Page 28 - Safe Wrestling

Saša Jovanovi´ c and Matej Plevnik

a clearer understanding of how wrestling compares with other combat
sports in terms of technical demands, athlete development pathways,
and implications for training design and coach education.

Methodological Rigor and Limitations
To strengthen methodological rigour, priority was given to systematic re-
views, meta-analyses, and large-scale epidemiological or observational
studies where such evidence was available. Nevertheless, given the diver-
sity of combat sport research and the relative scarcity of youth-specific
data within certain disciplines, high-quality descriptive and experimen-
tal studies were also incorporated into the synthesis.
As with all narrative and integrative reviews, this chapter is subject to
several limitations, including the potential for publication bias and vari-
ability in study designs, methodological approaches, and outcome mea-
sures across the included literature. Despite these limitations, the struc-
tured search strategy, explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria, and sys-
tematic thematic synthesis support the validity, coherence, and practical
relevance of the conclusions presented.

Ethical and Conceptual Considerations
All sources included in this chapter are publicly available and were ethi-
cally approved by their respective authors and institutions. The synthesis
emphasises the responsible interpretation of findings, particularly when
extrapolating evidence derived from adult or elite athlete populations
to youth sport contexts. Throughout the analysis, developmental, ped-
agogical, and athlete-safety considerations were prioritised in order to
ensure alignment with contemporary principles of youth sport partici-
pation and athlete welfare.

Results and Discussion
Classification of Combat Sports and Structural Characteristics
The synthesis of the reviewed literature confirms a high degree of con-
sensus regarding the classification of combat sports into striking, grap-
pling, and hybrid disciplines (Sterkowicz-Przybycie´n & Franchini, 2013;
James et al., 2016). This classification is consistently employed across
sport science research, international federation documentation, and
Olympic sport frameworks, thereby underscoring both its conceptual
clarity and practical relevance.
Striking disciplines, including boxing, taekwondo, karate, and kickbox-
ing, are primarily characterised by distance-based interactions, rapid ex-

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