The Impact of Age, Gender and Technical Experience on Three Motor Coordination Skills in Children Practicing Taekwondo.

Stefanos Boutios,Panagiotis Daniilidis,Andrea Buonsenso,Giovanni Fiorilli,Marco Centorbi,Mariano Intrieri,Alessandra Di Cagno

doi:10.3390/ijerph18115998

Abstract

The study aim was to investigate the age, gender and technical level on motor coordination abilities of Taekwondo children. One hundred and fifteen children (83 male, 32 female), aged 7.76 ± 1.71 years, divided in three different groups, under 8 (5–7 years), under 10 (8–9 years) and under 12 (10–11 years), underwent three coordination skills tests: the ruler drop test (RDT), assessing visual reaction time, the hexagonal test (HT), assessing agility, and the target kick test (TKT), assessing kicking ability. MANOVA showed significant gender differences for TKT, in which females showed higher scores than males (p = 0.033). Significant differences were found in HT and TKT, where the under 12 group showed higher scores than younger athletes (p < 0.001). No differences amongst different age groups were found in RDT, showing that this could be a good predictor of Taekwondo performance, assessed at an early stage. High-level athletes showed better scores in all the tests than the low levels, as it was expected. Coordinative performance improves with age and is positively influenced by practicing a sports activity. The predisposition to a particular sport with a well-planned training may lead to a motor proficiency comparable to that reached by older athletes and better than same-age athletes.

Highlights

IntroductionChildhood is the critical time for learning and strengthening the fundamental motor skills, considering that motor skill proficiency is positively associated with health, fitness and academic outcomes [1]
The multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test showed significant differences for age in the hexagonal test (F = 15.644; df = 2; p < 0.001), where the under 12 group showed a lower time of execution than both the under 8 (p < 0.001) and under 10 groups (p = 0.038) and the under
While the conditional profile of Taekwondo athletes is widely documented, little or nothing was published in sports studies on motor coordination, especially related to young athletes

Summary

Introduction

Childhood is the critical time for learning and strengthening the fundamental motor skills, considering that motor skill proficiency is positively associated with health, fitness and academic outcomes [1]. The acquisition of coordination and motor competence is achieved through maturation, and through continuous interaction with a stimulating and supportive social and physical environment. The practice of taekwondo provides improvement in physical condition [2,3], good neuromuscular coordination and balance, harmony in movements [4,5] and learning of fighting skills. The development of neuromuscular coordination is a prerequisite for learning, refinement, stabilization and application of Taekwondo skills and the relative execution techniques [6,7]. High-level competitors in this sport are focusing on their coordination improvement, which could increase training effectiveness for their competence [8]

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