This paper reflects on the author’s eight-year tenure as the Head of the Strengthening Committee of the All Japan Judo Federation from 2016 to 2024, focusing on the enhancement and development of Japanese judo. While judo has a long history and is globally widespread, international competition has intensified due to the advancement of other countries’ competitive abilities. This study discusses the role of the Strengthening Committee, the selection system for national team athletes, and the significance of adopting scientific approaches in athlete development. Additionally, it examines the strengthening strategies for the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, particularly the introduction of the early nomination system and the responses to the impact of the pandemic. Through this study, strategic efforts to improve Japan’s judo performance and future challenges are highlighted.

    The surfing competitions of the Paris Olympics 2024 were held on the Polynesian island of Tahiti, far from Paris. Because there were few eating and drinking facilities near the athletes’ accommodations and staff activity bases, and because of the remote location from the home country, TEAM JAPAN could not receive medical support, a doctor and nutritionist from the Surfing Federation were dispatched as medical staff for one month during the competition period, including the pre-camp. The nutritionist was dispatched as medical staff for one month during the competition, including the pre-event training camp. The nutritionist procured ingredients, prepared menus, cooked meals, and managed hygiene for all food and beverages for the 15 athletes and staff during the competition, including early breakfast, breakfast, lunch, supplementary meals, dinner, and beverages.
    The meals were mainly Japanese food, with basic foods such as seasonings brought from Japan and fresh foods such as meat, fish, vegetables, and fruits procured locally, in order to provide the athletes with Japanese food that they were accustomed to and that would help them relax and get in good condition.
    In fact, the local weather alternated between dry and extremely hot days and chilly days due to rainfall and strong winds, making it difficult to manage one’s physical condition. In addition, even during the Olympic period, the meals served in the restaurants at the games venues and athlete village were Tahitian in flavor, with little Asian food offered. The athletes had to rely on conditioning meals prepared by a nutritionist at the Japanese team’s base. The athletes consumed nutritionist meals for almost the entire duration of the Games, which prevented the spread of infectious diseases, no athletes complained of food poisoning or diarrhoea, and was an effective and safe food provision for the conditioning of the athletes.

    In the fencing competition at the Paris Olympics, the Japanese national team achieved a historic first in consecutive years. There are three main factors that contributed to this success.
    The first factor was the “medium- to long-term development plan,” which allowed the players to gain overseas experience at an early stage by skipping the U20 generation to the senior category, giving them the confidence and necessary skills to win on the world stage. The second factor was “fostering a sense of unity,” which allowed a total of 48 players and staff to live together in a pre-camp, creating interaction between players from different sports and strengthening team cohesion. The third factor was “preparing and improving the local environment,” which involved selecting and renovating the pre-camp site, creating a training environment similar to that of the NTC, and working to ensure that the players could adjust to training in the same way as they would in Japan without stress. In addition, the online medical consultation system “YOKUMIRU” was introduced, and JISS provided support for adjusting to time differences.
    Future issues include measures to deal with sleep disorders caused by stress, and team cooperation to prevent injuries and return to work quickly, so cutting-edge coaching and support using sports science will be required in the future.

    Boccia is a minor Paralympic sport and has a small number of competitors because it is for people with severe physical disabilities. Japan has won medals at three consecutive Paralympic Games: the Rio 2016 Paralympics, the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics and the Paris 2024 Paralympics. This section introduces the organizational efforts of the Japan Boccia Association in organizing competitions, promotion activities, acquisition of sponsors and training of Japanese national team athletes until the continuous medal wins.Boccia is a minor Paralympic sport and has a small number of competitors because it is for people with severe physical disabilities. Japan has won medals at three consecutive Paralympic Games: the Rio 2016 Paralympics, the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics and the Paris 2024 Paralympics. This section introduces the organizational efforts of the Japan Boccia Association in organizing competitions, promotion activities, acquisition of sponsors and training of Japanese national team athletes until the continuous medal wins.

    This report describes the support activities of the headquarters trainers of the Japanese delegation at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Headquarters trainer support has been ongoing since the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games and plays an essential role in international multi-sport competitions. For this event, three trainers were dispatched by the Japanese Paralympic Committee (JPC). We collaborated with the medical office to provide conditioning support, manage rental bedrooms, and assist at competition venues.
    The headquarters trainer room operated for 19 days, primarily from 8:00 to 22:00, with additional support provided as needed. A total of 131 cases were handled, with the most frequently treated areas being the thigh (41 cases) and shoulder (31 cases). The room was utilized by 15 out of 23 National Federations (NFs), accounting for 63％ of total usage, with a high proportion of acute injury cases. Venue visits facilitated information exchange with NF trainers and performance enhancement staff, providing opportunities to share sport-specific conditioning challenges.
    In recent years, collaboration among the Japan Sport Council (JSC), the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC), and JPC has strengthened, enabling the sharing of electronic medical records and equipment through the Japan Institute of Sports Sciences (JISS) clinic. This has contributed to an improved support environment.
    Additionally, the increased presence of NF-accompanying trainers and the expanded use of JSC’s off-site support base have led to a decline in the number of cases handled by the headquarters trainer room. This trend suggests that the NF-led conditioning support system has been enhanced, ensuring that athletes receive appropriate care within their teams. However, the headquarters trainer room continues to play a vital role in addressing acute injuries, supporting cases beyond NF capacity, and coordinating with JSC off-site support facilities.
    Moving forward, further strengthening of acute injury response and inter-organizational collaboration will be essential to optimizing athlete support in international multi-sport competitions.

    In August 2024, I participated in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games held in France. In my position as a staff member of the Japan Para Swimming Federation, I accompanied the team in the form of providing psychological support to athletes and staff as my core duties. I report on the process up to that point, examples of psychological support related to the Games, the results of that support, and future issues.
    Four examples of support related to this competition are (1) Team building, (2) Psychological support, (3) Implementation of DIPCA.3, and (4) Conditioning checks.

    This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the self-assessment checklist for forehand long serve technique, which is utilized in badminton classes, and compare the results obtained by exercise experience to revise the checklist. The study included 90 university students (53 men and 37 women) who chose badminton for university physical education classes. They were categorized into four groups according to their exercise experience: the badminton, hitting tool operation, exercise experience, and unexperienced groups. The participants took a skill test to evaluate the distance and course of their forehand long serve during a class, and their movement was video recorded in slow motion during the skill test. The self-assessment checklist to evaluate their own movement during the serve included the following categories: “stance” (four items), “timing to start swinging” (four items), and “hitting point and angle of the wrist” (five items). A five-point scale was used to collect data. Evaluating the relationship between the serve skill test and the self-assessment checklist revealed a significantly positive correlation with all the categories of “stance” (p<0.01), “timing to start swinging” (p<0.01), and “hitting point and angle of the wrist” (p<0.01). Furthermore, the hitting tool operation (p<0.01), exercise experience (p<0.01), and unexperienced (p<0.01) groups showed significantly low values compared to the badminton group in all the categories. The findings from this study may be useful for teaching the forehand long serve technique in badminton as part of university physical education.

    This study aimed to investigate the practical knowledge of four male university table tennis players regarding forehand drives and to derive implications for coaching. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and through KJ analysis, narratives related to body coordination and the sensation of hitting the ball were obtained. While there was diversity in narratives among players, using onomatopoeia and metaphors, individual differences were observed in the expression of the sensation of hitting the ball, suggesting that competitive experience and level may have an influence. Additionally, the obtained knowledge was highly dependent on the characteristics of the subjects, and there remains a challenge in universally applying it to coaching practice. In coaching practice, it is expected that skill improvement can be achieved through collaborative learning by providing opportunities for players to verbalize their sensations, introducing a review cycle using video and feedback, and conducting technical meetings where players share and compare their sensations with each other.

    In the history of Japanese education, local education underwent a period of nationwide prosperity in the 1930s. Using the elementary school attached to Wakayama Normal School, a pioneer in local education in physical education, as a case study, this study clarifies how Japanese elementary schools in the 1930s perceived and practiced local education in physical education, and examines the changes in local education after 1937, which have been pointed out in previous studies, from the viewpoint of physical education.
    The main historical sources are books written by the elementary school attached to Wakayama Normal School and the magazine Jissai Kyoiku (Practical Education) edited and published by the school.
    The results of this study are summarized as follows:
 1) At the elementary school attached to Wakayama Normal School, physical education was positioned as a means to the universal goal of the sound development of students and the cultivation of strong and healthy Japanese people. It was not linked to recognition of the hometown, the construction of an improved hometown, or the cultivation of love of their hometown and patriotism.
 2) The following two aspects served as the foundations for the physical education department at the elementary school attached to Wakayama Normal School. First, the school practiced individualized instruction based on the characteristics of each student after investigating “physical examination,” “physical abnormality survey,” “physical fitness test,” and “mental characteristics.” In addition, based on the overall trend of the students, the school installed a low bar to improve their pull-up strength. Second, the school researched local exercise plays from the three perspectives of “season,” “age,” and “gender” and used them as teaching materials for physical education class.
 3) Regarding the teaching plans prepared by the elementary school attached to Wakayama Normal School, the school’s physical education classes were very faithful to the ministry’s curriculum, which focused on gymnastics materials; the “local exercise plays” were only a supplement to the teaching materials listed in the ministry’s curriculum guideline.
 4) The original teaching materials of the elementary school attached to Wakayama Normal School were removed from the teaching materials in 1938 at the latest and were in line with the revised 1936 ministry’s curriculum guideline. In contrast, the surveys of the students’ actual conditions and their utilization continued as an effective practice even during the wartime period.