Теchnico-tactical actions of elite sabre fencers under different conditions of bout

Abstract

The indices of competitive activity and techno-tactical arsenal of fenceres are considered. In order to analyze the competitive activity indices of athletes, videotapes of final sabre bouts at the 2014 World Championship and the 2016 World Cup were used. Before the 2016 World Cup final, changes were made to the rules of the competition, namely, the time for blocking the hit was changed from 125 ms to 175 ms, and the starting distance was shortened from 4 m to 3 m. The article presents the results of the comparative analysis of the groups of combat actions and the types of attacks of sabre fencers in final bouts, which were conducted before and after the alteration of the competition rules. Objective. To study the competitive activity of fencers in conditions of changed competition rules. Меthods. Аnalysis and generalization, methods of mathematical statistics. Results. Studies have shown that attacks were the most used in sabre fencing, although the hallmark of the final competitions in 2016 was a slight decrease in the number of attacking actions, with a significant increase of their effectiveness. Counter attacks had significantly less value both in volume and efficiency, whereas protection-responses in terms of volume prevailed in counter attacks, but were significantly inferior to attacks. It is established that in spite of the large arsenal of attacking actions in highly skilled fencers the most widely used in competitions are simple attacks. Due to high risk of getting outscoring thrust, fencers used predominantly simple attacks that are faster in comparison to complex attacks and less risky with respect to outscoring counter-attacks. It is shown that after the introduction of changes in competition rules there is a tendency of increasing complex attacks. The dynamics of bouts, the volume and the magnitude of the pace of simple attacking actions, indices of the intensity of the distance fight have decreased. The number of unsuccessful double attacks in the middle of the fencing track has significantly reduced. It is assumed that the reason for the detected changes were the innovations in the rules of sabre fencing competitions.