Search

In this meta-analysis we explored whether Taekwondo practice has improved its participants' physical self-concepts. We also tested the mediating influence of factors in past research such as country, participant age, and measurement properties in their associations with these taekwondo effects. We reviewed extensive data collected from Chinese, English and Korean participants in articles listed in Cnki, Wanfang, PubMed, Web of Science, KISS, RISS, and DBPIA databases. First, we evaluated the methodological quality of these published articles with Review Manager 5.4 software according to the Cochrane System Evaluation Manual. Then, we used Comprehensive Meta-Analysis 3.7 software for statistical analysis. We based these analyses on nine research studies containing a total of 1154 participants. We found a significant association between taekwondo activity and an improved body self-concept (ES =.688, p <.001). Subgroup analyses showed a stronger association between these variables in Korea (ES =.90, p <.001) than in China (ES =.34, p <.001), a stronger association for children (ES = 1.04, p <.001) compared to adults (ES =.46, p <.001), and a stronger association with the modified version of the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ) (ES =.99, p <.001) than with the original PSDQ (ES =.57, p <.001). We concluded that practicing Taekwondo led to improved physical self-concept, especially in a younger population. In addition, the experimental design and measurement methods may influence the apparent link between these variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience physical, social, and emotional barriers that impact participation in extracurricular activities, such as taekwondo. Engaging in taekwondo may provide opportunities for advancing social abilities as well as developing healthpromoting behaviors and routines. Therefore, the purpose of this feasibility study was to explore the effectiveness of using a form of martial arts, taekwondo, as an intervention to promote social participation in everyday life. Method: A mixed-methods design was used. Three children between 7 and 8 years of age who met the ASD criteria participated in a 7-week taekwondo program. The children engaged in interviews before and after the program. The parents completed the Autism Social Skills Profile-2 (ASSP-2) and completed pre and post interviews. Results: Four themes emerged from the qualitative data: social interactions, physical abilities, community barriers and supports, and intervention feasibility. Overall, the qualitative data highlighted the children's increased confidence with social interaction, interests in exploring activities, and program satisfaction. Although not statistically significant, the ASSP-2 scores increased for each child after participation in the program. Conclusion: This study suggests that taekwondo may promote self-confidence in social and physical abilities, leisure exploration, and participation in children with social interaction skills deficits [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taekwondo is a competitive sport event with strong antagonism. It is known as the world famous fighting sport, which originated from the Korean Peninsula. In Taekwondo competition, if you want to win, the most important thing is to be familiar with leg techniques. Therefore, in the daily training, the leg technique will be the focus of attention, which is also the difficult of training. In order to determine whether an athlete is good, index techniques are the most important. In this paper, the leg technique of domestic and foreign female Taekwondo athletes is contrasted. The results showed that China's women Taekwondo athletes are relatively poor in leg techniques, which does not have the strong defensive ability. They not only lack of difficult techniques, but also do not bring forth new ideas of the traditional technology. But at the international level, in order to win, the most important is the use of high difficult techniques. The author put forward some suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to identify the characteristics of Olympic medal winners (gold, silver, bronze) who competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and compare these characteristics to those who competed but did not earn medals. We have also descriptively analysed the 2008 data in comparison to the 2004 data (Kazemi et al., 2009), and 2000 data (Kazemi et al., 2006) and summarized changes that were identified. This study as well as the last two studies did not find any statistically significant differences between winners and non-winners with regards to average age, weight, height and BMI. There are, however, some trends that were observed. Female winners were slightly younger, shorter, with greater BMI's versus non-winners. There was a significant decrease in frequency of warnings from 2004 to 2008. Unlike 2004, the 2008 Olympic Taekwondo competitors used more defensive kicks to score. These suggest a shift from aggressive tactics to score to a more conservative one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]