A Prospective Study of High School Wrestling Injuries

Abstract

We performed a prospective study to evaluate injury patterns in a large population of high school wrestlers during one season. Preseason screening was performed on 458 male wrestlers from 14 different high schools. Certified athletic trainers submitted detailed weekly team and individual injury reports. There were 219 injuries in 418 wrestlers followed throughout the season for an overall injury incidence of 52 injuries per 100 wrestlers per season and an injury rate of 6.0 injuries per 1,000 exposures. The most commonly injured areas were the shoulder (24%) and knee (17%). Injured wrestlers were an average of 5 months older and had a 32% higher experience level than noninjured wrestlers. Wrestlers with ligamentous laxity suffered fewer shoulder injuries than the other wrestlers. The majority of injuries occurred in practice (63%), although the injury rate was higher in match competitions. Sixty-eight percent of practice injuries occurred during hard wrestling, 23% during drills, and 9% during conditioning. The most common wrestling situation resulting in injury was the takedown position (68%). Our results show that the older and more experienced wrestler may be at greater risk of injury. Hard wrestling during practice and the takedown position resulted in the highest occurrence of injury.

Lesões musculoesqueléticas em atletas de luta olímpica

“…The difficulty in the comparison of data among studies is due to the absence of an uniform standard in the classification of lesion types. 4 The types of lesion most frequently reported in our study were sprains (34.5%) and muscle lesions (30.4%), which is in line with the results presented by Jarrett et al 4 , Pasque et al 5 and Snook 6 . These authors said that contusions are the third most common lesion in wrestlers, unlike our data in which contusions were the least frequent lesions.…”

“…This time was considerably longer than that encountered by other authors. 1,4,5 This may be a result of the design of our study, in which injuries of lesser severity with shorter length of absence were probably not reported due to a known effect such as memory bias. Knowledge of the more frequent musculoskeletal injuries in wrestlers can help professionals involved in the sport in the preparation of preventive actions and of training programs with the intention of reducing their incidence and of improving the performance of sportsmen and sportswomen.…”

“…In a similar manner, Jarrett et al 4 said that 6% of the lesions required surgical treatment and Agel et al 1 and Wroble et al 14 reported that most of the lesions that required surgical treatment occurred in the knee. Several authors [4][5][6]12,15 , using different methods to evaluate severity, report that the majority of traumatisms in wrestlers are not considered severe. In our study, the average length of absence from sport due to injury was 2.1 months.…”

“…3 Wrestling is a contact sport with extreme physical demands and its practice is naturally associated with an elevated incidence of orthopedic injuries, 1,4-6 yet there is little information about these injuries in literature. 4,5 The aim of this study was to identify and characterize the musculoskeletal injuries more commonly related with the sport. The analysis of the data obtained can assist in the preparation of preventive measures.…”

Generalized Joint Laxity Associated With Increased Medial Foot Loading in Female Athletes

“…30 For example, Decoster et al 6 found that the rate of ankle injuries was 26% higher in athletes with generalized joint hypermobility than in athletes with normal joint mobility. The demands placed on the joints of an athlete with joint hypermobility are important to consider prospectively, because the joints generally may tolerate repetitive activity better than tasks requiring stabilization.…”