Determination of elite performance characteristics specific to athletic skills, anthropometric characteristics and motor competencies of combat athletes

In the study, it was aimed to determine how and in which parameters elite and non-elite combat athletes differ in terms of athletic skills, anthropometric characteristics and motor competencies. The research group consists of male and female athletes between the ages of 12-17 who are licensed in taekwondo, karate, judo and wrestling branches. The elite group is defined as the athletes in the Turkish National Teams in their own branch, and the non-elite group is defined as the athletes in the local leagues. At this point, a total of 70 athletes, 21 elite and 49 non-elite athletes, participated in the research voluntarily. Anthropometric measurements (height, sitting height, body weight and body fat percentage), athletic skill tests (hand grip strength, 20 meters speed, pro-agility, counter movement jump (CMJ), Sport-Specific Core Muscle Strength and Stability Plank, medicine ball shooting and modified sit and reach tests) and motor proficiency test (KTK test) were applied in determining the elite performance elements of the groups. In order to determine whether the research data were normally distributed, kurtosis and skewness values were examined. Also, the homogeneity of variances was checked with Levene's test. While parametric tests were applied to the data that met all these conditions, non-parametric tests were applied to the data that did not meet the conditions. In this case, in the comparison of binary groups; Independent samples T-test from parametric tests and Mann Whitney-U test from non-parametric tests were used. Finally, Cohen's d statistics were used in the T-test analysis to calculate the strength of the relationship between the variables in the designs of the tests with significant differences. In the Mann Whitney-U analysis, Cohen's r statistics were used to calculate the strength of the relationship between the variables. As a result of the comparison of elite and non-elite athlete groups in terms of height, sitting height, body weight, speed, core endurance, grip strength, upper extremity strength, anaerobic power, KTK side jump and jump values, statistically significant differences were found in favor of the elite group (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of fat percentage, BMI, agility, vertical jump, flexibility, lateral carrying and walking back (p>0.05). As a result, there seem to be important distinctions between athletes who reached the national peak and those who did not, in terms of height, sitting height, body weight, speed, anaerobic power, grip, upper extremity and core strength, as well as motor proficiency related to anaerobic power. Key words: Athletic skills, anthropometric characteristics, motor competency, combat athletes.