Sports Injuries

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Sports Injuries
2
Outcomes

• Understand
• The patterns and causes of injury
• What happens when you get injured
• How injuries heal
• How you can look after your injury
• Lessons learned

3
Patterns and Causes of Injury

• Sports injuries usually affect Soft Tissue,
• including muscles, ligaments, tendons
• Muscle injuries accounts for about one
• third of sports injuries
• Generally soft tissue damage is caused by
• An acute or sudden injury
• Repetitive minor damage or overuse

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Patterns of Injury

• ACUTE
• Acute traumatic injuries can be
• External direct blow (kick, fall, collision)
• Internal Muscle pull (hamstring)
• OVERUSE
• Overuse injuries are usually due to
• External factors - training regime,
  inappropriate equipment, the environment
• Internal Factors muscle imbalance, anatomical
  discrepancies

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Lesson Learned

• Lack of basic stamina can lead to loss of
• coordination or concentration. This can
• result in injury. This may be a factor when
• returning to training after a break
• (holiday, illness, injury).

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Causes of overuse injury

• Overuse injuries are usually due to one or
• more of these factors
• Inappropriate training
• Activity specific fitness
• Warm Up
• Flexibility
• Progression
• Biomechanical factors
• Training or playing surface
• Inadequate recovery

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Inappropriate Training

• The wrong type of exercise done in the wrong way,
  for the wrong duration at the wrong intensity or
  frequency.

A player tried to improve a knee problem by doing
full squats, with a heavy bar, performing 30-50
reps per set. Did it get better?
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Activity Specific

• This means training for the actual event.
• Train for the activities you will have to
• perform in competition particularly
• explosive movement (change of pace or
• direction)
• Care with unfamiliar activates or when you
• have been out of the sport for a while

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Warm Up

• Always warm up!
• This will reduce the chance of an acute or
• overuse injury. A good warm up includes
• Loosening
• General aerobic work
• Stretching
• Increasing the intensity to performance level
• Match Specific activities
• The warm up makes the tissues more elastic and
• increases muscle oxygen uptake. This makes the
• muscles work more efficiently and decreases the
• chance of injury.

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Lesson Learned

• On a cold day there was a prolonged break
• in play for a serious injury to a player. The
• game restarted. The first time the referee
• had to sprint he aggravated an old muscle
• injury.
• Keep warm and keep stretching during long
• breaks in plays

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Flexibility

• Increasing the range of movement of a joint
  increases the mechanical efficiency and has a
  role in injury prevention.
• Include specific flexibility in your training
  programme. The scars from healed injuries tend
  to be tight and need care.
• After the injury, they will need to be stretched
  regularly over a period of 6 12 months to
  reduce the chance of re-injury

How many of you include this in your
training programme and how can it help young
players during Peak, Height, Velocity (PHV)
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Progression

• Problems often occur after illness and injury.
• The rate of increase in volume or intensity of
• training should be about 10 a week

A player was concerned that he needed to increase
his speed off the mark and suddenly undertook
four sprint training session with plyometric
exercises in a week.
The result back injury
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Biomechanical / anatomical factors

• This include problems like mal-alignment,
  leg length differences, muscle imbalance
• Example an old knee injury causing decreased
  thigh muscle strength in one leg
• Diagnosis of these problems usually needs a
  specialist assessment by a sport medicine
  professional

You may compensate for this type of problem
without realising, perhaps causing a new problem
elsewhere.
14
Training or playing surface / environment

• A change of running surface e.g. hills, hard
  grounds or
• roads may cause an injury A change to hill
  running may
• bring on problems with the calf and Achilles
  tendon
• Another common cause of problems is continuing to
  ware
• worn-out training shoes that no longer give
  adequate
• support similarly sudden changes to new boots or
  trainers
• can cause injuries

A period of heavy rain produced soft pitches,
which made running difficult, several players
developed calf injuries as they always trained in
the gym or on an artificial surface and they had
not adapted to a change in running surface
15
Inadequate recovery

• Too little rest between training sessions or
  matches can cause injury. The body needs time to
  adapt after the stress of training if you are to
  get the maximum benefit
• If you feel tired rest
• You need enough fuel in the body to exercise
  safely. Inadequate fluids and nutrition during
  and after training can contribute to injuries

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• THE
• INJURY
• PROCESS

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What happens when you get an injury

• All injuries result in bleeding and swelling for
  about 48 hours.
• Repair takes 7-10 days
• Regeneration of the injured tissues to produce a
  scar takes 2-10 weeks
• Final remodelling of the scar 6-12 months
• In acute traumatic injuries the pattern is
  obvious, overuse injuries are harder to recognise

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The Pain Cycle

• Any injury will cause inflammation and pain. With
  rest and rehabilitation the injury will usually
  heal. But if it is ignored with overuse injuries
  there will be more injury and scarring with
  more inflammation and pain

This is the pain cycle Learn to recognise It
and avoid it
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What happens when you get an injury - contd

• Overuse injuries tend to develop slowly over time
  and often starts as a niggle
• There are usually three stages
• pain on starting activity, relived by warm up
• pain during activity and afterwards
• pain intensifies with or prevents activity

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If you think you are developing an overuse injury

• Consider
• What has changed recently?
• Think about your training
• Has the type or speed of movement changed?
• What about the repetitions and load?
• Are you using new equipment?
• Are you training in a new environment?

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Treating an Injury

• If you suffer an acute injury the aim is to
  reduce the pain, bleeding and swelling. The less
  bleeding and swelling the less scar tissue and
  the faster the recovery.
• One approach is N.I.C.E.R
• N Non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs
• I Ice to minimise bleeding
• C Compression to minimise tissue swelling
• E Elevation to minimise tissue swelling
• R Rest and rehabilitation to minimise injury,
  maintain fitness and promote healing

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Non Steroid anti-inflammatory drugs Ice

• Anti-inflammatory drug
• NB. Always check with your pharmacist or doctor
  particularly if you have asthma or ulcer problems
• Ice
• Cooling means less pain and less bleeding, this
  leads to less swelling and ultimately less scar
  tissue
• How long?
• Always wrap ice packs in a towel to avoid burns

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Compression and Elevation

• Compression produces pressure to reduce bleeding
  and swelling. It also provides comfort and
  support Take care not to apply the bandages too
  tightly
• Elevation to the injured part to reduce blood
  flow and swelling. Aim to keep the injured part
  above the heart (Leg at 45 degrees when lying
  down for an ankle injury).

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Rest and Rehabilitation

• During your recovery aim for active rest. That
  means rest the injured part not the whole body.
• Try to think of alternatives to maintain fitness
  (Swimming).
• Tailor the programme to the injury and underlying
  problems (Dont swim Breast stroke with a knee
  problem).
• Plan your return to training and competition
  sensible progression.
• Increase your flexibility seek advice on safe
  and effective stretching.

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Conclusion

• Most injuries get better with rest, treatment and
  rehabilitation
• Your need to look for underlying causes, was this
  injury avoidable?
• Dont ignore symptoms
• Young players may not admit to having injuries
• Dont wait too long before seeking advice
• Dont try and return until fully fit
• Develop good habits Warm up developing
  flexibility, cooling down and managing injuries