The Journal of Education and Health Science
Online ISSN : 2434-9127
Print ISSN : 0285-0990
Secular Trend in Change of Physical Strength with Age According to School Year Progress in National Defense Academy of Japan
Norimasa IZUMIKatsunori FUJIIMotoki ITOSeung-Wan WIE
Author information
JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

2013 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 332-343

Details
Abstract

 The decline in physical strength among Japanese youth has been long pointed out, but a trend toward recovery is reported in recent years. However, a decline in physical strength in people involved in national defense weakens the nation’s ability to defend itself, and is a very serious problem. The physical performance of people involved in national defense is predicted to differ from regular adults, and separate investigations are needed. The National Defense Academy serves as the core of national defense, and while there are reports of physical strength at the National Defense Academy, the process of improvement has not been shown. In this study we measured physical strength (50 m sprint, standing long jump, softball throw, pull-ups, 1500m run) of first to fourth year male students of the National Defense Academy in 2004 and 2011, and applied third-order polynomials in an investigation of the composition of change with progression through the school years. The results showed a rising trend in physical strength with progression through the school years in both 2004 and 2011. Third-order polynomials were applied in an analysis of the change trends to verify the change composition. In both years, a clear, progressive increasing trend until the fourth year was seen in the 50 m sprint, standing long jump, softball throw, pull-ups, and 1500m run with third-order polynomials. Next, we looked at the movement of the velocity curve, which is a differential, using a change composition that is basically shown with second-order polynomials. In a comparison of 2004 and 2011 the standing long jump showed a similar change composition. A fairly similar change composition was also shown for the softball throw. In the 50 m sprint, 1500m run and pull-ups, the velocity curve had reversed concavity and convexity for the two years. However, with the exception of the softball throw, it was shown that in both years first year students had a high degree of improvement, and fourth year students had a low degree of improvement. In 2011 the degree of improvement in the softball throw increased with each school year, showing that the physical education program in 2011 was effective. The above findings showing that the physical strength of National Defense Academy students improved with the physical education program at the National Defense Academy may be valuable at least for national defense measures in Japan.

Content from these authors
2013 Japanese Society of Education and Health Science
Previous article Next article
feedback
Top