The injuries of Turkish national free-style and Graeco-Roman wrestlers

Abstract

Aim. The purpose of this study was to investigate the types of injuries in Turkish national senior free style and Greco-roman wrestlers. Methods. The data of 145 wrestling injuries were collected with the help of injury surveillance forms maintained (75 in free style and 70 in Greco-Roman) throughout three years. The relationship between injuries of regions and mechanism, and style preferred by wrestlers were analyzed by using a chi(2) test. Results. The results showed that there were 166 injuries in Greco-Roman style and 179 injuries in free style. The most common injuries in Greco-Roman wrestlers were found in upper extremities (36.75%), lower extremities (19.28%) and head (15.66%), and the most common injuries in free style wrestlers were in lower extremities (40.22%), upper extremities (31.84%) and head (13.41%). (An injury rate per one wrestler was found 2.37 in Greco-Roman and 2.39 in free style). The injuries which occurred during training were 54.20% and during competition were 5.79%. The frequencies of injuries per 100h of training were found 0.11. For competitions the injury frequency per 1 match was found 1.05. The most common injury types in both styles were joint sprain, muscle strain and contusion. Nevertheless, 57.97% of injuries resulted in the injured wrestler were for being absence of training or competitions less than seven days. Finally, There was a significant (P<0.05) relationship between injured parts and both styles. Conclusions. The injuries in Greco-Roman Wrestlers commonly occurred in upper extremities, and in free style wrestlers they commonly occurred in lower extremities. Using proper safety gear and learning a better technique can reduce the risk of injuries during wrestling.