A Mechanical Power Calculation for Different Kicks in Taekwondo Elite Athletes from Mexico City

Abstract

Taekwondo is a combat sport which mostly uses kicks to score points in combat settings. Athletes need to perform kicks with the optimal velocity and force; hence, mechanical power is a variable that uses both and could give an insight to subjects lower leg power. The objective is to calculate mechanical power from biomechanical parameters obtain in different kicks. We measure five elite subjects with an age range between 17 and 20 years old, we used AMTI force plates and Vicon photogrammetry system to measure the kicks given to a PunchSensor placed in a structure. Data was processed in Nexus, Visual3D and MATLAB in order to obtain mechanical power using P=F*v. Results show that lateral kicks are the ones that generate higher power (11500.11 W), followed by the frontal (4052.39 W) and finally the descendent (3061.56 W), also we notice that the height of the kick influence in the mechanical power generated (i.e., 4594.30 W frontal kick to the torso, 3510.48 W frontal kick to head); finally, to the lateral (1639.02 W lateral kick with right leg, 1506.71 lateral kick with left leg) and descendent kicks the laterality of the leg also influence on the mechanical power generated.