injuries
Taekwon-Do training, by its very nature, can place the exponent in a variety of situations where injury may occur, whether it be in competition, training or during demonstrations and gradings.
Injuries and their causes can be many and varied, and hence the precautions taken to minimize injury are also many.
The types of Injury can basically be divided into 2 categories.
Cumulative Injury (chronic)
These injuries can occur at any time, and over a period of time (chronic), due to lack of warm-up or poor warm up routine, incorrect execution of technique, lack of stretching or over-stretching, forceful ballistic movements, training on inappropriate surfaces, training in extreme conditions, and so on.
These could include a range of things such as muscle strains or tears, joint sprains and ligament damage, stress fractures from over-training, shin splints and dehydration.
The most common injuries in this regard are:
hamstring and groin strains/tears due to the degree of high kicking in particular
sprained knees, or more serious knee ligament damage, due to the forceful rotation of spinning kicks, particularly when training on high-friction surfaces or in rubber shoes
tendonitis in elbows, shoulders, hips and knees can occur from continual powerful practice of patterns and fundamental movements where the techniques are snapped forcefully in the air (without a target), placing strain on the tendons and joints.
Traumatic Injury (acute)
These injuries are generally caused by impact related events or traumas, whether the exponent is struck by another exponent or object, or even when the exponent strikes another person or object (e.g. breaking boards, tiles…etc).
These types of injuries can range from bruising, skin lacerations, fractured or broken bones, concussion and even internal organ damage (e.g. Eyes, punctured lungs, damaged kidneys)
The degree of injury is largely determined by the amount of force used and the nature of the site of the trauma.
Common types of injuries in this category include:
broken nose from a forceful kick or punch to face
fractured carpal bones from punching or striking boards, bricks and tiles
bruising from kicks or strikes to body, ranging from mild bruising to major deep bruising, such as a cored thigh
Basic First Aid for common Taekwon-Do injuries
In the case of most soft tissue injuries and joint sprains, we adopt a couple of well known acronyms as a matter of principal.
The RICER approach is used in order to help minimize swelling to the injury. This is important, as blood tends to rush to an injured site, which can cause deep bruising (haematoma). Generally, the greater the swelling, the longer the recovery time from the injury and the more difficult it becomes to initially detect the nature of the injury:
RICER
Rest the injured part, and remove the participant from the activity which caused the injury
Ice the injured area with and ice pack, generally for 20 minutes every 2 hours for the first 24 hours and then 20 minutes every 4 hours for the next 24 hours
Compress the area with bandages to hold the icepack in place and prevent swelling.
Elevate the injured part above the level of the heart to help reduce the blood flow to the injury, again reducing swelling.
Refer for further appropriate professional treatment, if necessary for continued management
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