Tae Kwon Do Injuries

Generally speaking, WTF Tae Kwon Do seems a little less "injury causing" than other martial arts. If you're curious, here's a question posted on Yahoo Answers.

Personally, the injuries I've seen are related to few things - misstepping or coming down wrong on your feet, doing a technique your body can't handle, hitting something wrong or too hard (like attempting to break a brick), and being hit off target (in the knee, for example).

How can I avoid injury? First and foremost, stretching and conditioning/practicing footwork is important. The better your body functions, the less likely you are to be injured.

Knowing your limitations is also important - a basic technique done well is far more effective than a complex technique done poorly. That goes for sparring and for practice. In practice, you can take complex techniques slower until you've mastered them. In sparring, you can rely on your basic arsenal.

Finally, before you are really experienced at sparring, you need to take some care. Really experienced players can avoid throwing a kick that will cause them and their opponent to crush knees, for example.

At the end of the day, however, Tae Kwon Do is a combat sport - it is unlikely you will avoid all risk if you're really learning. So do you best, and if you're injured, give yourself time to heal.