Elite fighters still get anxious. In this salutogenic study we measured 58 ITF Taekwon-Do elites with SOC-29 (meaningfulness among other orientations) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, plus questions about voluntary training groupings.
Model coefficients
The sample split internally on state anxiety and meaningfulness (p < 0.01). In the accepted model, more frequent taekwon-do groupings (β = −0.38) and higher meaningfulness (β = −0.31) went with lower state anxiety. Anxiety fell and meaningfulness rose with age. Sex differences in anxiety were non-significant (p > 0.05). Active, frequent group training walked with greater meaningfulness — perhaps because shared craft makes load comprehensible.
Coaching translation
Camps are not only volume. Frequency of engaged grouping is a psychosocial dose. If anxiety spikes before competition, ask about meaningfulness and camp culture before you only add more pad rounds.
Limits
Elite ITF cohort, cross-sectional associations. Directionality (does lower anxiety enable more camps, or camps lower anxiety?) needs longitudinal designs.
State anxiety is the “now” reading; trait anxiety the longer disposition. Groupings in the model are voluntary training camps/gatherings — social dose inside the sport, not forced attendance. Meaningfulness from SOC-29 is the sense that demands are worth engaging, not a motivational poster.
Non-significant sex differences in anxiety here should stop lazy coaching myths that “women worry more” in this elite ITF pocket. Age and engagement told a clearer story.
If you cut camps to save budget, you may be cutting a psychosocial input that tracks with lower state anxiety. Measure before you trim.
State anxiety is the “now” reading; trait anxiety the longer disposition. Groupings in the model are voluntary training camps/gatherings — social dose inside the sport, not forced attendance. Meaningfulness from SOC-29 is the sense that demands are worth engaging, not a motivational poster.
Non-significant sex differences in anxiety here should stop lazy coaching myths that “women worry more” in this elite ITF pocket. Age and engagement told a clearer story.
If you cut camps to save budget, you may be cutting a psychosocial input that tracks with lower state anxiety. Measure before you trim.
Where this sits in the lab
Biokineticum’s public notes exist so practitioners can reach the DOI without drowning in jargon — and so athletes, teachers and clinicians see that combat-sport science also publishes on prisons, faith, fair play, sauna physiology and disability policy. Soft topics still deserve hard methods: sample sizes, instruments, effect directions and explicit limits.
If you teach, treat or coach from these findings, copy the reference list into your syllabus, open the full text, and write down what you will measure next week. That is the only CTA that always fits.
Reading notes
Psychosocial and public-health papers describe associations in defined samples — not moral verdicts about individuals. We keep the language descriptive, avoid stigma, and point you to the DOI for methods and limits.
If the topic touches your clinic, classroom or programme design, treat this post as a map to the paper, not a substitute for it.
References
- Ortenburger D, Mosler D, Langfort J, Wąsik J. Feeling of Meaningfulness and Anxiety of Taekwon-Do Fighters in a Salutogenic Notion. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022. 19(23):15658. doi:10.3390/ijerph192315658
Measurement-led biomechanics, health psychology and clinical tools at Biokineticum.
