A Longitudinal Investigation on the Development of Distance Throwing Ability in Elementary School Children

Abstract

Against a backdrop of reports that the distance throwing of children in elementary school was still on the decline, several research on effectiveness of subject matter aimed at improving the distance throwing ability of children has been undertaken. However, there were still unresolved issues in terms of the development of developmentally appropriate subject matter content for improving throwing distance.In order to resolve this problem, the developmental process of elementary school children s distance throwing ability needs to be clarified based on their throwing distance and sex.As such, the aim of this research was set as clarifying the developmental process of for elementary school children s distance throwing ability. This research was conducted on a sample of 277 elementary school children (122 boys, 155 girls) for whom personal softball throwing distance records from the 1st to 6th grade were available. The children in the research were divided into the three groups of upper, middle, and lower for each sex on the basis of throwing distance records from 6th grade, and the distance throwing records of each were compared. The results were as summarized below.1) The data suggested that throwing distance was influenced by factors other than height and body weight.2) There was only a weak correlation between throwing distance between in the 1st grade and in the 6th grade. This suggested that it might be possible to improve children s distance throwing ability through the implementation of an appropriate curriculum in line with their developmental stage. For the lower group, however, the data suggested that more careful instruction for distance throwing was <原著論文> スポーツ教育学研究 第 42 巻 第 1 号 2022 年 7 月