01/05/2021
Adult sport teams can resume training sessions in groups of up to 15 from the 10th of May 🏐🏃🏼♂️🏃🏼♀️
With a return to training it may be beneficial to be aware of the most prevalent injuries in Gaelic football.
Gaelic football consists of various non-contact actions such as maximal intensity sprinting, running at high speeds, jogging, walking, jumping, landing, accelerating, decelerating, changing direction in response to a stimulus, kicking, shooting, catching, and handpassing. Gaelic football also involves actions involving contact with other players, the ground, and the football including tackling, blocking, colliding with other players, shouldering, falling, etc. An important finding of this study is that most of the injuries presented have a high chance of being non-contact related .This could be applied to the current situation by gradually and progressively exposing players to these non-contact actions as part of individual and group training, which may potentially reduce injury risk.
Another important finding was that match play injury incidence was 12.9 times higher than training incidence. This is particularly relevant in 2021, as players have been training individually for the past 6 months, and will be able to play games just a month after collective training resumes. It may be beneficial for coaches to gradually expose players to match specific training upon resumption of training to mitigate injury risk.
Hamstring injuries were the most common injury of all, amounting to nearly a quarter of all injuries, with a 44.1% chance of re-occurrence after initial injury. Injury risk may be reduced by:
▫️Gradual, progressive and frequent exposures to both maximal intensity and high-speed running.
▫️Improving hamstring eccentric, isometric and concentric strength in a range of different positions and velocities.
▫️NOT performing heavy eccentric hamstring exercises in the 24hrs prior to a session. Performing these exercises directly after pitch sessions may be a good habit to adopt.
▫️Adapting a training session when feeling “niggles” or soreness.
▫️Appropriate hydration, nutrition, recovery, and sleep
