It’s important as practitioners that we appreciate injuries will occur in sport, regardless of what measures are put in place. The reason for this inherent injury risk is the biomechanical and physiological demands that sport places upon the body, often for prolonged time periods under fatigue conditions. Furthermore, sport is chaotic in nature, with many in-control variables that can increase the risk of injury, including collisions, unplanned directional changes in reaction to a competitive stimulus, ambient temperatures, defensive manoeuvres, attacking manoeuvres, etc.
It's also important that strength and conditioning practitioners understand that an increase in athlete performance by default prevents injuries in athletes by creating a robustness to injury. For example, a stronger athlete can absorb landing forces more efficiently by a co-contraction of the local joint muscularity, therefore distributing the mechanical load across the musculotendinous tissue (Holmes and Delahunt, 2009). In another example, an athlete with an adequate concentric quadriceps to eccentric hamstring ratio can effectively reduce shearing forces at the patella tendon upon landing by creating a posterior force upon the knee via an eccentric co-contraction at the hamstrings (Myer et al, 2008).
The aim of this short course is to provide coaches with a greater understanding of the epidemiology of many common sport injuries, and what we can do as coaches to help prevent such injuries.
Suggested Pre-requisite
- CIMSPA: L2 Gym / Group Ex
Aims and objectives:
- Understand the relationship between athletic performance and athlete robustness
- Learn the injury prevention process, including the identification of the common injury risk factors associated with an athlete’s chosen sport, injury epidemiology and implementation of preventive measures
- Gain a greater overall understanding of sports injury science and the prevention of sports injuries
- Understand the epidemiology, prevention and rehabilitation guidance of ankle injuries in sport, including Achilles’ tendinopathy and lateral ankle sprains
- Understand the epidemiology, prevention and rehabilitation guidance of knee injuries in sport, including anterior cruciate ligament injuries, patellofemoral pain and iliotibial band syndrome
- Understand the epidemiology of spinal injuries within sport
- Learn the protective mechanisms of lumbopelvic complex, including intra-abdominal pressure, thoracolumbar fascia, myofascial slings, optimal spinal mechanics and the importance of hip mobility and stability
- Know lumbopelvic training theory, including low and high threshold lumbopelvic exercises, the relationship between trunk endurance and lower spinal injuries, and lumbopelvic training exercise categories
- Understand epidemiology, prevention and rehabilitation guidance of shoulder injuries in sport, including supraspinatus impingement, shoulder overuse injuries and shoulder muscular imbalances
Author Bio
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Thomas Stringwell
Thomas Stringwell is the founder of Your Gym Sports Performance Ltd, an education provider that specialises within the fields of strength and conditioning and sports science. He’s an accredited strength and conditioning coach with the UKSCA and currently provides performance consultancy services across a range of sports including rugby union, rugby league, soccer, handball, boxing, mixed martial arts, BMX supercross, strength sports and Youth Athletic Development.
He holds an MSc in Sports Biomechanics (Loughborough University), a 1st class honours degree in Sport and Exercise Science (Manchester Metropolitan University) and a Certificate in Education teaching degree (Huddersfield University), with future ambitions of completing a PhD within the field of motor learning, constraints-based learning and non-linear pedagogy.
He has a real passion for education and coach development, having both coached and taught within the fields of strength and conditioning and health and fitness for over a decade. He’s a lifelong strength sport enthusiast, having competed both in Olympic Weightlifting and Powerlifting at a national level, with a genuine drive to support and educate coaches throughout our industry.
