2021, Volume 17
Specific muscle coordination patterns of taekwondo roundhouse kick in athletes and non-athletes
Yuho Jeon1, Yushin Kim1, Yongseok Ji1
1Major of sports Health Rehabilitation, Cheongju University, Cheongju, South Korea
Author for correspondence: Yushin Kim; Major of sports Health Rehabilitation, Cheongju University, Cheongju, South Korea; email: kimy@cju.ac.kr
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Abstract
Background and Study Aim: Muscle coordination is defined as the distribution of muscle activation among individual muscles to produce functionally significant movements. To represent muscle coordination patterns during functional movements, muscle synergy is analysed using a non-negative matrix factorization algorithm that decomposes electromyography (EMG) signals into fixed and time-varying components This study aims is knowledge about specific muscle coordination patterns for roundhouse kick in taekwondo athletes.
Material and Methods: Eleven athletes and 11 non-athletes participated in this study. To identify muscle coordination patterns, muscle synergies are analysed based on synchronized electromyography (EMG) data with 3D motion captures. Furthermore, clustering analysis is conducted to categorize similar muscle synergies during roundhouse kick in all participants.
Results: As expected, the execution times of the roundhouse kick in the athletes was significantly faster and those of non-athletes. Specifically, the athletes demonstrate an additional co-activation of plantar flexor on the dominant (kicking) leg in the toe-off phase. In the knee flexion phase, the non-athletes demonstrate an extensive co-activation of the dominant leg muscles. In the impact phase, the athletes demonstrate a co-activation of the dominant knee extensors and hip abductor, whereas the non-athletes demonstrate a relatively extensive co-activation of the non-dominant (supporting) leg muscles.
Conclusions: This investigation provides specific strategies of muscle coordination patterns for the roundhouse kick in taekwondo. Our findings provide beneficial information pertaining to specific muscle coordination patterns in athletes, thereby facilitating the development of training strategies for roundhouse kick.
Key words: technique, muscle synergy, elite athlete