Abstract
This study aimed to identify types and sites of body injury, location of injury occurrence, and the mechanism and severity of injuries in novice and advanced Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) athletes. One hundred and eight BJJ athletes took part in this study separated in two groups: advanced (n = 53) and novice (n = 55). Athletes answered a questionnaire concerning regions of injury, locality of occurrence, injury severity and mechanism. Chi square test and a logistic regression analysis were used with the level of significance set at p < 0.05. The main results showed that shoulders and knees were the most injury location reported by novice and advanced athletes. Novice athletes demonstrated higher prevalence of injuries during training sessions (54.5%), whereas advanced athletes reported more injuries during competitions (66.1%). Significant associations between novice and advanced athletes were observed for major joints (p < 0.05). The odds ratio of having injury was 70-87% less for novice versus advanced athletes for the major joints cited. We concluded that BJJ athletes demonstrate high prevalence of injury mainly at knee and shoulder. While risk of injury appeared less in novice, the advanced demonstrated higher number of injuries during competitions as a consequence of injured joint keys. By contrast, novice athletes reported higher number of injuries associated with training sessions as a consequence of overuse.
Highlights
Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) is a combat sport that has demonstrated an increase in popularity is recent years, which is largely attributable to its inclusion in mixed martial arts (MMA)[1]
While rate of injury has been reported as more common during training sessions compared with competitions in other combat sports as karate, judo[10], wrestling[11], boxing[12] and taekwondo[13], differences in the rate of injury incidence during training sessions compared with competition has not been explored in BJJ athletes
We concluded that BJJ athletes demonstrated high prevalence of injury primarily at knee and shoulder
Summary
Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) is a combat sport that has demonstrated an increase in popularity is recent years, which is largely attributable to its inclusion in mixed martial arts (MMA)[1]. The primary goal of BJJ is to apply strangleholds and joint keys (e.g., wrist, elbow, knee and ankle locks) to force an opponent into submission and loss of the match[2]. Because of the high intensity of matches, body strain imposed by an opponent during application of key techniques, and rapid body falls and shocks the BJJ athlete is continually exposed to increased risk for injury throughout training sessions and competitions. While rate of injury has been reported as more common during training sessions compared with competitions in other combat sports as karate, judo[10], wrestling[11], boxing[12] and taekwondo[13], differences in the rate of injury incidence during training sessions compared with competition has not been explored in BJJ athletes
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