{"id":938,"date":"2020-02-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/taking-responsibility-for-injury-prevention\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:23","slug":"injury-prevention-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/injury-prevention-responsibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Responsibility for Injury Prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Feb 12, 2020 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Taking Responsibility for Injury Prevention<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Human Performance<\/a> <\/div>\n
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5 useful steps from the worlds of the NBA, international cricket and pro cycling to help keep your athletes in the game.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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Injury prevention in elite sport is in the remit of the performance department but it is not their domain alone.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

\u201cThe club\u2019s management are responsible for putting appropriate structures in place, and provide for allocation of staff and resources,\u201d wrote Phil Coles<\/a>, the Executive Director of Performance at the Boston Celtics, in a Leaders Performance Institute exclusive in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should also be recognized that a \u2018whole of club\u2019 approach is needed to consistently decrease injury rates over an extended period. Reporting clear and objective injury statistics is the best way to judge the effectiveness of a club\u2019s injury prevention programs,\u201d added Coles, who was serving as the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 Director of Performance & Medical Department at the time.<\/p>\n

A demarcation of responsibility is a given, particularly given the time restraints, impact of coaching methodology and playing culture, but here we note five factors that enable teams and performance practitioners to better prevent injuries from across basketball, cricket and pro cycling.<\/p>\n

Establish the needs of the coaching staff<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coles notes the management of training and playing loads by what he terms a \u2018high performance unit\u2019 [HPU] but ultimately you are beholden to your head coach and they are likely to have the final say. He writes: \u201cWhile of course the HPU may lead this and provide expert advice and analysis, it is likely to be the head coach who will make decisions on when and how much each athlete will play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe influence of appropriate athletic development and specific injury prevention programs is also the responsibility of the HPU, but again these are likely to be moderated to integrate with the coaching methodology and playing culture of the club.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is an opportunity here for the performance practitioner to gain the trust of the head coach by tailoring their approach to best meet their needs.<\/p>\n

1. Educate the athletes when you can too<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the athletes know what you\u2019re trying to do it makes your job a lot easier. The Leaders Performance Institute spoke to Team Ineos physiotherapist Nathan Thomas<\/a> about athlete education when it comes to recovery. He said: \u201cYou\u2019d hope you\u2019d already built that relationship prior to the race so that come race time everyone is dialled-in, they know what you\u2019re doing, they know why you\u2019re doing it and then it becomes automatic on the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

This approach enables Thomas and his colleagues to collect data and enter into a constant dialogue with the team\u2019s riders. \u201cOver the course of a season we\u2019ll collect data around functional movement, from spinal movement to hamstring flexibility, and you\u2019re constantly showing the athlete what you\u2019re doing,\u201d he continued, back when the team was called Sky. \u201cThey like to have that control and now what\u2019s going on; there\u2019s a constant dialogue with cyclists. It keeps them happy and they feel they\u2019ve done something productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not uncommon for riders to come to Thomas themselves. \u201cThey are very in-tune with their bodies in terms of their posture, bike position; they\u2019re also in-tune with their teammates\u2019 back positions. Some of the riders might even say \u2018why don\u2019t you check so and so? He didn\u2019t look right today on the bike\u2019. That can come from a rider or it can come from someone in the following car; it could also come from one of our coaches or one of the doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Emphasise good nutrition<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is not only nutrition but all of the aspects of performance and recovery that can be controlled. Team Ineos is on top of this as much as anyone in elite sport. \u201cWe put a big emphasis on nutrition,\u201d said Thomas. \u201cThey\u2019ll have structured meals for muscle repair, so replenishing their carbohydrate sources and replenishing the proteins for muscle repair.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also put an emphasis on sleep because when you think of the small windows that we have for recovery this is one of the variables we can control; so we put a big emphasis on sleep health and sleep effectiveness. Each rider will have specific Technogel mattresses, duvets and pillows that we take from hotel to hotel and each room is set up by our team who do all the hotel logistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have a sleep protocol for riders to follow, so no blue light or flashing on the phone after 8 or 9 o\u2019clock at night. Trunk mobility is also important because if their functionality is better then there is transfer on the bike the following day. The more mobile they become the more robust they become and the less chance they have of picking up an injury.”<\/p>\n

3. Establish the link between athletic development and injury prevention<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coles continued with a point that appears more obvious the longer you consider it. \u201cIt is generally accepted that stronger, fitter and more efficient players are less likely to be injured,\u201d he explained, \u201cand it is common sense that players who are injured less, have more opportunity to get stronger, fitter and more efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also spoke of how injury rates can result in other players taking more load to cover for their peers, which potentially leads to spikes in acute chronic load and, consequently, higher injury risk.<\/p>\n

There is a clear need for a team-wide responsibility in his eyes. \u201cPreventing injuries is a clear challenge that the HPU must accept responsibility for if they want to improve physical performance,\u201d he admitted. \u201cIt should also be recognized however, that the reality is that injury prevention in a professional team is a club wide process. It starts with the recruitment of players, or management of a playing list, so that the final playing list is a group who are well suited to the physical demands they will face.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Knowing when to escalate red flags<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you can achieve the above then your ability to act upon red flag when they arise will be more efficient and effective. The England and Wales Cricket Board [ECB] has a well-established protocol, as Rob Ahmun<\/a>, the organisation\u2019s National Lead for S&C explained in another Leaders Performance Institute exclusive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf an individual is \u2018red-flagged\u2019 i.e. their data is outside of the parameters we would normally expect, this would trigger a conversation between the player and a member of the Science and Medicine group,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe outcome of that conversation would then dictate the further course of action, for example, further support or education may be needed or even a reduction in training load. Again, setting red-flags is not an exact science and it certainly pays to bear individual circumstances in mind when looking at the data.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall we have found that the combination of monitoring both internal and external training loads to be more useful in providing a complete picture of how well the cricketers are coping with both training and game demands. This better picture has helped us to reduce the incidence of illness and injury whilst on tour, inform load modification and also increase athlete recovery and performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curiously, Ahmun suggests that money need not be an obstacle to effective injury prevention. \u201cEvidence certainly suggests a combination of methods is most useful and there is certainly no suggestion that a good system needs a huge budget. It is arguable more about a systematic and consistent approach that is easy to use and allows fast and efficient reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What is it going to take to win in 2020?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That is the focus of our latest Performance Special Report. Download The High Performance Manual: Winning in 2020<\/em>, which features sports organisations as diverse as Red Bull<\/strong>, the Brisbane Lions<\/strong> and the Royal Military Academy<\/strong> discussing the pertinent topics across Leadership & Culture, Coaching & Development, Human Performance and Data & Innovation.<\/p>\n