{"id":309715,"date":"2019-10-10T06:00:16","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T20:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=309715"},"modified":"2019-10-10T06:00:16","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T20:00:16","slug":"pro-coach-trains-tsunami-saipan-swimmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/pro-coach-trains-tsunami-saipan-swimmers\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro coach trains Tsunami Saipan swimmers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-309715 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/pro-coach-trains-tsunami-saipan-swimmers\/tsunami1-8\/'>tsunami1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-309745'>\n\t\t\t\tJapanese professional coach Hana Okimoto, third left front row, poses with Swimming Center Tsunami Saipan swimmers and coach Hiro Kimura, right, front row, after a training session at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan pool. (Contributed Photo\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/pro-coach-trains-tsunami-saipan-swimmers\/tsunami2-9\/'>tsunami2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-309746'>\n\t\t\t\tJapanese professional coach Hana Okimoto explains the drills to Swimming Center Tsunami Saipan swimmers. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/pro-coach-trains-tsunami-saipan-swimmers\/tsunami3-9\/'>tsunami3<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-309747'>\n\t\t\t\tJapanese professional coach Hana Okimoto assists a Swimming Center Tsunami Saipan member. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/pro-coach-trains-tsunami-saipan-swimmers\/tsunami4-9\/'>tsunami4<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-309748'>\n\t\t\t\tJapanese professional coach Hana Okimoto gestures to two Swimming Center Tsunami Saipan members. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/pro-coach-trains-tsunami-saipan-swimmers\/tsunami5-9\/'>tsunami5<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-309749'>\n\t\t\t\tJapanese professional coach Hana Okimoto checks on Tsunami Saipan\u2019s senior swimmers after conducting a drill. (Contributed Photo)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Swimming Center Tsunami Saipan members trained under Japanese professional coach Hana Okimoto for two weeks at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan pool.<\/p>\n<p>Tsunami Saipan head coach Hiro Kimura said Okimoto provided technical lessons to their swimmers and held sessions for various classes (recreational, beginner and senior) of the club every night at the 25-yard pool. The visiting coach is from Sukumo, Kochi Prefecture and was impressed with the skills of Tsunami Saipan swimmers and how they eagerly responded to the workouts and drills she conducted. Kimura added that Okimoto hopes to come back to Saipan or even stay here for a while to continue training the club\u2019s members.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Kimura is pleased with Tsunami Saipan\u2019s progress since they started training at the PIC pool despite the challenges they are facing with their new practice venue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe deeply appreciate PIC because they keep providing a training facility to us. Without PIC\u2019s understanding and support, it will be very hard for our swimmers to practice and improve,\u201d said Kimura, whose swimmers had to look for an alternative training venue after the Kan Pacific Swimming Pool closed in October last year.<\/p>\n<p>At PIC\u2019s short-course pool, Tsunami Saipan conducts time trials either once or twice a month and majority of the club\u2019s swimmers achieved impressive records based on the U.S. motivational time standards that the group follows.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur swimmers have marked AA, AAA, or AAAA times.  Several swimmers who just moved up a new age group could get more than AA time. Before, at the time we were using the Marpi pool, our swimmers best was BB or A time, the highest when they moved up to a new age group,\u201d Kimura said.<\/p>\n<p>The Tsunami Saipan coach added that their swimmers could post faster times if they do diving practice, so he will look for some venues where their members could do so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe PIC pools is not deep enough so we can\u2019t dive there. We will try to find a place for our diving practice, maybe a pool designed for scuba diving training,\u201d Kimura said.<\/p>\n<p>Tsunami Saipan swimmers are training for some tournaments next year. They are originally set to compete in Guam this month, but the Hagatna Pool is closed and undergoing repairs so the meet was canceled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Swimming Center Tsunami Saipan members trained under Japanese professional coach Hana Okimoto for two weeks&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":308649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-309715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-tsunami-saipan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}