Tactical Analysis of the Winners' and Non-Winners' Performances in a Taekwondo University Championship

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify tactical characteristics of successful athletes who competed in a National University Championship. Results from the study allow taekwondo coaches and competitors to orient their training towards evidence-based practice to achieve success in competitions. Overall, taekwondo athletes performed more attacks than counterattacks. However, winners performed more counterattacks than non-winners. Moreover, winners performed more anticipatory counterattacks (ANC) and less indirect attacks (INA) than non-winners. Lastly, the order of the performance of the actions for non-winners was by decreasing frequency direct attack (DIA), INA, posterior counterattack (POC), simultaneous counterattack (SIC) and ANC, while for winners the order for most to least frequent action was DIA, INA and POC, followed by SIC and ANC. In conclusion, taekwondo athletes need to focus their trainings on both attacks and counterattacks, with its order of importance being: 1) DIA; 2) INA and POC; and 3) ANC and SIC; to increase the level of their tactical behaviour.