TRAINING TO PREVENT FOOTBALL INJURIES

During the playing season success is not just a matter of preparing better in the areas of performance it is also IMO a matter of keeping your best players in top condition during the season by avoiding some of the many football injuries that contribute to loss of performance.. By this I mean ensuring your best players are injury free for a longer period of the season the your opponents can keep their best players injury free. It doesn't matter which team you are you will at some time have your top player/s out with an injury and it is those periods with out your best player/s which IMO contribute to the direction of your season. Which is why injury prevention is just as crucial as training aimed at improving performance.

I will outline methods from my notes that increase a players resistance to injury which follow a time line from off season to off-season, as the end of one season is the start of another.

These are not there to replace regimented training they are there to add to it as basic guides to be followed if needed thus adding to your to your tools for preventing football injuries.

Off-season

You can set a stronger foundation during the off season and avoid many football injuries by taking just a few steps that many players fail to take.

• Prescribe players with a resistance training program focusing on football specific muscles using dumbbells. Muscle development is biased to one side in that one side is usually better developed than the other. Most often it is the dominant hand side. Dumbbell exercises even this out.Not doing so contributes to destabilization of muscles creating a risk of injury during training and performance, when the development of muscles is evened out the quality of other physical training will improve and so will other aspects of performance as a result.
• The program should use exercises of 3 sets 8 reps, one minute of rest should be used in between each set. This will increase both muscle and strength. Strength is needed for stability. Building muscle will enable effective stretching as traditional methods of stretching have been shown to damage ligaments and tendons irreversible effects thus increasing risk of injury and shortening the playing career. The most effective stretching methods reset the nervous system of the muscles thus preventing this.
• A complete brake from running should be instituted during the off season non impact forms of aerobic exercise should be used to prevent stress related injuries which result from Running.

Preseason

• The aim of this period should be to gradually build players to a peak of fitness giving a base to build on.
• Change the format of the weight training to a program using multi joint compound exercises.Increase the weight and decrease the reps to 6 per set. The rest stays the same. The aim is now on strength building.
• Aerobic training should be built gradually via football specific games which sharpen technique and team tactics.The main aim of this should be a lowering of the body fat percentage to around 10% body fat and create peak fitness. Getting the player to peak fitness in this way will increase the ability to maintain fitness during the season, thus lowering the training load needed.
• Proprioceptive stretching should be used to improve the strength of the muscle this will set a further foundation for injury prevention during the season. This will enable speed to be built quicker and so lower the training load.This type of stretching stretches the muscle not the tendon or ligament. This also has an improvement on technique.

Competitive Period

• During this time full on sprints should be performed for no longer than a distance of 25 yards the majority of full on sprints in a game will be over this distance, sprinting further is of no use and is a risk.
• Training should be made up of small sided games which encourage running at 3/4 pace with short burst sprinting 5v5 is good for this. Working for short bursts at this level of intensity will maintain fitness. Performers who have had peak aerobic fitness who have then used short burst high intensity fitness have improved on vo2 max tests and aerobic tests.
• Include at least one training session per week for SAQ work or if easier include one SAQ exercises per training session. Working on this area has been shown to cut injuries due to impact through an increase in mobility. This also reduces injuries from cutting movements which occur when changing direction.
• Strength work should be isometric based, this will decrease joint stress through performing to many reps of high load weights.
• Use plyometrics every two weeks this will add power to SAQ, the cometti methods are good for this. By doing this you are maintaining muscle power and function by the minimal amount of loading frequency.
• Use a longer warm up and cool down period, this will prepare the nervous system. Also this will relax players as over aggressive play increases the rate of many football injuries.
• Use programs for position specific fitness e.g. use one armed press ups for defenders who may need to push opponents away.
• Supply players with vitamin c tablets as training at high intensity lowers immune function for a short time during rest.Increase anti oxidants in the players diet. Focus on protein and carbohydrates for recovery.

Repeat when off-season begins.

This method follows the high load low frequency formula to extract improvements from the lowest amount of training possible.The aim is economy in the training session itself, this should require basic tweaks to the format and focus of the session. You can minimize football injuries by paying close attention to what you and refining that before even thinking of adding anything new.The aims can be achieved in the normal time period for training so no extra time is taken up, the same frequency of training sessions will do.

 The next stage of it would be the recovery aids that enhance the rest time adding components such as specialized doctors and therapists to maximize the effectiveness of the rest.