Nutrition in Combat Sports

266 W. Pieter
Table 15.1 Max VO (ml.kg 2
-1 .min -1 ) in taekwondo athletes
Study/level Males Females
Taaffe and Pieter [18] – elite 55.8 47.0
Thompson and Vineuza [24] – recreational
44.0 –
Núñez and Iglesias [28] – elite 59.3 47.4
Drabik [27] – elite 60.7 –
Hong [26] – elite 59.6 –
Heller et al. [12] – elite 53.9 41.6
Toskovic et al. [23] – recreational
Lee [15] – level not indicated
58.9 50.5
Lightweight 57.7 –
Middleweight 59.6 –
Heavyweight 53.4 –
Erie et al. [29] – recreational 49.0 39.5
Heller et al. [12] indicated that taekwondo practitioners tended to show high
anaerobic capability relative to body mass, which was also reported by Taaffe and
Pieter [18] . Melhim [30] concluded that taekwondo may be used to improve anaerobic
power and capacity.
Flexibility, strength, speed, and reaction time are more important to taekwondo
practitioners according to Heller et al. [12] , which was also suggested by Thompson
and Vinueza [24] . Pieter et al. [31] found that recreational taekwondo-in showed
higher values for isokinetic peak torque during knee flexion in both absolute and
relative terms compared to controls, as taekwondo practitioners need to be relatively
strong to prevent injuries to these muscles [32] . However, Pieter and Taaffe [32] did
not find the hamstrings to be as strong as expected in elite senior male and female
taekwondo-in . Contrary to expectation, recent research did not reveal an interaction
between gender, leg extension/flexion, and angular velocity in absolute isokinetic
strength and relative to lean body mass [33] .
Heller et al. [12] reported that elite Czech taekwondo-in were more flexible and
had higher explosive leg power than their sedentary counterparts. Thompson and
Venueza [24] also found that recreational taekwondo-in were more flexible than sedentary
individuals and had more muscular endurance. Suzana and Pieter [34] revealed
that general motor abilities, such as flexibility, explosive power and muscular endurance,
tended to improve over time as a result of training, while Markovi et al. [19]
reported higher explosive power in more successful female taekwondo-in .
The most often used kick in competition was found to be the roundhouse kick,
mostly executed with the back leg (e.g. [35] ), although Kong et al. [36] showed that
kicking with the leading leg was faster: 0.720 and 0.800 s with the front and back
legs, respectively. Performance time (reaction plus movement time) was investigated
by Sung et al. [37] in Korean elite male taekwondo-in . The roundhouse kick
to the midsection of the body with the back leg had a performance time of 0.645 s
and to the face, 0.666 s. Performance time for the axe kick was 0.921 s. American
female elite athletes had a performance time of 0.686 s for the back leg roundhouse
kick to the midsection of the body [38] .