Sport injuries belong to the most common and most serious problems in students of physical education. The objectives of the small pilot study, completed in the sample of female physical education students in Libya (n = 10), were: 1) To identify the most frequent injuries among students specialized in exercises and gymnastics, as regards to type of injury and anatomic location, 2) to identify the main causes of these injuries. The study was realized by means of questionnaires, distributed to 15 female students at the Faculty of physical education in Ghat, Libya, studying the specialization „Exercises and gymnastics“. Totally 10 completely and correctly filled questionnaires were received back, 5 had to be excluded. Results: Totally, there were reported 51 injuries in the examined sample, that is average 5.1 injuries per person. The most frequent injuries were muscle strains (41 % of all reported injuries), and bruises (19 %). Regarding anatomic locations, the most of injuries affected lower limbs (31 % of all injuries), then upper limbs (25 %) and head and trunk (25 %). The most common reported causes of injuries were „insufficient heating“ (reported as a main cause in 20 % of all injuries), „malnutrition“ (14 %), exhaustion and fatigue (14 %), „resuming training after interruption“ (14 %), and „breach of law, security and safety” (12 %). The results of the pilot study indicate that the injuries are very frequent in Libyan students and that their causes are often very specific, probably different from causes of injuries in Czech students. More extensive comparative study is needed.

Faculty of Sports Studies Masaryk University Brno