About NataPro
About the Coach
I’m Nathael Kenzo Ishii (Nata), the founder and head coach of NataPro. Having played football most of my life, I’ve gained a deep understanding of the game from both player and coach perspectives. My coaching approach combines technical precision, discipline, and mental strength.
A Vision
NataPro began with the idea of bringing players from different clubs together to push one another and step outside their comfort zones. I wanted to create an environment where players are challenged by their peers, driven by intensity and inspired to reach higher standards.
From that vision grew Academy sessions, Elite programs, one-on-one coaching and Camps. Each program is guided by the same values of passion, focus and joy, while giving players the tools to improve their skills, strengthen their mindset and build confidence.
NataPro is more than training sessions. It is a place where players embrace challenges, learn to behave like top athletes and grow both on and beyond the pitch.
“Elevate your game beyond limits.”
A New Beginning
After closing the chapter on my professional playing career, I turned my focus fully to coaching. I began working with Helsingin Palloseura (HPS), where I currently coach young players. The club environment has given me the chance to share my experience and build the next generation’s foundation in football.
Alongside this, I have been involved in individual coaching and small group sessions, helping players grow in a versatile way.
I am committed to learning and improving every single day. Coaching is a journey, just like playing, and I see it as my responsibility to pass on the lessons that football gave me, both the successes and the struggles.
“Coaching is a journey, and my goal is to give players the lessons I once needed the most”
The Professional Dream
After a successful trial in 2022, I signed with KTP. Our Ykkönen campaign was strong from start to finish. Even though I picked up serious injury in end of the season, which required a operation, but the team met its goal, which was promotion back to Veikkausliiga.
After renewing my contract with KTP, the following year I got the chance to compete in the Veikkausliiga, the highest level of Finnish football. Playing at that stage fulfilled a lifelong dream, but it was also one of the most mentally challenging periods of my life. I carried the weight of my own expectations, and that pressure took a heavy toll on me.
Ultimately, those challenges were the reason I stepped away from playing at the top flight. While it was a tough two years, it also gave me invaluable lessons about the importance of mental health in football. I had to reach out, talk to many different people, and also learn how to manage my own mindset.
That experience taught me resilience, patience, and most importantly, how big an impact our own mindset has on our game. It also reminded me that we should never forget the joy in football.
“In football I learned that you are often your own biggest enemy”
Homecoming & Setbacks
Coming back to Finland after years away felt like the natural next step, but it didn’t go quite the way I had imagined.
In 2018 I joined FC Honka’s second team in the third division, where we achieved promotion to Kakkonen. After that, I moved to Kiffen, one of the oldest clubs in Finland, but during that time I felt my passion for football slipping away.
Still, I gave myself one more chance and trialed with the historic MYPA (Myllykosken Pallo) in Ykkönen, a club where legends like Jari Litmanen and Sami Hyypiä once played. The season began well, until I suffered a torn meniscus on my knee that ended my season and forced me into surgery, and so began a long recovery.
After rehabilitation, I moved to TPS (Turun Palloseura) in Turku. But my knee didn’t hold, and before the season even began, I had to undergo a second surgery. That stretch meant almost a year and a half without regular football.
These years tested me more than any other. While it was the toughest period of my career, it also gave me the perspective and other kind of strength.
”Through setbacks I discovered patience”
Life in Denmark
In 2015, just after finishing primary school, I moved to Denmark to join Odense Boldklub (OB) academy. I left so quickly that I didn’t even have time to collect my school certificate before I had already arrived in Denmark.
OB is the biggest club in the region of Fyn, and their men’s first team competes in the Danish Superliga, the country’s top division. The club is known for producing many talented players, the most famous being Christian Eriksen.
Stepping into this environment at such a young age was a turning point in my career. I had to adapt to a new culture, new routines, and a higher standard of training every single day.
My two and a half years at Odense taught me how to raise my standards, embrace discipline, and handle challenges both on and off the pitch. Those lessons shaped me as a player and gave me experiences I would carry forward into the rest of my career.
“Leaving home so young taught me responsibility far beyond football”
The Beginning of the Journey
My football journey began in 2005, when I was six years old. I still remember running onto a sandy field at the schoolyard with my first local club, Atlantis Sisu, chasing the ball like there were no tomorrow. Toward the end of my time there, I met Sonny, a mentor and a ProSkills coach who mostly focused on technical training. I began attending his weekend sessions regularly, and they took my skills to a whole new level while also influencing how I structure my own sessions today.
In 2008 I joined FC Kontu, where I spent many happy years in the tough but spirited neighborhood of Kontula. This was also when I learned independence, traveling around the city for football on my own and collecting more stories than I could ever count. At Kontu, most of the time I stayed after my own team practises to join older age group sessions.
During these years, I also spent a lot of time at Neurotanoke, as well as attending Erkka V. Lehtola’s morning sessions with HJK Akatemia.
By 2014, after so many years at Fc Kontu, I made the decision to move to a more competitive club Käpylän Pallo (KäPa), playing in their BSM team, which competed at the highest level of my age group. I spent one and a half seasons there before the opportunity to move to Denmark arrived.
But throughout all those years, one thing never changed: my commitment to training alone. Inspired by the idea of the 10,000-hour rule, three hours a day, six days a week, for ten years, I dedicated myself to mastering my craft. There were mornings when I would wake up at 6 a.m. to train for two hours before school, whether the pitch was covered in snow or not. I had to be creative, inventing drills for myself, and searching online for any exercises I could try.
Those early years weren’t just about learning football, they were about building discipline, creativity, and an obsession with improvement. They gave me the foundation and the mindset that carried me through every chapter of my playing career.
“To this day, I still try to step back into the mind of that six-year-old boy who chased the ball like there were no tomorrow.”
Football has given me everything in life, and now it is my turn to give it all back
