Abstract—Kickboxing, like many other combat sports, is divided into weight classes. When a player selects a class to fights, a class that is several kilograms below the usual weight is generally selected. Therefore, they need a weight loss before a match. Many of them use a method called rapid weight loss to quickly lose several kilograms of their usual weight at once in the weeks or days before a match.
Why is such an act done? The reason often cited in the research treatises and media reports is because of acquisition of advantage of physique. Whereas studies on the health risks of losing weight rapidly have also been reported. For rapid weight loss, it is necessary to pay attention not only to physical risks, but also to psychological effects. Players have knowledge of this and aware that there are fighters who get sick due to rapid weight loss. Nevertheless, they are doing this in their own way.
This study tried to clarify what the act of rapid weight loss performed by kickboxing players before a match meant to them. The survey was conducted through interviews with kickboxing players and participant observations at the gym and pre-match weigh-in’s venues.
The result was that rapid weight loss was ritually characterized as an act of trying to be immersed oneself in the world of combat. Moreover, it has the meaning of telling others that they have transition from their daily lives to their special one. From this, it can be said that rapid weight loss is an action with a ritual meaning of entering the world of fighting
Index Terms—Advantage of physique, kickboxing, rapid weight loss, ritualistic behavior.
Kazuhiro Shibata is with the Department of International Nursing, Iryo Sosei University, 1-3-4 Koaota, Kashiwa City, Chiba 277-0803, Japan (e-mail: shibata.kazuhiro@isu.ac.jp).
Cite: Kazuhiro Shibata, "The Meaning of Rapid Weight Loss in Kickboxing Competition," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 176-181, 2022.
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