Influences of the J apanese view on the body to“CENTER AWARENESS” and the practical significance in sport training

Abstract

    Recently, in the field of athletic practice, there has been a surge of interest in “CENTER AWARENESS”. It is considered to be an effective way to train rational body movement and for the mental control in athletic practice.

    In Japan, there is a history of hundreds of years of a training method using awareness of the center of a body called “Tanden”. That has been originally practiced among Buddist priests, and considered the core of physical-spiritual improvement. This practice has also widely influenced Japanese traditional culture in general, including arts such as Tea ceremony, Noh dancing, martial arts, calligraphy and medicin, etc.

    Center awareness training in athletics also owes much to this Japanese view on “Tanden”. The purpose of this paper is to reexamine the significance of center awareness practice and its reference to the Japanese traditional view of the boby.