The Comparison of Reaction Times in Competing Karate Athletes

Abstract

The aim of the research is to compare the reaction times of kata and kumite athletes participating in national and international competitions in karate. A total of 108 male competitive athletes, including 40 kata competition athletes between the ages of 18-32 and 68 kumite competition athletes between the ages of 18-29, participated in the research voluntarily. In the research, some physical characteristics of kata and kumite athletes and right-left hand visual and right-left hand auditory reaction time tests were performed. T-Test was applied to determine the difference between groups at the α=0.05 significance level in all independent groups. A statistically significant difference was detected in training age, height and right hand visual reactions (p<0.05) among male kata and kumite athletes participating in the competitions. It can be said that these differences are due to the differences in kata and kumite training methods.