THE SYMMETRY OF BILATERAL ASHI-WAZA THROWS EXECUTION IN YOUTH U-14 CATEGORY JUDOKAS

Objective. In judo, highly skilled judokas pose a higher bilateral quality of arm and leg movements. This study aimed to examine the quality of bilateral throw execution of the selected Ashi-Waza (leg throwing) techniques in the youth U-14 age group judokas. Methods. Execution of 3 judo throws from Ashi-waza (O soto gari, O uchi gari and Uchi mata) was evaluated by three raters on the dominant and non-dominant body side on a sample of 5 judokas (age 13.12 ± 0.46, height 165.82 ± 8.37 cm, weight 58.36 ± 8.25 kg, years of training 6.4 ± 0.55). Paired samples T-test was used to analyse symmetries in performance with statistical significance set at p ≤ 0.05. Results. There were no significant differences between the throw quality on the dominant and non-dominant sides in all leg throwing techniques. However, all scores are lower on the left side, which is also the non-dominant side. Furthermore, the best score among the group of leg throwing techniques was with the Osoto-gari throw, while the Uchi-mata throw attained the lowest score. Conclusion. Findings demonstrate that youth judokas competing in the U-14 age group perform the Ashi-Waza techniques symmetrically; however, the trend of lower quality on the non-dominant side is noted. The Uchi-mata is the throw with the worst quality in the U-14 age group. Therefore, additional attention should be given to bilateral throw execution in the U-14 age group as the literature suggest that the transition between U-14 and U-16 age groups is crucial and where the significant bilateral differences start to occur.