2015, Volume 11
Weight distribution in karate stances: a comparison between experimental and postulated values
Vinicius Aguiar de Souza1, Fernanda Todeschini Viero2, Noe Gomes Borges Jr.2, Andre M. Marques3
1Tohoku University, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
2Department of Physical Education, Santa Catarina State University, Santa Catarina, Brazil
3Department of Econo, Federal University of Paraiba, Paraíba, Brazil
Author for correspondence: Vinicius Aguiar de Souza; Tohoku University, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; email: vinicius[at]m.tohoku.ac.jp
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Abstract
Background and Study Aim: Karate is a highly popular Japanese martial art that uses a variety of stances during its practice. These stances play a significant role in the effectiveness of the karate techniques. In this context, the objective of this study is to verify whether the weight distribution in these stances corroborates with the postulated values presented in the literature.
Material and Methods: The weight distribution on the lower limbs of three shotokan karate stances: back (kokutsu-dachi), front (zenkutsu-dachi), and horseman stance (kiba-dachi), were acquired by force plate for nine male black belts (age: mean 46.78 ±9.7 years; mass: 85.88 ±6.31 kg; height: 1.76 ±0.03 m; experience: 31.56 ±8.5 years). The weight distributions were statistically compared to the values presented in the literature by the bootstrap-t confidence interval method to test whether the experimental values differs from postulated values.
The results: The weight distributions for the three stances did not present a significant difference between the population mean and the postulated values in the weight distributions, at 0.05 of probability.
Conclusions: These results indicate that the experimental values for the weight distribution corroborate with empirical values postulated in the specialized literature.
Key words: weight distribution, Martial Arts, kokutsu-dachi, kiba-dachi, bootstrap-t confidence interval method, zenkutsu-dachi