Investigating the Role of Some Personal, Training, Performance, and Psychological Characteristics in the Occurrence of Sports Injuries in Adolescent and Adult Taekwondo Athletes

Paper ID : 1603-SPORTCONGRESS

Authors

فاطمه شعبان نیا منصور *, عین اله نادری دانشگاه صنعتی شاهرود

Abstract

Taekwondo, an Olympic combat sport involving punching and kicking techniques, carries a high risk of injury due to its high-intensity nature. Studies show that nearly 67% of taekwondo athletes experience at least one injury, with an incidence rate of 5.77 injuries per 1,000 hours of training and competition. Such injuries threaten athletes’ health, reduce training and competition participation, impair performance, cause psychological distress, and increase medical costs. Understanding the influence of individual, training, functional, and psychological factors—particularly anxiety, aggression, and risk-taking—can support the development of effective prevention strategies. However, the combined effects of these factors on injury occurrence in taekwondo have not been thoroughly investigated. This prospective observational study aimed to examine the influence of individual, training, functional, and psychological characteristics on sports injury occurrence among adolescent and young-adult taekwondo athletes. The study was conducted over a 6–10 month period during 2023–2024 among 156 athletes from Mazandaran and Semnan provinces. Individual and training data were obtained through a researcher-developed questionnaire. Functional performance was evaluated using the Landing Error Scoring System (LESS) and the Triple Crossover Hop Test, and injuries were recorded biweekly according to the “time-loss” criterion. Data were analyzed using SPSS software through descriptive and logistic regression analyses. Overall, 67.3% of participants sustained at least one injury. The most common sites were the ankle and foot (26.87%), knee (20.15%), and lower leg (15.41%). Most injuries were mild to moderate in severity. Individual factors such as age, gender, height, weight, and body mass index were not significantly associated with injury occurrence (p > 0.05). However, higher weekly training frequency (each additional session increasing injury risk by 25%) and right-handedness were significant predictors (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that training programs should avoid excessive weekly sessions, and right-handed athletes should receive closer injury prevention monitoring.

Keywords

Sports injury, Taekwondo, Landing Error Scoring System, Triple crossover hop test, Functional performance

Status: Abstract Accepted (Poster Presentation)