INJURY PREVENTION IN FOOTBALL
In most sports injury is always a very real possibility. The game of football has an injury rate of around 10 – 20 injuries per 1000 hours played. The game of football is played at high speed with lots of directional changes and physical tackles. When we look at the injuries across football around 10% are seen as serious (over 1 month out). Injuries in football are common even if minor, it is a contact sport and injuries are expected.
TRAUMATIC INJURIES – sprains, strains, contusion, fracture, dislocation and concussion.
NON-TRUAMATIC INJURIES – Shin splints, patella tendonitis, Osgood-Schlatter disease, Sever’s disease, stress fractures
Traumatic injuries occur during game play or training. The legs bare the brunt of football injuries with over 70% occurrence rate. When we think of traumatic leg injuries, usually we are thinking of bad tackles, rolled ankles or jolted joints (dislocation)
Non-traumatic injuries occur over a long time scale and are caused by over use of joins, tendons, ligaments ect. It is very hard to protect against non-traumatic injuries as they are all part of working our body to the maximum over a number of years as a pro athlete.
PREVENTION
Injury prevention plays a huge roll in any pro footballers exercise plan. If we look at physical protection from injury, we can use ankle tape, knee straps, shin pads, ankle guards and even a good fitting pair of boots. Ankle supports have been shown to decrease the chance of re-occurring ankle injuries. Knee straps also help with supporting the many crucial ligaments and tendons within the knee. With knee injuries being one of the most common and serious injuries in football maximum protection of the joint is key.
It’s very important to injury prevention that you are doing the correct exercises and working the right muscles to aid prevention. Major muscle groups to work on for football are glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps and core. The problem is some footballers only work these big muscles and forget about the smaller muscles that work in support.
Having a solid core is essential for balance and strength in football. Massive emphasis should be placed on balance, working all muscles in an around knee joints to prevent against dislocation. The ACL, MCL, PCL ligaments are in the nightmares of all football players with lengthy absences ahead with any major damage to said ligaments. The use of balance balls and resistance bands are excellent in building the small muscles that surround the knee.
PREVENTION EXERCISES
– Single leg squats
– Lateral band walk
– Band squats
– Balance board squats
– Side plank
– forearm plank
– Glute-bridge/ hip thrust
– Bulgarian split squat
– Single-leg dead lift
– Walking lunge
– Speed/ agility training
– Resistance band workouts