★Assistant Professor Sado’s paper, based on his Hans Gros Emerging Researcher Award Lecture, has been published as an expert opinion review.
Assistant Professor Natsuki Sado (Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Tsukuba; ARIHHP) has published an expert opinion review entitled
“Biomechanical inter-relationships between physical and motor features in maximal-effort locomotion”
in the international journal Sports Biomechanics.
This paper is based on the keynote lecture regarding the Hans Gros Emerging Researcher Award, an international award presented by the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports to one early-career researcher worldwide.
The review synthesises a series of empirical studies examining how morphological and mechanical properties of the human body interact with motor execution during maximal-effort locomotion, including sprinting, jumping, and cutting.
The paper further proposes that inter-individual variability in movement strategies observed even among world-class athletes represents individually optimised motor solutions constrained by physical features such as inertial properties and tendon mechanics, rather than deviations from a single optimal technique.
This review demonstrates the importance of integrating motion analysis and physical function assessment, fields within biomechanics that have seen increasing specialisation, while providing a scientific foundation for individualised performance enhancement strategies.
Sado, N. Biomechanical inter-relationships between physical and motor features in maximal effort locomotion. Sports Biomechanics, e-pub ahead of print. DOI: 10.1080/14763141.2025.2596762
Full text available at Sports Biomechanics
