There is a substantial increase in the number of non-contact sport related injuries among high school athletes especially knee and ankle injuries. Increased injuries may be the result of increased training and competition loads in high school sports which often occur alongside under developed athletic competencies such as strength, balance and fundamental movement skills.
The increased incidences of injuries in youth negatively impact present and future involvement in sport and physical activity, potentially limiting competition time, prematurely ending a sport season, and/ or reducing physical activity due to fear of re-injury.
Implementing injury prevention (IP) programs:
There is high quality scientific evidence showing that injury prevention programs can significantly reduce the risk of injuries from sport participation. IP programs are effective at reducing lower extremities injury risk by 30-50%.
The benefits of an IP program includes increases in strength, power and neuromuscular control as well as a reduction in muscle imbalances. Furthermore, IP programs have been shown to reduce injury incidence, risk factors for injury and/ or improve athletic performance in youth athletes.
IP programs can be optimized by including multiple components like movement skills, lower extremity strength, core stability, balance, agility and plyometrics in a training program.
Effectiveness of an Injury prevention program:
It's important that the program should be individually designed according to each athlete's needs and should be progressed based on the athlete's ability and with high adherence. However, to maximize the benefits of injury prevention in athletes, it is important that such a program should begin preseason, and be conducted 3 or 4 times a week.
If you've suffered a lower limb injury during school sport season or you are looking for an injury prevention training program to participate in feel free to contact a Biokineticist who specializes in treating and preventing sport-related injuries.
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