Development of an observational tool for combat analysis in Taekwondo

The practice of taekwondo has become popular especially since its inclusion as an Olympic sport in 2000. In México its practice has resulted in obtaining at least one medal in each of the Olympic editions. Despite this, the works in psychology that focus in its study are scarce and even today, it is lacking instruments that allow explaining the success during the combats. One way to approach to this lack, is the use of the observational methodology, since this implies a type of study of the behavior that allows to collect reliable data of the behavior moment to moment, this fact, in the study of the sport derives in a detailed analysis of the factors involved in the result of competition. It is precisely because of this that the present work seeks to show the development of a specific observational tool for the analysis of Taekwondo combats. The tool was validated by pairs of trained observers with a kappa index of 0.84 including fights from the sub13, sub15, sub17 and sub20 categories in official tournaments. The results show the variety of data thrown and the implications of such results in terms of the development of training strategies for athletes are discussed