The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of the acquisition of life skills on competitive results in Japanese university judo players considering the temporal delay between the two variables. 517 judo players who belong to private universities (12 universities in total) participated in this research. For the life skills survey, which was conducted between early-May and late-June 2014, the participants were asked to complete a questionnaire—the Appraisal Scale of Required Life Skills for College Student Athletes (Shimamoto et al., 2013)—before the competition. The competitive results of the participants were obtained from the All-Japan Student Judo Championship Competition (AJSCC) for university students held in Tokyo during late-September. First, participants were categorized into 2 groups: a “High Competitive Level Group (n＝103)”, who participated in the above mentioned AJSCC, and a “Low Competitive Level Group (n＝400)”, who did not participate in the AJSCC. The results of the t-test revealed that the life skill levels of the former group were significantly higher than the latter group regarding thinking carefully, communication, setting goals, always making one’s best effort, and taking responsibility for one’s own behavior. Secondly, the participants of the former group were classified into 3 groups based on the results of the AJSCC: a “High Competitive Result Group (HCRG, n＝38)”, a “Middle Competitive Result Group (MCRG, n＝28)”, and a “Low Competitive Result Group (LCRG, n＝37)”. The results of the analysis of variance using the life skills data obtained before the AJSCC showed that: (1) on the level of being humble, HCRG is significantly higher than MCRG; (2) on the level of taking responsibility for one’s own behavior, HCRG is significantly higher compared to LCRG; (3) on the level of maintaining physical health and well-being, HCRG is significantly higher than the other 2 groups. It was suggested that the results of this study could lead to a coaching style to achieve high competitive results without violent behavior from coaches.
