DIFFERENCES IN THE MANIFESTATION OF FRONTAL–LATERAL AGILITY BETWEEN KARATE ATHLETES AND BOXERS

Abstract

This study was conducted on a sample comprising 60 athletes aged 13–15 years from the Tuzla Canton, including 30 karate practitioners and 30 boxers. The karate participants were members of the clubs “Konjuh” (Živinice) and “DO” (Tuzla), whereas the boxers were members of the boxing clubs KBS “Banovići” (Banovići), BK “Živinice” (Živinice), KBS “Radnički” (Lukavac), BK “Grad” (Tuzla) and BK “Feniks” (Tuzla). Frontal–lateral agility in this research was operationalized through three separate agility variables: T- test agility (MAGTTAG), Movement in Two Triangles (MAGKDTR) and Side Steps (MAGKUST). The primary aim was to determine differences in the manifestation of frontal– lateral agility between karate athletes and boxers. An independent samples t- test for small samples was applied to evaluate inter- group differences. Inspection of the t- test results and comparison of arithmetic means indicated differences across all frontal–lateral agility variables (MAGTTAG, MAGKDTR and MAGKUST). However, only two of the three variables: Movement in Two Triangles (MAGKDTR) and Side Steps (MAGKUST) showed statistically significant differences; the difference observed in T- test agility (MAGTTAG), although evident, did not reach statistical significance. The specific movement structure in karate, characterized by minimal oscillation of the body's center of mass, contributed to better frontal–lateral agility among the karate sample. The findings pertain to the examined groups of karate practitioners and boxers.