The reach and adoption of a coach-led exercise training programme in community football
- Authors: Finch, Caroline , Diamantopoulou, Kathy , Twomey, Dara , Doyle, Tim , Lloyd, David , Young, Warren , Elliot, Bruce
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine. Vol. 48(8), p.718-723.
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
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- Description: Objective: To determine the reach and adoption of a coach-led exercise training programme for lower limb injury prevention. Design: Secondary analysis of data from a group-clustered randomised controlled trial. Setting: A periodised exercise training warm-up programme was delivered to players during training sessions over an 8-week preseason (weeks 1–8) and 18-week playing season. Participants: 1564 community Australian football players. Main outcome measurements: Reach, measured weekly, was the number of players who attended training sessions. Adoption was the number of attending players who completed the programme in full, partially or not at all. Reasons for partial or non-participation were recorded. Results: In week 1, 599 players entered the programme; 55% attended 1 training session and 45% attended > 1 session. By week 12, 1540 players were recruited but training attendance (reach) decreased to <50%. When players attended training, the majority adopted the full programme—ranging from 96% (week 1) to above 80% until week 20. The most common reasons for low adoption were players being injured, too sore, being late for training or choosing their own warm-up. Conclusions: The training programme's reach was highest preseason and halved at the playing season's end. However, when players attended training sessions, their adoption was high and remained close to 70% by season end. For sports injury prevention programmes to be fully effective across a season, attention also needs to be given to (1) encouraging players to attend formal training sessions and (2) considering the possibility of some form of programme delivery outside of formal training.
Challenges when implementing a sports injury prevention training program into real-world community sport
- Authors: Twomey, Dara , Finch, Caroline , Doyle, Tim , Lloyd, David , Elliot, Bruce
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Vol. 16, no. Supplement 1 (2013), p. e24
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- Description: Introduction: A full understanding of the ecological context is critical in the implementation of an effective sports injury prevention intervention. There are many complexities and challenges associated with the delivery of a successful intervention in a community team-based setting. Although the development and efficacy of interventions are regularly reported, rarely are the lessons learnt during the delivery of the intervention published. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to describe the key issues experienced in the delivery of a lower limb injury prevention training program in community-level Australian football.
Changes in knee joint biomechanics following balance and technique training and a season of Australian football
- Authors: Donnelly, Cyril , Elliot, Bruce , Doyle, Tim , Finch, Caroline , Dempsey, Alasdair , Lloyd, David
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 46, no. 13 (October 2012 2012), p. 917-922
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- Description: Purpose: Determine if balance and technique training (BTT) implemented adjunct to normal Australian football (AF) training reduces external knee loading during sidestepping. Additionally, the authors determined if an athlete's knee joint kinematics and kinetics change over a season of AF. Methodology: Eight amateur-level AF clubs (n=1,001 males) volunteered to participate in either 28 weeks of BTT or a ‘sham’ training (ST) adjunct to their normal preseason and regular training. A subset of 34 athletes (BTT, n=20; ST, n=14) were recruited for biomechanical testing in weeks 1–7 and 18–25 of the 28-week training intervention. During biomechanical testing, participants completed a series running, preplanned (PpSS) and unplanned sidestepping (UnSS) tasks. A linear mixed model (a=0.05) was used to determine if knee kinematics and peak moments during PpSS and UnSS were influenced by BTT and/or a season of AF Results: Both training groups significantly (p=0.025) decreased their peak internal-rotation knee moments during PpSS, and significantly (p=0.022) increased their peak valgus knee moments during UnSS following their respective training interventions. Conclusions: BTT was not effective in changing an athlete's knee joint biomechanics during sidestepping when conducted in ‘real-world’ training environments. Following normal AF training, the players had different changes to their knee joint biomechanics during both preplanned and unplanned sidestepping. When performing an unplanned sidestepping task in the latter half of a playing season, athletes are at an increased risk of ACL injury. The authors therefore recommend both sidestepping tasks are performed during biomechanical testing when assessing the effectiveness of prophylactic training protocols.