a save you couldn’t make before or move your feet more effectively. Those small details are important. Even when catching with a step, you need to make that step come naturally when the ball arrives, so you focus on it during training and make it second nature. I know firsthand from my playing days that this is what allows it to happen naturally in a match.”

―Split-second judgment and smooth movement are essential for a goalkeeper.

“Yes, so I try to make sure the players don’t think, ‘Oh, this drill again’ during training. To make the body remember, it is necessary to perform certain things somewhat like a routine, so even if the steps are the same, I try changing the other movements. When I was a player, I would do the menus I was given and sometimes think, ‘The flow of training isn’t very good today,’ but now I realize the hard work and struggles the coaches put into preparing behind the scenes. I realize that I am the one who is perceived as the reason the flow of training is bad (laughs).”

―It is difficult to create a good rhythm in training.

“Yes. There are five goalkeepers in the youth team now, and it is important to create a training flow that allows them to make as many catches and kicks as possible. Furthermore, it is necessary to push them physically and get them into match condition. The more players there are to watch, the harder it becomes, but that is precisely why it is something I have to think about even more.”

Coordination within the Academy

―I hear that training menus are shared from the junior to the youth levels, so that development can proceed in the same direction.

“Times have changed, and training footage is now recorded every time and shared among staff across all categories. Training menus are also kept as reference materials. By accumulating data, we can look back at what kind of training was done at this stage and use it to establish evaluation criteria for the players.”

―Including the training footage?

“Yes, junior and junior youth goalkeeper coaches sometimes watch the youth team’s training on video, and we also use that as a basis for conversation. We do the same with training menus. However, even if a training menu is shared as a file stating, ‘We will do this training today,’ the details are often difficult to convey. This is true for me as well, and even when I look at materials from other categories, there are times when I wonder what the intention is, but once I talk to people and communicate with them, I often understand it much better. There are things you simply cannot know unless you actually try it on the pitch. I was just talking about this with Coach Okamoto, but confirming things through conversation and video makes it easier to convey and understand. There are things you don’t understand just by looking at materials, but then you hear it and realize, ‘Oh, so that’s how it was.’ We proceed by communicating across all categories, not just the youth team.”

―Doesn’t the training menu you plan sometimes end up being different from the training that actually takes place on the pitch?

“It does. I have actually tried creating and implementing this kind of training menu myself, but of course, it doesn’t always work out on the pitch. Even when I was an assistant coach at the top team, we had the highly experienced Yohei (Yohei Sato: current top team goalkeeper coach), and if things weren’t working out, we would sometimes change the training menu right on the spot.”

―For example, even if you try to do build-up training, it won’t work unless the players in the academy age groups have accurate kicking.

“That is also true. If you are practicing long balls, if the players keep miskicking, it can end up taking a form that is not what you intended. And as you go down to the youth, junior youth, and junior age groups, that will probably increase even more. But having the players kick the ball many times is also a form of training, and there can be no growth without repeating successes and failures in training. Unless you increase the number of kicks and catches as much as possible and make the tempo and flow of training smoother, it will not become a more efficient, high-quality training session. That balance is difficult.”

―In training, you need a flow where each and every play is repeated many times, and you want to keep the time spent waiting your turn as short as possible, so that you can lead to higher-quality, higher-intensity training.

“That is exactly right. That is why I also have to increase the number of times I kick, and in kicking drills, the players have to kick more often. There are five goalkeepers in the youth team now, so compared to the four at the top team, it will inevitably be fewer. Because of that, the top team is at a higher level technically, so the tempo also becomes better as a result. That is why I feel that the lower the category, the more difficult the coaching becomes. I talked about this with Aki (Shodai Sato: Kashima Junior Youth Goalkeeper Coach), but teaching junior youth and junior players is really tough. The higher you go, the more complex training you can do.”

The Difference Between the Top Team and the Academy

―You started as a coach after serving as a goalkeeper assistant coach at the top team. You are coaching the youth team now, but what kind of differences do you feel?

“Of course, even at the professional level, individual growth is necessary, but when coaching the developmental age groups, I feel that the lower the category, the greater the proportion of focusing on individual growth compared to the professionals. Depending on that growth, there is also competition over whether a junior can move up to junior youth, or whether a junior youth can move up to the youth team, so it is something else again.”

―The Antlers Academy is an organization where selected players are gathered. Even so, do differences in ability between the players emerge?

“For example, there is not that much of a difference between a first-year and a third-year high school student. However, when you get to first-year and third-year junior high school students, there is certainly a difference. For a child who has been a primary school student until now to suddenly play in a third-year junior high school match is, well, quite a difficult thing. When I was a first-year junior high school student myself, I also felt a big difference with the third-year students. However, I think that in the future, there will be more cases where younger students play in third-year junior high school matches. That is precisely why a first-year student from Tsukuba Junior Youth was playing as a starter in a match this summer, and that is an amazing thing.”

―Participating in a national tournament is a great experience for a player.

“There is no better than being able to experience it early. Furthermore, I think that will continue to be the trend in the future. However, you have to be careful about how you view it. Regarding participation in training for the higher category, there is also the good side of getting them used to the higher level, so we are still doing it now, and I think if we can continue it in the future, it will lead to more player growth.”

―As expected, player growth is important.

“Of course. First, what you have to think about is what to do so that the players can grow. For that, daily training and match experience are the most important. When I was a player myself, I was taught by Wara (Tatsunori Fujiwara: current FC Tokyo Goalkeeper Coach), and I was able to do it while feeling various things, such as the sense of getting better in daily training. Furthermore, it is precisely because there were games in addition to training that you can feel that kind of growth. In addition to daily training, it is only by playing in matches that you can grow and gain insights, and experience in official matches is, after all, different from practice matches. I think it was a big deal that satellite teams were held in the form of unofficial matches in the past. I hope that through training and match experience, we can aim for player growth.”

What is the Tradition of Antlers Goalkeepers?

―Goalkeeper Coach Sokeguchi was born and raised in Kashima, rose through the ranks from the Academy to the top team, and is where he is today after continuing to play as a professional. Is there anything you felt from the backs of your seniors about what is important as an Antlers goalkeeper?

“I myself, of course, have watched Antlers since the early days of the J-League. For example, Masa (Masaharu Furukawa: current Shimizu Goalkeeper Coach) in ’93, and then Yohei after that—you start by imitating them. For example, the way to do a punt kick, the timing, or watching the pre-jump movement before receiving the ball and imitating it. When you are a child, you start by watching the plays of professional players and imitating them. For myself, that was the same even after becoming a professional. Not only from the people above me, but also from what the younger players were doing, I tried to steal and try various things to seize the opportunity for my own growth. During my playing days, I was constantly taking in and trying various things, whether it was the timing, the way to catch, or the way to move. That is why it is not a sense of ‘at what time’ or ‘from that senior.’

―It must have been because of that ambition to improve that you were able to continue for so long. It was impressive when you talked about how Sunte joining and becoming a rival made you feel that ‘my playing career might have been extended.’ You had an attitude of always taking in the good things from both seniors and juniors.

“I did. That was not only in technical aspects, but also in mental aspects. I didn’t want to lose to anyone—that was also true when A江 (Koichi A江: current Hiroshima Junior Youth Goalkeeper Coach) and Seibu (Yohei) came from other clubs. It was also true for Ozawa (Hideaki), and when Tetsu (Tetsu Sugiyama: current Tsukuba School Coach), who was a new addition to the Japan University National Team, came in. It was also true when Aki came in, and when Kushibiki (Masatoshi Kushibiki: current Thespa Kusatsu Gunma) and (Kwon) Sunte came in.

―The fact that Coach Sokeguchi has the most appearances as a goalkeeper at Antlers means that he can also be said to be the one who created the tradition. I think Antlers-ness itself can be said to be Coach Sokeguchi himself.

“I wonder, maybe if you know others, you can understand what Antlers-ness is. But because I don’t know others, everything is just something that is taken for granted in everyday life. However, the ‘greed for titles’ and ‘obsession with victory’ that I have often been told about are things I have insisted on doing myself. Of course, the people in the front office are also like that, and I have done it thinking that such an atmosphere within the club is something that is taken for granted. The loneliness when you are not competing for the championship is something I think you don’t have much with other teams. Winning, and being at the top, is taken for granted, and it is taken for granted that tense games continue, and that there is the Emperor’s Cup at the end of the year after the league season ends. I guess that is what ‘-ness’ is.

―As you develop the players who will become the core of Antlers from now on, what important things can be listed?

“I have seen many good players until now. There are plenty of them in our age groups as well. But to go from there and play and excel in professional matches, you are not just a player who is merely good. Without a strong fighting spirit, that kind of high intensity, you cannot continue to play in matches.”

―Not only the ability on the pitch, but also the importance of the mental aspect. On top of that, is it to keep winning as a team?

“Yes. By continuing to win, various things will work out well. On top of that, gaining confidence is something that is extremely important. Of course, the team continuing to win without conceding goals is important, but the experience of continuing to win while learning and continuing to play in matches is something that cannot be replaced by anyone. After that, you have to direct that confidence in a good way. If your nose gets big, it is not good.”

―Getting cocky and failing is the same at every age group.

“Manager Yanagisawa often says this to the youth players as well, but I think dedication, sincerity, and respect are really important. If you are complacent, you will be overtaken by your rivals right away, and if you don’t have that kind of feeling, you might be told, ‘Is that guy delusional?’”

―The team is currently standing at the top of the Prince League, but the real test begins from here.

“To promote to the Premier League, it is one step at a time, but the current team has confidence in scoring points. Manager Yanagisawa also often says, ‘Even a two-goal difference is fine,’ but I think the players also feel that. In terms of physical aspects, with the theme of training, Satouchi and Coach Ooiwa are incorporating menus that allow the goalkeepers to enter well at the beginning of the week, and there is a sense that the base has improved. I want to focus on the team’s victory while making good use of the team’s weapons. After all, it is best to be able to reflect after winning. Please support the youth team toward promotion to the Premier League.”