The effect of fatigue on performance and landing mechanics of adolescence taekwondo players

Fatigue as one of the physiological factors can affect the physical performance of athletes. This issue is more important in young athletes and can expose them to injury.
The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of functional fatigue on the performance and landing mechanics of adolescence taekwondo athletes.
This was a semi-experimental study. Participants were 20 male teenage taekwondo players. Pre-fatigue measurements included side-jump tests, figure-8 hop tests, and single-leg triple jump tests, as well as a lower limb biomechanics assessment using a landing error scoring system. After the functional fatigue protocol was applied, all the pre-fatigue variables were evaluated again. In order to examine the intra-group changes of the research variables in the pre and post-test stages, the paired t-test at a significance level of P≤0.05 was used.
The paired-t test results revealed that following fatigue induction, performance in the side-jump and figure-8 hop tests significantly deteriorated (P<0.05). Additionally, performance in the single-leg triple hop test declined (P<0.05). Moreover, landing error significantly increased (P<0.05).
The finding of this study indicated that after applying fatigue, the subjects' performance decreased and the biomechanical error of the lower limbs increased. Fatigue can significantly impact adolescent taekwondo athletes' performance and biomechanics. So, taekwondo coaches should implement effective strategies to mitigate fatigue, enhance athletes' conditioning, and optimize their performance in training and competitions.