Emanuela Pierantozzi

Visual Search Strategy in Judo Fighters during the Execution of the First Grip

Visual search behaviour is believed to be very relevant for athlete performance, especially for sports requiring refined visuo-motor coordination skills. Modern coaches believe that optimal visuo-motor strategy may be part of advanced training programs. Gaze behaviour of expert and novice judo fighters was investigated while they were doing a real sport-specific task. The athletes were tested while they performed a first grip either in an attack or defence condition. The results showed that expert judo fighters use a search strategy involving fewer fixations of longer duration than their novice counterparts. Experts spent a greater percentage of their time fixating on lapel and face with respect to other areas of the scene. On the contrary, the most frequently fixed cue for novice group was the sleeve area. It can be concluded that experts orient their gaze in the middle of the scene, both in attack and in defence, in order to gather more information at once, perhaps using parafoveal vision.

Physiological responses and match analysis of muay thai fighting

This study was devised to measure certain physiological variables related to the energy requirement together with a match analysis during real Muay Thai matches. Twenty skilled male fighters were recruited and performed a laboratory incremental preliminary test to assess their maximum oxygen uptake and anaerobic threshold. They were then involved in real Muay Thai competitions. During matches heart rate (HR) and blood lactate (BLa) values were collected. Moreover, matches were filmed and analysed for subsequent determination of the techniques used. Differences between winners and losers were assessed. During matches HR was on average 178.9±0.3 bpm (i.e. close to the maximum level reached during the preliminary test), while BLa was 9.72±0.6 mmol•L-1. There was no difference in HR and BLa responses between winners and losers. Winners and losers used a similar number of techniques. However, the effectiveness of attacks was higher in winners. This investigation provides evidence that during Muay Thai the lactic anaerobic system is widely recruited and that the cardiovascular apparatus is highly stressed with no difference between winners and losers. Moreover, successful athletes use the same number of techniques as losers, although with greater effectiveness, thus indicating that the training strategy should aim at developing high technical skills.

Rule change and Olympic judo scores, penalties and match duration

Abstract In judo, between 2009 and 2013, many changes were added, especially after London 2012 Olympics to promote “positive” actions/score instead of “negative” actions/penalties. This study compared the total match duration, frequency of scores (ippon, wazari, yuko) and penalties (shido) between Rio 2016 and London 2012 (before and after rules change), considering weight categories and competition phases. Data from 470 male athletes and 307 female athletes who disputed, respectively, 1022 and 698 matches in both Olympic Games were analysed. Three-way ANOVA was used to compare sexes, weight categories, Olympic Games edition, with Tukey test as post hoc. The association between Olympic Games edition and percentage of matches without any score was tested via Chi-square and Cramer’s – V effect size was used. Significance level was set at 5%. Eta squared (η2) was used as effect size. Results (Rio 2016 vs. London 2012) suggest in no change in ippon and wazari scores, while decreasing the number of yuko and increasing the number of penalties. Females scored more yuko and received less penalties than males. Females matches in Rio were shorter than matches for all other groups. For scores and penalties, no difference was found concerning weight categories, but half-heavyweight matches were shorter than lightweight ones.

Judo rules: searching for a wind of changes

Abstract After 2016, the International Judo Federation changed rules to promote the “positive” judo. This study compared two World Championships editions before and after the rules changes: Astana-2015 and Budapest-2017. Data from matches disputed in Astana (765) and Budapest (768) were analysed concerning: total match duration, frequency of scores and penalties, association between edition and extra-time, disqualifications and matches without penalties. Three-way ANOVA was used to compare sexes, weight categories and World Championships edition, with Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (LSD) test as post hoc. The associations between World Championships edition and matches finished in extra-time, disqualifications and matches without any score were tested via Chi-square. Results were: (a) no change in number of ippon when the same sex and weight category were considered across years; (b) number of waza-ari increased from Astana to Budapest; (c) number of penalties decreased from Astana to Budapest. Females in Budapest received less penalties than females in Astana and males in both competitions. Extra-lightweights received less penalties than lightweights upwards; heavyweights received more penalties than all other weight categories from middleweights downwards; (d) occurrence of extra-time and hansoku-make increased for females, males and all groups together; (e) males’ matches were longer than females ones. Thus, the new rules partially achieved the goal proposed.

Training methods and analysis of races of a top level Paralympic swimming athlete

Training methods for Paralympic swimmers must take into account different pathologies, competitions classes, athlete’s individual circumstances and peculiar physical adaptation mechanisms, hence general guidelines cannot be found in literature. In this study we present a training program, implemented for the physical preparation of a top level Paralympic swimmer. The athlete under study, affected by infantile cerebral palsy within a clinical picture of a spastic tetraparesis, by the end of 2016 was holder of Italian, European, world and Paralympic titles in the 400-m freestyle competition, S6 class. The training macrocycle was structured in a 3-fold periodization (three mesocycles), in view of the preparation to three international competitions. The 4-month training mesocycles prior to each competition differed substantially in terms of mileage load, intensity and recovery times. The first mesocycle was characterized by a sizeable low-intensity mileage load, the second one was shifted to lower mileage load, carried out at middle-to-high intensity levels, the third one entailed increased effort intensity, counterbalanced by lower mileage load. In all cases, recovery times were balanced to obtain optimized performance through physical adaptation to training stimuli, keeping into account the physiopatological response. Tapering phases were adjusted to maximize performance at competition. As an assessment of the effectiveness of the training method, correspondence between chronometric and technical parameters in the three competitions and the respective mesocycle training programs was found. The results of the present study may support the development of training guidelines for athletes affected by upper motor neuron lesions.

A Time-Motion Analysis of Lightweight Women’s Judo in the 2010 World Championships

The Olympic sport of judo has a growing base of performance analysis research considering the technical aspects, the tactical aspects and time motion analysis. This study aimed to further analyse this sport by specifically considering the time motion aspects of work, rest, kumi-kata and ne-waza in lightweight womens judo to establish if there are differences in this specific population of judo athletes. Pre-recorded footage of the womens u48kg, u52kg and u57kg weight divisions (143 contests) from the 2010 world judo championships were coded into temporal sequences. The coding of five KPIs across the three weight groups produced a total of 1756 hajime to matte blocks (work), 1422 matte to hajime blocks (rest), 1786 kumi-kata sequences (gripping sequences), and 516 ne-waza sequences (ground work). The results suggest the time spent in hajime to matte (work) and in matte to hajime (rest) are similar to those seen in other studies. This suggests there is little difference in the work to rest segments for lightweight womens judo compared to heavier weights and males.