Reducing the risk of injury on return and what we can learn from Elite Football
I was reading an article on BBC sport the other day about how Premier League players could be 25% more susceptible to injury when football resumes because of the intense schedule that will be required on return. The article can be found here for those that are interested.
It got me thinking…this will be the case for any sport or exercise, including basketball if a return to training is rushed and not thought through.
The article discussed research conducted by artificial intelligence platform Zone7, which specialises in injury risk forecasting shows that an increase in matches in a 30-day period increased the incidence of injury by 25%.
It was not just the fixture congestion that increased risk, but the time provided for teams to transition from individual, socially distanced training to higher-intensity group training. This factor could lead to an increased risk for basketballers on the return to team training.
The Bundesliga (in Germany for the basketball lover who hates football) recommenced training on 7th May, just nine days before the first fixture kicked off. Eight players picked up injuries in the first six games, which is a rate much above normal.
A standard pre-season schedule runs for a period of 30 days, for some teams, it is even longer. However, when the preparation period shortens, 75% of teams had a higher prevalence of injury in the first half of the season when compared to those that had more planning time.
In the article, Flaminia Ronca, an exercise physiologist at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, part of University College London, said: “It’s possible that the players may have lost up to 15% of their fitness, which they now need to regain in a very short time.”
“And I think this is really where the science of training becomes so crucial. Coaches will have to be very creative and combine the most effective methods of training with the safest injury prevention methods, all condensed into this very tight time-frame.”
It is probably fair to say that most of these players had access to more resources than the average amateur basketball player will have during this downtime and therefore this may lead to higher risks for ballers. On the other hand, basketballers will have more time to prepare as the leagues were cancelled and it looks likely the next season will start later than usual.
That being said, there will have been many players that will not have used this time to keep themselves in condition for the return of basketball. My concern is that some coaches will want to ‘blow out the cobwebs’ on the return and ramp-up sessions too quickly to make up for the lost time. Some will want to do testing and trials, which will cause players to go into maximum efforts straight away, resulting in a higher risk for injury.
Those who may be thinking ‘I have been staying fit and so will be ok’ may also still be at risk unless they have been able to replicate the demands of training and matches. Replicating this is difficult, for example, it is impossible (unless you own a home indoor court) to replicate the surface you are training on. Those training in gardens and off-road could find the return to a harder court puts extra strain on the tissues of the legs.
But we don’t have access to resources and technology?
Now the tricky part is, basketball clubs have no way to analyse the risks as elite football clubs do. Most will not have access to millions of data points, taken from wearable technology that monitors workloads from training, have a player injury history, fitness tests, and sleep patterns to generate risk forecasts.
Whilst this would be great to have access to, it is not required. There are some simple strategies that can be utilised for the return of training and reduce the risk of injuries for players.
1. Pre-pre-season training
Home workouts and conditioning sessions. They could come in many different forms such as team sessions on video chat to individual handouts. Regardless of what form they come in, sessions should start steady and build up to where you want players to be when we can resume to group training sessions.
In addition, sessions or workouts should:
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Basketball specific – think about all movements and activities a basketballer does, not just skill-specific
- Progressive but programmed – whilst we want to gradually build up, there should be not only rest days but recovery weeks. Recovery weeks reduce risk of injury, help players recover from harder periods of training both mentally and physically and reduce risks of plateaux.
- Variable – repeating the same thing day in, day out over several weeks can become monotonous but also leads to training becoming a bit stagnant. Progression can again halt if there is no variability.
Below is an example of a basketball-specific workout:
2. Plan a steady return to training
Even though we are still relatively in the dark about when group training will return and how much time there will be before games start, planning for what sessions could look like can still happen. There can even be different activities for how much pre-pre-season training players have done.
Planning out and slowly grading up sessions between return and start of the season will have the team hitting the first game running and less at risk of injury. Whereas the blowing ‘out the cobwebs’ approach can cause a surge in loading, leave players at risk of injury and potentially burn them out before the 1st game arrives.
3. How are you feeling? Talk to players
This is the most simple but probably the most underutilised tool. Because it is not a fancy gadget or technology, I think it can be forgotten or lost at times. The majority of players will be honest and will tell how they are feeling when they return. Their subjective opinion can be the most valuable piece of data available to a coach.
This can be done with some general questions to the group and a show of hands or an individual. Dig down a bit further once you have the initial response may help with pitching training at the right level for a player or a group. The trick is to know when to push that player and when to back off.
This could even something that could be done prior to them returning to sessions. Sending a form (Wellness Questionnaire) and collating info from each individual or done by a phone/video call. There are plenty of wellness questionnaires out there but creating one that is specific for your team may be best. For example, one coach may need to ask their team about work and life stresses but a junior coach may have to ask about schoolwork.
For now, I won’t go into the depths of wellness forms but you could use development areas sheets or here are some questions you may want to consider:
How are you feeling?
What percentage are your fitness levels at currently? 100% being as fit as can be and raring to go
How prepared are you for returning to higher intensity training?
Any issues or concerns?
Are you feeling mentally alert, focussed and energetic? 1. being drained to 5. feeling great
Any soreness and pains? 1. Very sore and 5. Not sore at all
Utilising these 3 strategies can help you plan for the return to group training and games, reducing the risk of injuries and poor performance.