As a sports therapist reducing the likelihood of an injury
is just as important as injury diagnosis and rehabilitation. As stated above,
no injury is 100% preventable there are guidelines that we can follow to
attempt to reduce the likelihood of an injury occurring in any given sport.
The first rule is to know your sport. This seems like a no
brainer, but it is important to understand the biomechanical, external and
internal factors that exist within any given sport. For instance, I work with a
local rugby team so a variety of players will be sprinting, tackling,
scrummaging and rucking on an outdoor surface in a variety of weather
conditions.
When identifying risk factors, we must first look at the
athlete(s) internal risk factors such as age, gender, body composition and
fitness level. In my sport the risk factors associated with a forward will be
very different when compared with a back. There are modifiable (body
composition, fitness level) and non-modifiable (age, gender) risk factors. When
targeting any intervention, we need to look at both factors. Modifiable risk
factors such as fitness level can be improved, and thus keep the player from
sustaining injuries due to exhaustion. Non-modifiable risk factors such as age,
cannot be changed, however, we can use methods to help reduce the risk of
injury (see later below).
The next risk factors to identify are external risk factors
such as playing outdoors or on a court. If participating in sport out on a
pitch when it’s been very dry can be very different then when it is very wet.
Knowing how to adjust your interventions will help keep your players safe. In
my experience I’ve had players sprain their ankles on hard ground more than
soft. And the likelihood of injury when tackling or jumping is increased.
The final piece is knowing the mechanism of injury (MOI).
This is learned through experience and research. For a sports therapist it is
often the MOI that is the key to what the injury likely is. As before with
ankle sprains the key note is a plyer will tell me “I rolled over on my ankle”.
I then perform the normal ankle joint, muscle, ligament and special tests to
confirm my diagnosis. But this is also useful with overuse injuries. For instance,
an athlete might tell you “The pain has become worse over time” or they’ll not
no actual injury incident occurred.
As a sports therapist involved with team sports we need to
map all the risk factors and MOI’s and use a variety of techniques to reduce the
likelihood of injury, which may include the following:
Warm up: A simple warm up plan may reduce risk to injury by
50%. And while there is little research on the duration or intensity of a warm
up it is best to allow the players to determine it individually. Some benefits
of a warm up include increase ROM of joints, relaxation and concentration and
speed of nerve impulses and a decrease of muscle stiffness. All those factors
that can potentially reduce the risk of injury, especially in older players. A very
good example of this is the FIFA 11+ program which uses a structured warm up of
10 exercises 1-2 times per week and has been proven to reduce injuries in
football.
Taping/Bracing: In rugby we use tape frequently. It is often
used to restrict undesired movement such as inversion of an ankle or to protect
the acromial clavicular joint from injury during tackles. This often applies to
players returning from an injury after a thorough rehabilitation program.
Protective equipment: This includes helmets for cycling or horse-riding
and mouth guards for collision sports, common sense really!
Suitable equipment: It is imperative that your athletes are
wearing appropriate equipment, even for running. A trail runner will not be wearing
the same trainers as a road runner or sprinter. It also includes ensuring
racquets for tennis or squash are of the right grip size otherwise an athlete
may over grip the racquet and incur an overuse injury.
Recovery: This is the biggest issue I see in my clients. It
is important to allow your muscles to recovery after any strenuous activity.
The can include using active recovery and walking for ten minutes after a hard
run, using cold water immersion, massage and eating properly after exercise.
When starting a new training program, it is advised to get
appropriate advice from your GP first, then a professional such as a sports
therapist or personal trainer for exercise guidance. Graduate sports therapists
can perform an injury prevention screening which uses functional tests to
measure any biomechanical dysfunction and if any adjustments are required, will
issue you exercises, stretching or other methods to help improve any
dysfunction. After a screening it would be advisable to see a personal trainer
to introduce you to exercises at the proper level of your fitness.
Sports therapists can also perform sports massage which is
an excellent way to recover after hard training sessions.
If you have any questions about injury prevention or other
services that sports therapist can provide, please do not hesitate to contact
me.
Sara Green, Sports therapist, BSc (Hons)
www.prestigesportinjury.co.uk
