In the present study, we used big data analysis to examine the key attributes related to stress and mental health among Korean Taekwondo student-athletes. Keywords included “Taekwondo + Student athlete + Stress + Mental health”. Naver and Google databases were searched to identify research published between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2019. Text-mining analysis was performed on unstructured texts using TEXTOM 4.5, with social network analysis performed using UCINET 6. In total, 3149 large databases (1.346 MB) were analyzed. Two types of text-mining analyses were performed, namely, frequency analysis and term frequency-inverse document frequency analysis. For the social network analysis, the degree centrality and convergence of iterated correlation analysis were used to deduce the node-linking degree in the network and to identify clusters. The top 10 most frequently used terms were “stress”, “Taekwondo”, “health”, “player”, “student”, “mental”, “exercise”, “mental health”, “relieve”, and “child.” The top 10 most frequently occurring results of the TF-IDF analysis were “Taekwondo”, “health”, “player”, “exercise”, “student”, “mental”, “stress”, “mental health”, “child” and “relieve”. The degree centrality analysis yielded similar results regarding the top 10 terms. The convergence of iterated correlation analysis identified six clusters: student, start of dream, diet, physical and mental, sports activity, and adult Taekwondo center. Our results emphasize the importance of designing interventions that attenuate stress and improve mental health among Korean Taekwondo student-athletes.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cold-water immersion (CWI) on lipid peroxides and antioxidant enzymes in adult Taekwondo athletes after a match. A cross-sectional study was performed. After a Taekwondo match, the control group remained seated passively, while the treatment group immersed their legs below the knee joint in cold water at 10 °C. Blood samples were taken at pre-match, post-match, post-treatment, and post-rest, and changes in malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) concentrations were analyzed. The results showed that there was a significant difference in MDA between the two groups, and while the CWI group had 19% lower SOD concentration compared to the control group, and the difference was not significant. However, in case of interaction for GPx concentration (p < 0.001), a statistically significant difference was found between the two groups (p < 0.05). In conclusion, CWI after a Taekwondo match elevates the concentration of antioxidant enzymes.

IMR Press is a leading publisher of open access peer-reviewed biomedical and life sciences journals. We aim to facilitate the dissemination of high-quality research in the area of biomedical science. With a long tradition and wide readership, IMR Press is dedicated to making positive contributions to academics, corporate libraries as well as to readers and authors. All the editors in IMR Press will provide the best service for researchers, allowing them to have a easy and smooth publication experience and helping maximize the impact and visibility of their research.