Special judo fitness test adapted for the brazilian paralympic judo team

Introduction

Special Judo Fitness Test was developed in first time with validation grade in 1995. The test was applied only to normal judo players to measure anaerobic capacity. This proposal did the adapted test for blind people and impaired vision. The objective of the present study was to verify the anerobic capacity in athletes of the Brazilian Paralympic Team. The sample was constituted of 07 (seven) male and 04 (four) female athletes of official Brazilian Paralympic Team (BPT).

Methods

The Special Judo Fitness Test, as proposed and described by STERKOWICZ (1995), consists in two judoists (ukes) of similar stature and body mass of the test’s performer (tori) are positioned at 6 meters one of the other, while the tori stays between them, three meters away from each one. To the command of "go", the tori runs in direction of the first uke and throws him using the ippon-seoi-nage technique. Soon after he runs to the other uke doing the same movement, and so on during 15 seconds. After 15 seconds, the assessor commands "stop", when the tori goes to his initial position he has 10 seconds for recovering to begin the next series with identical procedure to the first even so with duration of 30 seconds. Again the assessor will command "stop", and another 10 seconds period of recovering to begin the third and last series of 30 seconds. The heart rate is registered at the end of the test (FinalHR) and one minute after it (RecHR). The total of accomplished throws is registered and the following index is calculated: Index (I) = FinalHR (bpm) + RecHR (bpm) / total number of throws. Therefore as smaller the index, the better performance in the test.

Results

The mean index found for the female BPT was16,8. Among the BPT male athletes under 81kg, the mean was 15,7 and among over 81kg the mean index was 16,7. Comparing these results with the obtained by the Brazilian Judo Federation with the Brazilian Olympic Team athletes (BOT), male and female (I= 13,3 for women, I=11,7 for men under 81 kg and I+_ 13,0 for men over 81kg), it is noticed a difference in the results of anaerobic capacity between both samples.

Conclusion

These differences could indicate a need of intensification on the specific training sessions for the BPT athletes, trying to increase this anaerobic capacity index. More studies with judo paralympic athletes are needed in order to validate the adapted test used in this study and to obtain a better profile for the Brazilian Paralympic Judo Team.

References

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[3]. Mataruna, L. Iniciando o trabalho com deficientes visuais. Coluna: Judô Paraolímpico. Jornal do Judô, São Paulo, v.1, n.2, p. 10, Novembro, 2003.
[4]. Sterkowicz, S. Test specjalnej sprawnosci ruchowej w judo. Antropomotoryka, n. 12-13, p. 29-44, 1995.