INTERVIEW

Arimura: I always have the spirit of never giving up until the end, no matter what the situation. Even if my performance is poor, I try not to think, "No matter what, even if I get a birdie, I will not improve my ranking," but rather, I try to make something that will lead to the next step. I strongly try not to waste a single stroke, so when I have a good day, it can lead to an explosive score on the last day. Above all, I believe that my attitude of continuing to hit the ball as hard as I can will resonate with people who see me, and I want to make sure I never forget that.

Arimura: Ai Miyazato is a great role model in our generation. She is two years my senior at Tohoku High School, and I met her when I was in junior high school. She has been very successful since her high school days, and I feel that I have learned a lot from watching by her side as she suffered under pressure and never forgot to consider others, as well as her gentlemanly attitude toward golf.

Arimura: It is said that the three qualities of an athlete are “mind, technique, body”, but I believe the correct order for me is “body, mind, technique”.
In the summer, when the weather is hot and I am in a tough position on the second day of the competition, I may suddenly think, "It would be easier not to qualify, I can rest for two days, ......" but there is no reason other than physical fatigue to have such a feeling (mind).

When adjusting your golf swing, it is not uncommon to find points of improvement in your body rather than your technique. Sometimes I feel like, "For some reason, my body floats," and I am unsure about my swing, but in fact, training my trunk can solve the problem. Recently, I have been talking a lot with my coach about whether issues should be compensated for with training or swing, but about 80% of what we need to pay attention to is body conditioning. I wish I had taken better care of my body when I was younger.

Arimura: That's right. When I went to the U.S., players there did not hit the ball at all on the driving range. Of course, if the swing plane is not stable, it is important to repeat the swing training. But once the plane is determined to some extent, it is a matter of how to keep it. In the United States, the emphasis was on how to keep my body in good shape and keep reproducing the swing. So, either I have to choose to be in the gym to work out, or to play short games to adjust the feeling of the shot. My thinking changed a lot back then, that if my body was in good shape, I could make some good swings.

Arimura: I had not used it since my wrist had healed, but in May 2009, I began to feel a lingering sticking sensation in the hamstring of my right leg, and gradually the sticking sensation became stronger even when I just stretched my leg out a little. When I went to a rehabilitation facility, I was told that "the muscles were sticking together in a very deep part of the leg where could not be reached by hand”. I was also told that “it could be reached by ultrasound”, then I remembered that "I used to use it before!”, and started using another therapeutic ultrasound device from ITO.

I have been taught how to use the device and now I can use several patterns on my own.
I do this carefully, especially in areas where tension is strong. As we age, the human body becomes stiffer and stiffer, even if we are not competing. In particular, not the surface of the muscles, but the deeper areas, such as where the bones and muscles are connected, become quite stiff, and even if the surface is loosened, the inner is not relaxed, so the body tends to repeat the process of becoming stiff again quickly. Constant care is important for the deeper areas. I use it all the time, not just when it hurts. I spend 16 minutes on one spot and sometimes spend 30 minutes or more just on treatment. When I use it, the area where the treatment device was applied warms up, and I can feel my muscles relax. I always check by moving my body after finishing the treatment, but the sensation of sticking is reduced.

Arimura: When the condition was bad, even when my knees were extended, there was a sticking sensation, as if I was bending forward. In golf, when you swing, you always have to bend forward and make a turning motion. If there is a sticking sensation, it is inevitable that power escapes to other places and the center of gravity cannot be shifted properly. Also, if you feel pain, you have to cover up that area and put stress on another area, creating new tension by the time you finish the 18th hole. The back and hips are also prone to tension, and to put it in a slightly extreme way, the range of motion of the swing itself becomes limited.