Proposed Application of a Bone Density Measurement to the Evaluation of Athletes' Talent

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Other Title
  • スポーツ選手の資質の検討における骨密度測定の可能性
  • スポーツセンシュ ノ シシツ ノ ケントウ ニ オケル コツミツドソクテイ ノ カノウセイ

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Abstract

We have been measuring and evaluating using various methods a degree of talent required for a good fencer. We consider that such talent to generally improve the athlete's competitiveness are related to the psychological and physical aspects. We have therefore performed our own improved measurement method referring to those used in France and other countries in order to study such talent from psychological and physical aspects. It is important not only to study such talent, but also to study a method to find the most talented athletes. In Europe, it is focused on the bone development, etc. of infants and children to find prospective athletes. There is a large correlation between the bone development and body sizes, and it is important to be aware of the bone developing conditions during the puberty in order to plan a long-term training scheme. As such, the bone density which influences sports abilities is generally measured by using X-ray. T. Otani of Doshisha University, Department of Technology are currently developing a bone mineral densitometry using the special character of ultrasonic waves. The result of his research was adopted as the project of the Japan Science and Technology Agency assigned to and developed by OYO Electric Co., Ltd. We studied the effectiveness of LD 100 and the impact of bone density measurement on analysis of athletes'talent from a sports science perspective, by measuring the bone density of athletes of both genders from Doshisha University's fencing, tennis and table tennis teams, focusing on the attenuation of transmission wave, thickness of cortex, and volume fraction and elasticity of cancellous bone. As a result, we observed: 1) higher value of bone density for male, but almost the same value of firmness of cancellous bone for male and female. From this result, we may speculate that sports training provides a favorable influence on the bone development of the female. 2) winners of the Japan Fencing National Championships have strong and firm bones on one hand, but on the other hand, they scored low on the elasticity of cancellous bone, thus may have soft cancellous bones. Whether such bone condition would be favorable for playing sports will be our next issue. Nevertheless, it was an interesting result. LD100 made the evaluation of bone elasticity possible, and we can expect that it possibly becomes an effective measuring instrument to study athletes'talent.

Journal

  • 同志社保健体育

    同志社保健体育 (44), 29-44, 2006-03-01

    同志社大学保健体育研究室

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