A Comparison of Head Impacts from the Taekwondo Turning Kick and Boxing Hook Punch

1Fife
1Department

GP, 2,3OSullivan DM 4Pieter W

of Physical Education,Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea 2Department of Physical Education, Chung-Ang University, Anseong, Republic of Korea 3Department of Physical Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea 3Department of Taekwondo, Keimyung University, Daegu, Republic of Korea

Key Knowledge in the Field to date: Concussion rates in taekwondo are four times higher than those in American gridiron Football [1]. Previous research indicates the high magnitudes of RLA and HIC recorded by the turning kick in 130 51 g and 672 540 [2]. B o x i n g s t u d i e s h a v e p r o v i d e d biomechanical measures on head injury [3,4] How this work adds to the field: T h e f i r s t k n o w n b i o m e c h a n i c a l comparison of head impacts in taekwondo and boxing A broader picture of the concussion and head injury research field, especially higher impacts not measured before in other sports Specific information concerning the possible dangers of head injury in fullcontact taekwondo for medical personnel employed in the competition arena Objectives: To examine differences between the taekwondo turning kick and boxing hook punch on resultant head linear acceleration (RLA), head injury criterion (HIC15), peak head velocity (HVEL), peak foot (FVEL) and fist (FSVEL) velocities using data reported by Viano et a (2005)[3]. Methods: Twelve elite male taekwondo athletes (176.97.3cm, 70.98.6 kg). Eleven Olympic male boxers (2004 US Boxing National Championship participants, 177.29.2 cm, 76.222.1 kg). Interventions: Taekwondo athletes performed the turning kick five times and boxers executed the hook punch three times.

Methods:
For the comparison of the taekwondo turning kick and the boxing hook punch, the RLA, HIC, HVEL, FVEL and FSVEL results from Viano et al study [3] are compared to Fife et al [2]. The differences in the methodology of the two studies are shown in Table 1. 1-way ANOVA used do observe differences in head injury measures.
METHODS BOXING (Viano et al., 2005) TAEKWONDO (Fife et al., 2012)

Results: Table 2 displays the descriptive statistics for Resultant Head Linear Acceleration (RLA) , HIC, HVEL, FVEL, and FSVEL for the turning kick and hook punch. The turning kick produced greater RLA, HIC, ad HVEL values with very large effect sizes (Table 2).
Variable RLA (g) HIC15 HVEL FVEL/FSVEL Turning Kick 130.1151.67 672.74540.89 4.731.67 11.9121.75 Hook Punch 71.2332.19 78.9669.84 3.080.96 11.033.37

SUBJECTS

12 males 11 males (age 22.5 3.5 years, (weight=76.5+22.1 kg, height 176.9 7.2 cm, height=177.2+9.2 cm) weight 70.8 8.6 kg) Forehead punch Hook Jaw Uppercut RLA HIC Fist velocity Head velocity H3D head, neck and t orso Turning kick Clench Axe Front axe Jump back Spinning hook RLA HIC Foot velocity Head velocity H2D head and neck m ounted to height adjust able frame One Tri-axial (PCB Piezotronics 356A66 Eight OQUS 3-series i nfrared cameras at 500 Hz

TECHNIQUES

** d values = 1.51, 2.44, 1.39, 0.31 for RLA, HIC15, HVEL, and FVEL/FSVEL respectively** Table 2. Descriptives for selected biomechanical head injury measures

VARIABLES

ATD

Tri-axial Endevco 726 ACCELEROMETER 4-2k) at COG and 6 in 3-2-2-2 configuration Kodak HG2000 MOTION ANALYSIS high speed camera at 4500Hz

Table 1. Summary of methodology from boxing and taekwondo studies

Figure 1. Hybrid II Dummy head used for taekwondo testing

Discussion: Previous studies in other full-contact sports demonstrate low[3,4] and high[5] magnitude head injury measures. A recent study in high school American gridiron football show concussion to be caused by not only RLA, HIC measures, but also location of impact and rotational acceleration[6]. Future studies should aim to incorporate more biofidelic test dummies and investigate the effect of taekwondo kicks on rotational accelerations, as this measure is attributed to more serious acute head injuries. Conclusions: The substantially higher values associated with the taekwondo turning kick indicate that there is an increased probability of more serious head injuries in taekwondo. References
1. Pieter W, Fife GP, O'Sullivan DM. Competition injuries in taekwondo: a literature review and suggestions for prevention and surveillance. Br J Sports Med 2012;46:485-491 doi:10.1136/bjsports-2012-091011. 2. Fife GP, Pieter W, OSullivan DM, Cook DP, Kaminski TW. Effects of Olympic Style Taekwondo Kicks on and Instrumented Head-form and Resultant Head Injury Measures. Br J Sports Med 2011;45:318-319. 3. Viano DC, Pellman EJ, Bir CA, Zhang L, Sherman DC, Boitano MA, Casson, IR. Concussion in professional football: comparison with boxing head impacts part 10. Neurosurgery. 2005;57(6):1154-72. 4. Walilko TJ, Viano DC, Bir CA. Biomechanics of the head for Olympic boxer punches to the face. Br J Sports Med. 2005 Oct:39:710-19. 5. Guskiewicz KM, Mihalik JP, Shankar V, Marshall SW, Crowell DG, Oliaro SM, Ciocca MF, Hooker DN. Measurement of head impacts in collegiate football players: relationship between head impact biomechanics and acute clinical outcome after concussion. Neurosurgery. 2007 Dec;61(6):1244-52; discussion 1252-3.

Figure 2. Hybrid III Dummy used for boxing testing[3]

6 Broglio SP, Schnebbel B, Sosnoff JJ, et al. Biomechanical properties of concussions in high school football. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2010 Nov;42(11) 2064-71.