NCT04120896

Karate or Kung Fu?

Karate or Kung Fu? A Comparison of Japanese and Chinese Martial Arts Training for Enhancing Psychophysical Development in Asian Children

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 52 (estimated)
• Sponsor: The University of Hong Kong · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 6 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Sedentary lifestyle in Asian children together with aversive parenting style may compromise their physical and psychological health. The aim of the proposed stratified, randomized controlled study are to explore the beneficial effects of Japanese martial art (karate) and Chinese martial art (Ving Tsun kung fu) training on improving the psychophysical health in this population. Over fifty-two Asian children (age = 6-12 years) will be recruited from schools in Hong Kong and then randomly assigned to either a karate group or a Ving Tsun group. Children in both groups will receive the respective physical and spiritual martial art training for 3 months (3 times/week, one hour each). Outcomes will be evaluated at baseline and after the intervention by a blinded assessor. Primary outcomes include muscle power of the arms and legs as measured by a medicine ball throw test and a standing long jump test, respectively. Secondary outcomes include flexibility as quantified by a sit-and-reach test, aggression as measured by the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire, and attention as measured by the Child Behavioral Checklist-Youth Self-Report. Both karate and Ving Tsun kung fu training programs are predicted to improve physical health of Asian children. It is expected that these training programs can be incorporated into the physical education classes or extracurricular activities in schools or in the community to improve project sustainability.

Conditions

• Childhood ALL

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Karate group	Children in the karate group will receive the basic Goju Ryu Karate training that includes basic stances (dachi), punching (zuki), blocking (barai) and kicking techniques (keri), form training (kata), supervised sparring (kumite), and conditioning exercises (for warm up and cool down).
BEHAVIORAL	Kung fu group	Children in the Ving Tsun kung fu group will receive the basic Wong Shun Leung style Ving Tsun training that includes basic stances (ma), footwork (bu), punching (quan), kicking (jie) techniques and conditioning exercises (for warm up and cool down).

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-04-01
• Primary completion: 2022-03-31
• Completion: 2023-03-31
• First posted: 2019-10-09
• Last updated: 2019-10-09

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Hong Kong