Abstract

The aim of the research was to analyze the body composition, athletic and special fitness, special work capacity of elite boxers in the Lithuanian national team and to search for links between the investigated characteristics. The study involved 11 elite boxers having experience of international competitions and participating in this sport for 6-15 years. The body composition and athletic fitness were established employing research methods described in other sources (Skernevičius et al., 2004). The boxers’ special physical fitness and special working capacity were tested applying special diagnostic equipment “Kiktest – 100” which included a standard boxing bag with a special dynamometer embedded inside and sensors registering impulses of blows; computer block registering the strength of blows to the boxing bag, the number of blows, total strength of blows, and the energy input. The links between the indices were determined applying the method of linear (Pearson r) correlation. The studies showed that some indexes of athletic and special physical fitness of Lithuanian national team boxers were of insufficient level, and they were worse than the recommended model indexes of adequate weight categories of elite boxers. We established positive statistically significant correlations between the handgrip strength of the boxers’ leading hand (r = 0.74), shot put (4 kg) results and the indexes of strength of direct blows to the boxing bag (r = 0.83), and the total strength and energy input striking blows to the boxing bag 4 x 2 min (r = 0.94). We found that the indexes of boxers’ height and body mass we linked to the indexes of total energy of blows performed in four rounds (r = 0.70 and r = 0.68), and the energy input, r = 0.64 and r = 0.61 respectively. Research results provide evidential suggestion that individual training programs of Lithuanian national team boxers should be revised. Research findings could be beneficial for creating the Index bank of elite boxers’ athletic fitness and preparing model characteristics of athletic and special physical fitness of Lithuanian national team boxers. Verf.-Referat