# Morphological and Functional Asymmetry Among Competitive Female Fencing Athletes
## 1 Introduction  
Asymmetry among athletes across various sports disciplines is a topic extensively addressed by numerous researchers in their scientific works [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. Assessing an athlete's body symmetry becomes especially critical due to its implications for injury risk and, more importantly, for projected athletic outcomes [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. It is examined from different perspectives, including morphological [10, 11, 12], dynamic [13, 14], and functional asymmetry [15, 16] perspectives. Morphological asymmetries are a consequence of the body's adaptation to the conditions around it, reinforced by prolonged and intense activity in a chosen sports specialty, such as intensive, year-round training in one sport to the exclusion of other sports [17]. Prolonged exposure to repeated asymmetrical loading in athletes, persisting over many years, can lead to health problems such as lower back pain or issues in other body regions [18]. Long-term training, especially in sports with unilateral demands, carries potential health risks including spinal and joint deformities. Although unilateral hypertrophy (i.e., increased muscle cross-sectional area) can be a positive functional adaptation, itsdisproportionate nature may exacerbate these musculoskeletal issues [2]. The asymmetry that occurs, without the introduction of intervention behaviors to minimize it, can lead to unsustainable changes in the volume and condition of muscle tissue and its shortening, which affects the range of motion of joints [3]. Even if the training is aimed at increasing body symmetrization, the specificity of the physical loads imposed by the discipline can be strong enough that athletes inevitably develop a degree of functional and morphological asymmetry when adaptive changes occur on the dominant side [19]. One sport that is affected by this problem is fencing.  
Fencing can be defined as the art of wielding a white weapon, the purpose of which is to hit an opponent with a cut (as in the saber) or a thrust (as in the sword or flare), without being hit yourself [20]. The art of fencing originally consisted of injuring or killing an opponent in the shortest possible time, and it was not until the 20 th century that it changed to sport fighting. In modern times, fencing is based on fighting and the preparation for it by two competitors armed with a fencing outfit, a fencing mask, weapons and additional equipment that is necessary to fight according to the rules. The intention of sport fighting is to inflict as many hits as possible in a certain time (3 min) in between trying not to get hit at all or as little as possible [21].  
Fencing, by its very nature, differs from many sports in that it is a distinctly asymmetrical sport. An athlete practicing this sport has an extremely lateralized posture. Competition often involves transferring body weight to one lower limb or operating only one upper limb both to score and to avoid being hit [22,23]. A heavily lateralized posture causes a variety of sports-specific conditions [24]. Symmetrization, therefore, should be one of the preventive behaviors that directly translate into injury prevention [25]. This issue is often neglected by coaches, trainers and experienced athletes [2]. With modern training and changes to the ways in which coaches conduct training, this tendency is changing.  
The aim of the study was to assess the magnitude and directions of morphological asymmetries of bilateral anthropometric traits among female elite professional fencers. Furthermore, functional asymmetry of the upper and lower extremities was assessed, and the relationships between the magnitude of morphological asymmetry and functional asymmetry of the upper and lower extremities were analyzed. Our null hypothesis posited the existence of a low magnitude of morphological asymmetry in bilateral traits and a lack of association with functional asymmetry, which could be attributed to the high level of training advancement of the examined female athletes.