<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><bold><italic>Introduction.</italic></bold> The aim of the study is to analyse existing tests for assessing agility in combat sports and martial arts, as well as to develop new tests and to test their effectiveness.<bold><italic>Material and methods.</italic></bold> The study involved 16 athletes at various competitive levels specialising in hand-to-hand combat. It used the following methods: review of specialised literature along with policy and normative documents, an expert survey, testing, instrumental methods of assessing psychophysical capabilities, a pedagogical experiment, and methods of mathematical statistics.<bold><italic>Results.</italic></bold> The article clearly delineates the concepts of “agility” and “coordination”. It was found that most of the exercise tests recommended for assessing agility actually only evaluate coordination, without taking into account unexpected and unpredictable situations, which are the key components of agility. While some tests allow for the assessment of agility, they are based on motor actions which are non-specific for combat sports. Moreover, the use of computer-based techniques for studying the visual-motor reaction has proven to be ineffective for assessing agility in sports.<bold><italic>Conclusions.</italic></bold> The article proposed three variants of specialised tests for assessing agility in motor actions specific for hand-to-hand combat. According to the results of all the three tests, the programme proposed for the development of agility and coordination caused a significant improvement in the level of agility in six months.</abstract>

Introduction. The aim of the study is to analyse existing tests for assessing agility in combat sports and martial arts, as well as to develop new tests and to test their effectiveness.Material and methods. The study involved 16 athletes at various competitive levels specialising in hand-to-hand combat. It used the following methods: review of specialised literature along with policy and normative documents, an expert survey, testing, instrumental methods of assessing psychophysical capabilities, a pedagogical experiment, and methods of mathematical statistics.Results. The article clearly delineates the concepts of “agility” and “coordination”. It was found that most of the exercise tests recommended for assessing agility actually only evaluate coordination, without taking into account unexpected and unpredictable situations, which are the key components of agility. While some tests allow for the assessment of agility, they are based on motor actions which are non-specific for combat sports. Moreover, the use of computer-based techniques for studying the visual-motor reaction has proven to be ineffective for assessing agility in sports.Conclusions. The article proposed three variants of specialised tests for assessing agility in motor actions specific for hand-to-hand combat. According to the results of all the three tests, the programme proposed for the development of agility and coordination caused a significant improvement in the level of agility in six months.

Agility and Coordination Testing in Hand-to-Hand Combat Sports

National University of Ukraine on Physical Education and Sport

Department of History and Theory of Olympic Sports

Polish Journal of Sport and Tourism

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"Agility and Coordination Testing in Hand-to-Hand Combat Sports"}

Introduction. The aim of the study is to analyse existing tests for assessing agility in combat sports and martial arts, as well as to develop new tests and to...

Agility and Coordination Testing in Hand-to-Hand Combat Sports

Published Online: Dec 21, 2019

Page range: 7 - 13

Received: Feb 21, 2019

Accepted: Aug 19, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pjst-2019-0008

Keywords
agility, coordination, testing, hand-to-hand combat

© 2019 Vladimir Platonov et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Agility and Coordination Testing in Hand-to-Hand Combat Sports

Published Online: Dec 21, 2019

Page range: 7 - 13

Received: Feb 21, 2019

Accepted: Aug 19, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pjst-2019-0008

Keywordsagility, coordination, testing, hand-to-hand combat

© 2019 Vladimir Platonov et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
agility, coordination, testing, hand-to-hand combat