Indian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Life Sciences ISSN: 2231– 6345 (Online) An Open Access, Online International Journal Available at www.cibtech.org/sp.ed/jls/2014/04/jls.htm 2014 Vol. 4 (S4), pp.2338-2344/Jafari et al. Research Article COMPARING THE TIME OF INJURIES IN ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS, AEROBIC GYMNASTIC, ACROBATIC GYMNASTICS AND TRAMPOLINE AMONG ELITE MALE GYMNASTS IN IRAN 1 2 3 Tohid Nekukhah , *Yahya Sokhanguie and Seyyed Mohammad Kashef 1Department of Applied Mathematics, College of Mathematics Sciences, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Alborz, Iran 2Department of Physiotherapy, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3Department of Physical Education, Urmia University *Author for Correspondence ABSTRACT The aim of this study is comparing the time of injuries in Artistic Gymnastics, Aerobic Gymnastics, Acrobatic Gymnastics, and Trampoline among elite male gymnasts in Iran. Due to the small number of elite gymnasts in the country, the population is equal to the sample. A total of 100 elite gymnasts in the field above the average weight 64.3 kg, height 172.19 cm, 20.41years old and BMI 18.6 kgm², respectively were selected for the study. The researcher made questionnaire was used to collect data. Its validity and reliability approved by teachers with confidence α=0.81 respectively. In the descriptive and inferential statistics level to analyze the data of the frequency of and percentage and SPSS21 software were used. The results show that from a total of 389 recorded injuries in four branches, without considering the type of injury, most of the injuries were occurred during gymnastics training. (respectively in Acrobatic Gymnastics 23.39%, Artistic Gymnastics 23.14%, Aerobic Gymnastics 20.31% and Trampoline 19.28%) and most of injuries in all branches was related to soft tissue injury and during exercise (respectively in Acrobatic 50.6%, Aerobic 44.05%, Trampoline 29.76% and Artistic 23.97%). The gymnasts and trainers should consider these injury times and apply strategies for the prevention of injury, especially during gymnastics training. Certainly, the use of standard teaching aids devices, the use of tactics to delay fatigue, and not performing risky movements during fatigue may have a great impact on reducing injuries. Keywords: Sport Injuries, Artistic Gymnastics, Aerobics, Acrobatics, Trampoline, Elite Gymnasts INTRODUCTION The sports injuries in various sports activities and competitions are always a factor in reducing the quality of performing the skills among the athletes. In most cases, the sports injuries prevent the athletes from continuing practice and lead to the lack of progress and bad performance. They also lead to increased health care costs and psychological complications. The gymnastics is very important because of its attractiveness, diversity of movements, being basic, and other special features. Therefore, a survey of the methods to prevent injuries in this sport is very important to improve the performance and health of athletes. In the gymnastics sport, the gymnast performs strength, balance, flexibility, and spatial awareness movements in Artistic Gymnastics, Aerobic Gymnastics, Acrobatic Gymnastics, and Trampoline to earn points in sports competitions (Crego, 2003). The most popular branch of this sport in the men's category is art branch. In its competitions, the gymnasts compete in Floor Exercise, Horizontal Bars, Vault, Rings Bars, Parallel Bars, and Pommel horse (Stoica et al., 2009). The aerobics gymnastics is the ability to perform continuous combinations and high intensity movement patterns with the music emanating from the traditional aerobic exercise. The aerobic performance usually consists of continuous movement of body, flexibility, power, and 7 basic steps along with complex movements of movement patterns (Ganzin et al., 2013). The Acrobatic Gymnastics includes regular and exciting theatrical movements and attractive group and cooperative movements. Its international competitions are held in five competition groups such as women's doubles, men's doubles, mixed doubles, women’s triple, and four men on the special floor exercises ground (Wade et al., 2009). Trampoline helps the athlete to create © Copyright 2014 | Centre for Info Bio Technology (CIBTech) 2338 Indian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Life Sciences ISSN: 2231– 6345 (Online) An Open Access, Online International Journal Available at www.cibtech.org/sp.ed/jls/2014/04/jls.htm 2014 Vol. 4 (S4), pp.2338-2344/Jafari et al. Research Article good physical and mental condition, and in particular to understand his/her body form in the space. Trampoline competitions are held individually or in pairs and each athlete must perform acrobatic movements (forward, backward, or sideways) (Kunze et al., 2009). However, some research refers to gymnastics as a risky sport. They state that various injuries threat the health of athletes such as falling from equipments, collision with equipments, training pressures, and other factors (Marshall et al., 2007). In its journal, the Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons in America announced that more than 69,000 children under the age of 14 years were treated for medical problems related to gymnastics in 2007. To prevent from injuries of gymnasts, this academy recommended warm-up and stretching before exercise, protecting the used equipments, wearing good shoes, and having good target for practice (Diana, 2010). Despite all the benefits and beauty of gymnastics, the injuries in this field are relatively high. The gymnasts practice many years to achieve the championship platforms. But sometimes, the injuries make the process very long; even in certain circumstances, they lead to the resignation of gymnasts from the field (Caine et al., 1996). In their study on the gymnasts (Lindner and Caine, 1992) reported that the gymnastics injuries range in 1000 hours practice is 0.55 to 5.6. In a study on 37 male gymnasts for one year, also (Bak et al., 1994) reported that the injuries rate in gymnastics per 1000 hours of training is 4.1 cases. In a study on 107 male gymnasts for nine month, (Weaker et al., 1985) reported that the injuries rate in gymnastics per 1000 hours of training is 3.1 cases. Much research has been conducted about the injuries of gymnasts. However, many of them are conducted on women who are physically different from men and have rather different skills and equipments (Nikrou et al., 2012). Also, the research on men’s gymnastics is only in the field of artistic branch. There is no specialized and separate research on all four branches of gymnastics in Iran. Due to the lack of comprehensive research reports about injuries in male gymnastics, the researcher aims to compare the injuries in artistic gymnastics, aerobics gymnastics, acrobatic gymnastics, and trampoline among elite male gymnasts in Iran to clarify some ambiguities in this regard. MATERIAS AND METHODS Methodology This was a descriptive -retrospective study. The population consisted of all the male elite gymnasts over 15 years in the field of artistic gymnastics, aerobics gymnastics, acrobatic gymnastics, and trampoline who were national team members and invitees to the national teams and athletes of gymnastics camps in Iran (N=100). Their weight mean, height mean, age mean, body mass index (BMI), and average duration of gymnastics experience were 64.3 kg, 172.19 cm, 20.41, 18.61 kgm², and 13.03 years, respectively. Totally, 99% of the samples were injured. A number of 208 successes and 90 participations in international, Asia, and world competitions in different fields had been acquired by the gymnasts. Due to the small number of population included in this study (elite gymnasts over 15 years), the population was considered equal to the sample. The data were collected using researcher-made questionnaire with three sections. The first section is included the demographic characteristics of gymnasts and instructions on completing the questionnaire. The second part is related to skeletal, skin, joints, and soft tissue injuries and the interfering factors in the incidence of injuries at gymnastics (during exercise, competition, training, and warm-up). The third section is related to the ranking of internal and external factors in creating injuries; respondents rank each of the internal and external factors. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by several of the professors. The reliability was obtained by distributing it among smaller sample (α=0.81). After identifying the statistical population through artistic, acrobatic, aerobic, and trampoline committees, Gymnastics Federation, and the committee’s active in the provinces in Iran, the questionnaires were completed by champions. Using software SPSS21 and Excel 2010, the descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analyzing the data. © Copyright 2014 | Centre for Info Bio Technology (CIBTech) 2339 © © Copyright 2014 percentage number The time Injury injury Type of gymnastics Table 3 percentage number The time The Table 2 (4.96%). during exercise (74.38%), during training (14.05%), during competition (6.61%), According and to during table warm 2, regardless of injury type in artistic gymnastics, the common time of injury was percent number The time Injury injury of Type gymnastics Table 1 injuries. highest the were exercise during joint injury and during bone exercise damaged (23.97%), during exercise (22.32%), skin injury during exercise (14.88%), was higher than injuries during training, war According to Table 1, the