Abstract
We aimed to compare the change in exercise response to taekwondo-specific circuit workouts before and after competition rule amendments. A total of 240 workouts in 15 elite athletes were analyzed over two years. Physiological and kinematic data were gathered with the wireless Bioharness system along with capillary blood samples for lactate concentration. Progressive exercise tests until exhaustion were periodically performed to obtain reference data. The rule changes resulted in significant increases (mainly medium or large effects) in the physiological (2.9–14.4%) and kinematic (4.8–10.1%) response to taekwondo-specific workouts. The largest increases were for peak breathing rate (12.0%), energy expenditure (6.6%), blood lactate immediately after exercise (10.2%) and at the 30th min of recovery (14.4%), and peak kinematic activity (10.1%). Significant differences between taekwondo-specific workouts and tournament combats persisted after the shift from old to new rules, ranging from 2.4 to 38.5% for physiological and from 2.9 to 15.5% for kinematic variables. The largest workout–combat differences were revealed for post-exercise (15.9%) and recovery (38.5%) blood lactate, peak (−15.8%) and relative (−15.0%) breathing rate, and mechanical (13.5%) and physiological (14.2%) intensity. Our study suggests that the rule amendments significantly modify the exercise response to discipline-specific workouts and that taekwondo-specific training sessions do not fully recreate the tournament demands in terms of physiological and kinematic load.
Highlights
Sports rules are amended to strengthen the ethos of a sport discipline, adapt it to capabilities and needs of specific groups, attract spectators, respond to media pressure and interest, recruit athletes, or improve sports performance [1,2]
Our study suggests that the rule amendments significantly modify the exercise response to discipline-specific workouts and that taekwondo-specific training sessions do not fully recreate the tournament demands in terms of physiological and kinematic load
Exceptions were a decrease in oxygen uptake at the ventilatory threshold in males and increases in weight and absolute lean body mass in the combined group
Summary
Sports rules are amended to strengthen the ethos of a sport discipline, adapt it to capabilities and needs of specific groups, attract spectators, respond to media pressure and interest, recruit athletes, or improve sports performance [1,2]. To achieve these goals, structural (space, time, equipment), functional (athletes’ behavior, obligations, rights, prohibitions, penalties), and other rules are being modified [1]. World Taekwondo incorporated modern technology into the discipline, i.e., the Protector Scoring System (PSS), the instant Video Replay System (VRS), and relevant competition rule changes [12,13,14,15,16].
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