コロナ禍において策定された暫定的な剣道試合・審判法は大学生レベルの試合にどう影響したか？

抄録

On August 27, 2020, the All Japan Kendo Federation issued a new set of rules in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These provisional rules are intended to nullify, as far as possible, the risk of infection during kendo matches, and are applicable to all practitioners at all levels nationwide. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the provisional rules upon matches held at a university-level tournament. In particular, the study set out to investigate how the provisional rules affected match content, how far the practitioners were aware of, and how they responded to, the provisional rules, and how favorably the provisional rules were evaluated by the referees. A comparison was made between an annual tournament held three times under the previous rules between 2017 and 2019, and its 2020 version held under the provisional rules. The comparison focused on the number of yuko-datotsu (valid strikes), hiki-waza, hansoku (violations), hansoku relating to tsubazeriai, and match duration. A web survey was distributed to the practitioners (student of six universities; N=129) in order to elicit their impressions of competing under the provisional rules. Referees (N=53) were similarly asked to evaluate the provisional rules and their effect upon matches. The collected data showed that the provisional rules shortened average match-duration time but increased the proportion of drawn matches (hiki-wake) and matches going the distance. Taking match duration into account, the provisional rules were found to have had no effect on the frequencies with which yuko-datotsu, hiki-waza and hansoku occurred. Among the practitioners, those who had not previously participated in matches under the normal (original) rules were found to be more accepting of the provisional rules and less affected by them. The referees determined that the provisional rules reduced the frequency of hansoku and improved match content with respect to attempted and successfully executed legal techniques. The results of this study conclude that the provisional rules have the potential to improve the form of kendo matches and, by extension, kendo practitioners.