Establishment of Physical Strength Evaluation Findings on Slim School Age Children: Analysis of Fifth Grade Primary School Students

Abstract

Hypotheses on physical strength and athletic ability in people with slim body types have yet to be clearly proven. Certainly, several studies have been reported, but none have gone beyond the realm of speculation. This is due to the fact that an amount of data needed to statistically ensure conclusions on the slim body type have not been established. In this study we carefully the examined physique, physical strength and athletic ability over time obtained in a large-scale study conducted over seven years (2013 to 2019) in the Kansai region of Japan, and obtained measurement results for fifth grade elementary school students and second year junior high school students. Specifically, we applied the wavelet interpolation model to the trends over time in mean values and standard deviations for height, physical strength, and athletic ability (grip strength, repeated side jumps, sit and reach, sit-ups, 50 m run, standing long jump, 20 m shuttle run, and softball throw) in fifth grade boys and girls. We then constructed span evaluation charts. The height, physical strength, and athletic ability of fifth grade boys and girls judged from an aging span evaluation chart for BMI devised by Fujii [1] was then applied to this evaluation chart. The result was that the evaluation of physical strength and athletic ability in slim fifth grade elementary school students derived in this study clearly indicated that these students somewhat below average in grip strength and softball throw, which has not been reported from previous estimates. We submit that a physical strength and athletic ability evaluation in fifth grade boys and girls in elementary school with a slim body type has been established in this study