Women's gymnastics injuries

Abstract

A 5-year prospective study on the time course of wom en's gymnastics injuries was conducted on a successful NCAA Division I team. Gymnasts recorded injuries on a computer terminal or via computer dot sheets imme diately before each training session, including the in jured body part, the event or activity, and the date of the injury. The definition of injury was "any damaged body part that would interfere with training." Athletes recorded injuries on the 1 st day of onset and subse quently until the injury was healed. The initial onset of injury was considered a new injury. Subsequent rec ords of the injury were considered continuing injury.

Thirty-seven athletes participated through five colle giate seasons. They accounted for 5602 total training exposures with an average of 151.4 exposures per athlete. The analyses showed that gymnasts trained with an injury approximately 71% of the exposures, and a new injury could be expected from a gymnast during approximately 9% of the exposures. The largest number of injuries were of the repetitive stress syn drome type. The time series information showed that total injuries tended to increase until the middle of the competitive season, while new injuries showed promi nent increases during specific training periods and dur ing competition preparation and performance.