Predictors of children´s successful defence against adult attacker

Background & Study Aim The paper is based on the presumption that the probability of successful defence of a child against an adult attacker is influenced by diversity of variables with different predictive values. The aim of the study is to find the best predictors and determine their impact on children’s chance to defend themselves. Material & Methods The research sample consisted of n=48 students (n=40 female, n=8 male) from three secondary schools. The average age was 16.6 years. Six self-defence experts performed ex-post evaluation of each video recorded scenario. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, Classification trees C&RT and Logistic regression were used for analysis. Results Correlation between increasing personal score obtained by evaluation of selected criteria and the probability of a successful defence was confirmed by the high correlation rs=0.735 significance level of p < 0,050. Active defence, Escape and Technical means respectively, were found the best predictors out of the total number of six evaluation criteria. Communication and Safe distance keeping varied in the fifth position depending on the selected statistical method. Guard position was found the weakest predictor. Conclusions There are 13.88 times higher odds of successful defence when children are dealing with an adult attacker actively. The activity should be aimed at looking for an escape route as there are 7.69 times higher odds of successful defence when the child is trying to escape. Finally, there are 3.75 times higher odds of successful defence when the child uses appropriate technical means to distract attacker’s attention

A comparison of karateka’s and judoka’s foot arch dynamics

The benefits of barefoot walking is widely known. Our purpose was to examine the foot arch dynamics of sportsmen, who perform barefooted. The research sample consists of 25 skilled male judoka and 25 karateka (age 18 - 32 years, minimum 6 hours of training a week). We used navicular drop test to determine the level of foot arch dynamics. Results showed the significant differences between left and right foot of judoka and karateka and between two groups of participants as well (judoka ́s foot arch dynamics is bigger than karateka ́s). The differences could be caused by different way of shifting, diff erent softness of the mats and different dynamics of each performance