126: Racquet Sports Equipment and Materials Testing (ft. Koki Asahina)

Watch the full episode here:
https://youtu.be/2R3o5UMJ0SI
When you pick up a racquet at the tennis court, have you ever thought: “this feels great!” Or, “this doesn’t feel so great”? There’s a science to that!
Sports equipment companies rely on feedback from amateur players, professionals, customers, and their employees to design better products by translating subjective data into materials engineering problems. This lets them improve on pre-existing designs on sports gear.
We are joined by Koki Asahina, an MSE student from Georgia Tech who is currently a racket sports engineering intern at Wilson Sporting Goods Company, who tells us all about how the “feel” is crucial to the design and improvement of sports equipment, and the large role played by materials science in this.
 
🔹How feedback from players and users are used to improve racquet design
🔹How sports equipment are tested using industry-standard experiments
🔹Why simulations are useful to understand the relationship between material properties and their functions
🔹Why we need a worldwide standard of material specifications
🔹And much more! 
 
We hope you enjoy the episode! And as always, let us know what topics you’d like us to cover next! 
 
We hope you enjoy the episode! And as always, let us know what topics you’d like us to cover next! 
 
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Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed by either guests or hosts in this show are their own, and do not represent the opinions of the companies or organizations for which they are affiliated.
 
#SportsScience #Tennis #Materials



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Timestamps: 
Teaser (0:00 – 0:41)
Intro, life updates, and episode highlights (0:41 – 4:11)
Introducing Koki Asahina (4:11 – 4:57)
Link between physiology and sports equipment (4:57 - 7:25)
Work on Parkinson's rehabilitation (7:25 - 12:16)
Developing a simulated tester at Wilson R&D (12:16 - 14:48)
Importance of ‘feel’ (14:48 - 17:11)
Improving racquets using feedback (17:11 - 25:50)
Simulations in racquet design (25:50 - 31:43)
Need for standardization for materials testing (31:43 - 36:18)
Future of materials engineering in sports equipment (36:18 - 38:41)
Conclusion (38:41 – 39:00)
MSE Academy (39:00 – 40:04)