Perspectives and Challenges in Sports Medicine for Combat Sports

Dear Colleagues,

Combat sports, including boxing, mixed martial arts (MMA), wrestling, and other martial arts disciplines, have seen significant growth in global participation. These sports place extreme physical demands on athletes, increasing their risk of injury while providing valuable opportunities to study human physiology, biomechanics, and injury prevention strategies. Despite the growing interest in combat sports, there remains a gap in the sports medicine literature addressing the unique challenges these athletes face. This Special Issue aims to bridge that gap by exploring the musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, and psychological aspects of combat sports, with a focus on injury prevention, rehabilitation, and performance optimization.

Combat sports present distinct physical, physiological, and psychological demands that set them apart from other athletic endeavors. The high-impact nature of these sports, frequent exposure to concussive forces, and the need for agility, flexibility, and strength create unique challenges in injury management and performance enhancement. Furthermore, the close-contact nature of these sports and the diversity in body types and fighting styles introduce complex variables that necessitate specialized research and tailored medical approaches. Given the increasing number of amateur and professional combat athletes, there is a pressing need to address their specific medical concerns through consolidated research and actionable insights for practitioners.

This Special Issue will cover a broad range of topics within sports medicine as they relate to combat sports, including the following:

• Injury Epidemiology: Common injury patterns, risk factors, and prevention strategies in various combat disciplines.
• Biomechanics: Analysis of combat-specific movements, injury risks, and innovations in wearable technology for athlete monitoring.
• Neuromuscular and Cognitive Aspects: Effects of repetitive head trauma, concussion management, cognitive demands, and neuroplasticity in recovery.
• Psychological Factors and Mental Health: Mental resilience, anxiety management, and psychological interventions for performance enhancement.
• Training and Performance Optimization: Sport-specific training methodologies, nutrition, recovery strategies, and periodization for combat athletes.
• Innovations in Sports Medicine: Advances in rehabilitation techniques, protective equipment, and multidisciplinary approaches to athlete care.

The objectives of this Special Issue are to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of sports medicine research in combat sports, address the unique challenges of injury prevention and rehabilitation, explore emerging trends in technology and training, and highlight the integration of physical, psychological, and cognitive health for optimizing athlete performance. By bringing together contributions from researchers, clinicians, and practitioners, this Special Issue aims to advance the understanding and application of specialized sports medicine approaches to enhance the health and performance of combat athletes.

Dr. Robert Trybulski
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• combat sports
• sports medicine
• injury prevention
• rehabilitation
• biomechanics
• concussion management
• neuromuscular health
• cognitive function
• psychological resilience
• training methodologies
• athlete recovery
• injury epidemiology
• regenerative medicine
• strength and conditioning
• MMA
• boxing
• wrestling
• martial arts
• physical therapy