A performance in martial arts: a bibliometric analysis

Background & Study Aim: The study of the indicators of competitive activity allows the coach to organize the training process more ef- fectively; to timely identify deficiencies in the athlete's preparation and make certain adjustments to the train- ing plan; to rationally select tactical options for the upcoming bout (combat, fight) considering the capabilities of the rival. The aim of this review is knowledge on competitive activity in martial arts based on the publica-tions in the web database PubMed. Material & Methods: Bibliometric analysis of PubMed database data was used to create a sample of studies as of 06/17/2023. The key phrase 'competitive activity in martial arts' was used for the search. 190 publications were found. The first publication was published in 1990. The software VOSviewer 1.6.19 was used for keyword analysis and direct citation analysis with the construction of bibliometric maps, visualization of the density of clusters, weights citations. Results: With the help of VOSviewer 1.6.19 software 76 journals from 36 countries were identified. The USA (23 jour- nals), China (14 journals) and the UK (9 journals) are the unequivocal leaders among the countries. We anal- ysed the publication activity of 782 authors whose link strength was more than 0. The authors were grouped into 137 clusters. They were characterized by the presence of 2249 links with total link strength of 2447. The number of items in the clusters did not have a significant difference; this can be explained by the populari- ty of all research areas. The highest number of publications is observed for Franchini Emerson (20), Chamari Karim (8), Chaabene Helme (5), Capranica Laaura (5), and Miarka Bianca (5) and 71 elements (keywords) were selected to visualize the network. The elements formed 6 clusters. The network includes 1257 links, and the total number was 6465. The most popular studies are highlighted. These studies include the following key- words: 'humans', 'martial arts', 'male', 'adult', 'young adult', 'female', 'athletes', 'adolescent'. Overlay visualization shows that most of the keywords with the newest publication dates are related to martial arts, while older publications compare the indicators of competitive activity in martial arts and in other sports (sports games). Conclusions: The relevance of research on competitive activity in martial arts was confirmed. There has been a significant increase in publications in the last decade. The main array of publications is aimed at improving the methods of sports training for successful performance in competitions. A popular direction is the prevention of injuries in the process of preparation and performance at competitions. Modern technologies and the availability of big data open new opportunities for studying the competitive activities in martial arts (and neo gladiatorship).