Effects of the Run-up on Throwing Motion and Throwing Distance in the Lower Grades of Elementary School Children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the throwing motion with and without run-up of children in the lower grades of elementary school, who were in the introductory stage of learning the throwing motion, and to clarify the effect of the presence or absence of run-up the throwing motion and throwing distance.

Softball throwing test was conducted for 42 children (24 boys and 18 girls) in the lower grades. A trial with a run-up within 2 m and a trial without a run-up were performed, and the throwing motion was evaluated by comparing the throwing distance with and without the run-up and using an observational evaluation method. The results obtained in this study can be summarized as follows.

1) For both males and females, the throwing distance and initial velocity did not increase with the use of run-up. It was also clear that the use of run-up increased the variability of the throwing angle.

2) There was no significant difference in the total scores of both males and females depending on whether or not they used a run-up. However, when the throwing motion was analyzed in detail, there was a difference between the motion scores of “throwing arm”, “opposite arm（Only boys）” and “stepping foot” with the run- up and those without the run-up.

As described above, in the throwing motion of the lower grades of elementary school, the use of a run-up did not necessarily lead to an increase in throwing distance. The reason for this was that the movements of the “throwing arm” and “opposite arm” in “with run-up” could not be performed better than in “without run-up”. In addition, “stepping foot” was improved as a motion scores by using aided run-up. And, it was suggested that an unnecessarily large “stepping foot” is an action that does not lead to an increase in the throwing distance.