Yep, you can prevent up to 50% of injuries that are sustained while playing football.
Our last blog discusses the types of injuries and why it matters (who really wants to be forced away from the game? Enforced time not doing what you love is torture!)
Fortunately, we can do something to prevent injuries.
By regularly working on your physical fitness in all aspects, you can ensure you are reducing your risk of suffering time off due to injury.
In many cases, underlying weaknesses or muscle imbalances can be improved, which results in the team suffering from less injuries.
We can not predict who might suffer an injury with any sense of accuracy, but by measuring where you are at today and making that better in the future, we know that your individual risk will reduce.
Individualised as well as team based exercises are designed to address these areas that are most vulnerable (muscles, ligaments and joints of the lower limb and pelvis).
For example, studies show:
- 47% reduced injury rate in players who participate in strength training versus those that do not.
- Hamstring injuries are slashed by 51% with good strength and proprioceptive exercises
- 87% reduction in ankle sprain and 7 fold less ACL injuries are seen if pre-season training has included proprioceptive training for three sessions per week.
- Strength, balance and landing practice reduces major knee injuries by 3.5 fold!
From the amateur to the elite, this information doesn’t change significantly. What might change is the level of difficulty, but the benefits are continually seen across men and women of all age brackets and all levels of competition.
For a standardised approach to injury prevention, check out what Football Australia has provided with the “Perform +” program.
This program only needs to be done twice per week to see benefits.
Plus, we now know that the strength components (the bottom half) can be done at completely separate times to the training session. This means that any coach who might want to implement this doesn’t have to extend training or shorten their coaching time to include this!
If you have unfortunately suffered an injury from football, let us know and we can help! If it’s online, or in the clinic, Football is in our DNA and we understand that desire to get back to the field.
Or, if you are wondering what you can do for yourself to help prevent injuries, get in touch. We might even have a special offer for you!
