Did the normative and technological changes really cause modifications in the time and score patterns of women’s Olympic taekwondo from 2008 to 2016?

Abstract

[Abstract]: The aim of the article is to determine timing and scoring variables relative to 12 taekwondo contests. Some of the indicators and ratios established in this study have not 13 previously been used in the scientific analysis of Olympic taekwondo. Nevertheless, they 14 provide a more nuanced understanding of bout structure and competitive behaviour, 15 offering original contributions to performance analysis within this discipline. Indicators 16 as the opening moment (OM), decisive moment (DM) and closure moment (CM), bout 17 modification time (BMT) were introduced as temporal indicators while initial points gap 18 (IPG), decisive points gap (DPG), final points gap (FPG), relative effectiveness (RE), bout 19 resolution reason (BRR) were considered as scoring indicators. Authors determine stabil-20 ity ratio (SR) and uncertainty ratio (UR) too. All of them have been registered, classified 21 and compared. The results provides insights on the effects of rules and technology mod-22 ifications on Olympic taekwondo patterns from an innovative point of view. 228 Female 23 Taekwondo bouts, from 2008 to 2016 Olympic Games, have been analysed. In some tem-24 poral indicators, no significant changes were found while other temporal and scoring in-25 dicators undergo significant differences throughout the three Olympic Editions. The re-26 sults suggest that the regulatory changes have had a direct impact on the dynamics of 27 Olympic taekwondo bouts. Researchers, trainers, coaches and sports organizations could 28 applied this method to determine the extent to which current changes can affect the 29 taekwondo patterns.