Previous research on judo players has identified the parameters of physical fitness and mental state that are important to performance and competition. But, all previous work has examined the physical and psychological components separately; no study, to our knowledge, has examined them in the same athletes. Many studies in the English language literature in sports, medicine and psychology have documented the positive psychological benefits of exercise; but no study has examined the relationship between these components in elite athletes in any sport, let alone judo. The purpose of the two studies reported here was to examine the relationship between physical fitness and psychological traits shown by previous research to be important to judo development and competitive success. In Study 1,20 elite American judo athletes completed Iida et al. 's 10-item battery of physical fitness, and five psychological scales. In the second study,12 elite American judo athletes completed five physiologically based measures of strength and conditioning and six psychological measures. Across both studies, athletes who were in better physical shape had less anxiety, greater self-confidence, more internal locus of control, more tension and vigor, less anger and fatigue, and engaged in more effective coping strategies than athletes who were not as physically fit. These results are the first to document the psychological correlates of physical conditioning in judo athletes, and have implications to coaching competitive and non-competitive judo successfully.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of change of distance of both feet in Chudan-no-Kamae on EMG activity and force output of the lower limb muscle subsequent jump movements of Fumikomi-Asi of Shomen-Datotsu in Kendo.
Results were as follows;
1) As the width of both feet, EMG activity in both left and right m. vastus medialis increased proportionately and that of left m. gastracnemius decreased.
2) As the width of both feet, ground reaction forces of horizontal direction showed a high value.
3) As the width of both feet, jumping distance and time decreased proportionately and impalse increased. From the results, it is suggesting that it might be effective Ashi-Kamae within one foot length between both feet in doing Shomen-Datotsu by range from foot width of the foot width that went after half to the foot width that went before half.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify the factors in the idea of KENDO and lower rank factors regarding intended draws in team-competitions of KENDO. The participants in this study were 1168 high-school KENDO club members and 175 coaches of those clubs.
Factor analysis was used for the extraction of factors in the idea of KENDO, and analysis of variance was used for lower rank factors regarding intended draws in team-competitions of KENDO. The main results were as follows:
1. 13 factors in idea of KENDO held by high-school KENDO club members and their coaches were extracted and identified as“traditionalism”,“additional value”,“victory-oriented principle”,“respecting opponents”,“significance of match”,“strictness”,“group consciousness”, fundamentalism“, practice”,“KATA” (form),“expectation for future path”, “pureness”and“brilliance”.
The main factors were“traditionalism”,“respecting opponents”,“additional value”and“victory-oriented principle”
2. These 4 factors were divided into two different groups according to idea of KENDO: group 1(“traditionalism”and“respecting opponents”) and group 2 (“additional value”and“victory-oriented principle”).
3. As the skill level of KENDO goes up, higher points were given to“traditionalism”,“additional value”and“victory-oriented principle”, but lower points were given to“respecting opponents”.4. The two factors,“additional value”and“victory-oriented principle”were directly related to the factors of intended draws.5. The lower rank factors of“additional value”and“victory-oriented principle”were high-school students' idea of KENDO matches as a sport and coaches' idea of KENDO.

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The purpose of this study is to reveal the degree of individual motional difference and to discover the situations and parts of the body where there appears motional difference and to gain basic hints in instructing Shomen-Striking-Motion, as well as to discover implicit motional process common in Shomen-Striking-Motion of a Kendo player and to establish a model of standard Shomen-Striking-Motion by analyzing Kendo Shomen-Striking-Motion using 3-D Motion Analysis Method.
The subjects of the study were sixteen males (age: 24.6±5.8years old, Kendo experience: 16.2±5.2years, ranks in Kendo: 4.0±1.3 dan, height: 174.9±6.0 cm, weight: 76.0±8.0 kg) consisting of the current students and the graduates of a university where is a specialized Kendo course.
Videotaping of Shomen-Striking-Motion of the subjects was done by using two high-speed VTRs from diagonally to the right-front and left-front of the subjects with shooting speed of 250 frames per second and the shutter speed of 1/2000 second.3-D coordinates in 29 points were calculated in total with the use of DLT (Direct Linear Transformation) Method, consisting of 25 segment endpoints of a subject and 4 measuring points of Shinai.
The Shomen-Striking-Motion were divided into two phases in this study; Back-Swing phase (BS phase) which is from the starting time until the ending time of Shinai to be lifted up and Forward Swing phase (FS phase) which is from the starting time until the ending time of Shinai to be struck down. Then,3-D coordinates and angle data of each subject were standardized with phase time being 100%, and the data were averaged per 1% of standard time accordig to the method of Ae et al. Coefficients of variation were calculated to compare standard deviation of each joint angle that was averaged.
The following are the acquired conclusions from this study.
(1) 3-D model of the standard Shomen-Striking-Motion was acquired that shows implicit motional process common in Kendo players through standardizing and averaging all the coordinate data of sixteen subjects.
(2) The standard motion of each joint of Kendo players in fifteen points was exhibited through standardizing and averaging the changes of joint angle of all the subjects. Simultaneously situations that have large and small individual motional difference were observed from the standard deviation.
(3) The parts were revealed where there is large individual motional difference by calculating coefficients of variation in the standard deviation of joint angles.

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The concept of the sword is of great importance to the culture of Japan. Swords with one-edged blades are referred to as “Katana”, while those with double-edged blades are known as“ken”(double-edged sword); however, in the realm of Budo the concept of the sword is of the greatest importance. In the study of Budo arts, it is necessary to focus solely on the conception of the“double-edged sword”. This research is considered to be the first step, and is therefore limited to the ancient period, focusing on the genealogy and the unique features of the“concept of the double-edged sword”in the East Asian cultures of China and Japan.
The results of the research are summarized as the following:
In the Shunjuu period of ancient China, in the Go and Etsu region, the double-edged sword was believed to ward off wicked evils. It is believed that during this period the concept of the double-edged sword as a divine entity first originated. The“concept of the double-edged sword”during this period was to view the double-edged sword not only for its practical usage as a weapon, but more importantly as a divine entity. From the Taoist Han period, the sword was believed to hold sorcery-like enchanted powers to ward off evils. Furthermore, in the primitive ideology of the ancient Japanese, the double-edged sword was also believed to ward off wicked evils. Accordingly, the idea of the double-edged sword as an enchanted entity originated in ancient China, which than carried forward to Japan. Therefore, the elemest of greatest significance in this research is the origination of the“concept of the double-edged sword”from the ancient beliefs of the double-edged sword as a enchanted entity.
The belief that the double-edged sword will ward off evils can be attributed to the ability of the double-edged sword to incorporate the conflicting concepts into a single representation. Then, it may be asked, why must it involve the“ double-edged sword?”This author believes that the answer lies in the appearance of the sword. Particularly in ancient Japan, it is believed that the appearance of the double-edged sword commanded great symbolic importance.

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