Injury rates in adult elite judoka

The aim of the present study was to assess the injuries in British judo athletes (judoka) sustained during competition. Subjects were male (n=70) and female (n=46) elite judoka participating in a national judo tournament in the United Kingdom. Injury data were collected with simple check-off forms that describe the athlete, type, location and mechanism of injury. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine the difference in total injury rate between males and females. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to determine the differences in injury rates between body regions. The men recorded a higher injury rate (48.54/1000 athlete-exposures) than the women (34.25/1000 athlete-exposures) (P<0.001). The major injury type was the strain (4.85/1000 athlete-exposures) in the men. The body part most often injured in the women was the elbow (13.70/1000 athlete-exposures). The major injury mechanisms in the men were delivering a throw and impact with surface (14.56/1000 athlete-exposures each). The time-loss injury rate for the men was 4.85/1000 athlete-exposures and 13.70/1000 athlete-exposures for the women. The injury rates in this sample compare favorably to those reported by others for other martial arts.