Injuries in karate

September 2nd, 2006 at 23:20 · Filed Under Injuries, Karate, Sports 

Another interesting topics we (Robert, his wife and I) discussed on last Wednesday evening was injuries. Robert and Minnie were concerned about injuries in karate because karate did not use protective gears such as body and head guard during kumite (sparring) session.

During kumite training, students only wear hand gloves and mouth guard. In a tournament, hand gloves, mouth guard and shin and instep guards are required. No body and head guard is required as in Tae Kwon Do.

This makes the couple concerns about their daughter safety. In my coaching experience, I have not encountered any serious injuries other than some bruises and sprained fingers. I personally experienced lots of bruises and sprained fingers and legs. I had a torn adductor longus (go from pelvis to the thigh bone) on my left thigh about 3 years ago. It was a self inflicted injury. I did not warm up enough before I executed an ushiro geri (back kick). It took me 3 weeks to recover and the next 8 weeks not to do any kicking during my training.

I found an interesting article about a study of injuries in 5 major martial arts. The research was done by Dr. Zetaruk, Pediatric Sports and Dance Medicine Program, Children’s Hospital of University of Manitoba, Canada in collaboration with Violán of University of Barcelona, Spain and Zurakowski and Micheli of Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, USA. The result of the study is very interesting and it shows that tae kwon do has highest injuries rates:

The rate of injuries, expressed as percentage of participants sustaining an injury that required time off training a year, varied according to style: 59% tae kwon do, 51% aikido, 38% kung fu, 30% karate, and 14% tai chi.

There was a threefold increased risk of injury and multiple injury in tae kwon do than karate. Subjects 18 years of age or older were at greater risk of injury than younger ones.

Martial artists with at least three years experience were twice as likely to sustain injury than less experienced students. Training more than 3 hour per week was also a significant predictor of injury.

Compared with karate, the risks of head/neck injury, upper extremity injury, and soft tissue injury were all higher in aikido, and the risks of head/neck, groin, and upper and lower extremity injuries were higher in tae kwon do.

No sex differences were found for any of the outcomes studied.

CONCLUSIONS: There is a higher rate of injury in tae kwon do than karate. Different martial arts have significantly different types and distribution of injuries. Martial arts appear to be safe for young athletes, particularly those at beginner or intermediate levels.

Here is the full article.

Perhaps, it is time for people to realize that karate is safer and switch to karate. It can be very difficult for ignorant and obstinate people to accept this true fact and partly because of their ego not to admit.

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