I started archery casually

“In high school, I spent all my time hanging out at game centers and karaoke, so I thought I might do something different in college. I happened to be invited by a friend to go and watch the archery club. A beautiful senior student approached me and asked me to write down my name, phone number, and department. I’d always been to an all-boys school, so I was happy to be asked to do something like that by a girl, so I wrote it down and joined the club (laughs).”

He initially achieved good grades and even earned the reputation of being “a talented first-year student,” but his progress stagnated thereafter and he graduated from university with mediocre grades.

“After graduating, I got a job at a regular company and decided to give up archery and enjoy golf as a hobby.”

But then he received a call from his company’s archery club. “They asked me to lend them my support because they always failed to qualify for the All Japan Corporate Championships, so I couldn’t let go of archery.”

The injury to his lower limbs drew him back to archery

At the same time, however, he began to have problems with his lower limbs. Around the winter of his first year at the company, he began to feel difficulty running. At first, he thought it was due to lack of exercise, but he soon became unable to run, then walk, and had to use crutches. Six years later, he was completely wheelchair-bound.

“The cause is unknown. It seems that it’s not uncommon for people to have something congenital that causes symptoms at a certain age.”
Kamiyama speaks calmly.
“It was good for me that the condition gradually progressed, rather than suddenly becoming immobile due to an accident or something like that. I was mentally prepared and didn’t suffer any mental damage. I also got a disability certificate, which gives me discounts on movies and highway tolls, so I took the practical advantage and went to get it without any hesitation.”

And he once again takes up archery, a sport that can be enjoyed by a wheelchair user.
“It just brings me back to archery,” he said with a laugh.

Level up with the help of Coach Suetake, who will become your lifelong friend!

This “pullback” led to him getting serious about archery. When Kamiyama was a fourth-year university student, he became acquainted with an archer. His name was Hiroki Suetake, who is currently the coach of the Japanese national para-archery team. At the time, Suetake was a first-year student in the archery club at Kinki University’s dormitory near Kamiyama’s home. He later became a top-class athlete, competing as a representative of Japan in the pre-tournaments for the London Olympics.

“We continued to be friends after graduating, and when I started archery again and asked him for advice on some technical aspects, he came over to my house to teach me. He said, ‘I’ll be there right now,'” (laughs). “I was really grateful.”

“Kindai University has a coach named Kim Jeong-tae who won a gold medal at the Sydney Olympics, and I was taught by Coach Suetake, who had received high-level instruction from him. Archery was different from the very beginning, and I felt like I had been doing nothing up until then. My scores actually went up during the period when I was taught by Coach Suetake several times a month, compared to when I practiced every day at university. Even when I lost in an overseas tournament, I would ask him, ‘What should we do about Suetake?’ I would consult him about anything and he naturally became like a coach to me, and now he is the coach of the national team.”

Looking back, he says that if he hadn’t met Coach Suetake, he would never have become a winning athlete in para archery.