The sole of the shoe is one of the most important parts in shoe designing, and various properties are required of shoe soles. Especially, it is said that cushioning is a significant factor. This cushioning property depends upon the shoe sole material and structure. EVA is usually applied to running shoe soles. Clarifying the EVA mechanical properies is important to the designing of sole cushioning. However, it is difficult to predict the EVA mechanical behavior, because EVA materials have both non-linearity and strain rate dependency. In this study the mechanical behaviors of EVA materials were simulated by using numerical simulation. Based on the simulation system, the influences of running velocity and runner's weight upon the EVA cushioning are discussed. The results showed that EVA cushioning property is affected by running velocity more than by runner's weight.

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Flexibility is one of the important properties of running shoes. This function has been evaluated by the bending stiffness of the shoe sole. However, this evaluation method seems to be insufficient because it cannot consider the deformation behaviors of the human foot and the shoe sole. The human foot can flex at the metatarsophalangeal joint only. This indicates that deformation of shoe sole must be considered. In this study, a new evaluation method for the flexibility of running shoes based on shoe sole deformation is proposed. In this method, curvature distributions of the plantar surface and shoe soles were measured at heel 100 mm up. The proposed flexibility is evaluated from the comparison. The influences of groove position and depth upon the sole curvature distribution were measured by both the experiment and the finite element method. Then, based on the analytical results, several shoes were made and these were evaluated by sensory evaluation test. From these results, it is suggested that matching the maximum flexion point of the shoe sole with that of plantar surface is important.

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In the sports of luge, it is considered that one's overall time is greatly influenced by performance at the start of the run. At the start, athletes build up momentum by moving themselves backwards and forwards, and then begin their descent down the course with one final push of the sled. Simultaneously, they push the kufe (front end of the sled) by their feet. During the sliding, they maneuver the sled down the winding course, shifting their body position and pushing the kufe to steer. So it is important to measure the force on the kufe. However, there have been no papers on this force. We have developed an apparatus that can measure the force on the kufe and have confirmed its effectiveness. As the result, the differences in patterns of force on the kufe among individuals were found to be greater than those of forces on the start bars.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate how professional instructors recognize the Leader's Certification System for Sport and Fitness in Japan. We consider that instructors have the impression that something is wrong about the licensing system. This paper suggests that the Leader's Certification for Sport and Fitness should be amended to clarify the meaning of the license and the methodology to make the best of the certificate leaders. The results are summarized as follows : Among sport and fitness instructors there are 4 recognized factors regarding the Leader's Certification System for Sports and Fitness. 1) The first factor is called "contents of the licensing system". Instructors have impressions that the certificate system is "attractive or unattractive", "positive or passive", and "satisfactory or dissatisfactory". 2) The second factor is "utility of the license". There are "stable or unstable", "practical or unpracti cal", and "useful or useless" impressions. 3) The third factor is "expectation of career and profession". Instructors used the expressions, "calm or active" and "basic or applied". 4) The fourth factor is "control of acquisition". Many instructors have ideas of "difficult or easy" or "expensive or inexpensive", in regard to the reasonableness of the going price. It should also be added that experienced instructors did not agree with inexperienced staff in opinions about recognized factors, and there little difference between "certificate" instructors and "non-certificate" ones. This paper is based on the data collected by professional instructors. It will be useful to keep these points in mind as we examine the social and economic functions of the license system for the Certificate Leader. And once that is understood, we will be in a better position to evaluate the Leader's Certification System for Sport and Fitness.

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It has been one of the most important issues for commercial sports facilities to increase and stabilize the number of customers. This paper discusses the current situation of instructor services from the viewpoint of situational learning theory and the possibility of developing these services as commodities. The result of our consideration was that the theory of situated learning will give us a suggestion about the concept of sports instruction service in commercial sports facilities. The following suggestions were made 1) Change to sports instruction service that is customers-centered. 2) Examination of program and produce style under the view points of customercentered sports instruction service. 3) Change from a functional place which is uniform and corresponds. to the needs of customers to a meaningful place which is many-sided and causes them. 4) Construct a long-range vision about sports instruction service as a product.

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In Japan, sport tournaments for those under 18 are held not using a "league system" but a "knockout system". The main interest of the school and community athletic team is to win tournaments. They are competition-oriented only, and they're not play-oriented. This is related to the development process of Japanese sports in schools. But, times have changed in many aspects. Youth soccer requires a new way of thinking about sports and a new sport system. We started to organize a local youth soccer league in Tokyo in 1996. This report shows the development, activities, concepts and view of our league, which is commonly called the DUO league. The concepts of the DUO league are (1)to fix the position of soccer in everyday life (2)to have soccer games regularly (3)to make various levels of soccer available according to different levels of ability and need (4)to give a good education to those who are concerned with soccer, in and out of the pitch. The DUO league would like to develop these concepts gradually. We hope this movement will spread to other areas and other sports, and, in the future, we will try to reform other Japanese sports.

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