Normative study of some biomotor abilities of 10-14 age group taekwondo athletes

Possession of physical abilities such as anthropometric and physiological skills is a prerequisite for success in any competition or tournament. Branch-specific biomotor abilities are one of the factors affecting athlete performance. Normative data are needed in order to achieve certain goals and to prepare an accurate and effective training program. In this context, it is aimed to guide the trainers and sports personnel who will make the selection of athletes by determining the norms of them in the Turkish taekwondo and to contribute to the studies on this subject. For this purpose, the normative study of 650 athletes, who do taekwondo and have a blue belt and above belt degree in Turkey, was conducted between January 2020 and March 2020. Height, body weight, body mass index, 20m sprint, squat jump, active jump, free arm jump, right and left hand grip strength, medicine ball throw, trunk curl test and branch-specific technical strokes of the athletes in the study group were measured and norms were determined by considering the mean, standard deviation and percentage values of the variables examined for the determined age categories and genders. In addition, the athletes were compared according to gender, age groups and belts, and similarities and differences were revealed. When the anthropometric skills were examined by age, no difference was found in other features, except for sitting height, however, when the biomotor abilities were compared according to gender, all parameters were observed statistically significant, except balance and 10m-20m speed parameters. While a difference was observed in favor of boys in other parameters except elasticity, a significant difference was found in favor of girls in the flexibility parameter. When Taekwondo strokes were compared according to gender, a statistically significant difference was found in favor of males in other parameters except the right push chagi technique.