{"id":107035,"date":"2023-03-31T10:30:15","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T01:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/?p=107035"},"modified":"2023-03-31T09:27:16","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T00:27:16","slug":"%e6%a5%bd%e5%a4%a91%e4%bd%8d%e6%8c%87%e5%90%8d%e3%83%bb%e6%97%a9%e5%b7%9d%e9%9a%86%e4%b9%85%e3%80%81%e4%bc%9d%e8%aa%ac%e3%82%92%e6%ae%8b%e3%81%99%e9%81%b8%e6%89%8b%e3%81%b8%e3%80%801%e5%b9%b4-3-3-3-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/weekly\/news-en\/2023\/03\/31\/107035\/","title":{"rendered":"Freelance announcer Izumi Ichikawa is researching disabilities among baseball players at Waseda University graduate school"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Through Pilates, I want to reduce the number of athletes suffering from injuries as much as possible.”<\/h3>\n

Izumi Ichikawa, 2nd year in the Master\u2019s Program of the Graduate School of Sport Sciences<\/h6>\n
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At the Kaneoka Laboratory to which Ichikawa-san belongs<\/p><\/div>\n

After joining Yamaguchi Asahi Broadcasting in 2010, Izumi Ichikawa has been active as an announcer and currently works as a freelance announcer, mainly covering high school baseball and professional baseball. Ichikawa is a qualified Pilates instructor and is researching the prevention of injury among baseball players through Pilates at the Graduate School of Sport Sciences. We asked Ichikawa, who has three titles: freelance announcer, Pilates instructor, and graduate student, about why she decided to enroll in graduate school and what motivates her to continue learning.<\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015Please tell us what made you enter the Graduate School of Sport Sciences at Waseda University.<\/h6>\n
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As a freelance announcer, Ichikawa-san also covers players selected at draft meetings. In 2018, she interviewed Akira Neo (Chunichi Dragons) and Kyota Fujiwara (Chiba Lotte Marines), who were nominated by Osaka Toin Senior High School and are currently active in professional baseball.<\/p><\/div>\n

The reason I went on to higher education was that I had seen many players suffering from injuries while covering high school baseball and professional baseball as an announcer over 12 years.<\/p>\n

In particular, I was impressed when meeting one player who is a student at a school regularly playing at the Koshien. The player, who was blessed with a good physique and was expected to play well after entering university, said, \u201cMy shoulder is battered due to injury, and I can\u2019t continue playing baseball in university.\u201d I myself was frustrated by the current situation in which he and many other players have had their sports lives cut short owing to injury.<\/p>\n

Around the same time, I also suffered from lower back pain\u2026 As part of my treatment, I started doing Pilates. It just so happens that many athletes attended that class, and I learned that Pilates is effective not only in treating back pain but also in preventing injuries and training for athletes.<\/p>\n

When I tried to recommend the Pilates that I had learned in the class to a Hanshin Tigers player during an interview, his response was, \u201cWhat\u2019s that? It sounds like dessert\u201d. At the time, I had no academic knowledge of Pilates, so I couldn\u2019t convince him… I strongly felt that I can\u2019t let things stay this way! I decided to go to graduate school because I wanted to study Pilates and baseball players\u2019 disabilities, so that I can help athletes suffering from injuries as much as possible.<\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015What are you studying in graduate school?<\/h6>\n

In graduate school, I am researching disabilities and prevention of baseball players in the laboratory of Koji Kaneoka (Professor, Faculty of Sport Sciences)<\/a>. Currently, I am writing a master\u2019s thesis on the effects of Pilates-based motor control* exercise intervention on pelvic tilt mobility and lumbar disorders in university baseball players.”<\/p>\n

* Ability to adjust various structures necessary for exercise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As part of the research, I asked players from the Waseda University Baseball Club<\/a> to be test subjects. I asked 12 athletes with back pain to engage in motor control exercises centered on Pilates for about three months and measured how much the exercise relieved their back pain. In addition to a questionnaire survey, I also measured changes in pelvic tilt mobility back and forth, which is cited as a trigger for low back pain. For measurement, I used a three-dimensional motion analysis device. The effectiveness of motor control exercises was verified by attaching reflective markers to various joint of the body, surrounding the subjects with eight cameras, and measuring the range of motion of each joint.<\/p>\n

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The experiment was conducted with the cooperation of the Waseda University Baseball Club. The range of motion of each joint was measured with actual striking form. It took about three hours for each measurement, so Ichikawa says she can\u2019t thank the baseball club players enough.<\/p><\/div>\n

The findings before and after the experiment showed that the back pain was almost eliminated by exercise, while the range of motion was wider in many parts of the body than before the experiment. Through this research, it was possible to confirm that Pilates may have an effect on back pain.<\/p>\n\n\t\t