A Comparative Study On The Competitive Ability Of Chinese And Korean Male National Taekwondo Team Athletes

A Comparative Study on the Competitive Ability of Chinese and Korean Male National Taekwondo Team Athletes.This is a comparative study on the competitive ability of Chinese and Korean Male national Taekwondo team athletes. Korean male national Taekwondo athletes continuously keep their top-ranked position while Chinese male national Taekwondo athletes remain in the middle rank in the international competitions. What is the driving force behind the Korean male national Taekwondo athletes'successful performances? How can the Chinese male national Taekwondo athletes improve their competitive ability?To answer the above questions, this thesis constructively compares the two national team members'performances in competitions. Hence, it can suggest the ways in which Chinese Taekwondo athletes can strengthen their competitive ability. All in all, this study can be used as a significant material for coaches to train the national Taekwondo athletes in the field. Moreover, it would be able to offer a chance for the both nations'Taekwondo to take one step forward. Having mentioned the aim and the academic contribution of this thesis, let us move on and see the results of the study.1. Considering the rules and techniques of Taekwondo, having long legs can be one of the merits to win the game. There are many Chinese athletes with long legs but they do not seem to use such merit effectively. The role of Taekwondo coach is significant as they should offer appropriate feedbacks to individual athletes considering individuals'physical figures and conditions. However, currently, Chinese coaches do not seem to deliver right feedback that can possibly maximize the competitive ability of individual Taekwondo athletes. This is the first problem to be highlighted and improved.2. Korean Taekwondo athletes get chances to encounter Taekwondo from the early age. As a result, current national team has formed a good squad which makes the change of players easy. On the contrary, Chinese'squad is relatively weak, and the period of serving in the national team is long. And, this should be taken as a chance for Chinese athletes to learn about and experience of international competitions so that they can improve their competitive ability.3. It appears that Chinese male athletes have less experiences of participating in international competitions than Korean athletes. This indicates that there is space for the Chinese male athletes to improve in terms of learning how to prepare and to cope with the situations of, and the completion of competitions. As for the Korean male athletes, they learn opposite players'strengths and weaknesses as well as their own through video analysis. Korean team's such learning process again should be suggested as a way to train Chinese team that tend to depend more on coaches in many cases.4. Having learnt the fundamentals of Taekwondo, moving onto the next more difficult skill is rather easy, which accentuates the importance of learning fundamentals. However, Chinese athletes focus more on other elements, such as how to work competitions and how to cope with the situation of the competition. This can perhaps be a fast track to reach a certain level. However, it is not enough to reach the top level that requires the most difficult techniques. Hence, I argue that this is what Chinese athletes should pay attention to.5. Chinese athletes think that training camps abroad can help improve their competitive ability. They should take the training camps as a chance to learn and practice in-depth techniques.6. It appears that many Chinese athletes are under severe stress of international competitions. Hence, professional ways to relieve their stress should be sought; for example, they should seek the ways to keep the relationship between the players on good terms.7. From the research, Chinese athletes'evaluations of their coaches appear to be less satisfactory than that of Korean athletes'. As to solve this problem, reciprocal efforts and good communication between the athletes and the coaches should be made. Moreover, sharing each others'opinions will narrow the gap between the coaches and the athletes and it will help progress the competitive ability.8. There are certain problems found in Chinese coaches'training ability, their understandings of athletes and providing appropriate workout conditions. These problems are caused by the different requests between the athletes and the coaches. The athletes want their coaches to offer them professional knowledge and mental analysis of each players. However, regardless of such requests of the athletes, Chinese coaches train them in rather authoritative ways. Hence, Chinese coaches'careful attentions and efforts to improve competitive ability of the athletes are required.9. Compare to Korean coaches, Chinese coaches provide less feedbacks on"before and after"of practices and of games. Hence, analyzing athletes'strengths and weaknesses and suggesting ways to promote individuals'competitive abilities are necessary. And, this will lead the individual athletes to learn about their own skills and techniques, too. This way of learning will become a good guide for the future training programs.10. Korean athletes responded that they wanted to drop out of the team when they experienced a slump. On the contrary, Chinese male athletes responded that they never thought of giving up their sport career. This indicates that Chinese male Taekwondo athletes'mental conditions are far better than that of Korean athletes. Korea's economic prosperity and resultant cultural advance would have been some of the causes for Korean male athletes'tendency of easily giving up their sport career. Therefore, coaches should pay more attention to this matter.11. Both of the Chinese and Korean national male Taekwondo athletes responded that they were satisfied with their training facilities and workout environment. This indicates that the training condition has improved and become far better.12. Even today, both nations'athletes are training hard to achieve their aims to become champions. Therefore, coaches need to try harder to support players with. Furthermore, for Chinese male Taekwondo players to reach the world top position, it is necessary to lead them to have self-confidence and dignity in themselves. However, currently more support and various trainings are given to female athletes. As a consequence of this unbalanced support, the male athletes are discouraged. This is another point to be highlighted. Having pointed out this significant problem, for Chinese national team, more creative and unique training programs should be designed. Therefore, Chinese coaches should strive to acquire more professional and creative coaching methods. And, most importantly, coaches should remember that their coaching attitudes should not be authoritative but rather be flexible case by case basis.13. Prior to Olympic Games, Korean athletes train for four to five months and prior to international competitions, they train for two to three months. During those periods, they take trainings that can strengthen physicality and improve techniques; moreover, before participating in games, through strict diet plan and mental training they aim to acquire the best physical condition and competitive ability. As for Chinese athletes, it is significant to design good training programs that can be used in their long-period training course. It is possible to develop competition ability through structured training sessions of the following stage: preparation stage, physical training stage, technique and skill development stage, and competition stage. There are not many world top-ranked Chinese male Taekwondo athletes. In order to overcome this problem, it is necessary to provide good coaching environment and conditions to coaches. And, as for Chinese male athletes, rewarding them for the winning success in competitions and giving better treatment are also required. It is important to offer a study period abroad to coaches who were previously Taekwondo athletes so that they can play more significant role in development of Taekwondo in China.