The purpose of this study is to evaluate how 3 components of the Sense of Coherence (SOC) which are Comprehensibility, Manageability, and Meaningfulness, effect the stages of change for exercise behavior using Exercise Self-Efficacy (SE). as a mediation variable. The subjects were 909 private university students (437 males aged 18.4±0.9 and 472 females aged 18.2±0.5) in the Tokyo metropolitan area. For measurement, the Stage of Change Exercise Behavior Scale, SOC-29 Japanese version, and the Exercise SE scale were used to determine the impact. According to the hypothetic model: the 3 components of SOC have impact on the stages of change for exercise behavior through Exercise SE, and each component have also impact on the stages of change for exercise behavior directly, Each path was analyzed by structural equation modeling.

The results were, Comprehensibility and Meaningfulness mediate with Exercise SE and have strong impact on the stages of change for exercise behavior for male students. On the other hand, Meaningfulness with the intervention of Exercise SE had a strong impact to the stages of change for exercise behavior for female students. On the whole, Meaningfulness is important to promote exercise behavior for university students. Moreover, it is also an effective approach to develop exercise adherence by using their past exercise experiences for male students.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of rapid weight loss on physical capacity in regards to the Japanese revised rule for wrestling competitions. METHODS: The subjects were seven collegiate wrestlers. The period of weight loss was set to 7 days. All measurements were made before weight loss (pre), after weight loss (post 1) and 24 hours after weight loss (post 2) at 5% and 10% of weight loss according to the revised rule. Measurement items were body composition (body weight, body fat mass, lean body mass and body water content) and basic physical strength (grip strength, back strength, standing broad jump, side step, rope climbing, maximum pedaling for 30 seconds, 1500 m running). RESULTS: In the basic physical strength, the post 1 was significantly higher than pre in the standing broad jump at 5% weight loss, and post 1 was significantly lower than pre and post 2 in rope climbing, There were no significant differences between grip strength, back strength, side step. For these items there was no significant difference between pre and post values at 10% weight loss. In regards to the 30 second maximum pedaling, there was no significant differences in pre weight loss measurement for post 1, and post 2 at 5% weight loss, however at 10% weight loss, there were significantly lower values at post 1 and post 2, compared to the pre measurement. In the 1500 m running endurance performance, post 1 and post 2 were significantly lower compared to the pre value at both 5% and 10% weight loss. CONCLUSIONS: As a result of above, rapid weight loss of the wrestler following the the revised rule led to a decline in ability to maintain pre-weight loss basic physical strength for 30 second pedaling and endurance performance. This influence is even greater at 10% weight loss, suggesting the possibility of adverse effect on competition performance if the revised rule for weight loss for wrestling competition was followed.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the motives for physical education college students’ participation and/or non-participation in volunteer sports activities.

Administering a collective survey to 454 physical education college students revealed the five following results:

1. Four categories of participation motives were exhibited: “extracurricular compulsion,” “in order to receive qualifications (interested),” “I like to work with children,” and “I like sports.”

2. Five categories for non-participation motives were exhibited: “lack of time,” “lack of opportunity,” “lack of interest,” “busy with extracurricular activities,” and “lack of schedule allowance.”

3. The participation motive “I like to work with children” was newly discovered in this study.

4. It was discovered that daily “sports guidance” activities are the volunteer sports activities that physical education college students wish to conduct in the future.

5. The results showed that participants of volunteer sports exhibit a higher interest in participating in more volunteer sports activities (other than “the umpire of sports” of “a nationwide and international sporting event”) compared to non-participants.

The study was conducted to examine the relationships between Sense of Coherence (SOC) and stress responses for university female athletes in relation to their sports competition levels.

The subjects were 441 female university students (age: 20.5±1.1) in the Kanto, Chubu, and Kansai areas of Japan.

The survey included questions on their sports specialties and the competition levels in which they participated in world, national, prefectural, and local tournaments.

SOC-13 for measuring of SOC strength and Stress response scales for athletes (SRSA) were used.

The results indicated that SOC strength had a negative relationship to all stress response factors, regardless of competition level.

The results show that SOC strengths may contribute to the suppression of stress responses of female athletes.

The purpose of this study was to develop the Sports Coach (Teacher) Identity Scale, the Sports Coach (Teacher) Commitment Scale, and examine the relationship between Sports Coach (Teacher) Identity and Sports Coach (Teacher) Commitment. The participants were 114 middle school and high school teachers who coached sports (male: 95, female: 19). The reliability and validity of the Sports Coach (Teacher) Identity Scale and the Sports Coach (Teacher) Commitment Scale were examined. The results indicated the reliability and validity of the Sports Coach (Teacher) Identity Scale and the Sports Coach (Teacher) Commitment Scale, which illustrated the scale’s usefulness. In addition, the result of this study indicated that Sport Coach (Teacher) Identity had a positive correlation with enthusiastic commitment and a negative correlation with constrained commitment. This study finds the causal relationships between Sports Coach (Teacher) Identity and Sports Coach (Teacher) Commitment in teachers who coached sports in Japanese schools.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the difference in the burden of exercise by generations.

Method: A questionnaire survey was conducted with a total of 790 participants; 388 were registered in the Health Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Support Project and lived in M City, A Prefecture, and 402 were students of two universities, one in the Tokai area and the other in the Shikoku area.

Results: Exploratory factor analysis of the burden of exercise revealed that the scale has a two-factor structure with subscales of “difficulty with exercise” and “negative consciousness toward exercise.” The reliability of the scale was confirmed by examining Cronbach’s α as a measure of internal consistency (α=.867). We examined the scores of the subscales for six groups (age groups of participants in their 10 s, 20 s, 30 s, 40 s, 50 s and 60 s). The results indicated that the score of “difficulty with exercise” was significantly higher in males in their 10 s, 20 s and 40 s compared with those in their 60 s, whereas the score was significantly higher in females in their 10 s compared with those in their all other groups. Also for females in groups in their 20 s to 50 s they also experiance more difficulty, compared with those in their 60 s. It was also revealed that the score of “negative consciousness toward exercise” was significantly higher in females in their 10 s than those in their 50 s and 60 s. There was no significant difference between men.

Conclusion: The results clarified the characteristics of the scores of the subscales of the burden of exercise for different age groups.