Comparison of Kinanthropometric Profiles of Elite Turkish Taekwondo Players With or Without Medals in European Championships

Abstract

This study aims to determine the possible differences anthropometric characteristics and body composition profiles of elite taekwondo players with or without medals in European championships. Twenty-one black-belt elite taekwondo athletes (17.4±1.2 years) from the Turkish national team were divided into two groups, namely, medalists (MEC; n =11) and non-medalists (NmEC; n=10) in European championships. Twenty-eight anthropometric measurements including height, body mass, length, circumferences, breadth, and skinfolds were taken following the standard techniques proposed by the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK). Body composition variables were evaluated by using skinfold thickness measurements. Results demonstrated that anthropometric and body composition, variables did not differ significantly between medalist and non-medalist taekwondo players (p>0.01). Our athletes have a low percentage of body fat and high muscle mass profile. Medalist and non-medalist elite Turkish taekwondo players in the European championships do not differ in terms of anthropometric and body composition components. They have a similar body composition profile suitable for taekwondo players and within acceptable healthy ranges. The present study assists coaches in the formulation of appropriate training programs aiming the development for managing the body composition status of players, which will be associated with high-level performance in taekwondo. Future studies should include body composition and somatotype profile inspection throughout the weight categories.

Anthropometric Profile of Elite Male and Female Cadet Taekwondo Competitors

“…Markovic et al (2005) observed almost identical (15.3%) values of fat tissue percentage in the total body mass in "A category" athletes and defined them as "top-quality female taekwondo competitors", while in "B category", in female competitors who had not won medals until that moment, significantly higher values of the percentage of fat tissue were observed (17,6%). Similar results were observed by Agopyan et al (2022) in males. They observed similar values of the proportion of fat tissue in the total body mass in competitors who won medals, while in competitors who did not, they noticed slightly higher values (11.43%).…”

Maturity Status and Relative Age of Elite Taekwondo Youth Competitors—Case Study on Croatian National Team

“…When compared to senior elite taekwondo athletes [ 29 ], the Croatian national junior team has lower values of BMI, both male and female. Therefore, body composition variables could serve as an auxiliary factor in determining the quality of taekwondo athletes, but certainly not as a decisive factor, based on previous research [ 3 ]. What could also be helpful in talent recognition of elite taekwondo athletes is the session-RPE (subjective ratings of perceived exertion) and physiological measurements [ 2 ].…”

“…The researchers state that the selection of taekwondo elite athletes should rely on sport-specific tailored physical tests, integrating the relative information with that gathered from physiological measurements [ 2 ]. Although it is crucial to test these characteristics, research has shown that medalist and non-medalist elite taekwondo athletes in the European championships do not differ in terms of anthropometric and body-composition components and have a similar profile [ 3 ]. As with previous ones, other studies have also investigated body composition in elite taekwondo athletes [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ], but only a few of them were conducted based on weight categories [ 8 , 9 , 10 ].…”

Monitoring of morphological and functional indicators of taekwondo athletes aged 14–15 years

“…In WTF taekwondo, indicators of morphological and functional features are partly related to weight categories; however, in the same weight category, athletes with different body lengths can succeed. A body mass index of about 21 kg/m 2 for men is associated with the performance of highly skilled taekwondo athletes (Agopyan et al,2022;Bridge et al, 2014;Cular et al, 2021). The absolute values of anthropometric measurements of body length, body weight, body fat percentage, and body mass index in elite and non-elite athletes indicate that elite athletes tend to be taller and leaner than nonelite athletes (Norjali et al, 2019).…”