Comparison of the Reactive Agility and Preplanned Change of Direction Abilities of the Elite and Sub Elite Young Karate Players

The purpose of this study was to compare elite and sub-elite young karate players’ reactive agility and preplanned change of direction abilities regulated considering their punches. Thirteen elite (age: 14.92±1.65 height:157.53±9.07cm, weight: 52.92±9.86kg) and 10sub-elite (age: 13.50±0.52, height:153.00±7.22cm, weight: 54.40±9.93kg) young karate players participated in the current study. Four infrared sensors were placed on four different points of the sandbag for the purpose of determining reactive agilities of the players during their punching. Led light was present on the sensors. One of these sensors was turned on by the researcher by being triggered. The player punched under the sensor for becoming active, the sensor detected the punch when it was thrown out and it triggered on another sensor. As the player turned off four led lights in total, the test ended. The player did not know which sensor became active in this test. A different course was set for each player. In preplanned change of direction test, the players knew which sensor will be triggered respectively. With the start, when punches were thrown out under four led lights respectively, the test ended. Independent variable t-test was used for comparing the results of two tests among the groups. Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between the tests. As a consequence of the study, the reactive agility values of the elite players were statistically lower (2.567±0.50 sec. vs. 3.469±0.77sec. p<0.05) while a meaningful difference was not found between their preplanned change of direction. In addition, there was high positive correlation between two tests (r= 0.874, p<0.05). In conclusion, it was suggested that reactive agility exercises should be included in trainings of the martial sports