Asian Journal of Sports Medicine
Montassar Tabben2,*, 
Rim Sioud1, Monoem Haddad3, Emerson Franchini4, Anis Chaouachi1, Jeremy Coquart2, Helmi Chaabane5, Karim Chamari6, Claire Tourny-Chollet2Investigate the physiological responses and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) in elite karate athletes and examine the relationship between a subjective method (Session-RPE) and two objective heart-rate (HR)-based methods to quantify training-load (TL) during international karate competition.
Eleven karatekas took part in this study, but only data from seven athletes who completed three matches in an international tournament were used (four men and three women). The duration of combat was 3 min for men and 2 min for women, with 33.67.6 min for the first interval period (match 12) and 14.53.1 min for the second interval period (match 23). HR was continuously recorded during each combat. Blood lactate [La-] and (RPE) were measured just before the first match and immediately after each match.
Means total fights time, HR, %HRmax, [La-], and session-RPE were 4.71.6 min, 1829 bpm, 913%, 9.022.12 mmol.L-1 and 4.21.2, respectively. No significant differences in %HRmax, [La-], and RPE were noticed across combats. Significant correlations were observed between RPE and both resting HR (r=0.60;
International karate competition elicited near-maximal cardiovascular responses and high [La-]. Training should therefore include exercise bouts that sufficiently stimulate the zone between 90 and 100% HRmax. Karate coaches could use the RPE-method to follow competitor's competition loads and consider it in their technical and tactical training.
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© 2013, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
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