Improving the Efficiency of Martial Arts by Studying the Fighting Techniques’ Biomechanics

Abstract

Considering that we live in a world where the number of aggressions is steadily increasing, it is becoming increasingly necessary to improve self-defense techniques that allow us to keep up with the existing threats. One way to achieve this goal is to study the biomechanics of the martial arts techniques. The present paper presents a comparative study on how to make Krav-Maga and Karate-Do martial arts techniques more effective, this being an extension of the results obtained by the authors and published in previous studies. Starting from the hypothesis that plantar pressure is a factor that can indicate the efficiency of a stroke in techniques which are characteristic of martial arts, it was intended to correlate it with the position of the executant, a position which influences the value of the punching and kicking speed. In order to verify this hypothesis, there were studied three types of techniques from the two martial arts, seven repetitions of each type. Techniques were studied both at the beginning of the training and after correcting the position of the athlete, this being possible after sustained training. The obtained results confirmed the hypothesis from which the study started, this fact leading to better efficiency of the studied techniques. It is obvious that the presented method can also be used in other martial arts, the performance of executants being greatly improved.