Head, face and neck injury in youth rugby: Incidence and risk factors
- Authors: McIntosh, Andrew , McCrory, Paul , Finch, Caroline , Wolfe, Rory
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 44, no. 3 (2010), p. 188-193
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
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- Description: OBJECTIVES: In this study, the incidence of head, neck and facial injuries in youth rugby was determined, and the associated risk factors were assessed. DESIGN: Data were extracted from a cluster randomised controlled trial of headgear with the football teams as the unit of randomisation. No effect was observed for headgear use on injury rates, and the data were pooled. SETTING: General school and club-based community competitive youth rugby in the 2002 and 2003 seasons. PARTICIPANTS: Young male rugby union football players participating in under-13, under 15, under 18 and under 21 years competitions. Eighty-two teams participated in year 1 and 87 in year 2. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Injury rates for all body regions combined, head, neck and face calculated for game and missed game injuries. RESULTS: 554 head, face and neck injuries were recorded within a total of 28 902 h of rugby game exposure. Level of play and player position were related to injury risk. Younger players had the lowest rates of injury; forwards, especially the front row had the highest rate of neck injury; and inside backs had the highest rate of injuries causing the player to miss a game. Contact events, including the scrum and tackle, were the main events leading to injury. CONCLUSION: Injury prevention must focus on the tackle and scrum elements of a youth rugby game.
Level of agreement between field-based data collectors in a large scale injury prevention randomised controlled trial
- Authors: Twomey, Dara , Finch, Caroline , Doyle, Tim , Elliott, Bruce , Lloyd, David
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Vol. 14, no. 2 (2011), p. 121-125
- Relation: http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/565900
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- Description: In sports injury prevention field trials, data collectors are often club volunteers with considerable knowledge of the game but with limited detailed medical backgrounds or knowledge of formal scientific processes. The aim of this paper is to determine the agreement among trained primary data collectors (PDCs) with a sport science background and no prior involvement in data collection in a large randomised controlled trial. During the 'Preventing Australian Football Injury through eXercise' (PAFIX) project, player participation and injury data were collected by trained PDCs at training and games over the 2007 and 2008 playing seasons in 40 community level Australian football teams. PDC-collected data relating to player exposure and whether or not a player sustained an injury and subsequently left the field of play was compared to the same information from independent observers (IOs) who attended one randomly selected game for each of the 40 teams. There was 98% agreement between the PDC and the IO on game details (i.e., date, time, grade and score), 79% (ICC 0.9, 95% CI 0.85-0.95) agreement on the number of players per game and 76% (ICC 0.8, 95% CI 0.69-0.91) agreement on the number of injuries sustained in the games. There was 100% agreement on whether the player left the field for all injuries. This study found that exercise and sport science students are reliable data collectors in sports injury fieldwork studies. (C) 2010 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Improving 'at-action' decision-making in team sports through a holistic coaching approach
- Authors: Light, Richard , Harvey, Stephen , Mouchet, Alain
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sport, Education and Society Vol. 19, no. 3 (April 2014 2014), p. 258-275
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- Description: This article draws on Game Sense pedagogy and complex learning theory (CLT) to make suggestions for improving decision-making ability in team sports by adopting a holistic approach to coaching with a focus on decision-making 'at-action'. It emphasizes the complexity of decision-making and the need to focus on the game as a whole entity, where players, individually and collectively, attempt to manage disorder in the face of an opposition. It rejects the complicated, mechanistic approach to learning and cognitivist views that dominate the literature on decision-making in team sports that see it as being a linear process of conscious thinking limited to the individual mind. It offers an alternative, holistic view grounded in a practical example of how this might be achieved in coaching rugby union football and theorized within a CLT framework.
Head accelerations during a 1-on-1 rugby tackling drill performed by experienced rugby union players
- Authors: Reha, Tahere , McNabb, Colm , Netto, Kevin , Davey, Paul , Lavender, Andrew
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Brain Sciences Vol. 11, no. 11 (2021), p.
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- Description: Rugby Union is a popular sport played by males and females worldwide, from junior to elite levels. The highly physical skill of tackling occurs every few seconds throughout a match and various injuries associated with tackling are relatively common. Of particular interest are head injuries that result in a concussion. Recently, repeated non-injurious head impacts in sport have attracted the attention of researchers interested in brain health. Therefore, this study assessed head movement during repeated rugby tackle drills among experienced Rugby Union players. Experienced male and female participants performed 15 1-on-1 tackles in a motion analysis laboratory to measure the head movements of the ball carrier and tackler during each tackle, using three-dimensional motion capture. The average peak acceleration of the head for ball carriers was 28.9 ± 24.08 g and 36.67 ± 28.91 g for the tacklers. This study found that the type of head impacts common while performing a tackle in Rugby Union are similar to those experienced by soccer players during heading, which has been found to alter brain function that lasts hours after the event. This has important implications for player health and suggests that mitigation strategies should be considered for Rugby Union. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.