The relationship between Taekwondo training habits and injury: a survey of a collegiate Taekwondo population

Abstract

ObjectiveTo correlate training habits of Taekwondo (TKD) athletes to risk for injury.BackgroundTKD is a Korean marital art that has been growing in popularity, with nearly 2 million individuals practicing the sport in the United States. Because of the combative nature of the sport, injuries are an inherent risk. However, data on proper training habits, types of injuries sustained during training, and recommendations for athletes to avoid injury are lacking. Frequently, studies of TKD evaluate athletes’ injuries during tournaments, but most do not evaluate athletes in training.HypothesisIncreased training would potentially create more injuries secondary to increased exposure.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional observational survey of 72 collegiate TKD athletes from the Pacific West Sanctioned Taekwondo Tournaments in the 2008–2009 season. Variables analyzed during training and competitions were training sessions per week, workout habits, belt level, years of experience, and characteristics of injury (location, type, mechanism, situation, treatment, and days missed).ResultsTKD training habits of individuals who practiced four or more times per week (odds ratio [OR], 4.5; P=0.005) or sparred for more than 2 hours (OR, 8.7; P=0.003) were associated with significantly increased odds (risk) of sustaining an injury. Those who had more than 3 years of tournament experience were more likely to sustain an injury (OR, 0.198; P=0.020).ConclusionIncreased risk for injury with more frequent practice and longer sparring should remind coaches and trainers that monitoring and adjusting the athletes’ training schedules and exposure time could decrease the chance of injury. An athlete that has spent more years in tournaments along with high-frequency and long-duration training was associated with greater risk for injuries. Prevention and education about the risk for exposure to injury may may help athletes and trainers promote prevention strategies and adjust an athletes’ training and tournament schedules to decrease the risk for injury.

Can Match-Mimicking Intermittent Practice Be Used as a Simulatory Training Mode of Competition Using Olympic Time Frame in Elite Taekwondo Athletes?

“…Accordingly, athletes not only have to perform TKD-specific skills and conditioning training but also have to participate in regional tournaments. However, these reality simulated training regimens (team combat practice, friendly match/competition, and regional tournament) possibly cause varying levels of sport injuries due to the frequent physical contact between athletes (Kazemi et al., 2005; Covarrubias et al., 2015; Hammami et al., 2018), because injuries are an inherent risk due to the nature of combat sports. These negative impacts during training may thus result in short-term training cessation and subsequently perturb athletic performance and competition preparations (Eston et al., 2003).…”

Different Methods of Winning, Losing, and Training in Combat Sports and Their Relationship with Overall Competitive Winningness

“…Indeed, future research should be conducted to examine training load planning within wrestling. Training load may also have a significant relationship to injury rate, for example, higher training load has been associated with more frequent injuries in taekwondo [ 29 ], though injuries were not assessed within the current study so no conclusion can be drawn in such areas with this data. Outside of these reported differences, frequency of training had no influence on competitive winningness in any combat sport.…”

Sports injuries in amateur recreational Taekwondo athletes

“…However, these sports provide ambiguous outcomes in the health-sport relationship, as they are responsible for most sports injuries [2][3] . Taekwondo is a combat sport that prioritizes direct contact between athletes, by kicks and punches, which makes it inherent to injuries risk 2,4 . The requirements and competitiveness of the sport increase the risk of sports injuries and, despite efforts to reduce it, studies are necessary to assess its prevalence and associated risk factors 5,6 .…”