Page 52 - Safe Wrestling

Matej Ipavec

Table 3.1 Most Common Injury Locations in Wrestling
Body Region Percentage Population Authors
Lower extremities 37.5% Elite Korean wrestlers Park et al. (2019)
Lower extremities 38% Elite Korean wrestlers Kim & Park (2021)
during weight loss
Knee 25.5% Elite Brazilian wrestlers Barroso et al. (2011)
Knee 21.4% NCAA wrestlers Powell et al. (2021)
Knee 37.7% Indian wrestlers Hewett et al. (2005)
Shoulder 20% Elite Brazilian wrestlers Barroso et al. (2011)
Shoulder 14.6% Youth wrestles Snyder et al. (2024)
Shoulder 13.4% NCAA wrestlers Powell et al. (2021)
Head/face 71.4% Tokyo 2020 Olympics Shadgan, Szabolcs,
wrestlers et al. (2021)
Head/face 36.4% Rio 2016 Olympics Shadgan et al. (2017)
wrestlers
Head/face 13.8% NCAA wrestlers Powell et al. (2021)
Upper extremities 27.4% Elite Korean wrestlers Park et al. (2019)
Trunk 25.4% Elite Korean wrestlers Park et al. (2019)
Ankle 14.5% Elite Brazilian wrestlers Barroso et al. (2011)

involving an inability to protect the head and neck during throws or high-
force landings, including cases characterised by axial loading of the head
during takedown situations (Boden et al., 2002). These findings strongly
suggest that injury-prevention strategies in wrestling must prioritise both
technical proficiency and contextual risk management during standing
exchanges and takedown scenarios.
Exercise-Based Prevention and Structured Warm-Up Programmes
The strongest experimental evidence currently available supports the
implementation of structured, neuromuscular-focused warm-up inter-
ventions. In a two-arm randomised controlled trial involving freestyle
wrestlers, Bayati and colleagues evaluated the Wrestling+ injury-preven-
tion programme over a six-month competitive season among 80 athletes
(40 intervention; 40 control), using injury incidence density (injuries per
1,000 hours of exposure) as the primary outcome measure (Bayati et al.,
2025).
Replacing a standard warm-up routine with the Wrestling+ programme
resulted in a 58% reduction in overall injury incidence density com-

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