Brad Pitt – poster boy for injury prevention?

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Since the popular movie Moneyball (in which Pitt is the protagonist), the use of statistical models to optimise sporting performance has become common place to a variety of sports, including Rugby Union. The successful Leicester Tigers (UK) have been “Moneyballing” for some time: http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/ibm-helps-leicester-tigers-predict-their-game-75406.

Through this statistical model, a team can establish which factors – for example a good night’s sleep or tackles made, are critical to optimal team performance. However, as Dr John Orchard, Australian sports physician to a numerous successful teams, says 1 – there is a vital factor missing from the original Hollywood Moneyball statistical model: player availability. The best player in the world is useless to a team’s performance is he/she is unavailable through injury. And the teams that perform best in a competition have the least injuries – scientific evidence to support this statement is mounting:

  • For the 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign, Prof Tim Noakes was asked by coach Jake White to guarantee the availability of his best 22 players in the World Cup final. Prof Noakes was able to provide 21 out of those 22 players – the Springboks won this tournament.
  • In AFL, the teams with the most injuries are also at the bottom of the table (http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-05-21/injuries-take-toll-on-strugglers)
  • In the 2008/2009 Qatari soccer (football) season, the best teams had the lowest injury rates 2

So for those coaches and managers who see injury prevention as unnecessary or a waste of time, the message is clear: your team will not perform optimally unless you are considering injury prevention as a vital cog to your team’s performance!

  References:

 1.     Orchard JW. On the value of team medical staff: can the “Moneyball” approach be applied to injuries in professional football? British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2009 Nov 27;43(13):963–5.

2.     Eirale C, Tol JL, Farooq A, Smiley F, Chalabi H. Low injury rate strongly correlates with team success in Qatari professional football. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2012 Sep 15:1–5. 

Risk of rugby-related catastrophic injury acceptable in SA

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This was shown in a scientific paper that looked at SA’s risk on a scale designed by a leading researcher in the field, Dr Colin Fuller – injury risk advisor to RFU and FIFA. The full paper, which shows an average rate of 2 catastrophic injuries per 100,000 players in SA, is available here: http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/2/e002475.full.pdf+html .

Despite this relatively “good” news, this paper also showed that possible “higher risk” groups were the adult/senior age group and the front row players, particularly during the scrum.

The adult/senior players “higher risk group” could be explained by factors such as “weekend warriors” (players who don’t attend practice and therefore are not adequately conditioned) or the different law variations at the under 19 version of the game.

The front row during the scrum “higher risk group” is concerning as scrums occur relatively infrequently in comparison to say, the tackle, in a typical rugby match. This should be an area of concern, and these players, are therefore at a relatively higher risk during this phase. Luckily, SARU/BokSmart responded to this information immediately and modified their scrum laws in order to mitigate this risk (http://www.supersport.com/rugby/sa-rugby/news/130213/New_scrum_laws_for_schools_club_rugby). The IRB followed SARU’s move shortly afterwards by altering scrum laws internationally http://www.irb.com/newsmedia/mediazone/pressrelease/newsid=2062780.html).

Will these law changes be effective in reducing catastrophic injuries in the scrum? Watch this space…

RUGBY ONSLAUGHT: Piri Weepu badly knocked out versus Highlanders

See on Scoop.it – Concussion

KO’d: Piri Weepu badly knocked out versus Highlanders http://t.co/9B6m3TjmKM

JamesBrown‘s insight:

There was plenty of Twitter discussion about Piri Weepu’s concussion this weekend – in case you missed it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq7h7kvcQEg.

 

Although the injury looked traumatic, I would argue that this is a "preferable" concussion.

 

"Perferable" in the sense that there was absolutely NO DEBATE as to whether Weepu was concussed or not: the player’s obvious Loss of Conciousness (LOC) confirmed his diagnosis for not just the team medical staff, but also for the fans and spectators watching the game.

 

The problematic concussion cases in collision sports are those that do NOT present with classic signs of concussion – players feel "foggy" or out of sorts either during or after a game. The macho nature of rugby would often not permit such lowly symptoms to warrant a player missing training or match. Yet research has indicated that repeated knocks of this, less obvious nature can have dangerous long term effects for players. Thus, one should err on the side of caution with concussion and follow the mantra of leading researchers in this field currently: "If in doubt, sit ’em out!"

See on rugbyonslaught.blogspot.fr