site and type assessments of sports injuries in archers

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the types of musculoskeletal injuries and injured areas of athletes participating in archery competitions. Materials and Methods: Forty-seven females (31.1%) and 104 males (68.9%), totally 151 archers joined voluntarily the study. Their mean age was 20.4±3.4 years, height was 173.5±7.7 cm, and body weight was 69.0±11.2 kg. About 58.9% (n=89) of participants were using the classical bow, and 41.1% (n=62) the compound bow. The "Musculoskeletal System Questionnaire" was used to evaluate the archers’ injuries. In the questionnaire, nine body sections were divided into neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, back, waist, hip-thigh, knee, foot-foot wrist. The questionnaire questioned the athletes' injuries during the last 12 months. In the data evaluation, the statistical program developed for social sciences was utilized. The results were evaluated as frequency, percentage distribution, chi-square tests. The level of significance was accepted as p0.05). The most common type of injury in all three regions was muscle pain. About 57.6% of these injuries occurred during training. About 35.0% of injuries were cured in a health facility. Conclusion: Most archers are injured in the shoulder, neck and back areas. These injuries are mostly seen as muscle pain. The vast majority of injuries occur in training. In archers, shoulder, neck, and back areas should be more strengthened to reduce injuries. Extra warm-up programmes special to muscles in these sections should be especially applied in trainings and competitions. Shooting techniques are to be correctly applied.