This study aimed to investigate awareness about conditioning and the occurrence of sports injuries in 31 male university tennis players, aiming to elucidate its impact on psychological competitive abilities (measured by DIPCA.3 and JPATEA).
(1) In male university tennis players, the most common injuries were wrist injuries, seen in 5 individuals (33.3％), followed by lumbar injuries in 4 individuals (20.0％), and ankle injuries in 2 individuals (13.3％), consistent with previous reports.
(2) Players with high CD awareness who did not experience sports injuries showed significantly higher values in psychological competitive abilities, including the fighting spirit scale of DIPCA.3, imagery, lifestyle management (J-PATEA), psychological skills, and competitive dedication.
(3) Players with low CD awareness who experienced sports injuries exhibited significantly higher values in psychological competitive abilities, such as fighting spirit (DIPCA.3), imagery, lifestyle management (J-PATEA), psychological skills, and competitive dedication. This suggests that even with high psychological competitive abilities, those with low CD awareness experienced injuries.
    These results indicate that efforts to prevent sports injuries in male university tennis players with high psychological competitive abilities are crucial. Additionally, there is a potential for improvement in psychological competitive abilities during the reconditioning process, even when awareness of conditioning is low and injuries have occurred.

    The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the amount of physical activity of students, which is mainly associated with the challenges or remaining physically active during the changing student life in the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to clarify the actual situation of studentsʼ physical activity during COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2021. The short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire survey was conducted during August and December, 2020, August and December, 2021. Participants were students enrolled in a university in Tokyo, Japan. After screening, the data of 662 and 555 students in August and December in 2020 and 348 and 566 students in July and December in 2021, respectively, were included as valid responses in the analysis dataset. The results showed that the amount of physical activity related to walking and total amount of physical activity were the lowest in August in 2020, whereas the sitting time per day was shortest in December in 2021. From these results, we infer that the physical activity-related changes are attributable to studentsʼ becoming accustomed to COVID-19 and to the changes in their environment.

    Kendo is a competitive sport in which two players compete for valid strikes using bamboo swords (shinai). During competitions, it is important for the players to be quick and agile while manipulating the shinai forcefully. Therefore, Kendo players need to practice and train hard every day. However, there are a few studies emphasizing on the appropriate exercise prescription for Kendo players, and the necessity to collect their physiological data for ensuring their safety during practice and training.
    This study included 10 healthy male athletes from the Kendo Club of University N who had participated in national competitions during their high school or college. Their maximal oxygen uptake and blood lactate concentration were measured to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of training methods for improving their competitive performance. In addition, since there is no established protocol for estimating the maximum oxygen uptake of kendo athletes, we decided to experimentally verify the validity of the protocol set in this study. The participants performed an all-out test using the pedaling motion of a bicycle ergometer.
    The results showed that the measured maximal oxygen uptake values were lower than that of the previous study. Furthermore, the measured blood lactate concentration values suggested that the metabolic capacity of glycolysis was high and that of aerobic respiration was low. These findings suggested that in addition to the Kendo-specific technical training of the players from University N, there is a need to incorporate training methods that will enhance their aerobic capacity and performance. Also, it is desirable to set a protocol for the all-out test for kendo players that leads to all-out in a short time.

    The study aims to clarify how psychological tactics works in a match between kendo masters and how they integrate their physical movements with psychological tactics. The subject of this case study is a kendo eighth-stage master who has won several Japanese Kendo Championships and is a respected teacher. The stimulated recall interview was used, in which the subject watched a video of one of his past matches and talked through what he saw, thought, and intended to do in key scenes. The analysis revealed that kendo masterʼ psychological tactics consisted of a series of processes such as reading the opponent, moving the opponent, constructing a premise for attack, creating an opening for the opponent through reading each other, moving the opponent, and executing an attack after reading the opponentʼs reading. The psychological bargaining is composed of a series of processes.

    In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey of university student athletes from the Faculty of Sports concerning their awareness and knowledge about doping in addition their daily nutrition intake and health management. From the answers obtained, we aimed to understand the current situation of university student athletes and considered their problems and future issues.
    The group survey method was conducted for university student athletes (first graders as of April 2019) of one university sports department.
    Students who answered that they were pharmacists were the least consultants when using medicines, supplements, and health foods. Moreover, nearly 70％ of students managed their own nutrition, and nearly half of the students took supplements and health foods daily. It became clear that there are cases where supplements and health foods are obtained on the Internet (mail order).
    From these results, it was clarified that the awareness of sports pharmacist is low among university student athletes belonging to the Faculty of Sports and that they rarely participate in study sessions on anti-doping. Additionally, it was expected that performance would be further improved if university athletes themselves could have solid knowledge and awareness of daily nutrition and health management. Therefore, in the future, it would be beneficial for athletes with nutritional management in collaboration with registered dietitians and utilizing the characteristics of pharmacists support for health management.

    Physical education classes in Japan between 1920 and 1940 have been criticized for requiring students to attain perfection in high-level movement techniques with no regard for their growth and development, and the use of only a limited range of teaching materials over a long period. It has also been pointed out that the more enthusiastic the school, the more intensely it pursued movement techniques. This study analyzes the ideas and practices of Tobe Elementary School, which was famous for its physical education among the overall teaching materials that were undertaken. The study results are summarized as follows:
1. Tobe Elementary School saw the inferior physique and physical strength of its students as a challenge and made it its mission to improve them through research on gymnastics between 1910 and 1940.
2. While Tobe Elementary School valued gymnastics highly, it was also critical of play and games. Looking at the list of teaching materials, Tobe Elementary School added many gymnastics teaching materials that were not included in the ministryʼs curriculum guidelines.
3. The teaching at Tobe Elementary School was criticized for being biased in favor of gymnastics. As for gymnastics, free gymnastics was highly praised, while gymnastics was criticized for the bias of the teaching materials and the low level of studentsʼ motor skills.
    As mentioned before, Tobe Elementary School focused on gymnastics, but the primary goal was to improve the physical fitness of the students, not just to pursue movement techniques. Rather, they were trying to meet the challenges faced by students living in the city.

    The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused many changes in society. In Japan, most universities switched to online classes in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, this switch might have led to decreased physical activity and prolonged sedentary time in university students. Therefore, the aim of this study was to ascertain the physical activity in students attending universities that switched to online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also examined the relationship between levels of physical activity and social support. Participants were 822 students enrolled in a university in Tokyo, Japan that switched to online classes. An online questionnaire survey was conducted during August 4-11, 2020 and contained items related to physical activity and sedentary time from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form. After screening, a total of 662 valid responses were included in the analysis. The results showed a median total physical activity of 1228.50 METs・min/week and a median sedentary time of 480.00 min/day. Students who were categorized as having low levels of physical activity also had lower social support scores. These results suggest the need to take measures to maintain the physical activity levels of university students while preventing the spread of COVID-19. Sharing opportunities that students can perceive as social support might be one possible solution.

    This study aimed to analyze how an expert coach of Artistic Swimming (AS) has faced with her coaching activity through her long career, considering the characteristic of AS as an aesthetic sport. Analysis viewpoints include how to create the movements for the artistic swimmersʼ performance, how she trained them, what kind of support she gave to them in response to such training, and her ideal image of the artistic swimmers. An experienced coach was chosen as the subject (Coach A), who has been the coach of the Japanʼs national team and contributed greatly to training elite artistic swimmers and the development of AS. Life story interview was employed as an analysis method. The analysis of the narrative gained from the interview revealed three aspects. First, Coach A had once given passive coaching because she had felt inferior to those around her since she was an artistic swimmer until her first oversea trip as the coach of the national AS team. However, after a negative experience there, she became able to give active coaching based on a strong sense of mission. Second, at a qualifying competition for Japanʼs national team, Coach A found that the judges gave different assessment from her assumption toward the swimmersʼ performance before reviewing the viewpoint of her coaching. From then on, she became to work out strategies for branding the value of the swimmers based on the characteristics of aesthetic sports where judges from others are important and support the swimmers to enhance their awareness so that they could independently create movements. Last, Coach A pursued the performance that impresses the audience and what the judges expect of the swimmers by fully using her long coaching experience. As a result, Coach Aʼs ideal image of the artistic swimmers became ones who could perform as artists rather than athletes by breaking through the frame of her anticipation and independently expressing their movement through positive acceptance of their characteristics.