## 4 Discussion  
Empirical data about the acute effects of a karate bout on muscular strength asymmetries is scarce. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the acute impact of a simulated kumite bout (WKF formula) on the peak isometric strength performance of the self-preferred dominant (front) and non-dominant (back) lower limbs in elite athletes of different age categories (U16, U18, Senior) with regard to inter-limb asymmetry. The main finding of this study was that elite kumite athletes, regardless of their age category, tend to have bilateral strength asymmetries in the lower extremities, which differed due to the applied condition and time point. Moreover, the results of our study indicate that limb dominance is not necessarily related to higher values of the PVF, as the non-dominant lower limb (back) was found to be stronger in the U16 group (CTRL, pre-test and post-test), in the U18  
Figure 5: The frequency and diversity of the incidence of inter-limb PVF asymmetries over (> 15%) and under (<15%) fifteen percent in the study participants of different WKF age categories due to different conditions (EXP; CTRL) and time points (pre-test; post-test) (created with Microsoft Excel). group (all measurements), and in the Seniors (EXP, post-test; CTRL, pre-test). Moreover, the simulated komite bout partially impacted the isometric strength performance (\(p=0.021\); ES = 0.3). Furthermore, the inter-limb asymmetry was found to significantly decrease after the EXP condition (excluding the Senior category) and to increase after the CTRL condition (especially \(>\)15%) (Figure 5.) in all age categories (Table 4). The above-mentioned findings show that even a short-lasting sport-specific physical effort can lead to relevant changes in the inter-limb strength asymmetry, which may indicate an early onset of adaptation. The results of our study are partially in line with the findings of several authors [14,32,33]. For instance, it has been shown that karate athletes (U18) tend to demonstrate specific adaptations in certain strength measurements [33], while [PERSON] et al. [32] indicated the impact of long-term karate training on chronic muscular adaptations in karate athletes. Similarly, [PERSON] et al. [15] suggested that both the unilateral movement patterns observed in karate and limb preference may induce tissue adaptations, which result in inter-limb asymmetries. This was also confirmed in our study. However, our analysis indicates that the acute changes in inter-limb asymmetries can differ depending on the WKF age category, as we found a considerable decrease in the inter-limb strength differences in the U16 and U18 athletes. Moreover, an increase in the isometric strength asymmetry was observed in the Seniors (Table 4). It seems that in the case of younger athletes (U16-U18), a komite bout could improve muscle tension, which may compensate for the uneven loads in the lower limbs. This thesis can be confirmed by [PERSON] et al. [35], who indicated that karate training symmetrically stimulates the development of the human body. Similar conclusions were drawn by [PERSON] et al. [33], who pointed out that karate athletes (U16, U18, and Seniors) do not differ with regard to the flexor/extensor strength ratio between the opposite lower extremities. Moreover, [PERSON] et al. [31] suggested that regular competitive karate training is not necessarily a bilateral strength difference-inducing factor in elite Senior athletes. Contrary to the research by [PERSON] et al. [31], our results suggest that komite-specific efforts can induce muscular strength asymmetries, which was found in the Senior group. It seems that Senior athletes might be predisposed to higher intracellular adaptations when compared to younger athletes, which can be related to longer komite training experiences (Table 1). However, the longer duration of the obligatory effective fight time (3 min vs. 2 min) could also impact the asymmetry results that were found in our study.