Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, CANADA.
School of Applied Child Psychology, McGill Connections Lab, Montréal, QC, CANADA.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019 Nov;51(11):2366-2374. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002046.
Although sport participation is a key contributor to the physical and mental health of children and youth, exposure to subconcussive head impacts in football has raised concerns about safety for athletes.
To demonstrate the efficacy of incorporating targeted football drills into a team's practice routine with the goal of improving players' technique and reduce exposure to subconcussive head impacts.
Seventy high school football players (age, 16.4 ± 1.1 yr) were tested PRE season using a sport-specific functional assessment. Results from the testing were used to inform the design of a prepractice intervention aimed at improving tackling and blocking techniques while reducing exposure to head impacts. The assessment included drills which evaluated the players' ability to safely tackle, and block while simulating game-like situations. Testing was repeated at MID season (internal control) without an intervention, and again at POST season (experimental), after introduction of the prepractice intervention between these timepoints, administered twice weekly. All testing sessions were recorded, and subsequently reviewed by trained graders based on selected criteria defined by football coaches. A subset of 19 participants wore in-helmet accelerometers to assess the effectiveness of the intervention in decreasing head impacts during practice.
Significant improvements in blocking and tackling techniques were observed after the introduction of the intervention (P < 0.0001). Participating athletes also showed better techniques when evaluated in new game-like situations, postseason, providing evidence for proper acquisition and generalizability of these safer habits. Finally, frequency of head impacts (>15g) per practice was significantly reduced by ~30% after 1 month of training.
Our results suggest that data-informed methods can be used to improve coaching practices and promote safer play, which can have a positive public health impact moving forward.
尽管参与体育运动是儿童和青少年身心健康的关键因素，但足球运动员遭受亚临床性头部撞击已引起人们对运动员安全的关注。
展示将有针对性的足球训练纳入球队日常训练计划的效果，旨在提高运动员的技术水平并减少亚临床性头部撞击的发生。
70 名高中足球运动员（年龄，16.4±1.1 岁）在赛季前进行了特定于运动的功能评估。测试结果用于指导准备练习干预措施的设计，该措施旨在提高擒抱和阻挡技术，同时减少头部撞击的发生。评估包括评估运动员在模拟比赛场景中安全擒抱和阻挡的能力的训练。在没有干预的情况下，在赛季中期（内部对照）重复进行测试，并在引入准备练习干预措施之后再次在赛季后期（实验）进行测试，该干预措施在这些时间点之间每周进行两次。所有测试均被记录下来，并由经过培训的评分员根据足球教练定义的选定标准进行评估。其中 19 名参与者的头盔内加速度计子集用于评估干预措施在减少练习中头部撞击的有效性。
在引入干预措施后，阻挡和擒抱技术有了显著提高（P<0.0001）。在新的比赛场景中，参加运动的运动员在评估中也表现出了更好的技术，这为这些更安全习惯的正确获得和推广提供了证据。最后，在训练 1 个月后，每个练习的头部撞击次数（>15g）显著减少了约 30%。
我们的结果表明，可以使用数据驱动的方法来改进教练实践并促进更安全的比赛，这对未来的公共健康有积极的影响。
