Important Principles of Prevention of Injuries in Sports
To be able to organize injury prevention, it is important to know the typical risk factors and injury mechanisms for the particular type of sport, as well as the complexity of their interaction and confounding. In recent years, many studies have been conducted in order to increase our knowledge about risk factors and injury mechanisms in different kinds of sports. These studies are an important background for the improvement of prevention strategies, exercises, and programs aimed at reducing the incidence and severity of injuries in sport.
However, more large multi factorial studies are needed that take into account many potential risk factors in correlation with different injury situations. That could increase our understanding and build a stronger framework for preventive strategies against various types of injuries in different kinds of sports.
When developing prevention programs one must take into account the biomechanical load during the particular type of sport. One must know the demands of the particular sports placed on the athletes, such as sport-specific movements, running and jumping ability, rules, load during training and competition, as well as typical risk factors and injury mechanisms. Even in the same type of sport,the requirements may be different regarding age, gender,and level of play, playing exposure, playing position, quality of coaching, weather conditions, and playing ground.
All these factors should be taken into account and put in the context of the biomechanical load placed on the athletes.The focus of the prevention program should be to increase the athletes’ tolerance against the biomechanical load either for injuries in general or for a particular type of injury. The aim of prevention programs should be to decrease the athletes’ weaknesses with respect to injuries and thereby decrease the injury risk. This should be confirmed with studies that test the effect of the particular program. Prevention programs should not be too time consuming,because if they are then it is less likely that they will be completed.
The coaches and athletes should also see some performance benefits in the program regarding the particular type of sport. An example of such benefits could be increased strength, increased core stability and technical skills, and improved neuromuscular control containing balance and coordination.Injury prevention programs should be a natural part of the training, be performed regularly, and be promoted by the coaches, physical therapists, or athletic trainers.
Prevention programs are usually based on many factors that are considered to affect the risk of injuries, for example, improving balance, coordination, strength, agility and technique, awareness of joint position, movements, or risky playing situations.
Because most programs are multidimensional, it is difficult to know which components of these programs are most effective in not tested separately.Several studies have been conducted to try out some exercises or programs that could decrease the rate of various injuries in different types of sports. Some of these programs are aimed at decreasing injury incidence in general, while others focus on preventing injuries of special type or location.
Most of these programs are tried out in specific types of sport: for example, in soccer, Australian Rules football, Rugby,European handball, volleyball, and alpine skiing.Injury prevention can be classified into two categories: general injury prevention on the one hand, focusing on reducing injuries in general, and specific injury prevention, on the other hand, focusing on special types or locations of injuries.