Year-round injury and illness surveillance in UK summer paralympic sport athletes: 2016-2019.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the priority injuries and illnesses across UK summer Paralympic World Class Programmes (WCP). METHODS: Four years (2016-2019) of electronic medical records from 360 athletes across 17 Paralympic WCP sports were analysed. Methods were based on the 2021 International Paralympic Committee translation of the original 2020 International Olympic Committee consensus statement for epidemiological recording and reporting. This included reporting incidence (count of injury per athlete year) and burden (time loss days per athlete year) of injuries by impairment category. RESULTS: 836 injuries and 453 illnesses were recorded during the surveillance period, accounting for 34 638 and 10 032 time-loss days, respectively. 216 (60%) athletes reported at least one injury, while 171 (47.5%) reported at least one illness. There were 0.9 injuries per athlete year, resulting in a mean injury burden of 38.1 days per athlete year. The lumbar/pelvis, shoulder and thoracic/ribs body region had the greatest incidence whereas the shoulder, lumbar/pelvis and wrist had the greatest injury burden. All impairment categories had shoulder or lumbar/pelvis as the body region with the greatest incidence, however the burden of body areas did not always reflect the incidence. Athletes reported 0.5 illnesses per athlete year, resulting in an average illness burden of 11.3 days per athlete year. The respiratory, gastrointestinal, dermatological and genitourinary organ systems had the greatest illness incidence. CONCLUSIONS: To optimise health and performance in Paralympic sport athletes, system-wide mitigation initiatives should target priority injury problems occurring in the lumbar/pelvis, shoulder, thoracic spine/ribs and wrist. Illness types causing the greatest burden vary with impairment group, and illness mitigation initiatives should consider athlete impairment types in their design, while continuing to note the high incidence of respiratory and gastrointestinal illness across all impairments. Further research should examine associated risk factors and the influence of impairment categorisation.

Comparison of Drop Jump and Tuck Jump Knee Joint Kinematics in Elite Male Youth Soccer Players: Implications for Injury Risk Screening.

CONTEXT: Despite the popularity of jump-landing tasks being used to identify injury risk factors, minimal data currently exist examining differences in knee kinematics during commonly used bilateral jumping tasks. This is especially the case for rebounding-based protocols involving young athletes. OBJECTIVE: To compare the frontal plane projection angles (FPPAs) during the drop vertical jump (DVJ) and tuck jump assessment (TJA) in a cohort of elite male youth soccer players of varying maturity status. METHODS: A total of 57 male youth soccer players from an English championship soccer club participated in this study. Participants performed 3 trials of the DVJ and TJA, during which movement was recorded with 2-dimensional video cameras. FPPA for both right (FPPA-r) and left (FPPA-l) legs, with values <180° indicative of medial knee displacement. RESULTS: On a whole-group level, FPPA-r (172.7° [7.4°] vs 177.2° [11.7°]; P < .05; effect size [ES] = 0.46) and FPPA-l (173.4° [7.3°] vs 179.2° [11.0°]; P < .05; ES = 0.62) were significantly greater for both limbs in the TJA compared with the DVJ; however, these differences were less consistent when grouped by maturity status. FPPA-r during the TJA was significantly and moderately greater in the circa-peak height velocity (PHV) group compared with the post-PHV cohorts (169.4° [6.4°] vs 175.3° [7.8°]; P < .05; ES = 0.49). Whole-group data showed moderate relationships for FPPA-r and FPPA-l between the TJA and DVJ; however, stronger relationships were shown in circa- and post-PHV players compared with the pre-PHV cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Considering that the TJA exposed players to a larger FPPA and was sensitive to between-group differences in FPPA-r, the TJA could be viewed as a more suitable screen for identifying FPPA in young male soccer players.

A Comparison of Match Demands Using Ball-in-Play versus Whole Match Data in Professional Soccer Players of the English Championship.

This is the first study to report the whole match, ball-in-play (BiP), ball-out-of-play (BoP), and Max BiP (worst case scenario phases of play) demands of professional soccer players competing in the English Championship. Effective playing time per soccer game is typically <60 min. When the ball is out of play, players spend time repositioning themselves, which is likely less physically demanding. Consequently, reporting whole match demands may under-report the physical requirements of soccer players. Twenty professional soccer players, categorized by position (defenders, midfielders, and forwards), participated in this study. A repeated measures design was used to collect Global Positioning System (GPS) data over eight professional soccer matches in the English Championship. Data were divided into whole match and BiP data, and BiP data were further sub-divided into different time points (30-60 s, 60-90 s, and >90 s), providing peak match demands. Whole match demands recorded were compared to BiP and Max BiP, with BiP data excluding all match stoppages, providing a more precise analysis of match demands. Whole match metrics were significantly lower than BiP metrics (p < 0.05), and Max BiP for 30-60 s was significantly higher than periods between 60-90 s and >90 s. No significant differences were found between positions. BiP analysis allows for a more accurate representation of the game and physical demands imposed on professional soccer players. Through having a clearer understanding of maximum game demands in professional soccer, practitioners can design more specific training methods to better prepare players for worst case scenario passages of play.