Meet Ken-ichiro Nomura

Japan's Pioneer Many-times Champion, Now a Sportaerobics World Icon

Ken-ichiro Nomura (third child and first boy) was born on March 16, 1967 in Ohita Prefecture, which is located on the island of Kyushu, Ken-ichiro has two elder sisters one who is six years his elder, and the other three. The Nomura family moved to Osaka (second largest Japanese city) when Ken-ichiro was two years old, which is where he still calls home.

Childhood: Ken-ichiro basically describes himself as a young boy "cry-baby." His friends kidded him a lot due to his naturally curly hair. On the other hand, he was very active and got injured all the time.

During his elementary school years, Ken-ichiro was the best backstroke swimmer in the area.

In junior high school, he took up Kendo (Japanese fencing). In High School, Ken-ichiro started gymnastics for the first six months because "I wanted to train to do a back-spin-roll (back aerial roll), like Jackie Chan!" And throughout junior high and high school, he took martial arts for five years after school.

Ken-ichiro is a six-time first-place champion of the Suzuki Japan Cup, having won his first gold medal in 1987. He has since won first place as a Mixed Pair with partner Chie Miyoshi (1991) and is a three-time first-place champion, Men’s Individual, of the Suzuki World Cup International Aerobic Championship.

Ken-ichrio graduated in 1987 from Kobe 21 Sports Safety College, located in Kobe, Japan.

Ken-ichiro married Chie Miyoshi (the two met in 1990 while Keni-chiro was performing with the Mizuno dance team) on July 7, 1995. Their son, Tenki Nomura, was born on September 13, 1996 and is now seven years old. He has just this year started to attend elementary school.

Interview with Ken-ichiro (KEN):

IAF HQ: How did you start/find out about sportaerobics? And how did you begin?

KEN: "My first experience of aerobics exercise was in college; I had taken it as an elective class. Back then, I actually had a rather "poor image" of aerobics, i.e., I thought aerobics was a women’s sport—for women who want to get skinny and wear high-cut leotards. I had never regarded aerobics as being a sport for men. After I graduated college, I enjoyed, pretty much everyday, playing Pachinko (Japanese pinball game) in Pachinko shops, and I wasn’t working properly. One day I won big money at Pachinko and decided to become a member of a fitness club so that I could do certain exercises–I was feeling that I was "not healthy" and that I needed to do some exercise.

So I joined this fitness club and it was there that I met a male instructor who recommended that I become an instructor as well. It was September 1987; I was 20 years old.

IAF HQ: How did you enter competition?

KEN: Only after three months (after I had started working as an instructor), I entered the Japan Cup Championship and won the Individual Male category during the Finals.


IAF HQ: How and why do you continue to compete?

KEN: I love competing and there is no reason for me to retire. When I was young, I was competing to win. But now, I’ve found it’s interesting to experience my body changing. It is not about gaining more muscle, but more to find more ability, to find that my original body can work more and work better when I think of ways of using my body differently. I am convinced that my body still can change. This is another reason I am still competing.


IAF HQ: Did you consult a coach, how did you compete in the beginning compared to how you compete and prepare now?

KEN: I have never had a coach. I once had a "trainer" (from 1994-1997), but only at certain competition venues.


IAF HQ: What else do you like to do in your life, other than sportaerobics?

KEN: I like to spend time with my family. We love the beach so we often travel to Okinawa or Hawaii on vacation. Our son Tenki loves watching fish. He is hoping to become a "ticket collector" at an aquarium. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink (alcohol) and I don’t gamble any longer (actually I haven’t been able to smoke {gladly} since I started aerobics.)


IAF HQ: How would you describe your first experience in an aerobics class?

KEN: It was so very tough. We were required to do high-leg kicks without any training. The class was only one time per week but it was a compulsory subject so I could not skip the class. The first several times, I hated it, but then I became increasingly interested in it because my teacher praised me for my ability to cope with the lessons.


IAF HQ: What do you like about competition? And what do you love the most about sportaerobics?

KEN: I love competing. I have been doing what I want and love to do, and the results have followed me. I think I am a very lucky man.


IAF HQ: What is the hardest thing for you in your training?

KEN: Stretching was the hardest thing when I started this sport, because I hadn’t developed a flexible body. When it comes to sportaerobics, for example, we must do high-leg kicks with proper body alignment, which requires a lot of power and flexibility. This is hard. And to have to practice a routine for a thousand or more times is hard as well!


IAF HQ: At what point in your career (or in your preparation of a routine) do you feel the most nervous or apprehensive?

KEN: In my case, at the point when I find that I cannot include/do certain moves/elements to cope with the rules, that changes often, I feel most "nervous." My technique is to usually decide on the music first, then ask a choreographer to help with the overall choreography. After I receive the choreography, I practice and practice and practice in order to make the routine correspond to my movement ability—although, I basically try to keep the choreographer’s original routine vision.


IAF HQ: How do you feel at the moment you enter the stage? Any prayer or mantra or do you use some type of good luck charm? And what are some good ways to concentrate at this moment?

KEN: "Even now, I really get nevous at this point. Of course, I got much more nervous when I was younger and was less experienced. I think I am very weak against pressure, but I get very strong when I am in a tight corner. (When I drive myself into a corner, particularly.) I know from my long experience, I cannot perform satisfactorally when I worry about the scores coming up and/or the routines performed ahead of mine. "

I have no certain prayers or mantas, nor good luck charms. I try to set my mind to saying, ‘I will be okay, okay, okay… I can do it, I can do it… never mind the athletes around…, etc." In addition, I have been trying not to make "a saying." Instead, I put on a new pair of shoes, because I tend to not perform well if I wear the same shoes as I had worn during a previous performance. I do not want to make a weak point on anything!


IAF HQ: How many days do you train a week? And how long do you train a day?

KEN: I train three to four days a week in the case that I have nothing else to prepare for a certain event. Pre-event though I almost train everyday. Approxmately three to four hours a day. I do not practice/train on a planned schedule. I have my own way. I practice as I please, while thinking about and taking into consideration my body’s condition.


IAF HQ: What was the biggest mistake you ever made during your performance, or what was the biggest challenge in one of your routines, and how did you manage it?


KEN: I twisted my ankle a week before the 1998 Suzuki World Cup. Although I was able to compete thanks to a very famous acupuncturist’s treatment, I again twisted the same ankle about a week after the event. I then had to wear a plaster cast for a while. Since I had to compensate in other ways due to the injured ankle, other parts of my body started to hurt as well; recovery from that injury was very, very hard. Another big mistake had also occurred when I was competing in the Trio category. When I make mistake in a single routine, I do not regret it so deeply, but I feel so sorry when I make a mistake in a Trio’s routine and affect others.

And how I manage performing now? I don’t know from when this change in mindset occurred, but now I am convinced that it is much more important for me to perform at a satisfactory level for myself, rather than perform for the ranking that I might receive.


IAF HQ: What was your favorite routine? And what was your greatest moment?

KEN: "My favorite routine is one from 1998, music was "Ready 4 This", though I was 2nd place and Park Kwang Soo (Korea) won the gold. My greatest moment? When I came from behind and won Magnus Scheving (Iceland) at the Suzuki World Cup Finals in 1994. I was so satisfied with myself in that I could withstand the big pressure of Magnus, and he did not beat me. I was also so happy when I won the gold medal at the Taejon EXPO, held in Korea in 1993.

IAF HQ: What do you dislike the most about competitive aerobics/competitive sports?

KEN: I understand that sportaerobics is possibly heading for the Olympic Games. But to make this sport as one of the Olympic disciplines, I feel the genuine baseline qualities of this sport have been getting lost year by year, and perhaps these inherent qualities will need to be brought forth in order that this can proceed to the Olympic Games….


IAF HQ: What do you think is the most important thing you do to prepare for a big event?

KEN: To prepare both my body’s condition as well as my mental condition; I feel this is the most important preparation for me. Fortunately, I can get to feeling pretty high, day by day, while preparing for an event. I feel that it is very important not only to prepare my own condition—both physically and mentally—but to ask for the support of my family, my friends, and for the cooperation of my working studio, which is really mandatory. To create a comfortable environment all around me is extremely important, and I think it is one of the important abilities and skills of the successful athlete.


IAF HQ: What other athlete do you admire most? (sportaerobics athlete or other world athlete?)

KEN: I admire Hideo Nono, Major League pitcher. I think he knows himself and does not dance on mass media’s information. He goes at his own pace, whatever the mass population people might say. Ichiro is also great, but he is too cool!


I also admire Alexandra Paiva, A Brazilian male athlete who won the ANAC World Championships in ‘93 and ‘94. All his movements were what I wanted to accomplish. He was heading where I also wanted to go. He did many difficult moves at that time and I had thought that I could never beat him. I think Paiva had quite an impact on many Japanese athletes, not only me.


IAF HQ: What goal do you have for yourself overall, in your life?

KEN: To become happy and live happily with my wife and my family, and live somewhere on a southern island. That’s a true goal for me. Also, I have been challenging myself year by year to become strong through sportaerobics and competing, so I would like to repay what I have gained personally, a kind of obligation I feel to give back to this sport.

Through continuing with this sport, I have created a "road" inside myself. Even if I were to stop competing, I want to get to the bottom or to the end of this road so, if I can teach something like how to use the human body etc., it would be great. I don’t know yet if I would want to teach juniors or aerobic athletes or athletes of other sports, but I would like to utilize my experience in the future toward others.


IAF HQ: What advice do you offer to new (younger-aged) athletes?

KEN: When an athlete gets old enough, he/she should "decide his mind" what he/she wants to do, what he/she wants to be, and he/she must decide this by himself/herself. Sometime he/she may have to experience a gap because of romance or study, etc., but he/she should consider if they still want to continue their sport, or not. And if they want to continue until they become an adult, then I think they should not try or wish success at an early stage. In other words, they should not try or wish to become a junior champion., per se. Instead, concentrate on training and shaping the basic skills. I think they should then be able to accelerate their abilities when they becomes an adult. This will help to avoid certain mental burnout at an early stage.

I know that to select the "safer" way, the "less risky" option is sometimes what works. But I would rather like to say to not select the "safer" or less risky way. Such a decision might work at the moment, but it will cause you regret afterward. Sometimes force yourself to take the harder challenge.

In the FIG COP, we are not required to put our foot higher when we do straddle jumps, elements, for example. But I still want to try my best to put my foot higher. I would like to "stick" to that point to keep my style and my taste. I know that to imitate a top athlete is important, but I hope younger-aged athletes learn to maintain their own style and taste from within themselves, on certain points important to them.

IAF HQ: What kinds of lessons do you teach? How many lessons do you have per week?

KEN: I belong to a sports club in Osaka. I teach eight (8) lessons per week, from beginners to athletes’ level. All the lessons are set Tuesday through Friday and I keep Saturday and Sunday open for events and workshop business. (But I do not work much on Saturdays and Sundays, you know?) And Mondays are basically off so, I often have three consecutive days off. No work per se, but I do still workout on holidays.

It has past 16 years since I started this sport. When it comes to sports, I used to flatter myself that I progressed so fast whatever I tried, until I found aerobics. I got tired of them quickly. But when I became a national champion of sportaerobics, I thought I should try this sport more seriously. And this thinking still continues for me.

I am hoping that everyone who does aerobics becomes happy. Even if he/she stops competing in sportaerobics and decides to go on to another life, if you think that aerobics played a part in getting you to where you are now, then that is great.

IAF HQ: Thank you Ken-ichiro for sharing a bit of yourself and your life with us. You are a consummate athlete and we look forward to the gift of your performances for many years to come!