He says, "Imagine a car that can go mph, but the brakes only stop up to 50 mph. How fast would you drive the car?. They can be incredibly strong and fast but if they aren't able to use their brakes effectively then they will put themselves at increased risk for injury due to a lack of control. That ability to control movement is essential, but being able to move properly is vital as well.
The Functional Movement Screen FMS is a screening tool used to identify limitations or asymmetries in seven fundamental movement patterns that are key for quality athletic movement. The test scores the athlete from 0 to 3 on each of the seven movement patterns with a score of 3 considered normal. The test is, therefore, out of 21 possible points. A study examined the relationship between professional football players' scores on the FMS and the likelihood of serious injury.
The researchers gathered test scores from one NFL team prior to the start of the season and followed the players throughout the year. They discovered that those who scored 14 or less on the FMS were almost 12 times more likely to experience a serious injury.
Since that time, countless professional sports teams have implemented the FMS as part of their strength and conditioning programs due to its ability to detect movement dysfunction and assess injury risk. Hopefully this article was helpful in shedding some light on potential causes of injury and how teams approach preventing them. As always, feel free to leave any questions or comments below.
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By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Filed under:. The coach may encourage that player to see a physiotherapist who can rehabilitate them. For coaches at colleges and universities, they may want to notify a physician on campus. In some cases, a doctor may need to assess a player using X-rays, MRIs, CT scans and other diagnostic tools along with special tests ie.
And now, with direct-to-consumer testing services such as 23andMe and Fitness Genes , among others, players can actually look at their genetic data to see what injuries they might be susceptible to. As we mentioned earlier, a lack of good conditioning often leads to muscular imbalances and weakness, both of which translate to injury. Therefore, every coach should make full-body conditioning a priority.
This may differ from team to team but in general, there are certain exercise routines that all coaches should consider. Research has shown neuromuscular warmup drills can significantly reduce injury risks and boost performance in areas such as agility and power. A conditioning routine should also incorporate weight training to build muscle strength, power and endurance and mass where needed. Strong muscles, tendons and ligaments will keep the body more resilient against frequent impacts and repetitive stresses that cause injury.
Last but not least, coaches could encourage players to wear soccer protective gear from head-to-toe. The risk of injuries that soccer players face can be reduced by wearing protective gear from a reputable manufacturer.
There are the basic, non-negotiable pieces of equipment such as leg guards which every player should wear. Other useful soccer protective gear includes padded slider shorts and jerseys which reduce impact forces to the body. Perhaps, but this doesn't align with the injuries sustained. Gronk broke his arm blocking on an extra point and had his knee blown out while making a catch. The back is tougher to say, because some of his surgeries have been maintenance, but the lost season last year was just a brutal tackle.
Had he been injured while trying to carry three tacklers into an end zone that would be more in line with that description. I mean, it's super-hard to say that without being Gronkowski's doctor. I'm sure it's possible for those three to be medically related, and I'm sure it's possible for those three to be totally unrelated. Correll Buckhalter was a running back for the Eagles and missed 3 full seasons in 4 years due to a torn left ACL, torn right patellar, and another torn right patellar.
But even if they're not medically related, that still doesn't mean they're not causally related. So it's hard to say that Gronkowski doesn't have some of that. Players definitely need to be coached to protect themselves more, rather than making high-risk moves to gain a few extra inches at the end of a play.
I know that it's "in the moment", but as a coach I'd want the player's instinct to be, "get as much as I can and go to the ground safely. I'm specifically looking at the players who think, "I'm going to hurdle over top of this guy and keep going". It looks great on film, but if the defender plants his feet and straightens up, you could easily come down on your face and break your neck. Well we know exactly how these injuries happened.
Certainly the prolonged issues with the arm were related to each other. And his back issues have been around since he was an undergrad. The injury in November was just one of those things. The reinjury in January was likely partially attributable to coming back too soon. The infection surgery in February is probably at least partially on Gronk, for failure to properly maintain his arm and for getting caught on film wrestling guys in a bar in his cast.
That's just reckless and an own-goal. Coming out with a chronic back issue sets you up for an injury-prone label, though. That's not the sort of thing that usually heals.
He also played with what many would deem reckless abandon, making an effort for every inch of grass. Yet, from my admittedly arbitrary point of view I wouldn't consider him injury prone.
He suffered 15 injuries throughout his career judging by a quick search, but many didn't cause him to miss games, mainly practice time or a reduced workload. His initial retirement after was due to a series of LE injuries adding up to reduced production. Even his reoccurring issues with his back were something he treated and played through.
What would your thoughts on him be? Do I have rose colored glasses, or is he an outlier? Lynch hasn't had an especially high career workload. His career touches are comparable to McCoy or Forte, and less than Peterson. I would argue most of those guys played comparable styles.
Most backs don't last this long either because of quality or durability , but he's not especially an outlier. There is also a general "toughness" factor that probably keeps some players on the field over others. Although that doesn't necessarily help the team; for instance, I can think of a few games where Kurt Warner played through something just to hurt his team. I always look at this in terms of projecting player value.
If you're going to continue developing this research, it seems like it'd be pretty straightforward to get a lot more information about the probable reduction in value due to injury history.
If you calculated the mean number of games missed due to injury, rather than just whether or not they played all 16 games, that would be really illuminating. On the other hand, guy who misses 13 games is only one-fifth as valuable as a guy who misses one game, and this analysis looks at both as being equally injured. Couldn't agree more. This is just one of many dimensions you could use to look at the issue. It's always tough to decide what to leave on the cutting room floor.
Much more will be available in the academic paper version of this article, I promise. How hard is it to separate the effect of coming back "too early" from an injury from the effect of being more injury prone?.
Let's also save a handclap for Conventional Wisdom! So often you're wrong, CW, but there may be something to this "injury prone" label you've been using forever. Then again, a broken clock is right twice a day Really interesting article, thanks. I'd be interested in some analysis of how many injuries are suffered by players according to size preferably by position.
I think the injury risk to smaller players is generally overstated because often smaller players are more flexible, and many of the worst injuries are affected by the amount of weight placed on a leg. Zach Binney. Staff Writer Ph. Follow Email Archive. Stat Analysis. Log in or register to post comments. Comments 40 comments, Last at 10 May , am.
Sir - Great effort, and thanks. I wasn't concerned about teams switching players to higher risk positions. Thanks for doing it. Certainly Barry Church was aware of it. Reckless can be part of injury-prone. Good point. I'm looking forward to the scheme topic. Sounds hard, but interesting. Draft position. Cutting him or not. How much to offer him All those things are about player acquisition which, to be fair, I did not explicitly say. But it wouldn't be a jerk, it would be a smart GM.
When comparing players at the same position, yes, you're absolutely right. Sure, but recall that this traces back to your first comment and this line: Why would not consider factors 3 and 4? That said, I think we've finally found common ground. When I was talking about Gronkowski as reckless, it's the forearm issues I was thinking of.
Interesting topic, I wonder though He has about fewer career touches than a Gore or a Bettis, and about fewer than Smith.
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