ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1638975
This article is part of the Research TopicCombat Sports and Wellbeing: Advancing Health and Inclusion in Athletes and PractitionersView all 13 articles
Taekwondo exercises for women improve quality of life, physical self-defence skills, and psychological resilience
Provisionally accepted
Ahmet Yıkılmaz1
Coşkun Yılmaz2*Atıf Çiçekli3Önder Eryılmaz4Cemalettin Budak5Musa Uyar6
Tülay CEYLAN7
Özkan Güler8
F. Neşe Şahin8- 1Igdir Universitesi, Iğdır, Türkiye
- 2Gümüşhane University, Gümüşhane, Türkiye
- 3Governorship of Amasya, Amasya, Türkiye
- 4Amasya Universitesi, Amasya, Türkiye
- 5Erzincan Binali Yildirim Universitesi, Erzincan, Türkiye
- 6National Defense University, Ankara, Türkiye
- 7Ondokuz Mayis Universitesi, Samsun, Türkiye
- 8Ankara Universitesi, Ankara, Türkiye
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The extant research on taekwondo has focused primarily on the physiological effects of training, with limited interest in psychological resilience, self-defence and quality of life levels. The present study examined the effects of taekwondo exercises on psychological resilience, self-defence and quality of life levels in healthy female subjects.The present study comprised 30 healthy, sedentary female subjects. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups: one group participated in Taekwondo training (TG), while the other group served as the control group (CG). The sample sizes for both the TG and CG groups were 15. The TT group underwent conventional Taekwondo instruction, while the CG group maintained their habitual routine and refrained from sporting pursuits. The Brief Psychological Resilience Scale, the Physical Self-Defence Scale for Women, and the SF-12 Quality of Life Scale were administered before and after the six-week training period.The 6-week taekwondo training programme led to significant improvements in both physical health (PH) (p=0.049) and mental health (MH) (p<0.01) scores in female participants. It did not produce a significant change in psychological resilience (PR) scores (p>0,05). It produced significant improvements in self-defence against simple physical attacks (SP) (p=0.004) and self-defence against dangerous physical attacks (DP) (p=0.041) scores.The positive effects of Taekwondo training on psychological resilience, physical self-defence and quality of life levels have been demonstrated in healthy female subjects. This study provides valuable insights into the impact of Taekwondo exercises on psychological resilience, physical self-defence and quality of life levels. The findings of this study can guide future intervention and programme design in the context of sports psychology.
Keywords: combat sports1, Mental health2, Taekwondo3, Physical self-defense4, Psychological Resilience5, quality of life6, sport psychology7
Received: 31 May 2025; Accepted: 07 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yıkılmaz, Yılmaz, Çiçekli, Eryılmaz, Budak, Uyar, CEYLAN, Güler and Şahin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Coşkun Yılmaz, Gümüşhane University, Gümüşhane, Türkiye
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