Abstract

Trends in modern sport, among other things, point to constant tendency towards the gender equality. Apparent differences between the sexes have as a consequence different rules for women and men. In sport karate, women compete under the same rules as men, and the only modification is in duration of fight, which lasts 2 minutes, compared to 3 minutes for men (Rulebook WKF). Basic characteristic of karate sport, that makes it clearly recognizable in comparison with other martial sports, is its pointing technique. Pointing techniques in karate are punches and kicks, which can be realized in three basic ways of pointing in sports fight - attack, interception and counterattack. Most researches are being conducted on male sample, and women are being discriminated against in the area of karate fighting. Given the fact that there already exist certain researches that define technical-tactical characteristics for male population, this paper will examine pointing actions in females. Pointing actions represent dominant characteristic of every female competitor, considering the fact that the rules in karate sport qualify only punches as points. In this paper, pointing actions were observed through pointing techniques and pointing ways. From all the above-mentioned derives the subject of this paper which refers to pointing actions in female karate practitioners – pointing technique and pointing way. The goal of this paper is to determine the differences in quantitative prevalence of pointing technique modalities and pointing way modalities, as structural elements of sports fighting in top female competitors in karate. Einleitung