Effectiveness of visuomotor program via light signal on simple and choice static eye-hand response time among collegiate karate kumite athletes: Pretest-posttest design with a control group

Background and Study Aim: Quick response time (RT) is crucial in karate kumite. Current training rarely use light as training tool. This study aim is the effectiveness of visuomotor training via light signal with human signal on the simple and choice eye-hand RT among collegiate kumite athletes. Materials and Methods: We recruited 18-25 years old collegiate karate kumite athletes from three non-sport universities. The routine karate practice was standardized to once a week, consisted of 1-hour fitness training in Gym and 1-hour kumite skill training. Subjects were assigned to group A (light signal) or B (human signal) based on the universities. Both groups were trained twice a week for consecutive 6 weeks. RT was measured before and after training, including 2 simple and 3 choice tasks measured at zero, shoulder-width or random distance: SRT_zero, SRT_shoulder, CRT_zero, CRT_random and CRT_shoulder. Results: Group A had 13 athletes and group B had 11 athletes. Baseline SRT_shoulder for dominant hands was significantly different for both groups but not the other measures. After 6 weeks of training, group A showed significant improvement in SRT_zero and SRT_shoulder for dominant hands (p = 0.0066 and p = 0.001, respec-tively); and SRT_shoulder and CRT_zero for non-dominant hands (p = 0.0138 and p = 0.0015, respectively). Group B showed deterioration for CRT_shoulder at non-dominant hands after training (p = 0.0037) but no significant difference at other tasks. When compared the difference before and after training, for dominant hands, group A improved significantly more in CRT_shoulder (p = 0. 0201) than group B; for non-dominant hands, group A improved significantly more in SRT_shoulder and CRT_shoulder (p = 0.0206 and p = 0.0029, respectively) than group B. Conclusions: Six weeks of visuomotor training via light signal improved simple RT and some choice RT in collegiate karate athletes than using human signal. Thus, the visuomotor training method can also be used in health-related training, in improving human motor safety, especially developing self-defense capabilities.