The Calgarian Behind the Rise of Women's Curling in Japan
An interview with J.D. Lind
National Coach, Team Japan, Women’s Curling
By: Rin Kobayashi-Wong
The Japan women’s curling team took the world by surprise in 2018 when they won the bronze at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea. Japan had been rising in the world rankings, finishing fifth during the 2014 Sochi Olympics and winning a silver at the 2016 World Championships. Coinciding with this rise was the arrival of a young Calgarian curling coach in Hokkaido. Fast forward to today, J.D. Lind is the national coach for Japanese women’s curling team as they prepare to compete in the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Japanab sat down with him in late October at the Calgary Curling Club to hear about his journey.
Serendipitous beginning of a coaching career
J.D. Lind arrives promptly on time for the interview and looks very much like an athlete himself. He and the women’s national team have just been reunited in Calgary for the first time in 18 months after being kept apart by the pandemic, each stranded in Canada and Japan. Training in Canada is critical, he explains, because the team needs exposure and experience that could only be gained outside of Japan through playing in international competitions. That’s why he brings them to Calgary, rents them a place, and shuttles them to local curling clubs and tournaments across Canada.
Team Japan, heading into the 2022 Beijing Olympics, is made up of four women who play domestically in the team Loco Solare: Satsuki Fujisawa, Chinami Yoshida, Yumi Suzuki, and Yurika Yoshida (supplemented by a reserve Kotomi Ishizaki). Loco Solare became the national team last September after winning the domestic qualifier. In December, they secured a spot to compete in the Beijing games after winning in the world Olympic qualifying tournament held in the Netherlands. They are also the same team, including coach Lind, who brought home Japan’s first Olympic medal in curling four years ago in Korea.
Born and raised in Calgary, J.D. was first and foremost a hockey player before he started curling at the age of 12. It wasn’t common for elementary schools to have a curling program, but his school did, and he and his friend started curling just for fun. Things turned more serious once they, as 14-year-olds, won the under-17 provincial championship two years later. “I really loved hockey, but the boys and I picked up curling really quickly and did very well, and eventually it came to a point where I wanted to curl more than play hockey,” explains Lind.
The start of his professional coaching career also came serendipitously. J.D. and his close friends formed one of the top junior teams in Canada throughout their teenage years. But J.D. was one year older than his teammates, so when he turned 21, he could no longer play in the under-20 category with them. “The boys had one more year left to compete and needed a coach to do that. We were best friends, and I had my coaching certificates. So I became their coach. I just wanted to hang out with my friends and never really had a plan to become a coach. But we ended up winning the world juniors that year. After that, everyone was asking me to coach.”
Curling connections run deep between Alberta and Japan
It’s a little known fact that modern-day curling was introduced in Japan by the Government of Alberta in the 1980s. The prefecture of Hokkaido formally became Alberta’s sister “province” in 1980, and as part of cultural exchange, Alberta sent curlers to Hokkaido to demonstrate the sport. Hokkaido, especially the city of Kitami, is arguably the curling capital of Japan, in large part thanks to the efforts made by Albertans. Since then, a steady string of Canadian curlers has made their way to Japan to teach the sport and coach professional curling teams, including J.D. Lind.
The Government of Hokkaido sought out J.D.’s coaching expertise, through the Government of Alberta, as they launched the Hokkaido Women’s Curling Academy in 2013. Then 28-year-old J.D. had never travelled to Japan, let alone had lived outside of Calgary, when the Hokkaido offer came. The interviews and job offer all took place over Skype. He recalls, “it was definitely a leap of faith. I didn’t even know anyone who had been to Japan. But I was young, and my girlfriend (now wife) Alex had always wanted to live abroad. The offer was for two years with a caveat that I could terminate it after one year. So we thought, if we didn’t like it, it’s only for a year.” And so began their adventure.
J.D. and Alex ended up living in Sapporo for two and half years, in an apartment above a tonkatsu restaurant just a couple of blocks away from the curling stadium where he worked. The area they stayed in was almost on the outskirts of the city. Back then, even in downtown Sapporo, it was rare to see non-Japanese faces on the street, he remembers. For the pair who didn’t know the language, it was a rough start, but they had no choice but to adjust. Alex attended a Japanese language school while J.D. taught curling and was soon able to speak and read enough to get around. They also fell in love with the beauty of Sapporo, a mid-size northern city that still had a slower pace of living than places like Tokyo and in some ways reminded them of Calgary.
It was during this time in Sapporo that J.D. developed lasting relationships with many of the top curlers like Satsuki Fujisawa and Chinami Yoshida, who currently play on Team Japan. He worked with different teams including universities in Hokkaido, but Loco Solare (Team Fujisawa) was the main team he coached and saw the most potential in. Lind was also with Yoshida as the assistant coach for the national team when they came in fifth at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
When the Hokkaido Women’s Curling Academy folded in 2016, the Japan Curling Association offered Lind the prestigious national coach position, which he gladly accepted and retains today. As the national coach, he has worked with a different top national team each year, such as Loco Solare and Hokkaido Bank. But Fujisawa’s Loco Solare was the team that went to the 2016 World Championship and 2018 Olympics with him, and he is thrilled to be their coach again as they prepare for the 2022 Beijing Games.
Recipe for coaching success
It’s hard to ignore the overlapping timing of J.D.’s arrival in Japan with the Japanese women’s international success. What is it that this Canadian coach brings out in Japanese players? J.D. points to a simple fact: it’s their ability to train in Canada. “You have to play against the best teams to get better. There's really no way around it. Most of the top international teams are either right here in Canada or come here to play in international tournaments held here. It’s just something you cannot get in Japan, no matter how hard you train. Even today during a practice in Calgary, they’re rubbing shoulders with the world’s best, like Jennifer Jones and Silvana Tirinzoni (of Canada and Switzerland, whose teams rank 4th and 5th respectively in the world as of November) playing right next to them. When you’re around these top teams, you’re in the atmosphere where you’re always pushing your limits. It’s very motivating and gets you in the right mindset.” Plus, training in Calgary has an added bonus of shielding the women from the attention of Japanese fans and media.
But there is more to it than that. Lind draws fascinating differences between Japanese and Canadian approaches to curling. He sees Japanese curlers treat the sport much like a craft than a game. In the pursuit of perfection, they practice every day just to achieve the flawless throw of a curling stone. The professional curlers also have the corporate sponsorship that allows them to spend full-time in practice and training. In contrast, Canadian curlers, even the top players, don’t practice every day. That’s because, besides juggling full-time work and family, Canadians prefer to play the actual game and get better that way than spending hours on technical drills the way the Japanese do.
Here is how J.D. puts it: “I’m not saying one is better than the other. They’re just different. It was hard for me coming from Canada to see how much emphasis the Japanese put on perfecting the form. I couldn’t relate to that because it wasn’t our approach in Canada. I really admire the dedication, but the goal is not to slide a certain, beautiful way. The goal is to win the game. I had to learn how the Japanese learned and understand how it differed from the way I learned. I wanted to preserve all the good aspects of what my team did, because there were so many, and layer on top what Canadians did well to find something in the middle that was better than both. It sounds easy when I put it that way, but there were definitely times when I struggled to understand. Even now, I’m always learning new things about how my team looks at a problem and how it differs from the way I look at it. We go back and forth and figure it out together.”
And that is the secret of J.D. Lind’s success. It’s his ability to stand back, observe, listen and forge a collaborative way forward. He builds his coaching style on mutual respect and trust between him and his players. He is never top-down because he truly believes in his athletes’ talent and ability to be the world’s best. “Just because I’m the coach, it doesn’t mean they have to follow my way. Respecting where they’re coming from – that comes with time. With Loco Solare, we’ve been together for so long and have so much mutual respect that now I don't even think I’m teaching them the Alberta style or Canadian style anymore. What we've done together is so unique, nobody else in the world does things the way we do. We perfected it together.”
When asked whether he has any mixed feelings about competing against Canadian teams, Lind doesn’t flinch. “I’m a proud Canadian,” he answers, “but I was brought to Japan to do a job. I’ve been coaching my athletes for eight years, and they’re almost like family to me. I enjoy working with them so much I just want them to succeed.” And then he shrugs with a smile and says, “Besides, Curling Canada has never approached me to coach – if they really wanted me, they can call and ask.” We, at Japanab, certainly hope they won’t for a while. It’s finders keepers, Canada.
An interview with J.D. Lind
National Coach, Team Japan, Women’s Curling
By: Rin Kobayashi-Wong
The Japan women’s curling team took the world by surprise in 2018 when they won the bronze at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea. Japan had been rising in the world rankings, finishing fifth during the 2014 Sochi Olympics and winning a silver at the 2016 World Championships. Coinciding with this rise was the arrival of a young Calgarian curling coach in Hokkaido. Fast forward to today, J.D. Lind is the national coach for Japanese women’s curling team as they prepare to compete in the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Japanab sat down with him in late October at the Calgary Curling Club to hear about his journey.
Serendipitous beginning of a coaching career
J.D. Lind arrives promptly on time for the interview and looks very much like an athlete himself. He and the women’s national team have just been reunited in Calgary for the first time in 18 months after being kept apart by the pandemic, each stranded in Canada and Japan. Training in Canada is critical, he explains, because the team needs exposure and experience that could only be gained outside of Japan through playing in international competitions. That’s why he brings them to Calgary, rents them a place, and shuttles them to local curling clubs and tournaments across Canada.
Born and raised in Calgary, J.D. was first and foremost a hockey player before he started curling at the age of 12. It wasn’t common for elementary schools to have a curling program, but his school did, and he and his friend started curling just for fun. Things turned more serious once they, as 14-year-olds, won the under-17 provincial championship two years later. “I really loved hockey, but the boys and I picked up curling really quickly and did very well, and eventually it came to a point where I wanted to curl more than play hockey,” explains Lind.
The start of his professional coaching career also came serendipitously. J.D. and his close friends formed one of the top junior teams in Canada throughout their teenage years. But J.D. was one year older than his teammates, so when he turned 21, he could no longer play in the under-20 category with them. “The boys had one more year left to compete and needed a coach to do that. We were best friends, and I had my coaching certificates. So I became their coach. I just wanted to hang out with my friends and never really had a plan to become a coach. But we ended up winning the world juniors that year. After that, everyone was asking me to coach.”
Curling connections run deep between Alberta and Japan
It’s a little known fact that modern-day curling was introduced in Japan by the Government of Alberta in the 1980s. The prefecture of Hokkaido formally became Alberta’s sister “province” in 1980, and as part of cultural exchange, Alberta sent curlers to Hokkaido to demonstrate the sport. Hokkaido, especially the city of Kitami, is arguably the curling capital of Japan, in large part thanks to the efforts made by Albertans. Since then, a steady string of Canadian curlers has made their way to Japan to teach the sport and coach professional curling teams, including J.D. Lind.
The Government of Hokkaido sought out J.D.’s coaching expertise, through the Government of Alberta, as they launched the Hokkaido Women’s Curling Academy in 2013. Then 28-year-old J.D. had never travelled to Japan, let alone had lived outside of Calgary, when the Hokkaido offer came. The interviews and job offer all took place over Skype. He recalls, “it was definitely a leap of faith. I didn’t even know anyone who had been to Japan. But I was young, and my girlfriend (now wife) Alex had always wanted to live abroad. The offer was for two years with a caveat that I could terminate it after one year. So we thought, if we didn’t like it, it’s only for a year.” And so began their adventure.
J.D. and Alex ended up living in Sapporo for two and half years, in an apartment above a tonkatsu restaurant just a couple of blocks away from the curling stadium where he worked. The area they stayed in was almost on the outskirts of the city. Back then, even in downtown Sapporo, it was rare to see non-Japanese faces on the street, he remembers. For the pair who didn’t know the language, it was a rough start, but they had no choice but to adjust. Alex attended a Japanese language school while J.D. taught curling and was soon able to speak and read enough to get around. They also fell in love with the beauty of Sapporo, a mid-size northern city that still had a slower pace of living than places like Tokyo and in some ways reminded them of Calgary.
It was during this time in Sapporo that J.D. developed lasting relationships with many of the top curlers like Satsuki Fujisawa and Chinami Yoshida, who currently play on Team Japan. He worked with different teams including universities in Hokkaido, but Loco Solare (Team Fujisawa) was the main team he coached and saw the most potential in. Lind was also with Yoshida as the assistant coach for the national team when they came in fifth at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
When the Hokkaido Women’s Curling Academy folded in 2016, the Japan Curling Association offered Lind the prestigious national coach position, which he gladly accepted and retains today. As the national coach, he has worked with a different top national team each year, such as Loco Solare and Hokkaido Bank. But Fujisawa’s Loco Solare was the team that went to the 2016 World Championship and 2018 Olympics with him, and he is thrilled to be their coach again as they prepare for the 2022 Beijing Games.
Recipe for coaching success
It’s hard to ignore the overlapping timing of J.D.’s arrival in Japan with the Japanese women’s international success. What is it that this Canadian coach brings out in Japanese players? J.D. points to a simple fact: it’s their ability to train in Canada. “You have to play against the best teams to get better. There's really no way around it. Most of the top international teams are either right here in Canada or come here to play in international tournaments held here. It’s just something you cannot get in Japan, no matter how hard you train. Even today during a practice in Calgary, they’re rubbing shoulders with the world’s best, like Jennifer Jones and Silvana Tirinzoni (of Canada and Switzerland, whose teams rank 4th and 5th respectively in the world as of November) playing right next to them. When you’re around these top teams, you’re in the atmosphere where you’re always pushing your limits. It’s very motivating and gets you in the right mindset.” Plus, training in Calgary has an added bonus of shielding the women from the attention of Japanese fans and media.
Here is how J.D. puts it: “I’m not saying one is better than the other. They’re just different. It was hard for me coming from Canada to see how much emphasis the Japanese put on perfecting the form. I couldn’t relate to that because it wasn’t our approach in Canada. I really admire the dedication, but the goal is not to slide a certain, beautiful way. The goal is to win the game. I had to learn how the Japanese learned and understand how it differed from the way I learned. I wanted to preserve all the good aspects of what my team did, because there were so many, and layer on top what Canadians did well to find something in the middle that was better than both. It sounds easy when I put it that way, but there were definitely times when I struggled to understand. Even now, I’m always learning new things about how my team looks at a problem and how it differs from the way I look at it. We go back and forth and figure it out together.”
And that is the secret of J.D. Lind’s success. It’s his ability to stand back, observe, listen and forge a collaborative way forward. He builds his coaching style on mutual respect and trust between him and his players. He is never top-down because he truly believes in his athletes’ talent and ability to be the world’s best. “Just because I’m the coach, it doesn’t mean they have to follow my way. Respecting where they’re coming from – that comes with time. With Loco Solare, we’ve been together for so long and have so much mutual respect that now I don't even think I’m teaching them the Alberta style or Canadian style anymore. What we've done together is so unique, nobody else in the world does things the way we do. We perfected it together.”
When asked whether he has any mixed feelings about competing against Canadian teams, Lind doesn’t flinch. “I’m a proud Canadian,” he answers, “but I was brought to Japan to do a job. I’ve been coaching my athletes for eight years, and they’re almost like family to me. I enjoy working with them so much I just want them to succeed.” And then he shrugs with a smile and says, “Besides, Curling Canada has never approached me to coach – if they really wanted me, they can call and ask.” We, at Japanab, certainly hope they won’t for a while. It’s finders keepers, Canada.
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