IDO MOVEMENT FOR CULTURE

Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology

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Abstract - Kinematic characterization of the Capoeira Bencao Kick

The martial art capoeira is gaining popularity in the Czech Republic; still we lack some professional information base about it. We did a 3D kinematical analysis of the basic capoeira kick - bencao. The subject was an advanced capoeira instructor who performed the kick three times with the right and three times with the left leg. For scanning the picture we used two high-frequency synchronized digital cameras SIMI MOTION Version 7. We evaluated kinematical characteristics of 13 body points. The kick was done from the basic capoeira movement - ginga. In the preparation phase the centre of gravity in the body was in the lower position – 0.74±0.03 m above the mat. From this point the position of the centre of the gravity was elevating and in the moment of hitting the target it reached the position 0.98±0.02 m. The total time period of kick doing, including the preparatory and main phase, was 0.62±0.03 s. Maximal speed reached by the ankle of the kicking leg was 7.96±0.5 m.s -1 . This speed was recorded at the moment of initiating the main phase, when the knee of the kicking leg formed an angle of 97.92±6.1° and started tightening actively. With the use of 3D kinematical analysis we managed to concretize the most important spatio-temporal characteristics of the bencao kick performed with a high quality.