Introduction

Hip Hop dance is a group of dance styles that signified by its high energy movement and complex rhythmic steps that aims to give a “Wow” effect. Since its inception in the 1960s, its popularity has been growing non-stop worldwide. However, with its popularity and moves that push limits, it is observed that dance injuries attributed by hip hop dance are on the rise, and actually has the highest injury rate out of all dance styles (e.g. 3.4 times more than modern dance and 2 times more than ballet). In this article, we will give a brief summary on dance injuries among hip hop dancers.

Injury pattern

The most common site of dance injuries among hip hop dancers are knee (36-42%), followed by back (19-32%) and foot and ankle (15%). Up to 70% of them are classified as time-loss injuries, which means that it contributes to a pause in training, teaching, competition or performance. Specific injury patterns occur in different subgenre of hip hop dance. For instance, break dancers have the highest injury rate (3.8 injuries per dancers), and have an unique pattern of wrist (69%) and neck injuries due to their specific “power moves”. Popper, lockers and new schoolers have the second highest rate (2.3 injuries per dancers), and knee injuries are common with rapid rotational movements required in these dance styles. Biomechanical studies showed that high force is exerted in their dance moves, which put the joint and muscle at a functional disadvantage position and therefore at high risk of injuries.

Injury prevention

In addition to the high energy movement that is inherent to its dance style, there are several modifiable risk factors that one can do to avoid dance injuries.

•	Floorings : Hip Hop dancers perform their dance moves on a hard concrete floor (i.e. acquiring their name of street dancers), compared to their ballet and modern dance counterparts who dance on a sprung floor, which can partially reduce the impact on landing. To reduce the injuries from high impact on the floor, one may consider practicing at sprung floors or floors with paddings.
•	Training : Hip hop dance is also notorious for its lack of supervision or training protocol (81%), proper warm up (62%) and lack of protective devices (60%) all of which expose dancers to accidents and overuse injuries with wrong techniques. Therefore, to do hip hop dance safely and happily , one better get a coach, wear protective devices and find a proper venue!

簡介

嘻哈舞／街舞 (Hip hop dance / Street dance)是一種以其充滿活力和高難度舞步為代表性的舞蹈風格。自1960年代以來，嘻哈舞便在世界各地逐漸流行。基於其普及性和舞步的難度，因嘻哈舞而引起的創傷亦越來越多。同時，嘻哈舞亦是所有舞種中受傷率最高的一種（嘻哈舞的受傷機率為現代舞的3.4倍和芭蕾舞的2倍）。因此，我們將在本文簡單介紹一下嘻哈舞的舞蹈創傷。

嘻哈舞的舞蹈創傷

在嘻哈舞者中，最常見的受傷部位為膝蓋（36-42％），背部（19-32％）以及腳踝（15％）。其中多達70％的傷勢歸類為非輕傷，即代表它導致了訓練、教學、比賽或表演的暫停。不同的舞種亦有不同的獨特傷勢，如霹靂舞(Breaking/Bboy)中就最常見的傷勢是手腕(69%)及頸椎創傷。同時，因為霹靂舞獨有的“大地板” (Powermove - 即類似體操或武術的高難度動作)，霹靂舞亦是眾多舞種中最高危的一種（每名舞者有3.8次受傷）。 機械舞 (Popping)，鎖舞 (Locking) 和新式嘻哈 (New school)舞者的受傷率為第二高（每名舞者有2.3次受傷），而這些舞種最常見的為膝蓋扭傷。生物力學研究指出，這些舞種有很多快速旋轉的舞步，使膝關節和肌肉處於不利的位置發力，繼而導致受傷的出現。

預防傷患

要減少舞蹈創傷，我們可以採取以下措施:

•	場地方面，嘻哈舞者常在硬地上跳舞(嘻哈舞亦因此被稱為街舞），相比起芭蕾舞或現代舞者通常都在木地板上跳舞。而硬地相比起木地板於衝擊力吸收上比較差，因此導致受傷風險的出現。因此，要減少舞蹈創傷，舞者可以選擇在木地板或有軟墊的場地上訓練。
•	在訓練方面，嘻哈舞者因著缺乏導師（81％）、熱身（62％）和保護裝置（60％）而臭名昭著。這都會令舞者因錯誤的舞蹈技巧或意外而受傷。因此，為安全起見，嘻哈舞者請一位教練，戴好防護裝備並在合適的場地練習。