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Injury prevention in young floorball athletes

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This article provides a summary of the Knee Control injury prevention programme for young floorball athletes. Special considerations for girls are listed.

Who

471 community-level floorball athletes aged between 12 to 17 (Sweden).

floorballa form of hockey with 5 players and a goalkeeper; played in 68 countries

Intervention group
17 clusters
31 teams (females: 8, males: 23)
301 players (females: 107, males: 194)
aged 13.6 (±1.1) (females: 13.8, males: 13.5)
Control group
12 clusters
16 teams (females: 3, males: 13)
170 players (females: 35, males: 135)
aged 13.2 (±1.3) (females: 13.6, males: 13.1)

Design

Cluster randomised controlled trial.

clusterall teams from the same club were randomised to be in the same group

Intervention group

  • Running warm-up and the Knee Control injury prevention programme: lower limb and core strength, neuromuscular control, balance, jumping and landing.
  • 10-15 minutes used before each training session in-season (and running component used before each game)
  • on average 1.45 (±1.02) sessions per week

Control group

  • trained as usual

Main results

  • There were 349 unique injuries in 222 athletes (47%) during the study.
  • The intervention group had a 35% lower incidence of all injuries and a 45% lower incidence of acute injuries compared with the control group.
  • There was no difference in overuse injuries.
  • Females in the intervention group had a higher prevalence of knee injuries compared to the control group. Most of these knee injuries were overuse injuries.
  • Compliance with intervention programme was on average 84% (range 13 - 100%) (F: 83% M: 85%).

Take home message

For a clinician & coach
The Knee Control programme was effective in reducing the injuries (overall and acute injuries) in young (12-17 years old) floorball players.
For a parent
The Knee Control programme can prevent acute injuries in young floorball players.
For an athlete
If you are playing floorball: the Knee Control programme may prevent you from getting injured.

Original article

Åkerlund I, Waldén M, Sonesson S, Hägglund M. Forty-five per cent lower acute injury incidence but no effect on overuse injury prevalence in youth floorball players (aged 12–17 years) who used an injury prevention exercise programme: two-armed parallel-group cluster randomised controlled trial. British journal of sports medicine. 2020 Jan 28.

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