At Athletic Development we have been busy undertaking some
research in association with the University of Southampton. We have been
looking at injury prevention training, from a youth football coach’s point of
view. Since the coach plays a crucial role in designing and leading training sessions
for their young players we wanted to better understand coaches’ views on injury
prevention and get a snapshot look into their current levels of knowledge in
the area of injury prevention, otherwise known as Prehabilitation training.
We gathered a group of
participants across grass roots and youth academy level football in the U.K.
and used a baseline questionnaire to explore participants’ views on
prehabilitation, injury frequency and warm-up routines. We then ran an Athletic
Development workshop focusing on injury prevention utilising our training
manuals and circuit training packs. After the workshop participants took part
in a focus group designed to explore their views on the benefits and barriers
to implementing a structured prehabilitation training programme with their
teams.
Participants reported that injuries at youth (grassroots) level of
football are common, with typically one injury incurred by a player every week
during match play or training. In particular, participants highlighted
non-traumatic injuries as most common among their young players, namely
hamstring and groin strains. All participants were concerned by injuries to
their players and highlighted the importance of preventing injuries incurring.
Some negative aspects of players incurring injury that emerged from focus group
discussion included:
1. Time away
from the game for injured players
2. A lack of
enjoyment for injured players
3. Hinder the
development of young players
4. Risk of
exacerbating minor injury through continued participation
5. Compromise
the team’s ability to field a full squad and continue to compete
In discussing the benefits and barriers to incorporating injury
prevention training into a regular training session, using our structured training
resources, coaches identified the following:
Benefits
1. Promote coach development
2. Target injury prevention
3. Engage players in training
4. Aid coaches to fulfil coaches’ responsibilities
5. Promote behaviour change
Barriers
1. Lack of support for coaches
2. Traditional methods governing training practice
3. Perceived level of difficulty of Prehabilitation training
4. Level of coach education
Following on from these benefits and barriers a number of key
themes emerged during focus group discussion. This focus group discussion really
just involved open conversation about all things injury prevention, with a
specific focus on the coaches’ views and feelings towards their role as a
coach. Some of these themes included:
1. Concern over
injuries
2. Lack of
education for coaches
3. Need to
engage players
4. Need for
coaching support and reassurance
5. Need to
change coaching behaviour- to modernise
Concern over injuries
Participants revealed that their young players commonly incurred
injuries through football match play and training, consistent with well
established previous literature (Caine et. al., 2006). The frequency of injury
and time away from the game due to injury reported in this study was in line
with data presented by the Football Association medical research programme among
adult football players (F.A., 2004). Participants
in this study highlighted several negative aspects of young players incurring
injury. Such negative aspects of injury among youth football players, including
both physiological and psychological problems resulting from injury have been
reported previously (Quackenbush and Crossman, 1994). Faris (1985) noted how
“physical conditioning and athletic ability” play a major role in establishing
an athlete’s self worth and that when a player is injured these essential
components of personality and identity are “immediately taken away”.
Lack of education
Although participants readily identified the need to prevent
injuries, they did not feel that they had the knowledge or resources to
implement prehabilitation training optimally. Subsequently, participants
revealed that did not feel they were doing enough to prevent injuries among
their players which proved to be a source of anxiety for the participants.
Participants spoke of their desire to continually develop their
knowledge as a coach and cited a variety of resources for coach education
including magazines, web forums and coaching courses. However, coaches did not
believe that the aforementioned resources were providing them with enough
quality information, particularly with regard to injury prevention. In
particular, participants expressed their disappointment at a lack of
information regarding injury prevention coming from the Football Association,
football’s governing body in England.
Need for support and reassurance
Lacking a central directive from football’s governing body,
participants felt they were left to their own devices to source appropriate
training information regarding injury prevention and struggled to decipher the
quality of information they were accessing through the various resources (web
forums etc.) and were heavily reliant on traditional training methods drawn
from their own playing experience and those passed on from other football
coaches.
Despite more than 80% of participant holding a formal coaching
qualification, the vast majority (more than 90%) had never been shown how to
implement any injury prevention training with their young players and just 55%
of participants understood the term “Prehabilitation”.
Despite the small numbers involved in this study, these findings are worrying when considering the critical role played by
the coach in influencing a young players training regime. Participants reported
that they needed further education in the area of injury prevention and desired
support from a National and local level in the form of educational workshop and
guidance towards optimal training resources.
Need to engage players
Participants spoke candidly of the demanding nature of youth
football coaching, where they were somewhat burdened by responsibility for the
young players development and welfare.
Additionally, participants described the challenging necessity to
continually design and implement appropriate training sessions to engage and
stimulate their players. Participants expressed the need to add variety in
order to provide such engaging training and believed that the structured
Prehabilitation training resources demonstrated could serve as useful tools in
achieving this.
Need for behaviour change- modernise
training approach
Through focus group discussion, participants reported the prevalence
of “old school”, traditional training methods in youth football today. These
traditional methods include running laps and the use of physical training as a
disciplinary tool. Participants were quick to identify the problems with such
old fashioned training methods and highlighted the need to change behaviour,
embracing more modern, scientifically founded training practice. Furthermore,
participants expressed their desire to develop their own knowledge in order to
utilise modern training techniques to better train their players and
communicated this intention with a high level of enthusiasm and excitement.
This aspiration was encapsulated by many participants seeking to purchase the
training resources demonstrated during the workshop and their requests for
further workshops to be run for their fellow coaches not in attendance.
Benefits of prehabilitation
The benefits of a structured prehabilitation programme have been well
established in previous research (Junge, et. al., 2002) where the
implementation of a specifically designed prehabilitation training programmes
have reduced the occurrence of injuries in youth footballers. Participants in
this current study who were not incorporating injury preventative exercises
into their training regime speculated that such an addition to their training
would be highly beneficial. Participants with some experience of using
prehabilitation training discussed the effectiveness of such training methods
as they had witnessed a reduced incidence of injury. This current anecdotal
evidence supports findings by Askling (2003) recording fewer injuries in elite
football players who had undergone pre-season prehabilitation when compared
players who had not.
Implications of research
This research reveals youth football coaches’ concerns over injury
incidence among young players in the Hampshire area. It is clear that coaches
recognised multiple problems associated with frequent injury occurrence among
the youth football population but do not have access to the scientifically
founded education or resources required to optimally tackle this problem. As a
result, coaches are forced to glean information from a variety of resources;
each with varying levels of reliability and often no well founded supporting
evidence. Consequently, traditional, old fashioned training methods are still
common and participants are anxious that they are not doing enough to best
develop the young players they are charged with training.
It is clear that guidance in the form of prehabilitative education
and direction towards appropriate training resources must be made available to
coaches of young players in the Hampshire area. Furthermore, this information
should ideally come from football’s National governing body, utilising the
network of local league organisations to provide the reassurance and quality
control needed to ensure youth football coaches adhere to best practice
training.
This study confirms the position of the youth football coach as
central to the development of young players. Consequently, this research
advocates the education and support of the youth football coach in order to
tackle the problem of injury incidence and attempt to prevent injuries through
appropriate training. This education should come in the form of an interactive,
practical workshop accompanied by user-friendly supporting training resources
that coaches may draw on to implement structured prehabilitation training as
part of the long term development of their young players.
For more
information on our research or to receive a free, full copy of this research
project please contact us at mail@athleticdevelopment.ie
