Abstract / Summary
To examine the impact of recent World Taekwondo rule changes on competition demands by analysing elite international matches, developing weight-category-specific competition simulation protocols, and quantifying physiological responses and external loads. Fourteen international black-belt taekwondo athletes (age 20.9 ± 1.9 years) completed weight-category-specific simulation protocols developed from analyses of 120 matches from the 2023 World Taekwondo Championships. For comparison with the previous competition rules, 24 matches from the 2019 World Taekwondo Championships were also analysed. Blood lactate (BL) concentration and heart rate (HR) were measured before the simulation, after each round, and after 7 min of recovery, while PlayerLoad (PL) was recorded continuously throughout the simulation. Compared with the previous competition system, peak match demands shifted from Round 3 (R3) to Round 1 (R1), with longer active phases in R1 than in Round 2 (R2) and R3 ( F (2, 185.3) = 9.23, p = 0.008; both pairwise p < 0.05). During the simulations, heart rate (HR) varied significantly over time ( p < 0.001), peaking in R1 and remaining elevated through R3, whereas blood lactate (BL) was higher during R1–R3 and recovery than at rest ( p < 0.001). PlayerLoad (PL) remained unchanged across rounds ( p = 0.070). Taekwondo specific conditioning programmes should place particular emphasis on optimizing first-round performance, where early dominance may have a decisive influence on match outcomes. Furthermore, the altered physiological and technical demands imposed by the revised competition format indicate that athletes require differentiated match-specific training models throughout the competitive season.