Concussion dangers for ladies footballers are better than for males—why, and what might be executed?

Because the inception of the Australian Soccer League Ladies’s (AFLW) competitors in 2017, ladies’s soccer participation has elevated quickly, from about 380,000 in 2016 to around 600,000 in 2022.

Ladies now characterize roughly one-third of all players nationally.

Throughout this time, the AFLW has developed dramatically.

In 2017, it began with eight groups enjoying a brief eight-round competitors. Subsequent season, which begins on Friday evening, 18 groups will play throughout a 15-round marketing campaign.

By 2026, the competitors will function a full 17-round season, with feminine AFLW gamers becoming full-time athletes like the lads.

The influence of accidents

Crew success and profession longevity rely closely on one important issue—staying wholesome.

Groups with plenty of accidents don’t win many games, and injured gamers typically have shorter careers.

For this reason injury prevention is among the most closely researched subjects across the globe.

Step one in any good harm prevention plan is injury surveillance.

Damage surveillance is the method of observing and monitoring accidents to determine that are commonest and end in essentially the most missed matches.

By figuring out the areas of best want, focused harm prevention methods might be created.

There is a large body of research analyzing the commonest accidents in male Australian soccer in any respect ranges (together with neighborhood, sub-elite and elite).

This analysis is usually used to information harm prevention methods for ladies’s soccer.

Nonetheless, this has a difficulty—we do not know if ladies have the identical harm patterns as males.

That is essential after we take into account there are key variations between how males’s and ladies’s Australian soccer is performed.

At some ranges (reminiscent of elite and sub-elite), ladies’s soccer is at present performed with 16 gamers on the sphere, quite than 18.

It has a shorter game duration and fewer player rotations than the lads’s competitors, which may have an effect on the pace of the sport and the fatigue gamers expertise.

Lastly, stoppages happen 30% extra typically in ladies’s soccer, and ladies’s groups have greater than twice as many contested possessions and tackles per minute of match-play than men, highlighting it has extra frequent player-to-player contact.

Key variations between women and men

Researchers from the College of South Australia lately performed the largest league-wide study of the harm patterns of sub-elite ladies’s football so far, monitoring the injures skilled by seven golf equipment competing within the South Australian Nationwide Soccer League Ladies’s competitors throughout the 2023 season.

Ankle sprains, concussions and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) accidents had been the commonest and burdensome. Conversely, there have been only a few muscle strains.

Most accidents occurred throughout matches (quite than at coaching), and greater than two-thirds occurred in a contact scenario (reminiscent of throughout a deal with or a marking contest).

Importantly, these harm patterns had been notably completely different from these typically seen in males.

First, hamstring muscle strains had been one of many least widespread accidents, regardless of being one of many most common in men.

Second, ACL accidents occurred about twice as often in ladies than males.

Lastly, and arguably most notably, concussion charges had been about three-times higher than males—one thing that has been seen in prior seasons on the elite AFLW level.

Related observations have been made in different contact sports reminiscent of rugby, the place ladies not solely expertise increased charges of concussion, but in addition get concussed via different mechanisms to males.

Not solely does this recommend ladies require completely different harm prevention methods than males, however that concussion accidents needs to be a key prevention focus for all competitors ranges.

What could possibly be executed to repair the problem?

There are some attainable concussion prevention methods that could possibly be thought-about for ladies footballers.

Tackles with an upright physique place have been proven to extend the probability of the tackler’s head contacting their opponent’s shoulder, which increases concussion risk.

So particular deal with talent coaching to make sure athletes maintain a low physique place and phone the opposition’s mid-section could possibly be an choice to assist cut back the speed of tackle-related concussion.

Recent research has indicated neck power may shield in opposition to concussions and that harm prevention applications that embody neck workout routines can cut back the variety of head and neck injuries.

As such, workout routines to enhance neck power could possibly be an incredible introduction to pre-season coaching, along side regular higher and decrease physique power coaching.

Equally, a study of athletes from a spread of sports activities (together with soccer and volleyball) prompt enhancing core muscle power and stability might cut back the danger of concussion, which could possibly be skilled simply all through the whole season.

Lastly, rule modifications might cut back the chance for contact concussions to happen. Some widespread ideas have included banning “the bump” to scale back shoulder to go contact, and limiting the variety of gamers allowed on one facet of the sphere throughout a kick in after a point is scored to scale back congestion.

This text is republished from The Conversation underneath a Inventive Commons license. Learn the original article.