Abstract
The 2017 revised rules for competitive judo require a higher level of stamina. Endurance capacity as a foundation of stamina is enhanced by training/conditioning involving optimum relative exercise intensities associated with the stress response, which has an important impact on biological adaptation mediated by the metabolic/endocrine system. Repetition training in judo techniques (uchikomi) for the shoulder throw (seoi-nage) as a typical hand technique (te-waza) induces blood lactate elevation and the stress response at a faster pace than 1 trial/1.5 s (20 trials/30 s), which is the optimum pace for enhancing endurance capacity in seoi-nage uchikomi. However, the optimum paces of uchikomi for foot techniques (ashi-waza such as uchi-mata, osoto-gari, and ouchi-gari), which are much more popular than hand techniques, remain untested. To address this issue, the present study investigated psychological, physiological, and biochemical parameters in collegiate male judo athletes during pace-incremental repetition training for foot techniques. For all techniques, the Borg scale, heart rate, and estimated oxygen consumption increased in a repetition pace-dependent manner. Blood lactate levels were unchanged at a slow repetition pace but began to increase at a pace of 1 trial/1.25 s (24 trials/30 s) for osoto-gari, 1 trial/1.0 s (30 trials/30 s) for uchi-mata, and 1 trial/0.85 s (35 trials/30 s) for ouchi-gari. At the maximal repetition pace, the level of blood lactate neared or exceeded 10 mM, and the level of plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), a stress marker, increased for all techniques. Our findings provide metabolic/endocrine evidence for the optimum paces of repetition training for foot techniques aimed at improvement of endurance capacity, which are ≧ 1 trial/1.25 s for osotogari, ≧ 1 trial/1.0 s for uchi-mata, and ≧ 1 trial/0.85 s for ouchi-gari. This experimental protocol and perspective on relative intensity related to metabolic/endocrine parameters in judo movements should ultimately contribute to better training/conditioning programs for judo-specific stamina.
