In kickboxing the competitors are divided into weight categories. Many of them reduce their body weight prior to competition. The goal of the study was to establish the relationships between sport massage procedures and mental disposition of the athletes being prepared for the competition. Material and methods. The sample included 16 females and 32 males - kickboxers and judokas. The study used Spielberger State Trait Anxiety questionnaire and a tailored questionnaire. The differences between variables were studied using Wilcoxon signed rank test. The minimal significance level was set at p<0.05. Results. Among the competitors qualified for the study, 48% reduced their body mass (Body Mass Reduction - BMR) before each start. They most often started reducing their body mass 10 days before the start by a doing a more intense physical exercise (on average 9.55 days and 9.5 days prior to the start for the female and male subjects respectively) and exercised wearing special clothes triggering sweat glands to release perspiration (8.14 days and 6.56 days for the female and male subjects respectively). Most of competitors (94% of the females and 72%of the males ) experienced negative consequences of BMR. The most frequently mentioned side effect was worsening of general feeling (70% of females and 86% of males). Besides, over a half (56%) of the female competitors complained of a decrease in endurance. The obtained results indicate that among the body mass reducing competitors the level of anxiety significantly increases before the start in competition. The differences, however, were only significant in the control group (p=0.021 in the females and p=0.002 in the males). This indicates a favourable effect of massage on the mental state in the competitors being prepared for the competition. Conclusions. A large group of athletes reducing their body mass obtain results below their expectations. Therefore, they should be subjected to physician`s, physiotherapist`s or sport psychologist`s care. The massage resulted in low levels of anxiety in the athletes before competitions. Physical disposition is of key importance in start preparation of combat athletes, thus the studies on the application of physiotherapeutic approaches among these athletes should be continued.
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