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Summary Objectives The aim of this critical review was to discuss performance analysis characteristics and particular physiological demands related to karate kata and kumite . News The intermittent nature of karate has been revealed via kumite 's time-motion analysis, with a 1:1.5 effort-pause ratio during official competition. Karate combat is mainly dependent on the aerobic metabolism. However, decisive actions’ energy is provided by the anaerobic system. Concerning kata , it seems that the fraction of the energy supply is mainly a function of kata 's duration. The high-energy phosphate seems to be the major contributors while the aerobic energy system’ participation rises with the increased kata 's duration. Prospects and projects Future investigations in an ecologically valid environment are needed to support the findings presented in the current review. Conclusion Irrespective of karate's discipline, the aerobic system represents the main energy system, especially in longer kata . Kumite appears to demand much higher metabolic power than kata , regardless of gender, while kata appears to require more ATP-PCr energy system contribution than kumite . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Purpose The purposes of this study were to compare change of direction speed (CODS) performances between different age categories (i.e., U-10, U-12, U-13, and U-18) and to develop allometric exponents for scaling this quality. Material and method Data were gathered with the participation of 101 male soccer players (mean ± SD; age = 12.5 ± 2.9 years, mass = 44.4 ± 14.7 kg, height = 149.3 ± 17.7 cm, and leg length = 75.7 ± 13.1 cm). All players performed the Illinois change of direction speed test (ICDST). Results U-18 players achieved significantly better results in ICDST compared with the other groups, whereas U-10 players had the lowest performances (F = 48.78, P < 0.0001). In regards to U-12 and U-13 soccer players, no significant differences were established between them ( P > 0.05). The ICDST performances were significantly associated with body mass ( r = −0.58; P < 0.0001), height ( r = −0.75; P < 0.0001) and leg length ( r = −0.75; P < 0.0001). No correlations between allometrically scaled ICDST performance and anthropometric measures were observed (all P > 0.05), indicating the effectiveness of allometric exponents in partialing out the effect of anthropometric measures on ICDST's compared to ratio scaling. Conclusion Results indicated differences in CODS performance among soccer players of different age categories. These results demonstrated that developing allometric exponents are effective in controlling for anthropometric measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]