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John Kirwan - Source: Photosport -
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Japan's rugby coach John Kirwan will try almost anything to toughen up his players, from sumo and crash-test dummies to ancient "Jedi magic".
The New Zealander's latest brainwave is to tap into the mystical powers of a 90-year-old aikido master whose techniques help petite Japanese nurses lift patients off hospital beds.
"He teaches nurses to lift people who are twice their weight," Kirwan told Reuters in an interview. "Like (Stars Wars character) Yoda! How's that work?
"I want to see if this can really help us. Japan's players have a slight physical disadvantage but if we can turn that into an advantage through leverage or 'Jedi magic'...
"We're always pushing the boundaries. If someone comes to me with a new training idea, I'll pretty much adopt it straight away if the argument's alright."
Kirwan famously began sending Japan's "Brave Blossoms" to brutal sparring sessions with giant sumo wrestlers in 2008 in an attempt to add some steel to his side.
The former All Black watched from a safe distance as his players, wearing the buttock-bearing "mawashi" loin cloth worn by sumo wrestlers, took a frightful battering.
"It was successful in that it took our guys out of their comfort zone," said Kirwan, who took over as Japan's head coach at the start of 2007 after a spell in charge of Italy.
Strong toes
"All the boys were done up in the gear with the mawashi. Our guys would run full pelt at them and whack them. They didn't even move. They just knocked our boys straight out!
"The sumo wrestlers had some techniques that we can adopt. The strongest part of a sumo wrestler is his toes because he's not allowed to lift his feet.
"If he lifts his feet he's gone. He's got to grip with his feet. Rugby players don't use their feet like that, so that was one of the things we got off them."
Kirwan, who is a fan of Inter Milan's charismatic coach Jose Mourinho, added: "It also helped us be more compact in the tackle and changed the way they tackled."
The 45-year-old said he was having some life-size dummies custom made for his players to take their anger out on for a training camp in the southern Japanese resort of Miyazaki.
"We might stick some faces on them," laughed Kirwan, who added that he was unlikely to stay in Japan beyond 2011.
"It's 80 percent I'll leave Japan in 2011.
"I'd like to stay involved with the World Cup committee," said Kirwan, who played a key role in Japan's successful bid to host the 2019 tournament.
"But by 2011 it will be time to move on."
