Hey athlete, you need to cut weight: weight loss guidance practices and perceptions of Chinese combat sports coaches

BACKGROUND: Weight loss (WL) before competition is a widespread practice in combat sports (CS). Among the various factors influencing athletes' WL practice, coaches are consistently identified as the most influential in terms of guiding athletes' WL practices. However, little is known about coaches' guidance practices and perceptions of WL. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the WL guidance practices and perceptions of Chinese CS coaches. METHODS: The study employed an observational cross-sectional approach and adopted convenience sampling. The questionnaire consisted of 22 questions and featured four sections: (i) general information, (ii) personal experience, (iii) WL guidance practice, and (iv) perception about WL. It employed different response formats, including (i) 6 short-answer (fill-in-the-blank) questions, (ii) 15 single-choice questions consisting of 4 dichotomous items, 7 multiple-category items, and 4 Likert-type scale items, and (iii) 1 multiple-choice question. In total, 135 coaches completed the questionnaire and responses from 122 coaches (115 males, 7 females, 33.2 ± 7.1 years old) representing 10 CS modalities were included in the analysis. RESULTS: 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Coaches are the primary drivers of pre-competition WL practices in CS, actively requiring athletes to reduce weight to compete in lower categories. While many coaches recognize potential health risks, a substantial proportion perceive WL as neutral or beneficial, and their recommendations are often based on personal experience rather than scientific evidence. Coaches' perceptions influence the risk level of methods they recommend.