C. FALCO ET AL.
can be observed that female taekwondo athletes also used more
attacking than counterattacking kicks and further more circular
than linear kicks or kicks with an initial spin. Moreover, kicks to
the chest were more common than kicks to the head. However,
the four weight categories differed significantly from each other
in; circular kicks, kicks to the chest, attacking kicks and total
kicks performed in the match. That is, the female heavyweight
category also preformed a higher number of actions compared to
their lighter weight counterparts. Moreover, the heavy and wel-
terweight categories developed a higher number of attacking
kicks than their counterparts of the featherweight category.
Similarly, the welterweight category performed a higher number
of attacking kicks than their counterparts of featherweight cate-
gory. The heavier weight divisions performed higher number of
circular kicks, kicks to the chest, than their lighter counterparts.
This is in contrast to what was observed in the male divisions,
where athletes’ behaviour and choice of kicking techniques
seem to be independent of weight categories.
These data reveal that the technical and tactical characteris-
tics of male and female competition are vastly different. These
findings implicate that male and female competitors should
train differently, at least during the tactical phase of training.
On the other hand it may also be suggested that female compe-
tition is to some extent predictable, as the choice of kicking
actions was observed to be highly dependent on weight division.
This level of predictability, from the tactical point of view
represents a disadvantage as the opponent can capitalize on that
information. It is suggested that coaches of female competitors
work on equipping their athletes with greater kicking repertoire
to reduce the predictability of their actions.
Although in many university level competition world class as
well as Olympic level athletes are competing, gathering data
from a Spanish University level competition represent a limita-
tion to the study. Limiting the population to those competing at
university level, limits the generalizability of the study. Another
limitation of the study is that player displacements were not
analyzed, nor the match conditions when a particular kick was
executed. It is still believed that these data can provide an in-
sight into the tactical traits of Taekwondo matches and consti-
tute a basis for future research.
In conclusion, male and female taekwondo athletes used
more circular kicks, followed by linear and with a previous spin,
and kicks to the chest were more used than kicks to the head as
well as attacking kicks were used more than counterattacking
kicks. It may be that in international high-level taekwondo
competitions and national contests (Heller et al., 1998; Santos
et al., 2011), effort is often interrupted by low-intensity move-
ments or inactivity. Therefore, athletes in these competitions
spend more time studying, approaching, and preparing a new
attack on their opponents than on executing attacks. More re-
search is warranted to better understand the dynamics of taek-
wondo matches across different countries as well as within
different levels of competition. Also, it is of importance to
study the type of attacking and counterattacking actions per-
formed in order to know the quality of the kicks developed and
how they relate to the tactical consideration based on when in
the match they are performed.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Catholic University of
Valencia (2011-007-002).
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