The Role of Speed Drills in Enhancing Playing Distance Efficiency for Youth Taekwondo Athletes

Abstract

Chapter One addressed the importance and problem of the research. This study aimed to help athletes effectively utilize the playing distances between themselves and their opponents, specifically close, medium, and long distances. The faster an athlete performs skills within these distances, the more it contributes to achieving victory during a match. This is achieved through a set of training exercises focusing on speed of performance, reaction speed, explosive power, speed-endurance, and speed endurance.Chapter Two describes the experimental design used, which was a pre-post single-group design. The researcher selected a sample of 20 elite athletes from Al-Shorta Sports Club's youth category, registered with the Iraqi Taekwondo Federation for the year 2023/2024.Chapter Three presented the results of the experiment. The findings revealed statistically significant differences between the pre- and post-measurement values for certain speed components (specifically speed-endurance, speed endurance, and reaction speed for offensive skills related to the effectiveness of playing distances) in favor of the post-measurement for athletes in the actual combat (Kyorugi) competition under study.Chapter Four outlined the researcher's conclusions. It was concluded that the proposed training program, through its speed exercises, positively affected the effectiveness of close combat distances in matches and increased athletes' utilization of playing distances due to the suggested speed training. Furthermore, the athletes' use of specific skills across the three playing distances contributed to influencing the match outcome and scoring points.