The purposes of this study, which consists of three studies, are to clarify the adjustment of the children who participate in mini-basketball, and to examine the relationship between sport participation and adjustment. The subjects were 1300 children who either participated or did not.
Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are applied to the subjects, and the following results were obtained.
1) The adjustment of those children participating in mini-basketball is very high and is supposed to have been influenced by participation in mini-basketball.
2) The adjustment of children is heightened by various conditions, such as play, sports, study and so on. But participation in team sports may be supposed to bring about a level of high adjustment.
3) Those children, who are provided with conditions that can heighten their adjustment, such as play, sports and so on, acquire very high adjustment levels, as in the cases of elemenetary school 4th and 5th graders.
4) When the children with high adjustment enter the 6th grade, their adjustment does not change or decrease, although they are provided with the same good conditions as the 4th and 5th graders. Judging from the fact that they, however, keep their adjustment higher than other children, it can be observed that adjustment dose not increase, after having reached a certain level, unless other factors are given.
This phenomenon is peculiar to the 6th graders, and the newly given factor may be supposed to be that which is called ‘study’.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify common technical problems seen in beginners' front kick in karate.
The subjects were sixty students who took a karate class in general physical education at the University of Tsukuba. All of the subjects were beginners of Karate.
The subjects performed a front kick against a sand bag. Their performance were recorded with a video camera. The recorded performances were evaluated by three karate instructors in terms of (1) rotation of the support leg, (2) rotation of the upper body, (3) vertical movement of the body, (4) inclination of the body, (5) flexing and extending of the kicking leg, (6) distance from the target and (7) movement of the arms.
The results were summarized as follows:
1. It was difficult for the beginners to rotate the support leg and upper body correctly during the kick. Rotations of those parts of body were rarely observed in their performances.
2. About 60% of the subjects had a problem in with they swang or pushed their kicking leg rather than properly snapping their knee. It seemed that one cause of the problem was untimely extension of the kicking leg and the other cause was not enough flexing of the kicking leg.
3. The problems of being too near the target at the point of contact were observed in the performances of about 30% of the subjects.
4. Approximately one half of the subjects had the problem of unnecessary vertical body movement during the kicking as well as the problem of the upper body not being on the supporting leg. The male tended to move the body forwards and upwards, while the female showed the tendency to move the body downwards.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the process of motor proficiency of a backward circle on a horizontal bar, and the relation between the process and self-perception of movements.
The subjects used in this experiment were third and fifth grade children, who were unable to perform “a backward circle on the horizontal bar” motor task prior to this experiment. This experiment was composed of three main phases: demonstration VTR, trials, and introspection, and they were repeated. The experiment continued until the subjects were successful in the task, i.e. for 4-6 weeks (30-46 trials in all). Trials were filmed by video tape recorder and high speed video tape recorder. After the experiment, each subject's style was analyzed.
The summary of the results is: style of the backward circle was divided into six-types, each type represent a different level. But it was difficult to divide the process of motor proficiency by learning period, because individual differences were so great. The self-perception of one's own movements was reflected in their process of motor proficiency. The degree of the combination of motor phases could be predicted by individual self-perception.
These results suggest that teaching the learner to perceive his own movements and giving him knowledge about the process of motor proficiency is effective method of instruction for motor proficiency.

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The Physique (2 items) and the Motor Ability (17 items) of 170 children with Down's Syndrome, ranging from 0 to 12 years of age, were measured for three years and the results, examined from the longitudinal aspect, allowed the following conclusions to be reached.
Physique:
1) The average body weight of children with Down's Syndrome is lower at the age of one, than the national average of normal children of the same age, but the ratio of their growth is the same as that of normal children.
2) The growth of the average body weight of the former becomes less rapid at age two than at age one. However, when they are three years old growth again becomes the same as that of normal children and continues thus until the children are six years old.
3) The Koup Index of children with Down's Syndrome shows that they begin to become fat at age seven and this tendency continues though adulthood.
Motor Ability:
1) As far as measurement of gross motor ability, regarding both the energy systems and cybernetics systems, is concerned, children with Down's Syndrome can be divided into two groups: those who have rapid development and those who have less rapid development. Some of those who have rapid development, however, suffer some decline in their motor ability in proportion to their fatness.
2) The balance ability of children with Down's Syndrome is lower than average, and the motor ability with balance ability as its primary factor is also low.
3) Children with Down's Syndrome take more time to perform complex movement in which many actions are combined into one motion than do average children, also requiring more time to change from one action to another.
4) Children with Down's Syndrome find difficulty in adjusting themselves to a given rhythm.
5) Generally speaking, slow children are reported to have less flexibility than their peers, but children with Down's Syndrome who were the subjects of our study showed much flexibility. This question of flexibility is to be examined in detail later.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify the morphological feature of the anterior thigh in various types of athletes by an ultrasonic method, and to investigate the relationship between the character of each given sport and the morphology of the players of the given sport by the ultrasonic method.
The subjects, all male, used in this study were: 27 male volleyball players, 56 rugbyfootball players, 52 soccer players and 19 individuals not involved in a specific sport at the time of the study.
Cross-sectional images of anterior thigh were taken by means of an ultrasonic apparatus (NEC SANEI Corp, TOMOACE 2H71).
The results were as follows:
(1) The total thickness of m. quadriceps femoris for rugbyfootball players was larger than in any other group.
(2) The total thickness of m. quadriccps femoris for volleyball players and soccer players was nearly equal, whereas the m. rectus femoris of soccer players was thicker than that of the volleyball players. The m. vastus intermedius of volleyball players was thicker than that of the soccer players.
(3) The depth of m. rectus femoris increased during contraction, but the m. vastus intermedius decreased. This was noted in all groups within this study.

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