This report presented the outline of the continuous conditioning support system for newly formed college female long distance team and in response to anemia as health problem. All participants belong to college female long distance team whose breakfast and dinner are serve at the university dormitory. The conditioning support system is divided three parts. At the first stage, self-checks are conducted by the athletes; the primary check for technical, medical, physical, nutritional and psychological are in the second stage; specialized institutions such as medical facility and treatment centers conducted outside the university for the third stage.The conditioning application (ASU-Log) was used by the athlete’s self - checks. The system engineer was in charge of the management of the system. Coaches were responsible for checking athletes’ performances and adjusting the practice contents (quality and quantity). While the doctor and the athletic trainer are in charge of checking health problems (including orthopedic). And if problem occurs, referred to the specialized facilities the third stage. Athletic trainers teach re-conditioning plans. Physiologists is in charge of measuring the maximum oxygen uptake, conditioning coach is in charge of physical strength measurements and instruct physical training. Dietitian managed nutrition by creating daily menus and checking meal contents. Mental consultations were provided by psychiatrist. In addition, a conditioning education program was used for the athletes. The　competition results indicated that team has gradually improved. However, it took time to solve the anemia addressed as a health problem. In order to make the conditioning support system function flawlessly at the sports field, it is necessary to construct a system particularly focused on athletes and the sports. In addition, continuous observation for athletes as individuals are recommended.

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Psychological problems faced by women athletes were investigated from various perspectives, including the menstrual dysfunction and sports environment to develop a psychological support program for female athletes. A questionnaire was administered to women athletes (N=147). The participants were classified into two groups to compare performance: athletes with participation in inter-national athletic events (N=67) and those with participation in national athletic meetings (N=80). Participants were asked to respond about the conditions and incidents they had experienced during the last two or three months using a five-point scale ranging between 1 (Not at all) to 5 (Very often). They were also requested to freely describe their current physical and psychological difficulties and prob-lems, as well as interpersonal relationships, among others. The results of free description were categorized using the KJ method. Results indicated that female athletes participation in international athletic events had problems related to the environment, such as the small size of practice fields and the insufficient number of female staff members. On the other hand, those with participating in national athletic meetings complained of the decline in concentration because of period pain, among others. It is suggested that athletes with participation in international athletic events might maintain their concentration without being affected by physiological conditions. Moreover, clear differences in problems characteristic to female athletes such as period pain were indicated based on the athletes’ performance levels, which should be taken into consideration in developing a psychological support program for elite female athletes.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify the actual state of doping test among top athletes. This survey was conducted among 221 athletes aged ≥20 years (121 men and 100 women) who un-derwent medical checkups at clinics run by the Japan Sport Council and who had previous experiences in undergoing doping tests. To understand the current situation in doping testing among athletes, a questionnaire survey was conducted from the perspective of “prevention of the adverse effect of dop-ing tests on the condition of athletes.”Our findings confirmed that when undergoing doping tests, some athletes experienced stress and un-pleasant feelings during urine collection and other situations related to the test. In addition, our find-ings also indicated that doping tests had an effect on the deterioration of athletes’ conditions.In addition, because doping tests using urine collection may also pose substantial psychological and physiological burdens on some athletes, testing methods other than urine collection are also meaningful from the perspective of conditioning in preparation for competitions. Our study shows that methods other than the currently mainstream urine collection should be attempted in the sample collection for doping tests and that a system should preferably be put in place that allows for athletes themselves to select a sample collection method depending on their circumstances.

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Purpose: A decrease in the performance of female soccer players is observed from junior high school to senior high school, and anemia is often noted in tall, well-built players. In order to examine the involvement of low energy availability in that phenomenon, the current study examined changes in lean body mass with age in adolescent and post-adolescent female soccer players. Methods: We investigated changes associated with the development of lean body mass in correlation with skeletal muscle mass by monthly measuring body composition in elite female soccer players who were boarding students at a junior or senior high school, and analyzing longitudinal changes in lean body mass based on the measurement results. Results: Height and lean body mass were found to be correlated: a greater lean body mass was correlated with a taller height. The annual increase in lean body mass decreases as the growth in height slows, but temporarily increases from the age of 15 to 16 years. Increases in body weight during this period were approximately equal to increases in lean body mass. Conclusion: The temporary increase in lean body mass from age 15 to 16 was considered to be specific to female soccer players, and was thought to reflect an increase in skeletal muscle mass as a result of training. Because increases in lean body mass during this period is accompanied by an increase in basal metabolism, energy intake must be increased to avoid a low energy availability. This period of an increase in lean body mass coincides with a period of increases in testosterone levels and red blood cells, suggesting that these phenomena may affect one another. During this period, female soccer players should manage their body composition in terms of their lean body mass rather than in terms of their body weight or body mass index.

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[Purpose] The purpose of the present study was to 1) assess the validity of the lateral flow　device (LFD),　compared with the enzyme immunoassay (EIA) method, for determining salivary　cortisol concentrations; and 2) evaluate the saliva cortisol response to training and soccer games. [Method] Sixteen U-22 Japan men’s national soccer players participated in the present study. Sixteen players (20.8 ± 1.0 yrs, 177.3 ± 8.6 cm, 71.9 ± 7.2 kg) participated in training camp A, and 12 players (21.1 ± 0.9 yrs, 177.5 ± 9.3 cm, 72.0 ± 8.1 kg) participated in training camp B. Saliva samples were collected at the time of awakening, after training (training camp A), and after the game (training camp B). Saliva sample cortisol concentrations were analyzed by conventional EIA and LFD and the results of each method were compared. [Results] Salivary cortisol concentrations that were analyzed by LFD showed fluctuations that synchronized with EIA methods in Camp A and Camp B, respectively. A positive correlation was observed between cortisol value obtained by LFD analysis and that by EIA method (r = 0.73, p ＜ 0.0001). No proportional bias was observed. Moreover, the salivary cortisol concentration that was determined by LFD analysis changed according to training load. [Conclusion] The salivary cortisol concentration analysis by LFD was determined to be useful for individual condition evaluation in elite athletes.

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The purpose of this study was to qualitatively investigate the psychological processes that occur before and during the successful performances of Japanese athletes at international competitions held in Japan. Ten Japanese retired athletes (six female and four male) who had performed well in international competitions held in Japan participated a semi-structured interview. In the interview, the participants were asked to describe their experience in detail for approximately two hours. The taped and transcribed interviews were analyzed using the modified grounded theory approach (M-GTA: Kinoshita, 2003, 2007). The analysis yielded an integrated process model consisting following 18 concepts: (1) a larger audience than usual, (2) more media persons than usual, (3) feeling a pleasant tension, (4) controlling the media for their own convenience, (5) inconvenience caused by the restriction of activities, (6) assertive exploration for ways to feel refreshed, (7) experiencing a sense of responsibility, (8) peer pressure, (9) futile efforts, (10) unexpected situation, (11) being agitated, (12) perceived great urgency, (13) reflection, (14) turning defiant, (15) self-regulation, (16) concentrating on their own performance, (17) being motivated by the cheers from the Japanese audience, and (18) performing successfully. Furthermore, these concepts were arranged in chronological order, and they demonstrated two routes that led to a successful performance. The results suggested that flexible response to excitement of audience and media, overcoming pressure as a representative of the nation, and establishment of psychological skills necessary to be able to concentrate on one’s performance were important performance factors for athletes at international competitions held in the athlete’s home country.

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The purposes of this study were to estimate exercise intensity during mogul skiing using heart rate and to clarify the physiological characteristics of mogul skiing using blood lactate concentration. Additionally, to clarify the characteristics of mogul skiing by comparison, a 40-s incline side jump test and mogul ski performance points were compared. Six male and six female subjects belonging to the Japanese national ski team took part in this study. The study took place at the moguls World Cup in Tazawako, Akita, Japan. Blood lactate concentrations were measured three, five, and seven minutes after the finish using a lactate auto analyzer. Additionally, relative blood lactate concentration was calculated with respect to the maximum blood lactate concentration, which was measured after the 40-s incline side jump test. Three male and three female participants took part in the heart rate measurement during the competition. To estimate exercise intensity, relative heart rate during the competition was calculated with respect to the maximum heart rate measured during the maximum oxygen uptake test. To evaluate the relationships between lactate concentration and time point and between the number of 40-s incline side jumps, lactate concentration after the 40-s incline side jump test and time point, Pearson's correlation coeffcient was tested. The average maximum blood lactate concentration after the competition was 7.6mmol・L-1 for the males and 8.6mmol・L-1 for the females. The aｖerage heart rate during the competition was 182.3bpm for the males and 182.8bpm for the females. There was no correlation between lactate concentration and time point; however, there was a positive correlation between the number of 40-s incline side jumps and time point. Based on the results of this study, mogul skiing can be defned as a high-intensity exercise requiring anaerobic endurance.

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The development of an athlete from their commencement in sport at the local level to achieving the serial medallist status at the international level can be a long and winding pathway. From a theoretical point of view, various international models and frameworks of sport and athlete development are available, but sporting stakeholders especially National Sport Federations are ‘wondering’ which models or frameworks to adopt at the practical level. After the literature review, there are various models of athlete development pathway, but the international framework, FTEM (Foundation, Talent, Elite, and Mastery), is a useful inclusive framework for understanding the stages of athlete development from grassroots to the podium with practical application by National Sport Federations. The national framework is required to the whole of sport for bridging the gap between theory and practice by taking into account the cultural and social context in Japan.

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This paper describes a support mechanism for the sport of Ski Jumping which comprises a video feedback system. In this system, once recorded, the videos (10MB each) were stored in the Eye-Fi card, which is an SD card that is compatible with Wi-Fi communication. The videos were automatically transferred to the coach’s computer. Once transferred, the videos were detected and compressed by the JISS Encoder. As a result, the sizes of the video files were reduced (3MB each). The compressed video files were then uploaded to Dropbox using a mobile hotspot connection. Then, they were automatically downloaded to the athlete's computer, where they were played using the GOM Player. When multiple athletes wanted to watch the videos simultaneously, the videos were delivered using the Air Video Server to each of them. The athletes were then able to watch the videos on their tablets. In this video feedback system, a 10-second video was transferred to the athlete’s computer in about 40 seconds. The Japanese women’s national Ski Jumping team and the national Nordic Combined team used this system for 550 days and transferred 24,081 video files in the 4 years between the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi and the end of the 2017-2018 season.

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After the literature review, there are various models of athlete development pathway, but the international framework, FTEM (Foundation, Talent, Elite, Mastery), is a useful framework for understanding the stages of athlete development from grassroots to the podium with practical application by National Federations (NFs). We propose an inclusive and evidence-informed framework “The Japanese FTEM”. The unique framework is applicable nationally to the whole of sport for bridging the gap between theory and practice of athlete development by taking into account the cultural and social context in Japan. The Japanese FTEM is an inclusive and evidence-informed framework in which sport and athlete development are integrated. It can be used as a guide for practitioners of athlete development such as NFs to co-design a sport-specific mid- to long-term development plan for sustainable success.

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This case study aimed to investigate a method of effective body cooling between races in a female windsurfer in the Japanese National Team. The participant underwent race training in which they windsurfed two round trips on a course set by the coach. A resting period of approximately 20 minutes was set between the 1st and 2nd races and the cooling intervention was performed for 10 minutes under the following 3 conditions: (1) neck cooling with ice pack and forearm and hands water immersion up to the elbow in water (10℃). (NA condition); (2) neck and forearm cooling and ice slurry ingestion with 4 g.kg-1-BW (NAS condition) ; and (3) control condition without any intervention (CON condition). The results of this study showed that although the decline in core temperature was almost the same among the three conditions, the percent decline rate in HR and the decline of subjective thermal sensation was bigger in the NA and NAS conditions compared with the CON condition during the intervention period. Accordingly, these findings in this study may be used as a basic indication of effective counter measures during actual windsurfing competitions in female elite windsurfers in the heat.

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As these is a lack of visual information in visually impaired athletes, it is necessary to devise support methods, such as assessment, monitoring, and nutritional education, for adequate nutritional support. In this report, from 2015 to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro (Rio) Paralympic Games, nutritional support for weight gain was provided to a male swimmer with no light perception.We monitored the athlete’s body mass (BM) and energy intake, the former using a weighing scale with voice guidance and the latter by dietary surveys. The content and quantity of meals were reported by the athlete and team staff. Before the intervention, the BM and energy intake were 65 kg and 3700kcal, respectively. The target BM was set to 70kg and energy intake 4500 kcal, and the meal amount was increased to support this. The athlete used eating out services for many meals. A dietician provided advice on menu selection while eating out and food selection at supermarkets and convenience stores. The team staff supported the athlete based on this advice. Additionally, a dairy product delivery service was used, and lunch boxes were made at the cafeteria the athlete used daily. For nutritional education, a dietitian went to the cafeteria, supermarket, or convenience store with the athlete, and nutritional information was provided on the spot. Hence, there was an energy intake increase of 4400-4900 kcal and weight gain. Occasionally, the target BM was reached, but it was not maintained during the Rio Paralympic Games. Through cooperation from the team staff, a dairy product retailer, and the cafeteria and devising a method of nutritional education, the energy intake and weight increased during the training period. However, the athlete could not maintain the BM throughout the competition. Therefore nutritional support methods to maintain BM should be considered.

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This study aimed to investigate and assess the validity of a method to evaluate the change in the speed during straight and curve skating and the excess distance during skating the curved section in speed skating using only a digital video (DV) camera. In the 500 m races for men at national speed skating competitions, 27 skaters were captured by a DV at 60 frames/s, and by a local position measurement (LPM) system at 60 frames/s, which could automatically identify the skater’s trajectory. The change in the speed during each of the straight and curve skating measured by the DV was calculated from the number of frames between the adjacent landmarks on the track. The excess distance during skating the curved sections was calculated by the difference between the official lane distance and the real skating distance, which was estimated from the average speed in the second half of the straight section just before the curved section and that in the first half of the straight section just after the curved section. These parameters measured by the DV were compared with those measured by the LPM using the Bland-Altman analysis. Significant correlations were observed for the changes in the speed during skating through all the straight and curved sections between the DV and LPM. Additionally, significant correlations were also observed for the excess distance during skating the curved sections except for the first inner-lane curved section between the DV and LPM, and the correlation coefficient was particularly large for the second inner-lane curved section. These results indicate that it is possible to evaluate the changes in the speed during straight and curve skating and the excess distance during skating the curved sections, except for the high acceleration phase just after the start using only the DV.

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This study aimed to evaluate the physical conditions of the U23 Japan National Football Team during the 2016 Summer Olympics football tournament in Rio de Janeiro and before the preparation camp. Both internal factors (internal load: IL) and external factors (external load: EL) were evaluated during this period. IL was evaluated by resting heart rate, body weight, visual analog scale (including subjective fatigue quality of sleep, appetite, etc.,), salivary cortisol levels, secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) levels, and EL was evaluated by GPS data during training and game in this period. The results of this study showed that body weight, heart rate on awakening, and salivary IgA levels changed on the day of after a game, as well as increasing subjective fatigue scales. The GPS data showed that the physical load between players was different when they performed the same practice. However, despite of the decrease in EL, there was a case where physical condition evaluated by IL deteriorated. In conclusion, the combined evaluation of IL and EL may help determine training load and evaluate the conditions of elite soccer players during the pre-camp and following major football tournament.

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