Author(s): KONDO, K., MORIOKA, Y., OGATA, M., Institution: NIHON UNIVERSITY, Country: JAPAN, Abstract-ID: 2022

The guide discussed in this study is a specific method for the competitions with visually impaired athletes in Paralympics, in which the guides directly assist athletes to run by holding a guide rope with the athlete, so as to ensure their smooth participation of the competitions.
Yabe (2004) states that "a rope is a means to remove the barrier between people with impairments and those without, and can be a bond as a symbol of inclusion". It could be therefore considered that guide running may have an underlying concept of leading to help to build an inclusive society.
This study aimed to understand from the study-notes of the students what they have learnt through the guide running practice. In order to conduct that, the junior high schools whose education curriculum includes the “guide running practice”, (three hours of “Physical Education Theory" and six hours of "Track and Field - Short Distance Running") were selected for this study. Also, based on the descriptions by the students, presenting ways of potential management of their future classes became another purpose of this study.
The subjects were 10 junior high school students who had permission to participate in this study from their teachers. It was inferred that, through this study with guide running, the students recognised the factors such as "mutual understanding," "cooperative relationships," and "empathy". Besides, they were also aware of having a wider view for “inclusive perspective”, “value of sports” and “sports culture” according to the hints by their teachers such as “adjusting the rules to the situations”, “regardless of whether people have an impairment or not” and so on.
Also, it was inferred that "learning content" on the education curriculum for this study may have given the students the perspective which is necessary to seek the inclusive society such as “importance of communication”, ”building relationship” and “multiple way of involvements”.
From the above, learning through guide running has created an understanding, which may also be common with the idea of adapted sports, of what kind of considerations would be required in order to allow every single person to participate in sports. At the same time, the students as subjects of this study, were given the opportunity to have a perception of inclusivity, which is free from gender bias, having disabilities or not, age and racial difference etc.
To practice guide running, it is necessary to hold a rope, called a “tether”, tightly to synchronise the movement of running. This restricted arrangement where free movement is limited, could probably trigger students to have a proactive attitude and to consider the importance of communications and relationship-building. Furthermore, the combination of physical education theory and the experience of learning guide running was effective in terms of the class management.
Yabe, K. et al (2004) Science of Adapted Sport. Ichimura: Tokyo, Japan.