The Effectiveness of High-Intensity Interval Training on Specific Endurance and Technical Performance of Pencak Silat Athletes

Abstract

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the HIIT protocol on the specific endurance capacity of pencak silat athletes and its contribution to technical performance during match simulations. The experimental procedure with the one-group pretest-posttest design was applied in this study. A total of 13 pencak silat athletes at Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta with weight and age criteria were willing to participate in this study. All subjects completed the punch and kick endurance test procedure for 30 s with a 1-min rest break for three sets. Technical performance data was collected by recording each technique performed in a simulated pencak silat match (2 min × 3 rounds). The t-test and Pearson correlation test were used to analyze the data with the help of SPSS software. The results show that the mean ± SD of specific resistance value (10.9 ± 13.9) increased by 10.96 with a significance value of p = 0.01 from pre-test to posttest. Technical performance (3.53 ± 3.45) increased by 3.54 between the two match simulations with a significance value of p = 0.003. In addition, the correlation test results show that the specific endurance capacity contributed 0.26 to the technical performance in the match simulation. Thus, the HIIT program has proven effective as a training method to improve specific endurance and technical performance of pencak silat athletes in the fight category. HIIT with a special design can be recommended as a new training model for pencak silat athletes.