arduous, non-stop nature of the modern cricket season in Britain as compared to that in
the southern hemisphere. With regard to injury prevalence in rugby, statistics released by
the Rugby Football Union in England in 2002 showed that serious injuries (defined
operationally as enforced time loss from the sport for a period of more than twenty-one
days) had increased significantly from a figure of 1,058 (for the 1992–1993 season,
before rugby union became a professional sport) to between 2,120 and 2,461 per year
over a five-year period (1997–2002). Again, this apparent increase in injuries in rugby
has been attributed to external factors—in this case, the increasing demands of
professionalism in this sport (Starmer-Smith, 2002). Unfortunately, little is known about
whether or not injuries in soccer have increased to a similar degree. What is known,
however, is that at any one time, about 10 per cent of the players in the ninety-two
professional football squads in Britain are unable to train because of injury (Woods,
Hawkins, Hulse and Hodson, 2002). Also, about 47 per cent of professional footballers
are forced to retire from the game as a result of injury (Drawer and Fuller, 2002). These
figures highlight the extent of the problem of injury in soccer. In summary, research
evidence suggests that injuries are widespread in such popular sports as cricket, rugby
and soccer.
The apparent growth of sports injury incidence is attributable mainly to a combination
of social and/or professional influences. First, consider the growing emphasis in our
society on the pursuit of optimal health and fitness. Put simply, in order to look and feel
better, one has to work harder on one’s fitness and appearance. Unfortunately, working
harder may cause physical injury unless one’s training programmes are individually
tailored to one’s current level of fitness (see also discussion of overtraining in Chapter 8)
and one is properly conditioned physically to undertake the exercise in the first place. In
relation to this latter point, stretching before exercising has long been regarded as a
popular and effective conditioning technique. For example, it is widely believed that
runners who stretch their calves and hamstrings before a race not only increase their
flexibility but also reduce their chance of incurring injury. But does the research evidence
support the validity of stretching exercises? Remarkably, a recent study by Herbert and
Gabriel (2002) raised doubts about this matter by questioning the extent to which
“warming up” and “warming down” by stretching reduces the risk of muscle injuries (see
Box 9.2).
Box 9.2 Thinking critically about...the value of stretching before and
after exercisingAlthough certain strategies are useful in preventing sports injuries (eg., the wearing of
helmets is known to protect cyclists from head trauma), others are of doubtful value. For
example, although improvements in helmet design in the 1960s led to a reduction in
deaths from head injuries in American football players, it was also associated with an
increase in spine fractures following tackles in the game (Kujala, 2002). Given this
uncertainty about the value of certain injury prevention techniques, how useful is a
strategy like stretching? At first glance, its value is unquestionable because all athletes
are taught that stretching before and after exercise is beneficial in at least three ways.
First it is alleged to reduce muscle soreness Second it is held to lessen the likelihood of
Helping athletes to cope with injury: from theory to practice 247