Department of Biology, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2019 Sep 25;14(9):e0222075. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222075. eCollection 2019.
Sport fencing is an open-skilled combat sport practiced around the world. Although previous research addressed kinematics of the lunge and fleche, there are currently no studies on the flick. The flick is a high-level action that involves bending the blade toward the opponent, much like a whip or fly-fishing cast. The aim of our research was to identify the kinematic variables that significantly influence scoring success in two elite foil fencers. In particular, we asked what aspect of the movement each individual fencer can change to improve their likelihood of scoring. Two elite foil fencers of similar skill were instructed to execute flicks at a dummy target that mimicked the opponent's shoulder. High speed video (650 fps) captured the motion of the tip of the foil, blade of the foil, and limb joints; the latter were used to calculate joint angular velocities, hand height and distance throughout the flick. Scoring success was determined with a conventional scoring box. Our results showed that the two fencers exhibited significantly different kinematics, coordination and scoring. Using three complementary regression approaches, we showed that each fencer could improve scoring by changing specific aspects of their kinematics. For fencer A, only improvement in consistency in distance from the target would improve scoring. For fencer B, the changes were more complex. In addition to improvement in consistency in distance, fencer B could also increase (finger, wrist) or decrease (shoulder) joint angular velocity or improve consistency of limb joint angular velocities. Unexpectedly, and in contrast to common coaching practice, hand height had only a weak effect, possibly because both fencers had learnt to keep their hand high at the end of the action. In summary, our results emphasize that coaching of elite fencers should be individualized.
击剑运动是一种在全球范围内流行的开放式技能格斗运动。虽然之前的研究已经探讨过弓步和fleche 的运动学，但目前还没有关于 flick 的研究。flick 是一种高级动作，涉及将刀刃向对手弯曲，类似于鞭子或飞蝇钓的投掷。我们的研究目的是确定对两名优秀花剑运动员得分成功有重大影响的运动学变量。具体来说，我们询问了每个运动员可以改变哪些运动方面来提高得分的可能性。两名技能相似的优秀花剑运动员被指示在模仿对手肩部的假目标上执行 flick。高速摄像机（650fps）捕捉到了箔片尖端、箔片刀片和肢体关节的运动；后者用于计算整个 flick 过程中的关节角速度、手的高度和距离。得分成功是通过传统的得分盒来确定的。我们的结果表明，两名运动员表现出明显不同的运动学、协调性和得分。使用三种互补的回归方法，我们表明每个运动员都可以通过改变其运动学的特定方面来提高得分。对于运动员 A，只有从目标的距离一致性的提高才能提高得分。对于运动员 B，变化更为复杂。除了距离一致性的提高外，运动员 B 还可以增加（手指、手腕）或减少（肩部）关节角速度，或提高肢体关节角速度的一致性。出乎意料的是，与常见的教练实践相反，手的高度只有微弱的影响，这可能是因为两名运动员都已经学会在动作结束时保持手高。总之，我们的结果强调，对优秀运动员的教练应该是个性化的。
