The Impact of Effective Mass on the Strength of Side and Turning Kick in Taekwon-Do Male Practitioners

Abstract

Background: One of the elements of improving the striking power of combat sports athletes is the ability to use their body mass in an efficient manner; this can improve movement technique and thus increase combat effectiveness. Therefore, the aim of this study was to gain knowledge about the influence of the effective mass obtained on the strength of turning and side kicks in the context of lateralization. Material and methods: The study involved four adult taekwon-do ITF (International Taekwon-do Federation) competitors. Acceleration and force data were obtained by mounting a wireless IMU sensor manufactured by Noraxon, which was synchronized with a force plate. Results: The median force pressure values amounted to 2661.53 N for the turning kick and 4596.15 N for the side kick, with foot acceleration of 150.56 m/s2 and 74.34 m/s2, respectively. The calculated median effective mass for the turning kick was 20.12%, and for the side kick, it was 73.09% of the total body mass. The conducted analysis indicates a lack of statistically significant differences between the right and left leg in the obtained kinetic variable values (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Our research suggests that the side kick achieves, on average, higher force values than the turning kick. The noted correlation between the three variables informs us that the greater the effective mass, the greater the force pressure and the smaller the foot acceleration, which is consistent with other studies. The lack of lateralization in the limbs performing the kicks is consistent with another study.