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Learning to Think for Themselves High-altitude Training in Tokyo Softer Face for Greater Distance Special Column |
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Softer Face for Greater Distance |
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What golfer doesn’t aspire to become a long hitter? Golfers have experimented in numerous ways to see just how far they can hit that ball. So, they are certainly going to be intrigued by the claim that a new kind of golf club will extend their distance by 21 yards. This dream club is the New XXIO (pronounced zeck-si-oh), released in January 2004 by SRI Sports Ltd., a subsidiary of Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. (SRI). Kuniyasu Horiuchi, a Manager in charge of product planning, Technology Department at SRI Sports, explains: “The resilience of the club face is the key to get greater distance off the tee. Engineers at SRI Sports discovered early on that a softer club face generates greater resilience providing greater distance. At the impact, both golf ball and club face deform and then revert back to original condition respectively. There is a gap between club face deformation time and ball deformation time. If we can minimize the deformation time of ball and club face to be as close to zero as possible, we can maximize the resilience. The XXIO series of clubs is designed on this principle and has become increasingly more effective with each model change since the series’ launched in 2000. With the most recent New XXIO, the club face is practically as soft as the ball, and this has significantly improved the club’s driving performance. In fact, the New XXIO averages 21 yards more distance than the first model in the series.” The secret behind this high performance is the Impact Power Body club head developed by SRI Sports. To make the club head give more readily on impact with the ball, both the top and bottom of the club head were thinned, as was the face. This has made possible the required maximum yield for greater distance. “The second-generation XXIO, which came out in 2002, was a big hit, with 200,000 clubs sold in the first year. The New XXIO that has just come out this year looks to be even more popular and should soon be selling in even greater numbers,” says Horiuchi. |
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The High-tech Tennis racket | |||
| SRI Sports’ RIM Professional tennis racket series is another quintessential product of advanced technology. What the average player seeks in a tennis racket is control, maneuverability, and the comfort of contact with the ball—the satisfying reverberations of the racket hitting the ball smack in the middle. The RIM Professional surpasses any other make in each of these aspects. The distinguishing feature of this series is its “heat converter” technology. The frame is made of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy resin that is doped with a special additive. The additive transforms the vibration of the racket hitting the ball into heat energy that in turn transmits just the moderate vibration to the hand of the tennis player. “A high vibration damping ratio gives the most satisfying sensation of the racket hitting the ball; but if the rate is too high, the player won’t be able to sense the impact at all. We simulated the impact distribution to determine the most desirable sense of impact and then designed the racket to have the additive included only were it was most needed,” explains Kunio Niwa, a Manager, in charge of Tennis Goods Technical, Technical Department at SRI Sports. |
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| The lighter the racket, the easier it is to swing; but once again, if it’s too light, the player loses control of the ball and the restitution-on impact is also weakened. To resolve this, the people at SRI Sports decided to apply the principle of moment of inertia. Sim-ply expressed, moment of inertia is an indicator of an object’s inability to rotate and its inability to stop rotating. With tennis rackets, there are three axes of moment of inertia around three axes: the transverse axis at the center of gravity, the longitudinal axis of the racket, and the swing. A racket’s ease of use will depend on which of these three has the greatest moment of inertia and which has the least. “No one had ever before designed a tennis racket on the basis of analyses of the moments of inertia of these three axes. The new design made for a racket with high stiffness, a mild sensation of ball impact, and an easy swing. This racket is easy to use and yet powerful, which makes it a winner, I think,” says Niwa. We are in an age in which science can improve our golf game and upgrade our tennis skills. Of course, no high-tech golf club or tennis racket can make up for a lack of basic physical capabilities. Hard work and training are still essential to compete and win—a fact of life unlikely to change no matter how much sports science advances. |
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