What is the main cause of injuries in sprinting? If you run faster are you more susceptible to injury?I’ve had sore achillies and Knee with back of the hamstring behind the knee problems before but I don’t have those problems cause I would stretch out the sore areas alot and end the workout early if those areas were bothering me. Are most injuries while sprinting preventable or do sprinters often injure an area out of the blue?Thanks
some people are more prone to injuries than others.i know of 2 world class sprinters who are still fighting with injuries.i know of others who never have any problems.for the rest of us we all have slight problems.donovan bailey said he always had niggles and never ran without them.
whats the main problem…thats the question and if i could answer that then i would be alot wealthier now than ever.its balance between training,recovery,therapy,flexibilty and so on.limitless
There is no need for injury ever. Unfortunately, stuff happens. With a proper training program, and with an athlete who knows their body well, injuries should not happen from training, so long as there is proper therapy available like Physio and massage.
According to some statistics “Overuse tendon injuries cause enormous costs in the work place [2] and they account for about 30-50% of all sports injuries [3, 4]”
from http://www.clinicalsportsmedicine.com/articles/overuse_tendon.htm
(3) Józsa L, Kannus P. Human tendons. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 1997:576.
(4) Kannus P. Tendons-a source of major concern in competitive and recreational athletes. [Editorial]. Scand J Med Sci Sports 1997;7:53-54.
Article linked from http://www.tendinosis.org/scope.html
Presumably the estimates do not include acute tendon injuries.
The number one cause, by far, is poor planning of the training load. Comments?
Number 2 would have to be poor flexibility and recovery training?
I think that all coaches and athletes should look at the grid of stress type and recovery time by Kenney to prescribe the type of work for placement of the work. As for the amount, you must have a feel for that athlete and how they fatigue form it. Progression seems to be clear to me after reading the CFTS. This is far harder to juggle at higher levels since the organism is very plastic and sensitive.
Interesting that Xman mentions Donovan Bailey - an athlete who came to the sport relatively late. Is it possible that athletes that come to the sport late are destined to be ‘niggly’ for the remained of their athletics careers?
Not sure GF an argument could be made aopposing that in that injuries, mechanical imbalances and scar tissue accumulations are greater generally in those who have been training for longer periods.
no23 you mention poor flexibility. I have seen articles that poor flexibility is a contributor to injury- overuse injuries (article from post on supertraining by Mel Siff) and accept that poor flexibility is a problem. I would like to discuss the implications. I hope I am not making an over-generalisation in saying that it seems many athletes (not necessarily elite level athletes) seem to think that all they need do to prevent injury is do their static stretching before exercise. I also get the feeling that some coaches blame injury only on poor flexibility. This is just my experience of club and university athletes, certainly not elite or even national level athletes. I wonder if anyone else notices the same trends. It might just be an english thing.
I agree flexibility is too general a phrase which is why I used both the terms ‘training’ and ‘recovery’.
Personally flexibility is not something you do to avoid injury - you do it to improve muscular control, improve range of movement and speed up the removal of waste products from tired muscles - these are often the elements or ingrediants of injury.
Flexibility is also a training component, something that must be incorporated into training not ‘stuck on to the start or end of training sessions’.
Why as you point out do coaches or people accuse poor flexibilty as being the root of injury?
Because poor flexibilty is often as a result of not managing the training components the Charlie above - mentioned devleoping muscular imbalances and overuse injuries AND by not including appropriate recovery (stretching being one) techniques and approaches.
As regards, static vs pnf vs ais vs SC vs SCR etc that has all been covered on other posts
Originally posted by Charlie Francis
The number one cause, by far, is poor planning of the training load. Comments?
I agree 100%
Originally posted by Charlie Francis
The number one cause, by far, is poor planning of the training load. Comments?
Building further upon Charlie’s comment, I would say the second most important factor is the coach’s ability to appropriately adapt to circumstances once the planning has moved to the implementation phase. Circumstances such as weather, technical issues, facility constraints, tightness, personal bests in training, soreness, external factors such as the athletes stress levels from school, work, social life, finances, etc. all play a factor in the quality of training and potential injury risks.
Even the average coach like myself can look look pretty good with a damn good physio on hand. With good tissue texture the body can addapt twice as fast in IMHO. Number 2 makes an obvious point, but common sense is not to common in the track world. What examples number 2 can you share that are mistakes we tend not to see?
Even the best therapist cannot repair the damage of a poor program. Perhaps in the short term, things can be mitigated. But it (the problem) will manifest itself over the long term. Not many athletes have access to top notch physio, regardless.
Obvious mistake in implementation is a coach’s reaction to the running times/performances getting worse over a given workout. Many coaches will identify this problem as a lack of conditioning and run the athlete through the entire workout (or worse, add more). Good coaches will look at the bigger picture and discover, possibly, that fatigue has entered into the equation for some reason or another (i.e. school stress, significant PB’s in previous workout).
As Charlie has mentioned previously, what are the chances that the athlete will get better if the times are getting slower due to fatigue. Perhaps it is better to switch to another training component and end the planned workout. Charlie is a genius in this capacity. Some coaches do not have the know-how or confidence to make the right call in mid-workout.
Many of my changes in workout implementation have to do with weather changes, as we are often dealing with rainy, cold weather. I will often modify the intensity and length of the runs to avoid risky situations due to the weather. Or we may substitute a rainy, outdoor start block workout, with explosive med-ball throws indoors.
But, the plan is fluid and flexible, not written in stone.
Agreed…
On the flip side, when fatigue is not an issue. The coach must know when to increase the work load to challange the organism.
Very valid points Number 2 -
I just wonder how much can be taught and how much is by learning from experience …