Survey: Prep coaches uninterested in injury prevention programs

April 15, 2015 / BasketballCoachingSoccerSports Medicine
A new survey of high school coaches found that less than 10 percent of them implement injury prevention programs as designed.

Injury basketballThe study looked at 66 basketball and soccer coaches at 15 Oregon high schools who completed online surveys questioning their knowledge of injury prevention programs, attitudes and behaviors. Only six (9.1 percent) said they implemented the programs as designed.

From Reuters:

“There are a ton of different programs out there,” said lead author Marc F. Norcross of Oregon State University in Corvallis.

Most include stretching and strengthening exercises focused on the hips and thighs, sometimes with jump-training to promote landing softly, Norcross said. Many are designed as 15 to 20 minute warm-ups three to four times per week before practices or games, in place of less structured warm-ups.

“We don’t know exactly how they work, but they are beneficial at least in some respects,” he told Reuters Health. “Rather than sit by and wait for the perfect medicine, let’s adopt this now.”

According to the article, girls coaches were more likely to be aware of injury prevention programs than boys coaches. Coaches without programs in place said they offered no advantage over the current systems in place or they were difficult to implement.

Thirty-four of the coaches surveyed said they were aware of injury prevention programs, while 14 said they used one of the programs with their players.

Click here to read the full article.


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