Peak Performance in Elite Tae-kwon-do Athlete
Introduction
In 2008, Taekwondo became recognized as an official sport at the Begin Olympics. Taekwondo is a full contact free-sparring sport which awards points for head contact. Weight cycling is a term used to describe rapid weight loss following self-induced food limitation and/or dehydration. Both gradual (seasonal) and rapid (weekly) weight reduction cycles are used by athletes, and have been investigated for potential effects on nutrition and performance (Mohsen Heather,& Young ,2005). These cycles are used in various sports such as judo, rowing, wrestling, and boxing in order to make a weight category. Like many of these sports, Taekwondo consists of repeated-effort, high intensity physical demands. Although the World Taekwondo Federation has eight distinct weight classes per gender for all competitions and championships except for the Olympic Games, no rulings have been implemented to address weight cycling in the sport (Mohsen, Heather, & Young , 2005).Overtraining syndrome is a neuroendocrine disorder characterized by poor performance in competition, inability to maintain training loads, persistent fatigue, reduced catecholamine excretion, frequent illness, disturbed sleep and alterations in mood state(MacKinnon, 2000).
Peak performance
Sport training is important even for excellent athletes. Only when their cardio respiratory function, energy expenditure and blood lactate system are well controlled can they show potential and maintain high performance. This is very important to both coaches and athletes (Hiroyuki et al., 1999). Peaking, or the ability of an athlete to perform at peak performance during the main competition or games of the year, is also related to strength training. Tae-kwon-do became recognized as an official sport at the Sydney and Athens Olympics in 2000 and 2004. It is a full contact free-sparring sport which awards point for head contact and tae-kwon-Do competition with 3 rounds (3 min per round), and a 1-min break between every round, the score determines who is the winner.
The improvement of aerobic and anaerobic capacity, speed, muscle strength, recovery and neuromuscular coordination are the main targets of sport science training. However, it is well known that physical conditioning and aerobic capacity in particular, depend upon 4 important elements: maximal oxygen consumption, anaerobic threshold, work economy and recovery (Howley et al.,1995; Hoff, Wisloff et al., 2002).
To maintain good performance throughout the competitive phase this physiological base must be maintained (Bompa, 1999). The determination of physiological variables such as the anaerobic threshold (AT) and maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) through incremental exercise testing, and the relevance of these variables to endurance performance, is a major requirement for coaches and athletes (Bentley et al.,2001) Therefore, prolonged bouts of strenuous exercise cause a temporary depression of various aspects of immune function (e.g., neutrophil respiratory burst, lymphocyte proliferation, monocyte antigen presentation) that usually lasts approximately 3-24 h after exercise, depending on the intensity and duration of the exercise bout(Gleeson, 2007). Post-exercise immune function depression is most pronounced when exercise is continuous, prolonged, of moderate to high intensity and performed without food intake (Gleeson, 2006).
Conclusions
Therefore, it is well known that physical conditioning and aerobic capacity in particular, depend upon 4 important elements: maximal oxygen consumption, anaerobic threshold, work economy and recovery (Howley et al.,1995; Hoff, Wisloff et al., 2002). Sport training is important even for excellent athletes. Only when their cardio respiratory function, energy expenditure and blood lactate system are well controlled can they show potential and maintain high performance. This is very important to both coaches and athletes (Hiroyuki et al., 1999). Peaking, or the ability of an athlete to perform at peak performance during the main competition or games of the year, is also related to strength training. Periods of intensified training that result in overreaching have been shown to chronically depress immune-function, with leukocyte functions measured at rest still depressed 24 h after the last exercise bout (Gleeson, 2006). Although elite athletes are not clinically immune deficient, it is possible that the combined effects of small changes in several immune parameters may compromise resistance to common minor illnesses, such as upper respiratory tract infection(Gleeson, 2007).
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