252 International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 2011, 6, 252-263 © 2011 Human Kinetics, Inc. The Construct Validity of Session RPE During an Intensive Camp in Young Male Taekwondo Athletes Monoem Haddad, Anis Chaouachi, Carlo Castagna, Del P. Wong, David G. Behm, and Karim Chamari Purpose: The session rating of perceived exertion (RPE) is a practical and non- invasive method that allows a quantiication of the internal training load (TL) in individual and team sports, but no study has investigated its construct validity in martial arts. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the convergent validity between the session-RPE method and two objective HR-based methods for quantifying the similar TL during a high-TL camp in young Taekwondo (TKD) athletes. Methods: Ten young TKD athletes (mean ± SD: age, 13.1 ± 2.4 y; body mass, 46.1 ± 12.7 kg; height, 1.53 ± 0.15 m; maximum heart rate (HR max ), 201.0 ± 8.2 bpm) participated in this study. During the training period, subjects performed 35 TKD training sessions, including two formal competitions during which RPE and HR were recorded and analyzed (308 individual training sessions). Correla- tion analysis was used to evaluate the convergent validity between session-RPE method and the two commonly used HR-based methods for assessing TL in a variety of training modes. Results: Signiicant relationships were found between individual session-RPE and all the HR-based TLs (r values from 0.55 to 0.90; P < .001). Signiicant correlations were observed in all mode of exercises practiced in TKD. Conclusions: This study shows that session-RPE can be considered as a valid method to assess TL in TKD. Keywords: youth, martial arts, perceived exertion, combat sports, heart rate. Taekwondo made its irst appearance as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Taekwondo became an oficial Olympic sport in the 2000 Summer Olympics, in Sydney, Australia. This Korean martial Monoem Haddad is with Sports Performance Optimisation, Tunisian Research Laboratory, National Center of Medicine and Science in Sports, Tunis, Tunisia. Anis Chaouachi is also with Sports Performance Optimisation, Tunisian Research Laboratory, National Center of Medicine and Science in Sports, Tunis, Tunisia. Carlo Castagna is with the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Team-Sports Research Area, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome “Tor Vergata,” Rome, Italy. Del P. Wong is with the Department of Health and Physical Education, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong. David G. Behm is with the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s Newfoundland, Canada. Karim Chamari is with Sports Performance Optimisation, Tunisian Research Laboratory, National Center of Medicine and Science in Sports, Tunis, Tunisia.