Any physical activity or sport, and with more reason if this is one with contact, injuries are a fear that are always present, and unfortunately in the world of football is no less.
Any player during a season can suffer small setbacks that make him move away from the playground a few days or even a few weeks. These are very common, whether by wear or by contact. But the really feared ones are those that separate you months or even years, such as the rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) or joint injuries with displacement that suppose an obligatory surgical intervention.
For this reason, we would like to talk about two topics that seem fundamental to us before and after: Prevention, and the psychological factor. Today, we will talk about the first of them:
The prevention of injuries
A basic aspect to avoid having to resort to the remedy, is to prevent it. In football and in any context of life. The 8 aspects that we would like to highlight to ensure a good prevention of injuries are the following:
- Correct warm up in the activation phase. It is very important both before the training and the match, to perform a correct muscular and mental activation to avoid this type of injuries.
- Correct control of the charges. The adequate control of training loads, respecting the necessary breaks, helps a lot to prevent injuries due to fatigue or overexertion.
- Control of correct maintenance of material and facilities. When we do any sports practice with material, it is very important that it is in good condition (medicine balls, balls, bosu …) in addition to a correct maintenance of the state of the lawn in our case.
- Strength work. Important to strengthen the body at the muscular level, both main muscles and antagonists, to respond to demanding efforts and protect bones and joints.
- Coordination and proprioception work. Based on muscle awareness and control, important to avoid especially joint injuries.
- Plyometrics work. Basic work in an explosive sport such as football, with jumps, ripped, braked, hitting ….
- Invisible training. Perhaps one of the most important parts and that less are taken into account. We talk about invisible training of everything that the player does to take care of himself when he is out of the playing fields: feeding, rest, hygiene, hydration …
- To have a good physiotherapist. Of course, the figure of the physiotherapist, responsible for, among other things, stimulating the body for a quick recovery and protection against overloads, small breaks or bruises, basic to make those little things do not end up becoming important injuries.
Here are some examples of Profe Ortega‘s exercises. Undoubtedly one of the outstanding specialists in the football landscape in physical preparation and injury prevention:
