KOREAN KARATE (TAE KWON DO): INJURY RISK AND PROFILE 1210

Abstract

KOREAN KARATE (TAE KWON DO) is a popular sport among youngsters and young adults because of its physical demands and the secondary gain in self confidence from learning self defense techniques. However, few studies have looked at the injury risk and profile linked to its practice. In order to clarify those specific aspects, 232 sport adepts (70 women, age: 19.7 ± 8.0 ([horizontal bar over]X ± SD); 162 men, age: 20.3 ± 9.3) from 7 different clubs accepted to answer a detailed questionnaire. About 65% of the cohort had at least three years of experience and were currently involved in competitions. The injury prevalence ranged between 63% (males) to 72.9% (females) for an overall average of 65.9%. The injury prevalence strictly limited to participation in competitions was established at 32.7%. A total of 570 injuries (traumatic in 74.2% of all cases) had been sustained by these individuals, distributed in% as follow: lower limbs (48.2), upper limbs(16.5), spine, thorax and abdomen (27.0) and head (8.2). The injuries localized to upper and lower extremities (hand and foot) accounted for 25.4% of all injuries. More than 2/3 (70.5%) of all those injuries happened during fighting and 13.1% during the warming-up phase. The most frequent reported causes of injuries were lack of motion control (38.9%), bad technique (20.6%) and lack of physical preparation (19.7%). A total of 52.9% of those injuries requested some form of treatment and in 30.1% of all cases needed more than one month for total recuperation. These results confirm that Tae Kwon Do could be classified as a high risk of injury sport and that particular attention should be given to the acquisition of proper technique and self-control for fighting, and to physical preparation in order to reduce the injury risk.