Page 55 - Safe Wrestling

Injuries in Wrestling

pared with normal training phases, with reported injury rates of 23.18
versus 11.93 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures (p < 0.001) (Kim & Park,
2021). The magnitude of this difference suggests that prevention frame-
works that fail to address weight cycling may leave a substantial propor-
tion of the injury burden unaddressed.
Accordingly, comprehensive prevention models should incorporate
evidence-based weight-governance strategies and athlete education.
Historical clinical guidance documents describe the introduction of a
formal weight-certification programme within the National Collegiate
Athletic Association, including hydration testing, minimum-weight de-
termination based on body-fat thresholds, restrictions on weekly weight
reduction, and prohibitions on dehydration-based methods such as
rubber suits, sauna use, diuretics, and induced vomiting or spitting.
These measures represent institutional attempts to reduce unsafe rapid-
weight-loss practices through enforceable regulatory structures (Perri &
Lynch, 2003).
More recent nutrition-focused syntheses in combat sports further re-
inforce the importance of targeted nutritional strategies not only for per-
formance optimisation but also for injury-risk modulation and recov-
ery support across training cycles (Turnagöl et al., 2021). Consequent-
ly, nutrition education and safe weight-management practices should
be regarded as integral components of injury-prevention frameworks in
wrestling rather than peripheral concerns.
Even when the primary focus is orthopaedic injury prevention, wres-
tling prevention strategies remain operationally incomplete without con-
sideration of the coexisting burden of skin trauma and infectious dis-
ease. National Collegiate Athletic Association surveillance reports explic-
itly emphasise the importance of athlete hygiene and routine sanitation
procedures, including mat and equipment disinfection, demonstrating
that effective prevention within real-world wrestling environments re-
quires an integrated medical and operational perspective rather than a
purely musculoskeletal focus (Powell et al., 2021).
Towards an Integrated Prevention Framework
Overall, the prevention literature is progressively converging toward a co-
herent multidimensional framework consisting of:
1. standardised neuromuscular warm-up programmes supported by
emerging trial evidence demonstrating meaningful reductions in in-
jury incidence (Bayati et al., 2025);

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