Effects of Competition Rule Changes on the Incidence of Head Kicks and Possible Concussions in Taekwondo.

OBJECTIVE: Competition rules related to head kicks (HKs) in sparing-taekwondo (S-TKD) were changed in 2009, resulting in more points awarded to the head attacker. The objective of this research is to measure the incidence of HKs and to analyze the characteristics of situations leading up to and after HKs in a postrule change competition. DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiology study using video analysis. SETTING: The final matches of the World Taekwondo Championships (WTCs) in 2011 and 2013. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1760 athletes participated in both WTCs. Sixty-four athletes, who had won elimination-round matches and were 15 years or older, competed in final matches. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The final matches-a total of 64 matches including 95 rounds-were analyzed using an anatomical and outcome coding scheme for HKs. RESULTS: Overall, a total of 30 athletes experienced receiving one or more HKs during 2 WTCs (469 HKs per 1000 athlete-exposures (A-E), 95% confidence interval = 296, 642). Female athletes showed higher incidences of HKs than male. A trend of increasing incidence of HKs was observed in the females. The HKs occurred more frequently among competitors in lightweight categories and those of similar height (49%). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the frequency of HKs seems to have increased compared with matches before 2009. A sharp increase in the numbers of HKs is evident among the elite female athletes. To prevent receiving an HK, updated game strategies such as training for blocking skills, and safety guidelines for HKs, or revisions to rules are needed. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The recent changes to competition rules promoting the use of HKs may have resulted in an increasing frequency of HKs compared with research findings before these changes. Multiple HKs occur frequently in S-TKD; care needs to be taken to avoid possible acute/chronic consequences.

Effects of the new karate rules on the incidence and distribution of injuries.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the incidence and distribution of injuries in karate before and after the implementation of new rules established by the World Karate Federation in 2000. METHODS: Injury incidence was followed up during the official karate competition seasons of 1997 and 2002 in Croatia. A questionnaire was used to collect data on the age and sex of the competitor and localisation and severity of injury. Data were analysed separately for female and male competitors and age categories < 18 and > or = 18 years. RESULTS: A total of 2023.5 and 2584 minutes of active fighting (exposure time) was assessed for 1997 and 2002 respectively. The overall injury incidence rate (IR) was similar in 1997 and 2002 (10.28 and 9.82/100 exposure minutes respectively). The relative risk (RR) of injury was significantly higher in 1997 than in 2002 for competitors younger than 18 years (RR 1.55, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.11 to 2.16). The overall RR of head injury was significantly higher in 1997 than in 2002 (RR 1.96, 95% CI 1.54 to 2.49), but the RR of leg injury was significantly lower in 1997 than in 2002 (RR 0.16, 95% CI 0.09 to 0.28). Most injuries (> 98%) were categorised as mild (grade 1) in both periods studied. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study confirm the importance of the new competition rules in the distribution and prevention of injuries in martial arts. Strict judging and heavy penalties for uncontrolled blows, particularly for the youngest competitors, can significantly decrease the risk of injury.

A martyr for modernity: Qiu Jin -- feminist warrior, and revolutionary.

Qui Jin, at one level, was an oriental twentieth-century Judith, the mythical Jewish widow from Bethulia who cut off the head of Holofernes, the Assyrian general besieging the city, thus saving the Israelites from destruction. Qui Jin was, as Judith was, a self-reliant heroine who when others seemed 'helpless and demoralized undertook to save them single-handedly', or in her case virtually single-handedly. This, of course, was both her making and her unmaking. In Chinese terms the story of Qui Jin, like the story of Judith if less famous, less publicised, more recent, is the story of an icon at once central and at the same time marginal to tradition. She contradicted the most cherished customs on Confucian Chinese culture. She was a radical force who thrust her way to the centre of the concentric circles of customs surrounding this culture and was pushed back to the margins by conservatism. Nevertheless Qui Jin was not without success. She challenged a long-established mythology of exclusively masterful patriarchy - and created a counter myth of purposeful patriotic feminism. She was a counter-cultural icon who changed perceptions of Chinese femininity. She gave courage, confidence and purpose to those women who came after her and absorbed her ambitions for modern Chinese womanhood. For them she was a modern national heroine and a personification of a modern nation of equal men and women. For Qui Jin the body was an instrument of female revolution to be trained, strengthened and prepared for confrontation. As a revolutionary militant she was a failure; as a revolutionary talisman she was a success. For the Chinese women of the 1911 Revolution hers was an exemplary emancipatory story: subscribe, struggle, sacrifice. Patriotism through feminism is the purpose. Her heroism was firmly outside the historic patriarchal order. Her adulation is thus all the more remarkable because of the profound traditions she rejected, the controversial mannerisms she adopted, the uncompromising attitudes she embraced. She eschewed motherhood, abandoned marriage, dismissed femininity, and yet won acclaim in the most traditional of cultures. Qui Jin was hardly a cynosure of universal acclaim but she was admired, respected and emulated by radical Chinese women and men seeking a new society accommodating women. Her modern feminism struggled to overcome an ancient patriarchy. Here was her appeal. She exuded no moral ambiguity. Consequently, if she was demonized by the conventional; she was deified by the radical - and inspired them as the contemplated and attempted to construct the future. There is a point, of course, that should not be overlooked. Qui Jin, in fact, is not divorced from occidental culture and political iconography. Qui Jin is closely associated with the attitudes, aspirations and fantasies of modern Western feminism. As Margarita Stocker observes, a 'romantic heroine, angry feminist, radical, activist is one example of a pervasive figure', in modern Western cultural mythology 'a figure we may sum up as the Woman with a Gun'. Force, that potent means to power, is available to the gun user irrespective of age of sex, with a resulting 'crucial alteration in the sexual politics of violence'. The Woman with a Gun can now be emphatically heroic - without duplicity, without deceitfulness, without subterfuge. Moral ambiguity in action has been abandoned. She becomes an unambiguous potent force - an armed woman faces an armed man on equal terms - physically, psychologically, morally. Equality offers the legal right and responsibility to kill in the name of patriotism. Modern culture has just caught up with Qui Jin.