Japanese national team members Seiya Kishikawa, right, and Koki Niwa practice on a government-funded table tennis machine, front left. (The Asahi Shimbun)
In international table tennis, the Chinese players' secret weapon is their formidable Chiquita spin, a sideways curve that has helped them dominate international competition.
The Japanese national team has even invited Chinese players to Japan to play or organized training camps with China in hopes of getting some practice time against the Chiquita spin.
But Yoshihito Miyazaki, head of the national men’s table tennis team, says, “The Chinese athletes never do the Chiquita (outside of competition).”
So, for the upcoming Olympics, Japan's national table tennis team members have been training on state-funded machines that were developed to replicate the tricky Chiquita spin.
The three machines cost a total of about 10 million yen ($127,000) to develop. But insiders believe it was worth every yen for Japanese players who are potential Olympic medalists.
“We can practice on balls similar to what the top Chinese players will give us,” says 2011 national women’s champion Kasumi Ishikawa.
Five years after the National Training Center was built in Tokyo’s Kita Ward to provide state-funded training for future Olympians, the results of the state-of-the-art training facilities are about to be tested in London.
The seriousness of the commitment is demonstrated in table tennis, which China has ruled in the world championships and the Olympics.
To break the dominance, the Japanese team asked experts in various fields including hydromechanics to work together for 12 months to develop machines that will serve Chiquita spin balls.
The machines were developed with full funding provided by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s (MEXT) Multi-Support Project, which directly provides funding to sports that can be expected to medal at the Olympic Games. The Multi-Support Project began in fiscal 2008, which means the London Olympics will be the first real test of the project’s efforts.
This fiscal year, the government allocated a 3.2 billion yen budget on projects aimed at boosting the competitiveness of national sports teams including the Multi-Support Project.
For the first time, this budget surpassed the 2.6 billion yen in government subsidies allocated to the Japanese Olympic Committee and distributed to various sports organizations. The increase in funding is the result of the sports fundamental law, which was established last year and explicitly states that the government is responsible for promoting sports and prompting the government to put even more effort into the project.
Olympic venues tested as well
The national sailing team, which aims to medal for the first time in two Olympic Games, used funding from the Multi-Support Project to test five boats at the actual Olympic venue in the winds unique to the area. The team compared data on the course, created by a computer, and a course selected by the athletes to improve their ability to make the right judgments. In addition, the team purchased four 470-type boats for a total of 9.84 million yen and conducted a computer-based analysis of the boats’ different performance levels depending on the manufacturer.
Many small-scale sport organizations such as the sailing organization have been struggling financially amid the prolonged recession. Without the government-backed Multi-Support Project, this kind of research and development would have been nearly impossible.
Unexpected ripple effects
The state-funded project has had unexpected effects on other sports as well. The women’s national judo team incorporated its own scientific training. Judoka wearing electrodes on their chests and watches on their wrists repeated 20-meter dashes while getting their maximum heart rate measured.
The goal is to help athletes produce the best performance while out of breath. This training was developed, stimulated by other sports teams’ use of the Multi-Support Project.
In a test called speed training, athletes raise their heart rates as much as possible with electrodes and watches on their bodies. Akitoshi Sogabe, head of the national judo team’s general affairs department, says with great expectations, “This is the first such attempt in judo. It helps to create bodies that will maintain a strong core even when athletes are tired.”
The results of these efforts will be seen in numerous sports once the London Olympics opens on July 27.
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