Scientific analysis of Shizuka Arakawa's Ina Bauer

This is very fascinating. I don't understand a word, but it looks as if her back has an unnatural flexability.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvURWch7yl4

Cool video. I didn't understand the Japanese commentary either. But it is quite apparent that Shizuka's back bends in places that other people's don't!

Mathman said:

Cool video. I didn't understand the Japanese commentary either. But it is quite apparent that Shizuka's back bends in places that other people's don't!

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Same here.
I wonder if she has some sort of deformation or whether it's just that she worked out loads when she was a kid.

Anyway, it's lovely to see Shizuka again. She is true elegance.

I know that in part of the commentary they asked what she looks at when she is bent all the way over and she said, "my feet."

So, at the end are they saying that there are 177 kilos of pressure on her back in that position?

I think so.

At the beginning of the clip, the guy asks if she's looking at the faces of the people in the audience when she bends backwards, and she says no, because first of all, she's moving so it's all a blur, and second, she actually ends up looking down at her foot.

So this professor from Chukyo University (that's where that big training rink is where Mao Asada now trains) put 30 sensors on her body and set up special cameras to record her body movements during her Ina Bauer.

They found that her back bend at the 2nd vertebra was 60-70 degrees, as opposed to the average person's 20 degree bend. The amount of pressure required in her hips was calculated at 145.6 kg--approximately the weight of a sumo wrestler. She also uses the calf of her back leg for stability. The chart shows use of other muscles such as back muscles, shin, abdominals, inner and outer thighs, etc. The professor says it's a combination of flexibility and strength that allows her to achieve the position.

When presented with the information about the pressure on her hips, she says she doesn't feel strain once she's in the position, just a little as she's getting into it, and a lot more if she falls out of the position and has to correct it. Told that the total pressure on her body is 177 kilos and asked if she had to do any special training to achieve it, she said not really, but she feels it in her thighs and calves.

I love Shizuka, but gee whiz, they are milking her Ina Bauer to death in Japan. :sheesh: I think any athletic activity, when put in terms of pressure on parts of the body, would yield similar results (I'd like to know how much pressure is on the skating knee during a sitspin). Lots of us skaters do outside Ina Bauers all the time and it doesn't take any particular strength, just moderate hip flexibility. Shizuka's is only set apart by her unusually flexible spine, and you see lots of young girls with bendy backs at rinks around the world as well. . .

vlaurend said:

I love Shizuka, but gee whiz, they are milking her Ina Bauer to death in Japan. :sheesh: I think any athletic activity, when put in terms of pressure on parts of the body, would yield similar results (I'd like to know how much pressure is on the skating knee during a sitspin). Lots of us skaters do outside Ina Bauers all the time and it doesn't take any particular strength, just moderate hip flexibility. Shizuka's is only set apart by her unusually flexible spine, and you see lots of young girls with bendy backs at rinks around the world as well. . .

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ITA.

And I actually don't find it the most attractive when Arakawa arches her back all the way down. I think the most attractive position is when she has a moderate arch and extends her arms directly behind her and somewhat perpendicular to the ice. Yukina Ota and Yuna Kim both have very beautiful Ina Bauer too.