Effects of Olympic style taekwondo kicks on an instrumented head-form and resultant head injury risk: a pilot study Fife

GPa, Kaminski TWb, OSullivan Dc, Pieter Wd, Shin ISe, Lim THf Context: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refer to concussion as a silent epidemic (300,000/year). In Taekwondo, concussion incidence is three times greater than in American football. To this date a biomechanical analysis of head kicks and head injury outcomes does not exist. Objectives: To assess the effect of various kicks on resultant head linear acceleration (RLA) and head injury criterion (HIC). Participants: Two males (22.00+0.0 years, 184+0.0cm, 81.30+1.8 kg) and two females 20.00+2.8 years, 171.0+1.4 cm, 63.00+5.2 kg) elite TKD athletes. Methods: RLA data were collected from five different head kicks [round kick (RK), front leg axe kick (FA), clench axe kick (CA), jump spin back kick (JB), jump spin hook kick (JH)] randomly performed five times. A Hybrid II Crash Dummy head (H2D) and neck were instrumented with a tri-axial piezoelectric accelerometer, PCB Piezotronics 356A66 (Depew, New York) mounted inside the H2D head. The H2D was fixed to a height adjustable frame and fitted with a protective TKD helmet (LeCAF - Seoul, South Korea). Acceleration data were captured at 10,000 Hz using Qualisys Track Manager (Gothenburg, Sweden) and processed in accordance with SAE J2111. The L-statistic was used to determine differences in RLA and HIC scores between kicks within gender. Results: Significant differences were found between kicks in RLA (p<0.001, eta2=0.652) and HIC (p<0.001, eta2=0.796) and between genders: RLA (p<0.001, eta2=0.785) and HIC (p<0.001, eta2=0.788). Post-hoc analyses showed differences in RLA between the JB (61.631.0g) and FA (20.67.0g) in males (p<0.001) as well as between the RK (72.725.3g) and CA (33.311.1g) (p < 0.006). In the females, post-hoc tests revealed differences in RLA between the RK (69.56.2g) and JH (21.95.7g) (p<0.001) as well as between the JB (48.39.8g) and FA (18.57.2g) (p< 0.001). HIC analysis revealed differences between the JB (556.8679.2) and CA (62.239.9) (p<0.001) and the JH (191.04.2) and FA (23.511.5) (p<0.001) in the males. While in the females, there was a difference between the JH (34.319.7) and RK (526.4113.9) (p<0.001) as well as the JB (236.8104.3) and FA (24.617.9) (p<0.001). Conclusions: The results indicate elite TKD athletes can produce high RLA with kicks previously reported to cause concussion. Previous research reported RLA values of 67.0g (HIC=167) in boxing compared to 111g (HIC=420) in TKD. Earlier estimations report an HIC greater than 200 may cause significant brain injury. Future studies should include more subjects to validate our results and consider rotational accelerations reported to cause concussion. Word Count: 400 Key Words: taekwondo, concussion, head-form, acceleration, head injury risk
Fife et al. (2010), Effects of Olympic style taekwondo kicks on an instrumented head-form and resultant head injury risk: a pilot study, 2nd World Scientific Congress of Combat Sports and Martial Arts, University of Rzeszw, Poland, September 17- 19.

a Gabriel P. Fife, BS, ATC: Department of Applied Kinesiology and Physiology, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware USA b Thomas W. Kaminski, PhD, ATC, FACSM: Department of Applied Kinesiology and Physiology, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware USA c David OSullivan, MS: Department of Physical Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea d Willy Pieter, PhD: Department of Physical Education, University of Asia and the Pacific, Pasig, Philippines e Isshin Shin, PhD: Department of Physical Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea f Tae Hee Lim, PhD: Department of Taekwondo Competition, Yongin University, Yongin, South Korea Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Mike Gratopp of Denton ATD Inc. (Rochester Hills, MI USA) for their contribution in donating the H2D device.

Fife et al. (2010), Effects of Olympic style taekwondo kicks on an instrumented head-form and resultant head injury risk: a pilot study, 2nd World Scientific Congress of Combat Sports and Martial Arts, University of Rzeszw, Poland, September 17- 19.