Athletics Coach
The Prevalence of Injuries in Athletics Written by Blayne Arnold, Physiotherapist and Level 4 Senior IAAF Coach
Injuries present the significant problem for athletes and
The overwhelming majority of athletics injuries occur at
coaches. Injuries are most often the largest barrier to
training (Zemper, 2005), this makes sense because athletes
improving performance, due training time lost because of
spend the majority of their time training as opposed to
an injury. It is therefore paramount that coaches have an
competing. However, there is also an opportunity for the
understanding of the prevalence of injuries within athletics.
coach to intervene at training to modify training and to potentially avoid the injury occurring. Most athletes know
Unfortunately, injuries are extremely common within athletics
their bodies inside and out and can feel when something isn’t
with up to 76% of athletes experiencing an injury within any
quite right. Coaches need to be in constant communication
given year (D’Souza, 1994). These injuries obviously vary
with their athletes as well as observing them in order to
significantly depending on the event and the athlete, but
identify any reason why training may need to be modified to
interestingly it has been shown that up to 91% of all injuries
prevent injury.
extremities are the most commonly affected body region, accounting for approximately 80% of injuries in athletics (Edouard & Alonso, 2003). Interestingly, injuries
are
overuse the
most
“
occur at training (Zemper, 2005). The legs and lower
The most shocking statistic is that up to 96% of injuries in athletics are overuse (Jacobsson et al., 2013). We know
The most shocking statistic is that up to 96% of injuries in athletics are overuse
common type injuries that
that
overuse direct
injuries
are
a
result
an
accumulated
that
outweighs
of
load
rate
of
recovery. This very simply
occur in athletics. Overuse injuries account for up to 96% of all
means that the training load is too high. It is the coach who is
injuries (Jacobsson et al., 2013). Overuse injuries occur when
responsible for programming and therefore the training load.
there is repeated action, stress or strain on a structure with
Therefore, if we are going to see a reduction in the prevalence
insufficient time for recovery, which ultimately results to an
of overuse injuries it has to be driven from the coach.
injury. These statistics provide a snap shot of the current prevalence The fact that up to 76% of athletes experience an injury in
of injuries occurring in athletics. The coach can play a
any given year (D’Souza, 1994) should be worrying to both
significant role in reducing the incidence of injuries. We know
coaches and athletes, however it should not be something
that in the long term an athlete who stays injury free will likely
that we just blindly accept as a part of the sport. Coaches
have the greatest long-term improvements in performance.
play a significant role in preparing and training athletes for
One of the hardest roles of a coach is balancing the long-term
performance. Any coach knows that performance will likely be
benefits with the immediate/short term results. Coaches need
comprised when an athlete’s health is compromised through
to ask themselves this simple question: would you prefer
illness or injury. Therefore, coaches need to be paying closer
to have athletes that are healthy and slightly under done or
attention to keeping their athletes healthy and injury free.
athlete’s that are over cooked and injured?
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