Please Be Careful
Take home message
community sport is almost here. maximise this already short season with a sensible build up to minimise injury risk.
For Coaches
Take your time and build gradually. Pick the most important injury prevention strategy. You can build performance later.
For Athletes
It’s exciting, but build slowly and thoroughly. Maximise the shorter season. Please be careful.
In Australian sport, the next few weeks are set to be exciting. Across the country all levels of sport are at different stages of their return to play. Exciting times indeed. What seemed like a season that might not have happened has very quickly turned around. But, we must proceed with caution.
It is widely known that acute increases in workload are associated with a higher risk of injury. In our excitement to return, are we placing our athletes at risk? In different regions around Australia, restrictions have varied the ability to exercise and engage in sport. That has affected the ability of all sport participants to prepare - community, professional and Olympic. I’m sure many readers are familiar with the Achilles injuries following the 2011 NFL lockout and are up to date with the current injury rates of the German Bundesliga. High level athletes required to compete at their usual high standard of performance without their usual high standard of preparation resulted in alarming injury rates.
Professional athletes have an off-field team planning, prescribing and monitoring every detail to ensure safety. Whilst our community athletes are unlikely to have the same level of resource, they compete hard and deserve protection from injury to enjoy sport. What can they do?
For one, start slowly. One of the biggest protection factors - resistance training - was removed when gyms were closed. Athletes have to try and get that strength back (at the same time as everything else!) when the gyms open. Lifting for the first time in a long time will result in a lot of sore glutes and hammies. Plus, there is a big difference between months of running the roads for endurance and to now chasing and dodging an opponent. Straight line running is good for fitness (and mental health) when it is the only thing you can do, but it is not good for preparing for agility requirements in sport. Slowly increase your exposure to agility and sprinting. Simple tricks like jump rope skipping and hopping can help with important calf tolerance and agility skills. Don’t expect to be at your best in 3-weeks, or even try to get there. Remember, everyone is in the same position and are all going to build slowly. Consider subtle changes to the routine of past months like the different footwear and surfaces. There is a difference between running shoes and winter sport shoes. Check your diet and recovery strategies. What you were doing for the past few weeks or months, may not be perfect for your short pre-season preparation now. In order to compress a 3-month pre-season into 3-weeks, you don’t really have a lot of margin.
Game on! All hands on deck.
The season is short already, l hope it does not get shorter with injury. It’s exciting to be back on the pitch. Please be careful.
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Thanks again. BA.