Examination of the increased stiffness of javelins used in competition from the perspective of a reproduction wooden javelin

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25560318
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Sports science
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: MAEDA Masato 神戸大学, 人間発達環境学研究科, 教授 (90209388)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: スポーツ科学 / ヤリ / 剛性 / 木製 / やり投げ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A reproduction wooden javelin that conforms to the current length and weight regulations for javelin throw competitions was fabricated. The javelin’s characteristics were compared with those of javelins made of other materials, and throwing experiments were conducted in which javelin throwers threw the wooden and normal javelins. The reproduction wooden javelin did not differ from the others in relative size of each part, and thus met current regulations for javelin throw competitions. The wooden javelin had a much lower static bending stiffness and bent around 3-fold more than the other javelins. In the throwing experiments, the distance that the wooden javelin was thrown was slightly shorter than that of the normal javelins, although the difference was not significant. Similarly, no significant difference was observed in each release parameter. The standard deviation of each release parameter was large, which was probably partly caused by individual differences between the throwers.

Free Research Field

スポーツ科学