Page 9 - Safe Wrestling

The Importance of Injury-Preventive Behaviour

ing signs, thereby increasing injury risk (Donaldson & Finch, 2013; Soli-
gard et al., 2016). Conversely, coaching approaches that explicitly inte-
grate safety, body awareness, and self-regulation into performance de-
velopment have been shown to support both injury reduction and skill
acquisition.
International policy frameworks further emphasise the responsibility
of sport systems to address these challenges. The World Health Organi-
zation highlights the importance of safe and developmentally appropri-
ate physical activity as a foundation for lifelong health, explicitly calling
for improvements in movement quality and injury prevention strategies
among youth populations (World Health Organization, 2020). Similarly,
the International Olympic Committee stresses that safeguarding athlete
health is both an ethical obligation and a prerequisite for sustainable ath-
lete development, particularly in sports characterised by early specialisa-
tion and high physical demands (Crossley et al., 2025).
Within educational discourse, the concept of physical literacy pro-
vides a unifying framework for understanding injury prevention as part
of holistic athlete development. Physical literacy encompasses not on-
ly motor competence, but also confidence, motivation, knowledge, and
understanding related to movement and health across the lifespan (UN-
ESCO, 2021). From this perspective, injury-preventive behaviour repre-
sents a core expression of physical literacy, reflecting an athlete’s ability
to move safely, recognise bodily signals, and make informed decisions
regarding training and recovery.
Against this background, the Safe Wrestling project positions injury
prevention at the intersection of sport science, pedagogy, and applied
coaching practice. By addressing the biomechanical, psychosocial, and
educational determinants of injury risk, the project responds directly to
contemporary scientific evidence and international policy recommen-
dations. This chapter provides the conceptual foundation for such an
approach, framing injury-preventive behaviour as a central outcome of
high-quality youth sport systems and a key indicator of ethical and sus-
tainable coaching practice in wrestling.

Methods
Design and Conceptual Approach
This chapter is based on a structured narrative synthesis of contempo-
rary scientific literature addressing injury prevention in youth sport, with
a particular focus on combat sports and youth wrestling. The method-

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