Type, incidence and causes of injuries in elective karate national team competition for dispatch to Asian karate championship in Uzbekistan 2012

Abstract

Exercise is one of necessities of human life. Today, in civilized world we can hardly find someone who is deprive of beauty and excitement of sport. Nevertheless on one hand there are beauty and excitement for athletes, coaches and spectators and on the other hand hardships, pressures, training problems and injuries will have the most negative impact on athletes and coaches. Karate is the world’s most popular martial art and focuses on high performance, health and safety of participants, like any competitive sports [1]. Many sports injuries are reported in karate competition. According to these reports, the scientific advices are given to reduce and prevent injuries [2]. Based on Zetaruk et al. study (2005) on five martial sports, they reported the least amount of injuries in Taekwondo is three times more than karate [3]. But in another study by the McPherson and Picket (2010) as a descriptive epidemiological study was conducted in martial arts, most martial arts injuries in karate and at the lowest damage were as tai chi [4]. On the study that Pappas (2007) conducted on three important sports and gamesboxing, wrestling, and the martial arts – injuries in the martial arts were less than the two other sports [5]. In their study with the title of „Injury profile in competitive karate” and by analyzing three successive world matches, Arriaza and Leyes (2005) reported punch blows (82.7%) as the main cause of injuries, head and face as the injured areas (72.5%), and contusion as the main type of injury (50.3%) [6]. Also, the 6-year study of Macan et al. (2006) demonstrated that new judgment rules have caused reduction of injuries in karate matches. They asserted that strict judging and heavy penalties for uncontrolled blows, particularly for the youngest competitions, can significantly decrease the risk of injury [7]. Arriaza et al. (2009) in their study showed that applying the new competitive rules karate, with dramatic declines in injury rates has been accompanied by a karate competition for athletes, is safer [8]. So the present study was aimed to examine common injuries in karate tournaments.