Coordination abilities and movement organization during the fencing lunge in youth foil fencers: an exploratory biomechanical study

Abstract

Background Coordination abilities are considered fundamental determinants of motor performance and long-term athlete development, yet their relationship with the biomechanical characteristics of fencing performance remains poorly understood. Understanding these relationships may provide valuable insights for evidence-based coaching and athlete development. Objective This exploratory study examined the associations between selected coordination abilities and kinematic variables of the fencing lunge in youth foil fencers. Methods Nine competitive youth foil fencers (age: 11–15 years) completed a battery of seven coordination ability tests assessing spatial orientation, movement coupling, balance, rhythmic ability, adaptation ability, force differentiation, and reaction ability. Kinematic variables, including successful and unsuccessful defensive movement time, arm velocity, riposte velocity, and front-leg velocity, were obtained from two-dimensional video recordings using Kinovea motion analysis software. Spearman's rank-order correlation coefficients were calculated to examine associations between coordination abilities and biomechanical variables. Holm–Bonferroni correction was applied to account for multiple comparisons. Results Before adjustment for multiple comparisons, very large positive correlations were observed between reaction ability and arm velocity during unsuccessful defensive actions ( ρ = 0.833, p = 0.005) and between reaction ability and front-leg velocity during the fencing lunge ( ρ = 0.817, p = 0.007). Correlations of ρ = 0.628 and ρ = −0.622 were also observed for adaptation ability with successful defensive movement time and movement coupling ability with unsuccessful defensive movement time, respectively. However, none of the associations remained statistically significant following Holm–Bonferroni correction. The coefficients are therefore reported descriptively and treated as candidate hypotheses for independent replication. Conclusion After correction for multiple comparisons, this exploratory study found no statistically significant associations between the assessed coordination abilities and fencing-lunge kinematics. The observed coefficients do not provide confirmatory evidence that specific coordination abilities contribute to lunge performance; they identify candidate associations for future adequately powered studies. Future research should use larger samples and three-dimensional motion analysis.