Nutrition in Combat Sports

276 W. Pieter
from practice or competition: 3.23/1,000 A-E for men and 1.82/1,000 A-E for
women). However, the men also sustained concussions that led to time loss of 21
days or more: 1.17/1,000 A-E. The women did not incur such injuries. Most head
and neck injuries led to time loss of 7 days or less (7.63/1,000 A-E and 5.46/1,000
A-E for men and women, respectively). Both males (2.05/1,000 A-E) and females
(1.21/1,000 A-E) sustained time-loss head and neck injuries of 21 days or more
[90] . More than one third (35.7%) of all foot injuries in men and 50% in women
led to 21 days or more of time loss [79] .
At the recreational level, time-loss injuries were found to lead to 7 days or less
away from practice or competition with rates of 25.64/1,000 A-E and 23.81/1,000
A-E for men and women, respectively. No time-loss injuries were recorded necessitating
more than 7 days off from practice or competition [87] . In Malaysian
males, all time-loss injuries (20.41/1,000 A-E) led to 21 days away from training
or competition, while the females recorded a rate of 16.30/1,000 A-E for 21 days
or more lost [89] . In view of the available evidence, the contention that taekwondo
is a safe sport [59] will have to be reviewed [91] .
15.4.5 Injury Situations and Mechanisms
Early research showed that the situations that led to injuries were attacking with
a kick and unblocked attacks, with the injury mechanisms being delivering a blow
and receiving a blow [67, 68, 92] . For head and neck injuries, the main situation
was the unblocked attack with receiving a blow as the mechanism [90] . The same
patterns were apparent for serious injuries in general [82] , including cerebral
concussions [77] . The dominant situation leading to foot injuries was, not unexpectedly,
attacking with a kick and delivering a kick as the mechanism [79] .
Kicking the elbow with the instep of the foot with a roundhouse kick was among
the main mechanisms [73] .
Subsequent research revealed the exact techniques involved in the injuries. Beis
et al. [72] reported the roundhouse kick as the one most often involved in injuries
in general, while Pieter et al. [69] found attacking with a roundhouse kick and
unblocked roundhouse kicks the main injury situations in both men and women.
Delivering a roundhouse kick and receiving this kick were the main mechanisms in
men. The main mechanisms in women were receiving a roundhouse kick and
receiving a spinning back kick [69] . Koh et al. [71] identified delivering a kick as
the main injury situation in both men and women, followed by unblocked kicks.
The authors subsequently reported the roundhouse kick to be the most often used
technique leading to injury (Table 15.7 ).
The main injury situation and mechanism of time-loss injuries were found to be
unblocked roundhouse kicks and receiving them in men, while the situation for the
women was attacking with a roundhouse kick and receiving a spinning back kick.
The same patterns were reported for cerebral concussions [69] .