Towards the end of February Bec Mellifont from the Uni of the Sunny Coast and Jim were invited to Japan by Professor Yuji OHGI of Keio University. OHGI san’s invitation and generosity enabled Bec and Jim to visit the National Institute of Fitness and Sport (NIFS) in Kanoya and assist in an experiment looking at forces and loads during a simulated bend of an athletics track in their Sports Performance Laboratory. This is an incredible institute with world leading facilities for research, teaching, and service delivery to sports right up to elite level.

Jim with Professor Akira MAEDA. MAEDA san is a director of the Sports Performance Laboratory

Bec at the entrance to the fantastic indoor facilities

It also gave Jim the opportunity to catch up with his colleague and friend Associate Professor Tomohito WADA who is an academic at NIFS. WADA san was an excellent host taking everybody to some very good restaurants in and near Kanoya.

Everyone enjoying a meal (OHGI san on the left and WADA san on the right)

and more of us

OHGI san inspecting high speed camera data (the cameras in the foreground)

Here are some links. One to an overview of the indoor facilities and a sample of the data collection. If anyone needs facilities to train e.g. leading into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, they would do a lot worse than utilising NIFS, whether for track and field, swimming/aquatics, or field sports just to name a few.