Possible Concussions Related to a Direct Head Kick Among College Taekwondo Athletes

Sparring-Taekwondo (S-TKD) is a full-body contact sport that has been an official sport of the summer Olympic games since 2000 when it gained the additional name of Olympic-style taekwondo. Attacks and counter-attacks for all types of taekwondo permit the legal scoring of kicking techniques directed toward the head/face/neck (i.e., head kicks) and torso, though punching the head region is illegal. Given the kicks used in S-TKD, there is a high risk for brain and musculoskeletal injury in competition and training sessions. A number of studies have reported injury rates in S-TKD competitions [1-9]. In one report, 1,466 injuries occurred in 283 athletes during training, with an average of 5 injuries per athlete annually [10]. A meta-analysis found an injury rate of 79 per 1,000 athlete-exposures (A-E) in taekwondo competitions [6]. Similarly, a recent study of an S-TKD team from Korea has reported injury incidence rates in training sessions and competition of 5 and 25 per 1,000 A-E, respectively [9]. In addition to the musculoskeletal injuries in S-TKD, there is a high risk of concussion, ranging was from 0.0 to 50.2 per 1,000 A-E [11] which is anticipated since a direct kick to the opponent’s head region is legal and promoted by the competition rule. Additionally, changes made by the sport’s governing bodies (i.e., World Taekwondo (WT) and Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA) include a recent competition rule (i.e., 2018) where a valid head kick (HK) will be awarded from a minimum of 3 points to a maximum of 5 points (i.e., given higher points). As a result, the head zone has become a major scoring area since 2009. In 2019, the ORIGINAL ARTICLE ISSN(Print) : 1226-1726 ISSN(Online) : 2384-0544