The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of taekwondo training on leg strength and balance ability. The participants were 20 trainees who were training on taekwondo over 1 year and 20 non-trainees. Both groups were attending at an elementa...
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of taekwondo training on leg strength and balance ability. The participants were 20 trainees who were training on taekwondo over 1 year and 20 non-trainees. Both groups were attending at an elementary school. The training group was asked to practice taekwondo for 8 weeks, while the non-training group practiced health-related physical fitness for the same period. After practicing, the muscular strength of knee joints in their legs and the balance ability including closed-eyes foot and Berg balance ability were tested.
1. Compared taekwondo trainees with non-trainees over time, only their left muscular values showed a relative difference at 60 deg/sec angular speeds of the lower extensor muscles during first 4 weeks. During 4 to 8 weeks, their right and left legs showed a different strength as increasing of their exercise time(p<.05).
2. No side of their legs had any relative difference at 60 deg/sec angular speeds of flexor muscles during first 4 weeks. However, their right and left legs showed the same results as extensor muscles during 4 to 8 weeks(p<.05).
3. There was no difference between right and left average strength at 60 deg/sec angular speeds of the lower extensor muscles during first 4 weeks. Also, their right and left legs didn't show any different strength as increasing of their exercise time during 4 to 8 weeks.
4. During first 4 weeks, their right flexor muscles showed a difference at 180 deg/sec angular speeds (p<.05), while their left sides didn't show any difference. During 4 to 8 weeks, only left legs showed a different strength as increasing of exercise time(p<.05)
5. In the closed-eyes foot balance, it showed that the growing children's cognitive ability allowed improving their balance ability over exercise time during both periods. Compared between taekwondo trainees and non-trainees, their left foot showed a difference during not 4 to 8 weeks, but first 4 weeks.
6. Results of the Berg balance test indicated that their cognitive and balance ability didn't have any significant difference between taekwondo trainees and non-trainees during both periods.
Those results showed that it was effective to train the leg strength over exercise time, and that taekwondo trainees had a higher extensor and flexor strength compared to non-trainees during pre-and post-exercise. In their closed-eyes foot balance, it wasn't the training group but the non-training group that showed improving their balance ability. There was no significant difference during pre-and post-exercise. The Berg balance test appeared to be inappropriate for this study, because it was mainly for aged persons. Nonetheless, their balance ability improved as increasing of their exercise time.