Injuries at a Canadian National Taekwondo Championships: a prospective study

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this prospective study was to assess the injury rates in male and female adult Canadian Taekwondo athletes relative to total number of injuries, type and body part injured. METHODS: Subjects (219 males, 99 females) participated in the 1997 Canadian National Taekwondo Championships in Toronto, Canada. Injuries were recorded on an injury form to documents any injury seen and treatment provided by the health care team. These data were later used for this study. The injury form describes the athlete and nature, site, severity and mechanism of the injury. RESULTS: The overall rate of injuries was 62.9/1,000 athlete-exposures (A-E). The males (79.9/1,000 A-E) sustained significantly more injuries than the females (25.3/1,000 A-E). The lower extremities were the most commonly injured body region in the men (32.0 /1,000 A-E), followed by the head and neck (18.3/1,000 A-E). Injuries to the spine (neck, upper back, low back and coccyx) were the third most often injured body region in males (13.8/1,000 A-E). All injuries to the women were sustained to the lower extremities. The most common type of injury in women was the contusion (15.2/1,000 A-E). However, men's most common type of injury was the sprain (22.8/1,000 A-E) followed by joint dysfunction (13.7/1,000A-E). Concussions were only reported in males (6.9/1,000 A-E). Compared to international counterparts, the Canadian men and women recorded lower total injury rates. However, the males incurred more cerebral concussions than their American colleagues (4.7/1,000 A-E). CONCLUSIONS: Similar to what was found in previous studies, the current investigation seems to suggest that areas of particular concern for preventive measures involve the head and neck as well as the lower extremities. This is the first paper to identify spinal joint dysfunction

Lower limb coordination and stiffness during landing from volleyball block jumps

Original article can be found at: http://www.informaworld.com/ Copyright Informa / Taylor and Francis Group. DOI: 10.1080/15438620802103999The aim of the study was to investigate lower limb coordination and stiffness in five male and five female university volleyball players performing block jump landings. Coordination was assessed using angle – angle plots of the hip – knee, knee – ankle and hip – ankle joint couplings and discrete relative phase (DRP) of right – left joint couplings (i.e. left knee coupled with right knee). Leg stiffness was calculated as the ratio of the change in vertical ground reaction force (GRF) to the change in vertical displacement of the centre of gravity between ground contact and maximum vertical GRF. Knee stiffness was calculated as the ratio of the change in knee joint moment to the change in knee flexion angular displacement between ground contact and maximum knee joint moment. Comparison of the DRP angles between left and right legs indicated reduced symmetry between the left and right legs in females compared to males which may indicate greater likelihood of ligament strain in females compared to males. Furthermore, females exhibited reduced stability in the coordination between the left and right knee joints than males. Males exhibited significantly greater absolute and normalised leg stiffness and significantly greater absolute and normalised knee joint stiffness during landing compared to females. In conjunction with the coordination data, this may indicate reduced dynamic stability of the leg in females compared to males which may contribute to the greater incidence of ACL injury in females compared to males.Peer reviewe