Example of Problem Solving – Japanese Men’s Relay Team Rio

2016
Good problem solving can seriously help you with the performance in your plant. John
Shook recently pointed out another nice example to me: the Japanese Men’s 4x100m relay
team during the 2016 Olympics in Rio. They were the underdogs, with none of their team
having ever run 100m in under 10 seconds. Yet they stunningly won the silver medal! They
achieved this through good problem solving. Let me show you the details:

Introduction
First of all, let me point out that I was a swimmer, but never a runner. In fact, I run
more like a three-legged cow that is tied to a post. And this is even without carrying
a stick … I mean a BATON … of course I know it is called a baton … never mind, back
to the topic, please!

The Japan team: Ryota Yamagata (24), Shota Iizuka (25), Yoshihide Kiryu (21), and Aska Cambridge
(23)

Anyway, during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, the Japanese team was quite the
underdog. No runner on their team ran 100m faster than 10 seconds, whereas all
other teams in the final (except Brazil) had at least one runner faster than 10 seconds
over 100m. In fact, all runners on the US team and the Jamaican team could run
100m in less than 10 seconds, including the world record holder, Usain Bolt on the
Jamaican team, with 9.58 seconds.

Below is the overview of the sum of the personal records of the runners of each team
in seconds. Jamaica had Usain Bolt and other excellent runners, and the sum of their
personal records comes to 38.89 seconds. Japan is the second-slowest team in the
finals, after Brazil, summing up to 40.38 seconds.
Looking purely at these numbers, Japan should have had no chance on any medal.
Instead, Jamaica, the US, and Trinidad would be on the podium. Yet Japan made
second place, after Jamaica! Below is how many seconds the relay time of each team
was faster than their personal bests. Relays are usually faster than the individual
times, since three of the four runners have a running start. Here, Japan outscored all
the other teams. Through their superior baton handovers, they gained over one
second on Jamaica and the USA, which had the sloppiest handovers (and the USA
also got disqualified for handing over outside of the zone). A one-second advantage
is huge in Olympic 4x100m relay races.
This is due to their superior problem solving, use of standards, and outstanding
performance with the baton handover. Let’s look at the details.

General Handover

The 4×100 m relay race has four runners

over 100m each. They carry a baton (never a stick!), and hence three times they have
to give the baton to the next runner. This handoff has to happen in a changeover
box. If they miss this zone, they are disqualified (which happened to the US team in
the finals, but they were still behind Japan).
The speed and quality of the handover is crucial for winning, and hence this is a
much-researched topic in sports. Many teams fail because they mess up the
handover or even drop the baton altogether. Having to hold your hand in position
for the baton handover reduces your running speed. Usually, the next runner just
holds his hand in place without looking, and the previous runner places the baton in
the hand. Some verbal shouts can help with the timing of the process.
Where to Hold the Baton?

There are different possibilities for how

you could hold the baton, but it seems most athletes like to hold the baton at the
bottom (number 1 in the image). This seems to make running easier. (I actually tried
this out, and it is indeed easier – but then, I can’t really run).

The Problem with the Handover Position

This now creates a problem for the

handover process. The easiest way to hand over the baton would be an upsweep
roughly at hip height as shown in the image here.  The baton would be roughly
horizontal.
 However, this upsweep creates the
problem that the next runner holds the baton in the wrong spot (number 3 or
number 2 of the baton positions above). The runner would either have to run with an
odd baton position, switch hands, or have to adjust the baton, which requires two
hands or increases the risk of dropping it. All of these options will slow him down.
If the subsequent runner wants to grab the baton in an upsweep position, that is
good for him; he would find the hand of his teammate already there. Hence, the
hand of the previous runner is completely in the way for the next runner.

The normally used alternative involves

literally quite a bit of arm-twisting. The next runner twists his arm and hand upward
so that he can grab the baton from below. This way the baton will be in a good
position for the next leg to run (number 1 from the baton positions above). The
baton is almost vertical during the handover.
 Unfortunately, this twisting comes at a
cost. The hand and arm has to be very high, tilting the upper body of the runner
forward. Overall, this makes it harder to run.
Here is a picture of such a handover from a real race (World Youth Championships
2013, Team USA). Notice the high hand position. Looking over your shoulder is also
time consuming and not advised, but happens even in Olympic races.

Japanese Problem Solving

Japanese people seem to have excellent skill in problem solving. Enter Shunji
Karube (苅部 俊二), a former runner specializing in 400m, and now a professor for
sports at the Hosei University, Tokyo (his blog in Japanese). He has been researching
running and relays for a long time. Since 2014 he has worked for the JAAF (Japan
Association of Athletics Federations) on improving and researching the relay race.

Prof. Karube (center) and his winning team.

My experience with Japanese problem solving is that they look at many, many

different solutions and try out a lot. While I don’t know in detail how Karube
progressed, at one point he questioned the problem of putting the hand on top of
the other. He probably also involved many other runners and experts to tackle the
problem. And he found a solution.
Japanese athletes do indeed put their hands pretty much on top of each other. It
does not look easy, but they manage it effortlessly. It reminds me a little bit of how
to hold a Japanese sword (of which I know a little bit more. I proudly hold the 6th
kyu in Kendo … although if you know Japanese martial arts, you know that this is the
level of six-year-old children in Japan … never mind, just trying to impress you with
fancy Japanese words … after all that what lean is all about … or maybe not?)

Anyway, the above sketch merely gives a glance at the detail of the standard, and
there is much more (that I don’t know about). The receiver spreads his hand wide,
and the previous runner slides it forward right in the web of the thumb very close to
his hand. The receiver grabs it and the previous runner pulls his hand out from
underneath the next runner’s hand. (The French do something similar, but with an
upward sweep)

There are definitely verbal clues so the next runner doesn’t have to look behind his
shoulder. I could imagine synchronizing the steps may be significant. It is already
common knowledge to always hand left to right or right to left hand, and that the
last runner should be the fastest, although I am sure Karube looked into this too.
They also considered the reliability of the handover. Baton passes are notoriously
tricky, and many teams in world-class races fail or disqualify themselves due to a
faulty pass.

They also tweaked the technique to improve the distance between runners during
hand over. The further apart the runners are, the less they have to actually run.
Compared to 2008 they improved by almost 1 meter per hand over, turning a
4x100m relay into a 100+3x99m race. Here the previous runner does most of the
reaching out. Naturally, they also optimized the time for the hand over, requiring
much less fiddling than other teams.

The shoulder position was also optimized. Previously the shoulders of the next
runner tilted to the right by about 15° when receiving in the left hand. Now, the
Eshoulders are almost level. They also researched other things like the optimal
handover point (middle of the zone, except for the first runner, where it is the last
third), adjusting the trigger point signaling the next runner to start, and many other
things with the help of three high-speed cameras.
Standardization
Next is getting the standard to the people. Unfortunately, the team is set up only
shortly before the Olympics. However, Karube worked with the potential candidates
six months in advance to extensively train his guys on the handover. In contrast, the
Jamaican team practiced only a few times before the actual race.

Continuous Improvement
There is no standard that cannot be improved, and Karube has his sights already set
on more details and improvements to make the Japanese team even faster. After all,
the 2020 Olympics are on their home turf in Tokyo, Japan, and they surely would like
a gold medal there .