Abstract
We studied the condition of 35 college kendo players who participated in college kendo competitions in 1990. They were instructed to record their physical, technical, mental, and total conditions before each competition with 5-point rating scale numbered from 1 to 5 (1; very bad,2; bad,3; commonly,4; good,5; very good). Four coaches also blindly recorded the kendo player's physical, technical, and total conditions using the same rating scale as players did.
We assessed their records and actively advised the kendo players to improve their conditions. Eventually we could significantly improve the total condition of kendo players as the competitions were drawing near. Although the physical, technical, and mental condition were bad in the kendo players whose evaluation of total condition was the rating scale of 1 or 2, the states were become in good by our advices for the improvement of condition. We found the significant differences in evaluation of physical, technical, and mental condition between the kendo players in good and bad total conditions. The high positive correlations were observed between the evaluations of total condition and other three conditions. There was no significant difference in the evaluation of technical and total conditions between kendo players and coaches. However, there were significant differences in the evaluation of physical condition between players and coaches. We concluded that it was important for kendo players to assess their condition using 5-point rating scale in the present study, and that medical staff was very important to advise them properly to improve their condition and to management the condition of kendo players.
