Wrestling Injuries

Wrestling is considered one of the oldest sports in the world that's still practiced today. There are a number of different disciplines and types of wrestling around the world. In the United States, the most popular are the international disciplines, which includes the Olympic sports of Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling; amateur high school and collegiate wrestling; and professional, also called sports entertainment, wrestling. While the modern sport of wrestling certainly isn’t as brutal as it was before the 19th century, it’s still a sport that produces thousands of athletic injuries each year.

Why Do Wrestling Injuries Occur?

There are some minor differences between the various styles and disciplines of wrestling, such as the restrictions on below the waist holds in Greco-Roman wrestling that doesn’t exist in freestyle wrestling. However, most wrestling sports are considered both collision and contact sports. The aggressive, explosive, and physical nature of wrestling maneuvers like the bodylock, gutwrench, headlock, nelson holds, back bow, leg split, and so forth lead to many traumatic injuries. Traumatic injuries can occur from direct contact with the mat, floor, or the opposing competitor; friction; compression; hyperextension; and such. On the other hand, overuse injuries are more likely to occur from a wrestler doing too much, too soon, too often during their practices and physical conditioning routines.

What Are Some Common Wrestling Injuries?

Knee Sprains

Wrestlers rely heavily upon their knees and firmly planted feet to gain the upper hand on an opponent. The knees are also commonly twisted, jarred, and stretched during many wrestling maneuvers. It’s factors like these that make the knees one of the most common injury sites in wrestling.

A sprain is an overstretching/tearing injury to a ligament. Ligaments connect bone to bone. The ligaments in the knee help keep it stable and prevent it from moving past its normal range of motion. Of the four main ligaments in the knee, the most commonly injured during wrestling is the medial collateral ligament, or MCL. It runs along the inside of the knee joint and is usually injured after a valgus force or blow to the outer leg.

The severity of the sprain is reflected by three different grades:

Grade 1 - abnormal stretching or microscopic tearing of the MCL. This grade may involve mild swelling and pain, but won’t interfere with the normal range of motion or operation of the knee.

Grade 2 - moderate tearing of the MCL. There may be mild to moderate pain, tenderness, swelling, bruising, stiffness, and loss of strength.

Grade 3 - significant to complete tearing of the MCL. This grade is usually accompanied by significant swelling, bruising, tenderness, and stiffness and significant to complete loss of strength and range of motion.

In addition to the above symptoms, the wrestler may feel a crack or pop as the ligament is sprained.

Prepatellar Bursitis

Another common knee injury is prepatellar bursitis. This injury is also often called housemaid’s knee due to the time housemaids of yore spent on their knees scrubbing floors. Bursitis is an inflamed bursae. These are thin, fluid-like sacs that surround most major joints. They help to lubricate the soft tissues surrounding a joint and allow movement to occur without undue friction.

The prepatellar bursa is situated between the front of the patella (kneecap) bone and is very superficial to the surface of the skin. Due to this superficial location, the prepatellar bursa is easily damaged from prolonged pressure being placed on the front of the knee, such as from kneeling on a wrestling the mat. Bursitis can also follow blunt force trauma, such as from the frequent impact to the front of the knee during wrestling takedowns.

Symptoms of prepatellar bursitis include:

* swelling around the front of the kneecap
* the swollen area may feel like a soft, watery lump
* knee stiffness
* localized bruising or redness
* localized warmth
* limited range of motion in the knee
* knee stiffness
* knee pain and/or tenderness

Rotator Cuff Tendinitis

The shoulder, in particular the rotator cuff, is another common injury site. Wrestlers use repetitive, often stressful, grappling motions during competition and practice that place a great deal of wear and tear on the rotator cuff. The sudden pulls and jerks of wrestling maneuvers also cause a great deal of irritation to the rotator cuff.

The rotator cuff is comprised of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor muscles and their associated tendons. When the rotator cuff tendons become inflamed from overuse or overload, it’s called rotator cuff tendinitis.

The symptoms of rotator cuff tendinitis include:

* dull, achy, piercing, or throbbing pain that may intensify when the affected shoulder is laid on or lifted
* localized swelling
* shoulder weakness
* decreased range of motion in the shoulder

Chronic rotator cuff tendinitis can lead to the rotator cuff muscles and/or tendons tearing, which is called a rotator cuff strain.

Of course, these are just a few of the many injuries that a wrestler can suffer. Other common injuries include: muscle, skin, and bone contusions; cauliflower ear; muscle strains, especially of the groin, calves, biceps, and lower back; dislocations, especially of the fingers and shoulders; lacerations; friction burns from wrestling mats; concussions; fractures; and menisci injuries to the knees.