Predictive value of selected tests used to assess factors determining sports results of WTF taekwondo athletes

Since WTF (World Taekwondo Federation) taekwondo was introduced into the programme of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, it has been the subject of extensive scientific investigations, where one of the areas of interest is the identification of sports success factors. In sport the effectiveness of training is measured with the best possible results achieved in the most important competitions. There are a lot of different factors that determine success in taekwondo. A lot of researchers have been interested in defining them [1-14]. The identification of success factors in taekwondo is a significant element that directs the work of coaches and competitors. However, the selection and measurement of the above-mentioned factors is often quite random. The tests applied most frequently are popular field tests supported with specialist laboratory tests, e.g. physiological, biochemical, biomechanical or psychological tests on the basis of connections between these areas of science and the specificity of a given sport. The most important factors determining success in sport include body build, conditioning, technical and tactical skills, mental features and experience [15]. Information received from tests assessing such factors often enriches the knowledge concerning e.g. processes occurring in a body or mind of a competitor. However, it is rarely put into practice. It means that coaches or competitors are solely interested in what contributes to their successes or failures. From this point of view, it is useless to undergo expensive procedures that are not applied in practice. Therefore, a question arises as to whether a certain subset of trials or tests which competitors are subjected to can be reduced to a smaller subset without a significant loss of its informative value (in terms of determinants of successes or failures). If the answer to this question is positive, it will open the door to a discussion on the causes of this phenomenon in taekwondo (as far as selecting measurement tools and concepts of training and diagnosing is concerned). The aim of the present study was to estimate predictive value of selected tests used to assess factors determining very good sports results in WTF taekwondo.