Incidence of injury among male Brazilian jiujitsu fighters at the World Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi Championship 2009.

CONTEXT

Brazilian jiujitsu is a modern combat martial art that uses joint locks to submit an opponent and achieve victory. This form of martial art is a relatively young but rapidly growing combat sport worldwide.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the cumulative injury incidence and risk of injury by belt rank and body region at an international-level Brazilian jiujitsu tournament.

DESIGN

Descriptive epidemiology study.

SETTING

World Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi Championship 2009 in Long Beach, California.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS

We monitored 951 athletes (age range, 18-50 years) enrolled to compete in the World Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi Championship 2009.

INTERVENTION(S): Fighters were categorized by belt level for group comparisons (belt experience). Incidence rates per 1000 athlete-exposures (AEs) and incidence rate ratios were compared by belt rank.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Incidence rates and incidence rate ratios.

RESULTS

During the tournament, 1606 AEs and 62 total injuries were reported. Of these injuries, 40 affected the joints, for an overall incidence rate of 24.9 per 1000 AEs. The joint incidence rate by belt rank was 21.5 per 1000 AEs for blue, 21.3 per 1000 AEs for purple, 25.2 per 1000 AEs for brown, and 35.1 per 1000 AEs for black. We found no differences for incidence rate ratios of joint injury among individual belt groups (P > .05). More experienced (brown belt and black belt) competitors had a higher injury risk than the less experienced (blue belt and purple belt) competitors; however, the difference was not significant (incidence rate ratio = 1.65, 95% confidence interval = 0.9, 2.9; P = .06). The incidence of joint injury was highest at the knee (7.5 per 1000 AEs) and elbow (7.5 per 1000 AEs).

CONCLUSIONS

The data from this international Brazilian jiujitsu tournament indicated that the risk of joint injury was similar among belt ranks or experience during this Brazilian jiujitsu competition. The knee and elbow were the joints most susceptible to injury. Future investigation of injury mechanism is warranted to develop strategies to reduce potential risk factors attributed to injury.