The aim of this study was to develop a sailing knowledge test for high school sailors and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of their sailing knowledge. The test consisted of 95 items derived from 6 areas: rigging the boat, sailing, racing, strategies, tactics, and weather conditions. Sixty of 95 questions had 7 options, and the remaining questions had 2 to 6 options. The test was administered to 112 high school sailors. To select more reliable and validated test items, we investigated the reliability of test questions using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and the homogeneity of questions using principal component analysis. Thus the relationship between test scores regarding knowledge and actual race performance and current career was studied. To examine the strengths and weaknesses of their knowledge, we used a Customer Satisfaction (CS) analysis, which was originally devised for marketing research but was considered useful for the purpose of this study. Results were as follows:
1) Weather condition test items were not included in the revised test because they had no significant correlation with other test items. It was considered that high school sailors themselves did not have knowledge of weather conditions, but that coaches or teachers advised and compensated for weather conditions during races for high school sailors. This finding meant that weather condition test items did not have the same serial knowledge scale or dimension as other test items.
2) Correlations between a test score and race performance and between a test score and career were significantly high, and the correlation between a test score and race performance was higher than that between a test score and career. A remarkable decrease was found in partial correlations between a test score and race performance and between a test score and career, removing the influence of each of these items on the other item. This finding indicated that the general knowledge that influenced race performance did not come from short-term book learning, but rather was taught by coaches or teachers during ordinal practice or accumulated during the sailor’s career.
3) Similarities in test items with a high Degree of Needed Improvement (SHUTOKU-HITSUYOSEI) derived from the CS analysis were a) an incident in which high school sailors were unable to recognize the importance of because they did need not think/decide/perform it themselves or during exercises in their practice, b) an incident that required the need for a fundamental knowledge of physics, and c) an incident that coaches or teachers did not provide advice about in usual practice and that high school sailors could not understand unless they read rule books or treatises. Contrary to the fact that general knowledge required for high race performance is obtained through usual practice or the sailor’s career, sailors should be instructed to gain additional knowledge about these 13 items on their own, outside of their usual practice.
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