 Injuries in football - bad luck or are they preventable?Written by waynekerr55 on Sunday, 26th Jan 2014 09:25 Injuries in top level Football – bad luck or does football need to learn? In recent weeks I’ve been very vocal in voicing concerns about the volume of functional muscle injuries we have picked up in recent weeks. I will now look at something which I feel is a wider issue to football, that being the amount of soft tissue muscle injuries. SAID – specific adaptation to imposed demand A basic concept of training is the SAID acronym, this being that the body adapts to the specific demands of the training. There is of course an argument that general training that is not sport specific can benefit performance. For example, cycling can increase endurance and may help players get through the demands of a game. Even running in straight lines to fatigue may have a benefit (sorry – couldn’t resist a dig). However there does seem to be an insistence within football clubs up and down the country to “flog players to death in pre-seasonâ€. David Moyes is renowned for his “horseshoe runs†that leave players feeling physically sick and our own players had some comments of their own this year:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2011964/Phil-Neville-This-18th Now of course players need to work “hardâ€, but one of the most basic aspects of training is the principle of progressive overload. I saw that our youth/development squads were running up sand dunes! What is specific about that?! In simple terms, training should be progressed steadily so that overtraining and fatigue is minimised. Bearing in mind the injury lists at Man Utd and ourselves, you do have to question the logic of flogging players to death at the start of a long year. What does the research say? Professor Jan Ekstrand who works at UEFA has research that shows over 70% of hamstring injuries are what are known as functional or grade 0/1, where there is little or no damage to the structure of the muscle other than swelling and loss of movement. These also cause a large majority of injuries and the main cause – fatigue. Go back to the previous paragraph and the concept of progressive overload. Is making players feel physically sick safe and reducing the onset of fatigue? Can we judge without seeing the recovery strategies in place? Probably not conclusive but it does seem strange that top flight clubs with top medical and science support seemingly ignore both the SAID and progressive overload principles by making their players perform movements that are neither (a) game specific (b) stressing the body systems to what they will meet in competition and, more worryingly (c) asking players to work to fatigue not even a tenth into the period of which they will be active! Solutions Of course, there are a range of factors that contribute to fatigue. Extra fixtures, recovery strategies, number of days between games, footwear and surfaces will play a part in injuries and it is not realistic to expect impact injuries to be prevented. However having been in and around football clubs there are plenty of things that we can learn: 1. Look at best practice from other sports. How many hamstring injuries has Mo Farah had? Andy Murray? LeBron James? The Welsh Rugby team? Our promotion winning team in 2010/11? It would be both foolish and arrogant not to look at what they are doing, as they must be doing something right. 2. Sports Scientists need to stop talking in academic language. I have a degree in Sports Science so whilst I understand points being made, some of our less esteemed members may not be able to understand what they are saying and challenge them on what they are trying to impose upon footballers 3. Not be so sensitive. Whilst he’s not everyone’s cup of tea and has far too much to say for himself our Dutch compadre Verheijhen makes some very valid points. Just because he doesn’t sugar coat things doesn’t mean he’s wrong. Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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