GAA Injury & Prevention

It’s the time of the year again when the GAA season is in full swing and club players have their eyes firmly set on silverware. However, with the increasing intensity of football and hurling come championship time, injury can be a common factor.

An important aspect of GAA these days is putting in an adequate preseason training program. It serves to prepare the body for games by promoting weight loss, muscle strengthening, flexibility, speed, stamina and power.An uninterrupted preseason program is vital to achieve optimal performance in peak season.As the experienced, older player will tell you, there are few things more frustrating than an injury in the middle of the season, as time out means the possibility of missing the big games.

The most common situations that give rise to injuries in Gaelic football are collision (22%) and twisting/turning (19%) both causing stress on the knee and subjecting the knee to injury. Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tears are the most common cause of prolonged absence from sport. Hamstring injuries seem to have reached near epidemic proportions in Gaelic football. The GAA, Medical Scientific and Player Welfare Committee conducted a study which tracked 851 inter-county Gaelic footballers for four years, in the study, it was found that hamstring injuries were the single most common injury, representing 24% of all injuries. It has also been reported that 1/3 of hamstring injuries recur within the first year following return to sport with subsequent injuries usually being more severe than the original.

In my view many of the injuries sustained in early to mid-season are avoidable. Firstly the preseason program has to be uniformly progressive and very well planned. It must start at a low level and be ramped up slowly. To keep all players injury free, the program must be either set at a level that accommodates the most challenged player, or be structured so that it allows players to work at their own intensity. An adequate warm up is also vital. The GAA have come up with a tailored warm up program for Gaelic footballers and hurlers. This is a 15 minute program similar to that of the FIFA 11+ program. It has been found that players who perform this program at least twice weekly have 30-50% fewer injuries. Here is a link to the GAA program:

http://www.gaa.ie/content/documents/publications/player_welfare/GAA-15-Warm-Up.pdf

As Gaelic games are evolving, the focus must change from injury management to injury prevention. Injury prevention involves us being a bit smarter and not going as hard in training. Hopefully there will be a lot of focus on recovery in the future. The implementation of the GAA 15 warm up will hopefully reduce the number of injuries, especially hip and groin injuries which are big at the moment. If the GAA 15 warm up is implemented at a young age hopefully we’ll see a decrease in injury.

If you would like to see a Physiotherapist to treat your sports injury, please ring Advanced Physio West on 090 6626023/ 086 3758169 or book online

Article by Paul Lennon (Physiotherapist)