Background: Kickboxing is a combat sport where athletes require constant supervision of a coach. The outbreak of the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has led to a crisis in many sectors, including sport. Global efforts to limit the spread of the pathogen resulted in temporary lockdowns that limited sporting activity, thus deteriorating athletes’ physical fitness. Methods: The participants included 20 kickboxers competing at the international level. Their physical fitness was evaluated based on the test developed by the International Committee on the Standardization of Physical Fitness Test (ICSPFT) and their body build was assessed using Tanita BC601 body composition monitor and a body height meter. Differences between physical fitness before the COVID-19 outbreak and during the pandemic after re-opening sports facilities were evaluated. Results: Temporary closing of sports clubs has led to the increase in body mass of the participants by 2.65 kg on average and significantly deteriorated physical fitness. Conclusions: Temporary closing of sports clubs and restrictions on physical activity aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19 caused a significant reduction in physical fitness and increased body mass of the participants. This is likely to cause worse performance in the nearest competitions and have a negative impact on the athletes’ health status and immunity to diseases.
Fencing is a combat sport whose form of direct confrontation involves hitting the opponent with a weapon. The purpose of the study was to determine the properties of body composition of female representatives of the Polish national fencing team. The study involved 11 female athletes of the Polish national fencing team. Their age was 16-22 years (19±2.32), body weight 52-78 kg (59.7±7.4), body height 158-183 cm (167.46±6.10) and the training experience 7.64±3.47 years. The reference group consisted of 153 students of Warsaw University of Technology (Poland). Twenty basic somatic characteristics were measured. The following indices were calculated: slenderness, Rohrer’s, BMI, Manouvrier’s, and pelvic-shoulder indices. Density of the body, total body fat, active tissue, the overall profile of body composition and internal proportions of the body were determined. Analysis of internal proportions of factors of the athletes’ body composition revealed significant differences in particular groups of features. The total size of the athletes’ bodies is due to less-than-average magnitude of the length and stoutness characteristics and a high magnitude of adiposity (M = 0.63) in the Polish female national team of fencers (sabre) calculated from the normalized values for the control group. The proportions of features within the analysed factors revealed a significant advantage of the length of the upper extremity over the lower one and a distinct advantage of forearm musculature. The specific profile of body composition of female athletes practising sabre fencing is most likely due to long-term effects of training as well as the system of selection of persons with specific somatic prerequisites developed in the course of many years of training practice.
Background and Study Aim. Psychology is a very important field of knowledge in every area of human life, and personality and temperament have a large impact on the quality of human life, including mental and physical health, and indirectly on the results achieved in elite sport. The purpose of the study was to verify the assumption that there are differences in the psychological profile of professional sportsman students depending on the gender and type of sports discipline.
Material and methods. The research covered athletes of both sexes belonging to academic sports clubs practicing volleyball, basketball and judo. The size of each of the six groups was 24 people. Standardized psychological tests were used to determine the levels of selected personality and temperamental traits: trait anxiety, neuroticism, extraversion, briskness, perseveration, sensory sensitivity, emotional reactivity, endurance, activity, and six components of aggressiveness: physical aggressiveness, verbal aggressiveness, indirect aggressiveness, negativism, suspiciousness, resentment, irritability, overall and guilty sense. Two-way analysis of variance (sex * sport) was used to assess the differences between the groups.
Results. Women showed higher trait anxiety, extraversion, perseveration, emotional reactivity results and lower physical aggressiveness levels compared to men. Basketball practitioners had the lowest levels of aggressiveness components, and the highest levels of briskness.
Conclusions. The results suggest that the psychological profile of women participating in competitive sports may account for a higher emotional cost than men in terms of competition and failure. This fact should be taken into account by the coaches of female sports teams. The differences between sports may be due to the different structure of the task.
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