Physical Education

This course is an introduction to the principles of physical exercise, with a focus on understanding how the body moves and responds to exercise, how performance can be measured, and how fitness can be developed and maintained to optimize health. Particular emphasis will be placed on the debunking of common myths about exercise, and offering evidence-based advice on the benefits of appropriate physical activity.

The course aims to introduce Chinese traditional culture to students through Chinese Kungfu training experience, improve their blood circulation and physical fitness, have basic self-defense method, and have experience of Jing ( Spirit ), Qi ( Air ), Shen ( Concentration of Mind ) in Chinese Kungfu.

Chinese Kungfu, (also known as Wushu or martial arts) is one of the most well-known physical arts of traditional Chinese culture which is also probably one of the earliest and longest-lasting sports using both brawn and brain. Based upon classical Chinese philosophy, Kungfu has developed as a unique combination of exercise, practical self-defense, self-discipline and art over its long history. It could be divided into two types: "external Kungfu" and "internal Kungfu". In external Kungfu, you exercise your tendons, bones, and skin. In internal kungfu, you train your spirit, Qi, and mind.

Sport is central to life in the modern world. Why do people play sport, watch sport, talk about sport, dream about sport? And why do they choose the sports that they choose? This course examines the modern passion for sport and seeks to explain this passion. It assesses to what extent the straightforward pursuit of pleasure overwhelms everything else when people chose to engage with sport. But it also looks at how such choices are defined (or refined) by the influence of ideology and tradition, class and gender, commerce and geography, education, and employment. From the colosseum of the Roman Empire to the stadia of the 21st century, this course considers the creation of the modern sporting world and analyzes the place of sport within the context of social, cultural, political, and economic change.

 

This course will extend each student's knowledge and understanding of the educational possibilities of top-roped rock climbing in New Zealand. Through the course students will critically analyze the literature relevant to top-roped rock climbing and use this analysis to plan, implement and evaluate a rock climbing experience which incorporates contemporary approaches to outdoor education and is supported by the New Zealand Curriculum. The technical and legal aspects of safety and risk are explored and students develop skills in establishing educational and safe rock climbing experiences. Through field trips to climbing areas in the Port Hills/ Nga Kohatu Whakarekareka o Tamatea Pokai Whenua, students learn about the importance of place to climbers and the significance to Tangata Whenua.

This course introduces methods which are necessary for success in sports. It covers major training methods, so students can understand the essential relationship between psychic (psycho-motor), mental, and bodily training. The course looks at the crucial differences between Japanese and German training practices. The instructor will also give advice about correcting problems such as excessive or monotone training practices that students might have conducted since childhood; training practices that are a waste of time; underestimation of the effects of mental training, and ignorance of necessary psycho-motor ability in training.

This course is designed for both international and Japanese students who are interested in the cultures of sports, health, and longevity in Japan and other countries.  The goal of this course is for students to learn how to participate in and enjoy sports as a way of becoming healthy and increasing longevity in their own lives.
 

The course will be taught not as a series of lectures but through student presentations and peer-review based evaluations and suggestions.

This course provides students with an overview of the major developments in the depiction of sport in film. Considering fiction, documentary, and newsreels, the course explore the diverse ways different cultures have depicted sport in film.

Physiology is the science of studying the function and mechanism of living bodies. This course introduces the relationship between physiology and human health in the form of classes. It aims to make students master the law of life activities and maintain physical and mental health by teaching the physiological functions of blood, circulation, respiration, urinary, digestion and nervous system. This course systematically introduces the basic knowledge of the physiology, from micro to macro. While discussing the basic rule of higher animal life activities as well as the importance of human health, the course examines important discoveries in the history of the development of physiology and embodied in the process of scientific thought, the concept of innovation, and dedication to science. Students not only get the physiology knowledge theory, value, and know their own physical and mental health, but also increase their scientific thought and scientific spirit.

This course covers the changing concept of health and discusses comprehensive information about health and exercise (physical fitness, adult diseases, nutrients, stress, smoking, drinking and fatigue). Topics include personal well-being for a healthy life; nutrition and health; cardiovascular fitness and health; metabolic fitness and health; muscles, nerves, skeletal physical strength and health; exercise and healthy aging; muscle strength; and muscular endurance. 

An introduction to the principles and practice of exercise science, including common and relevant myths or misconceptions. It introduces exercise science and its disciplines (e.g., biomechanics) partly by considering common myths, misconceptions, and students' understanding of these. For example, what actually is exercise or fitness? Is exercise training necessary for fitness, and is fitness necessarily improved from training? What constitutes resistance or endurance exercise, and why do they improve fitness for health, work, or sport? Do training aids such as sports drinks really aid fitness or performance? Does practice improve skill? How much practice, and what type? How would you know such things or test them yourself? Cultural and environmental contexts are also addressed.