IDO MOVEMENT FOR CULTURE

Aim. The aims of this study were to analyze time motion (non-fighting, fighting and stoppage phases) of cadet athletes according to their gender (male or female) and weight category (light, middle and heavy) participating in the 2014 World Cadet Taekwondo Championships.
Methods. The analysis included 4,535 phases by 80 athletes in 47 semi- and finals bouts in the first WTF World Cadet Taekwondo Championship. Kruskal Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests for pair comparisons were conducted to test the differences between the duration of activity phases (i.e. non-fighting, fighting and stoppage) in relation to weight category and gender.
Results. The results obtained show that females had longer fighting, non-fighting and stoppage phases than males. By weight category, heavyweight athletes engaged in longer non-fighting phases than lightweight fighters and longer stoppage phases than middleweight athletes. Heavyweight females had longer fighting phases than males, middleweight females had longer phases than males and lightweight females had longer phases than males (p ≤ 0.05).
Conclusions. The activity profile in taekwondo cadet competition was influenced by the competitors’ gender and weight category. Females had longer phases than males, while heavyweight athletes had longer non-fighting phases than the other weight categories and middleweights had shorter stoppage phases than heavyweights. These findings suggest the need for specific training for both genders in each weight category when planning training for cadet taekwondo competitors.