sports injuries essay

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Article Contents

Introduction, literature search, physeal injuries and growth disturbance, residual problems after injury in athletes, outcomes of operative management of common sports injuries, conclusions.

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Sport injuries: a review of outcomes

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Nicola Maffulli, Umile Giuseppe Longo, Nikolaos Gougoulias, Dennis Caine, Vincenzo Denaro, Sport injuries: a review of outcomes, British Medical Bulletin , Volume 97, Issue 1, March 2011, Pages 47–80, https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldq026

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Injuries can counter the beneficial aspects related to sports activities if an athlete is unable to continue to participate because of residual effects of injury. We provide an updated synthesis of existing clinical evidence of long-term follow-up outcome of sports injuries. A systematic computerized literature search was conducted on following databases were accessed: PubMed, Medline, Cochrane, CINAHL and Embase databases. At a young age, injury to the physis can result in limb deformities and leg-length discrepancy. Weight-bearing joints including the hip, knee and ankle are at risk of developing osteoarthritis (OA) in former athletes, after injury or in the presence of malalignment, especially in association with high impact sport. Knee injury is a risk factor for OA. Ankle ligament injuries in athletes result in incomplete recovery (up to 40% at 6 months), and OA in the long term (latency period more than 25 years). Spine pathologies are associated more commonly with certain sports (e.g. wresting, heavy-weight lifting, gymnastics, tennis, soccer). Evolution in arthroscopy allows more accurate assessment of hip, ankle, shoulder, elbow and wrist intra-articular post-traumatic pathologies, and possibly more successful management. Few well-conducted studies are available to establish the long-term follow-up of former athletes. To assess whether benefits from sports participation outweigh the risks, future research should involve questionnaires regarding the health-related quality of life in former athletes, to be compared with the general population.

Participation in sports is widespread all over the world, 1 with well-described physical, psychological and social consequences for involved athletes. 2–5 The benefits associated with physical activity in both youth and elderly are well documented. 2 , 6–8 Regular participation in sports is associated with a better quality of life and reduced risk of several diseases, 1 , 9 allowing people involved to improve cardiovascular health. 10 , 11 Both individual and team sports are associated with favourable physical and physiological changes consisting of decreased percentage of body fat 12 and increased muscular strength, endurance and power. 13 , 14 Moreover, regular participation in high-volume impact-loading and running-based sports (such as basketball, gymnastics, tennis, soccer and distance running) is associated with enhanced whole-body and regional bone mineral content and density, 14 , 15 whereas physical inactivity is associated with obesity and coronary heart disease. 16 Sports are associated with several psychological and emotional benefits. 7 , 17 , 18 First of all, there is a strong relationship between the development of positive self-esteem, due to testing of self in a context of sport competition, 19 reduced stress, anxiety and depression. 20 Physical activities also contribute to social development of athletes, prosocial behaviour, fair play and sportspersonship 21 and personal responsibility. 22

Engaging in sports activities has numerous health benefits, but also carries the risk of injury. 7 , 23 , 24 At every age, competitive and recreational athletes sustain a wide variety of soft tissue, bone, ligament, tendon and nerve injuries, caused by direct trauma or repetitive stress. 25–35 Different sports are associated with different patterns and types of injuries, whereas age, gender and type of activity (e.g. competitive versus practice) influence the prevalence of injuries. 7 , 36 , 37

Injuries in children and adolescents, who often tend to focus on high performance in certain disciplines and sports, 24 include susceptibility to growth plate injury, nonlinearity of growth, limited thermoregulatory capacity and maturity-associated variation. 9 In the immature skeleton, growth plate injury is possible 38 and apophysitis is common. The most common sites are at the knee (Osgood-Schlatter lesion), the heel (Sever's lesion) and the elbow. 39 Certain contact sports, such as rugby, for example, are associated with 5.2 injuries per 1000 total athletic exposures in high school children (usually boys). These were more common during competition compared with training and fractures accounted for 16% of these injuries, whereas concussions (15.8%) and ligament sprains (15.7%) were almost as common. 40

Sports trauma commonly affects joints of the extremities (knee, ankle, hip, shoulder, elbow, wrist) or the spine. Knee injuries are among the most common. Knee trauma can result in meniscal and chondral lesions, sometimes in combination with cruciate ligament injuries. 37 Ankle injuries constitute 21% of all sports injuries. 41 Ankle ligament injuries are more commonly (83%) diagnosed as ligament sprains (incomplete tears), and are common in sports such as basketball and volleyball. Ankle injuries occur usually during competition and in the majority of cases, athletes can return to sports within a week. 42 Hip labral injuries have drawn attention in recent years with the advent of hip arthroscopy. 43 , 44 Upper extremity syndromes caused by a single stress or by repetitive microtrauma occur in a variety of sports. Overhead throwing, long-distance swimming, bowling, golf, gymnastics, basketball, volleyball and field events can repetitively stress the hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder. Shoulder and elbow problems are common in the overhead throwing athlete whereas elbow injuries remain often unrecognized in certain sports. 45 Hand and wrist trauma accounts for 3–9% of all athletic injuries. 46 Wrist trauma can affect the triangular fibrocartilage complex 47 or cause scaphoid fractures, 48 whereas overuse problems (e.g. tenosynovitis) are not uncommon. 49 Spinal problems can range from lumbar disc herniation, 39–42 to fatigue fractures of the pars interarticularis, 50 and ‘catastrophic’ cervical spine injuries. 51

Thus, in addition to the beneficial aspects related to sports activities, injuries can counter these if an athlete is unable to continue to participate because of residual effects of injury. Do injuries in children, adolescents and young adults have long-term consequences? What are the outcomes of the most commonly performed surgical procedures? The aim of this review is to provide an updated synthesis of existing clinical evidence of long-term follow-up outcome of sports injuries.

An initial pilot Pubmed search using the keywords ‘sports’, ‘injury’, ‘injuries’, ‘athletes’, ‘outcome’, ‘long term’, was performed. From 1467 abstracts that were retrieved and scanned we identified the thematic topics (types of injury, management, area of the body involved) of the current review, listed below:

Then a more detailed search of PubMed, Medline, Cochrane, CINAHL and Embase databases followed. We used combinations of the keywords: ‘sport’, ‘sports’, ‘youth sports’, ‘young athletes’, ‘former athletes’, ‘children’, ‘skeletally immature’, ‘adolescent’, ‘paediatric’, ‘pediatric’, ‘physeal’, ‘epiphysis’, ‘epiphyseal injuries’, ‘hip’, ‘knee’, ‘ankle’, ‘spine’, ‘spinal’, ‘shoulder’, ‘elbow’, ‘wrist’, ‘football players’, ‘football’, ‘soccer’, ‘tennis’, ‘swimmers’, ‘swimming’, ‘divers’, ‘wrestlers’, ‘wrestling’, ‘cricket’, ‘gymnastics’, ‘skiers’, ‘baseball’, ‘basketball’, ‘osteoarthritis’, ‘former athletes’, ‘strain’, ‘contusion’, ‘distortion’, ‘injury’, ‘injuries’, ‘trauma’, ‘drop out’, ‘dropping out’, ‘attrition’, ‘young’, ‘ youth’, ‘sprain’, ‘ligament’, ‘ACL’, ‘cruciate ligament’, ‘meniscus’, ‘meniscal’, ‘chondral’, ‘labrum’, ‘labral’, ‘reconstruction’, ‘arthroscopy’, ‘throwing’, ‘overhead’, ‘rotator cuff’, ‘TFCC’, ‘scaphoid’, ‘osteoarthritis’, ‘arthritis’, ‘long term’, ‘follow-up’ and ‘athlete’. The most recent search was performed during the second week of November 2009.

Osteoarthritis (OA) in former athletes

Spine problems in former athletes

Knee injury and OA

Ankle ligament injury and OA

Residual upper limb symptoms in the ‘overhead’ athlete

Meniscectomy and oa, meniscal repair in athletes.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction and OA

ACL reconstruction in children

Ankle arthroscopy in athletes, hip arthroscopy in athletes.

Operative management of shoulder injuries in athletes (focusing on surgery for instability and labral tears)

Operative management of wrist injuries in athletes (focusing on triquetral fibrocartilage complex, TFCC, injuries and scaphoid fractures)

Given the different types of sports injuries in terms of location in the body, several searches were carried out. The search was limited to articles published in peer-reviewed journals.

From a total of 2596 abstracts that were scanned, 1247 studies were irrelevant to the subject and were excluded. The remaining studies were categorized in the topics identified earlier. We excluded from our investigation case reports, letter to editors and articles not specifically reporting outcomes, as well as ‘kin’ studies (studies reporting on the same patients' population). The most recent study or the study with the longest follow-up was included. In some topics of particular importance, such as the effect of knee injuries (given their frequency), we included long-term studies reporting not only on athletes, but also on the general population (usually in these studies a very high proportion on sports injuries is included). Regarding knee injuries in adults, we included articles with follow-up more than 10 years.

Given the linguistic capabilities of the research team, we considered publications in English, Italian, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese.

A concern regarding children's participation in sports is that the tolerance limits of the physis may be exceeded by the mechanical stresses of sports such as football and hockey or by the repetitive physical loading required in sports such as baseball, gymnastics and distance running. 52 Unfortunately, what is known about the frequency of acute sport-related physeal injuries is derived primarily from case reports and case series data. In a previous systematic review on the frequency and characteristics of sports-related growth plate injuries affecting children and youth, we found that 38.3% of 2157 acute cases were sport related and among these 14.9% were associated with growth disturbance. 24 These injuries were incurred in a variety of sports, although football is the sport most often reported. 53

There are accumulating reports of stress-related physeal injuries affecting young athletes in a variety of sports, including baseball, basketball, climbing, cricket, distance running, American football, soccer, gymnastics, rugby, swimming, tennis. 24 Although most of these stress-related conditions resolved without growth complication during short-term follow-up, there are several reports of stress-related premature partial or complete distal radius physeal closure of young gymnasts. 25–29 These data indicate that sport training, if of sufficient duration and intensity, may precipitate pathological changes of the growth plate and, in extreme cases, produce growth disturbance. 24 , 32

Disturbed physeal growth as a result of injury can result in length discrepancy, angular deformity or altered joint mechanics and may cause significant long-term disability. 33 However, the incidence of long-term health outcome of physeal injuries in children's and youth sports is largely unknown.

Based on the previously selection criteria, 20 studies 54–73 were retained for analysis (Table  1 ). Injury to the physis can result in limb deformities and leg-length discrepancy, the latter being more common after motor vehicle accidents, rather than sports participation.

Evidence on acute physeal injury with subsequent adverse affects on growth.

OA in former athletes

Two studies investigated former top-level female gymnasts for residual symptoms (back pain) and radiographical changes. 74 , 75 Both studies reported no significant differences in back pain between gymnast and control groups; however, the prevalence of radiographical abnormalities was greater in gymnasts than controls in one study. 74

Lower limb weight-bearing joints such as the hip and the knee are at risk of developing OA after injury or in the presence of malalignment, especially in association with high impact sport. 76 Varus alignment was present in 65 knees (81%) in 81 former professional footballers (age 44–70 years), whereas radiographic OA in 45 (56%). 77 Others showed that prevalence of knee OA in soccer players and weight lifters was 26% (eight athletes) and 31% (nine athletes), respectively, whereas it was only 14% in runners (four athletes). 78 By stepwise logistic regression analysis, the increased risk is explained by knee injuries in soccer players and by high body mass in weight lifters. A survey in English former professional soccer players revealed that 47% retired because of an injury. The knee was most commonly involved (46%), followed by the ankle (21%). Of all respondents, 32% had OA in at least one lower limb joint and 80% reported joint pain. 79 Another study examined the incidence of knee and ankle arthritis in injured and uninjured elite football players. The mean time from injury was 25 years. 80 Arthritis was present in 63% of the injured knees and in 33% of the injured ankles, whereas the incidence of arthritis in uninjured players was 26% in the knee and 18% in the ankle. Obviously, it should be kept in mind that radiographic studies can only ascertain the presence of degenerative joint disease, which is just one of the features of OA. Clinical examination is always necessary to clarify the diagnosis, and formulate a management plan.

Ex-footballers also had high prevalence of hip OA (odds ratio: 10.2), 81 whereas in another study the incidence of hip arthritis was 5.6% among former soccer players (mean age: 55 years) compared with 2.8% in an age-matched control group. In 71 elite players it was higher (14%). Female ex-elite athletes (runners, tennis players) were compared with an age-matched population of women, and were found to have higher rates (2–3 fold increase) of radiographic OA (particularly the presence of osteophytes) of the hip and knee. 82 The risk was similar in ex-elite athletes and in a subgroup from the general population who reported long-term sports activity, suggesting that duration rather than frequency of training is important. An older study 83 is runners associated degenerative changes with genu varum and history of injury. A cohort of 27 Swiss long-distance runners was at increased risk of developing ankle arthritis compared with a control group. 84 Similarly elite tennis players were at risk of developing glenohumeral OA, 85 whereas handball players of developing premature hip OA, 86 and former elite volleyball players had marginally increased risk for ankle OA. 87 Interestingly a study that investigated the health-related quality of life (HRQL) in 284 former professional players in the UK found that medical treatment for football-related injuries was a common feature, as was arthritis, with the knee being most commonly affected. Respondents with arthritis reported poorer outcomes in all aspects of HRQL. 88

In summary, OA is more common among former athletes, compared with the general population. The lower limb joints are commonly affected, in association with high impact and injury.

Evidence from follow-up studies on spine of former athletes

Heavy physical work and activity lead to degenerative changes in the spine. Studies on different athletic disciplines and heavy workers have given variable degenerative changes and abnormalities in the lumbar spine. Even though sporting activity is regarded as an important predisposing factor in the development of spinal pathologies, 89–99 there are few studies on the late spinal sequelae of competitive youth sport. Any comparison in terms of back pain between top athletes and the general population is difficult. Experience of pain may be influenced by factors such as susceptibility, motivation and physical activity. Minor pain may be provoked by vigorous body movements that hamper athletic performance, thereby ascribing the pain a greater impact than in the general population. On the other hand, a well-motivated athlete may ignore even severe pain to maintain or improve his/her athletic performance. Also, varying rate/prevalence of osteophytosis has been reported in players associated with various disciplines of sports.

Efforts should be made to understand the aetiology of injuries to the intervertebral discs during athletic performance and thereby prevent them. 74

Based on the previously selection criteria, seven studies 74 , 89 , 98 , 100–103 were retained for analysis (Table  2 ). In summary, spine pathologies are associated more commonly with certain sports (e.g. wresting, heavy-weight lifting, gymnastics, tennis, soccer). Degenerative changes in the athlete's spine can occur, but they are not necessarily associated with clinically relevant symptoms of OA. Therefore, it cannot be determined whether it threatens the athlete's career, or whether it has a worse impact on athletes compared with the general population.

Evidence from follow-up studies on spine of former athletes.

Knee injury and OA in athletes

A population-based case-control study investigated the risk of knee OA with respect to sports activity and previous knee injuries of 825 athletes competing in different sports. They were matched with 825 controls. After confounding factors were adjusted, the sports-related increase risk of OA was explained by knee injuries. 104 Another study leads to the same conclusion: 23 American football high-school players were compared with 11 age-matched controls, 20 years after high-school competition. No significant increase in OA could be demonstrated clinically or radiographically. However, a significant increase in knee joint OA was found in the subgroup of football players who had sustained a knee injury. 105

A cohort of 286 former soccer players (71 elite, 215 non-elite) with a mean age of 55 years was compared with 572 age-matched controls, regarding the prevalence of radiographic features of knee arthritis. Arthritis in elite players, non-elite players and controls was 15%, 4.2% and 1.6%, respectively. In non-elite players, absence of history of knee injury was associated with arthritis prevalence similar to the controls. 106

An interesting study involved a cohort of 19 high-level athletes of the Olympic program of former East Germany. They sustained an ACL tear between 1963 and 1965. None were reconstructed, and all were able to return to sports within 14 weeks. Subsequent meniscectomies were necessary in 15/19 (79%) athletes at 10 years and 18/19 (95%) at 20 years, when in 18 of the 19 knees, arthroscopy was performed, 13 patients (68%) had a grade four chondral lesion. By year 2000 (more than 35 years after ACL rupture), 10/19 knees required a joint replacement. 107

The incidence of radiographic advanced degeneration (Kellgren–Lawrence grade 2 or higher) was 41% in a cohort of 122 Swedish male soccer players (from a total of 154) who consented to radiographic follow-up, 14 years after an ACL rupture. No difference was found between players treated with or without surgery for their ACL rupture. The prevalence of Kellgren–Lawrence grade 2 or higher knee OA was 4% in the uninjured knees. 108

Similar results were evident among Swedish female soccer players who were injured before the age of 20. The prevalence of radiographic OA was 51%, compared with 8% only in the uninjured knee, 12 years later. The presence of symptoms was documented in 63 of 84 (75%) athletes who answered the questionnaire, and was similar ( P = 0.2) in the two management groups (operative versus non-operative). The presence of symptoms did not necessarily correlate with radiographic OA ( P = 0.4). 109

In summary, knee injury is a recognized risk factor for OA. Injured athletes develop OA more commonly than the general population in the long term. Approximately half of the injured knees could have radiographic changes 10–15 years later. It is not clear whether radiographic changes correspond to presence of symptoms.

Ankle ligament injuries and OA in athletes

Ankle sprains are common sporting injuries generally believed to be benign and self-limiting. However, some studies report a significant proportion of patients with ankle sprains having persistent symptoms for months or even years. Nineteen patients with a mean age of 20 years (range: 13–28), who were referred to a sports medicine clinic after an ankle inversion injury, were followed for 29 months (average), and compared with matched controls. Only five (26%) injured patients had recovered fully, whereas 74% had symptoms 1.5–4 years after the injury. Assessments of quality of life using the short form-36 questionnaires revealed a difference in the general health subscale between the two groups, favouring the controls ( P < 0.05). 110

Similar conclusions were drawn from another study, regarding ankle injuries in a young (age range: 17–24 years) athletic population. 111 There were 104 ankle injuries (96 sprains, 7 fractures and 1 contusion), accounting for 23% of all injuries seen. Of the 96 sprains, 4 were predominately medial injuries, 76 lateral and 16 syndesmosis sprains. Although 95% had returned to sports at 6 weeks, 55% reported pain or loss of function. At 6 months, 40% had not fully recovered, reporting residual symptoms. Syndesmosis injuries were associated with prolonged recovery.

The association between ligamentous ankle injuries has been highlighted in a study that, retrospectively, reviewed data from 30 patients (mean age: 59 years, 33 ankles) with ankle osteoarthritis. 112 They found that 55% had a history of sports injuries (33% from soccer), and 85% had a lateral ankle ligament injury. The mean latency time between injury and OA was 34.3 years. The latency period for acute severe injuries was significantly lower (25.7 years), compared with chronic instability (38 years). Varus malalignment and persistent instability were present in 52% of those patients.

In summary, ankle ligamentous injuries in athletes can result in considerable morbidity, residual symptoms and arthritis 25–30 years later.

Shoulder injuries account for 7% of sports injuries and often limit the athlete in his or her ability to continue with their chosen sport. 113 Repetitive overhead throwing imparts high valgus and extension loads to the athlete's shoulder and elbow, often leading to either acute or chronic injury or progressive structural change and long-term problems in the overhead athlete. 45

Schmitt et al . 102 examined 21 elite javelin throwing athletes at an average of 19 years after the end of their high-performance phase (mean age at follow-up was 50 years). Five athletes (24%) complained about transient shoulder pain and three (16%) about elbow pain in their throwing arm affecting activities of daily living. All dominant elbows had advanced degeneration (osteophytes).

Elbow intra-articular lesions are recognized as consequences of repetitive stress and overuse. Shanmugam and Maffulli 9 reported follow-up (mean 3.6 years) of lesions of the articular surface of the elbow joint in a group of 12 gymnasts (six females and six males). This group showed a high frequency of osteochondritic lesions, intra-articular loose bodies and precocious signs of joint ageing. Residual mild pain in the elbow at full extension occurring after activity was present in 10 patients and all patients showed marked loss of elbow extension compared with their first visit.

Glenoid labral tears require repair, and shoulder instability is currently approached operatively more often. A review article found that conservative management of traumatic shoulder dislocations in adolescents was associated with high rates of recurrent instability (up to 100%). Therefore, surgical shoulder stabilization is recommended. The outcomes of surgical management are presented in the next section.

A distinct clinical entity is the ‘little league shoulder’, which is characterized by progressive upper arm pain with throwing and is more commonly seen in male baseball pitchers between ages 11 and 14 years. It is thought to be Salter-Harris type I stress fracture. Activity modification, education to improve throwing mechanics and core muscle training are recommended. It is not known how this condition behaves in the long term, regarding structural damage and development of degenerative changes.

Overhead athletes are plagued by shoulder and elbow injuries or overuse syndromes that can affect their performance and cause degeneration and pain in the long term.

The association between knee OA and meniscectomy has been well documented. In former athletes 114 – 116 it is associated with OA (Table  3 ). Meniscectomy in children and adolescents 117 – 123 has been associated with unfavourable results and radiographic arthritic changes in the long term (Table  4 ). However, radiographic criteria were not always clearly defined. To assess the long-term outcomes of meniscectomy, we also evaluated studies with a minimum follow-up of 10 years in the adult general population 106 , 124 – 129 (Table  5 ). Many of the ‘older’ studies providing the long-term outcomes represent results of open total meniscectomies. The overall message is that radiographic degeneration is common in meniscectomized knees, and patients are at risk of developing OA. The condition of the articular cartilage is a prognostic factor. However, clinical and radiographic findings do not always correlate. Resection should be limited to the torn part of the meniscus.

Menicectomy and osteoarthritis in athletes.

Menicectomy in children and adolescents.

Meniscectomy in adults / general popaltion—long-term outcomes.

Given the long-term problems associated with meniscectomies, preservation of the substance of the meniscus after injury is currently advocated. Based on this concept, arthroscopic meniscal repair techniques have been developed. 125 In the general population, encouraging clinical results with failure rates of 27–30% at 6–7 years follow-up have been reported. 130–132 One study 133 evaluated 45 meniscal repairs in 42 elite athletes followed for an average of 8.5 years. In 83% of them an ACL reconstruction was performed as well. Return to their sport was possible in 81% at an average of 10 months after surgery. They identified 11 failures (24%), seven of which were associated with a new injury. The medial meniscus re-ruptured more frequently compared with the lateral (36.4 versus 5.6%, respectively).

Mintzer et al . 134 retrospectively reviewed the outcome of meniscal repair in 26 young athletes involved in several sports at an average follow-up of 5 years (range: 2–13.5). No failures were reported, with 85% of patients performing high level of sports activities.

In general, the results of meniscal repairs in the general population, as well as in athletes, are encouraging.

ACL reconstruction and OA

Knee injuries can result in ligament ruptures and/or meniscal tears and are recognized as a risk factor of OA. A systematic review on studies published until 2006 135 reported on the prognosis of conservatively managed ACL injuries showed that there was an average reduction of 21% at the level of activities (Tegner score evaluation). ACL reconstruction is therefore a procedure frequently performed in athletic individuals, as they desire to maintain a high level of activities. However, does ACL reconstruction affect the incidence of knee degeneration and symptoms in the long term? We identified three studies 108 , 109 , 136 comparing operative versus non-operative management of ACL ruptures specifically in athletes, in regard to OA.

Two studies from Sweden investigating the prevalence of OA after ACL rupture in male 108 and female 109 soccer players were discussed earlier. Both found no difference in the incidence of radiographic arthritis between surgically and conservatively treated players, more than 10 years after their injury.

A comparative study 136 on high-level athletes with ACL injury showed no statistical difference between the patients treated conservatively or operatively (patella tendon graft) with respect to OA or meniscal lesions of the knee, as well as activity level, objective and subjective functional outcome. The patients who were treated operatively had a significantly better stability of the knee at examination.

Several studies present outcomes of ACL injuries in the general population. A recent systematic review included 31 studies (seven were prospective) reporting radiographic outcomes regarding OA, with more than 10 years follow-up after ACL injury. 137 The prevalence of OA in the injured knee varied from 1 to 100%, whereas in the contralateral knee it was 0–38%. Isolated ACL tears were associated with low OA incidence between 0 and 13%, whereas in the presence of additional meniscal injury, it was 21–48%. Meniscal injury and meniscectomy were the most frequently reported risk factors for OA. The authors scored the quality of the studies and found that studies scoring high reported low incidence of OA. Data extraction indicated that ACL reconstruction as a single factor did not prevent the development of knee OA. 137

There is lack of evidence to support a protective role of reconstructive surgery of the ACL against OA, both in athletes as well as in the general population.

ACL reconstruction in skeletally immature patients is a relatively new trend. 138 The concern is intra-operative epiphysis damage and growth disturbance, a complication which has been avoided in several studies. 139–143

The earliest published study 144 compared non-operative versus operative management of ACL ruptures in 42 skeletally immature athletes (age range: 4–17 years) followed for a mean of 5.3 years. They used a composite knee score based on clinical examination and a patient questionnaire and found superior results in the operatively treated patients. Age and growth plate maturity did not influence results. They recommended ACL reconstruction for active athletic children.

One of the early reports showed that there were no growth disturbances at a mean of 3.3 years after surgery in 9 children, however, with two re-ruptures. Those children could not return to athletic activities. 139

In a series of 57 ACL reconstructions, 15 patients had reached completion of growth when examined at follow-up, none had signs of growth disturbance, whereas clinical scoring was good or excellent in all patients. 142

Another study compared the outcomes of two management strategies in 56 children with ACL ruptures, namely ligament reconstruction in the presence of open physis, or delayed reconstruction after skeletal maturity. The ‘early’ reconstruction group had evidence of less medial meniscal tears (16 versus 41%), and no evidence of growth disturbances, at 27 months mean follow-up. 140

After 1.5–7.5 years follow-up of 19 ACL reconstructions in 20 athletic teenagers (age range: 11.8–15.6 years), all but one had returned to sports, none had tibiofemoral malalignment or a leg-length discrepancy of more than 1 cm, and the modified Lysholm score was 93 out of 95. 143

Finally, 55 children (ages 8 to 16 years, mean 13 years) were followed for a mean of 3.2 years (range: 1–7.5 years) after ACL reconstruction, with no evidence of growth disturbances. Clinical scores showed normal or almost normal values (higher than 90 out of 100 possible points) and 88% of the patients went back to normal or almost normal sports according to the Tegner score. 141

Overall, the clinical results are encouraging and iatrogenic epiphysis damage does not seem to be a problem, possibly because physeal sparing procedures were used. The study designs, however, are inadequate to answer the question of whether early or delayed ACL reconstruction results in the best possible outcome in skeletally immature patients.

Anterior impingement syndrome is a generally accepted diagnosis for a condition characterized by anterior ankle pain with limited and painful dorsiflexion. The cause can be either soft tissue or bony obstruction. Arthroscopic debridement is currently considered a routine procedure, and chondral lesions are now more frequently identified as causes of ankle pain. Few reports specifically in athletes are available 145–149 (Table  6 ). Short-term outcomes only are available. It is not known whether arthritis is a long-term consequence.

Ankle arthroscopy in athletes.

Only recently has the hip received attention as a recognized site of sports injuries, possibly as a result of the evolution of hip arthroscopy which allowed recognition of intra-articular pathology. 150 Acetabular labrum and chondral lesions can be addressed arthroscopically, and patients' satisfaction rates up to 75% have been reported. 44 One study evaluated the outcome of hip arthroscopy in 15 athletes (mean age: 32 years, range: 14–70) followed for 10 years. Nine were recreational athletes, four high school and two intercollegiate athletes. Diagnoses included cartilage lesion (8), labral tear (7), arthritis (5), avascular necrosis (1), loose body (1) and synovitis (1). The median improvement in the modified Harris hip score was 45 points (from 51 preoperatively to 96, on the 100-point scale), with 13 patients (87%) returning to their sport. All five athletes with arthritis eventually underwent total hip arthroplasty at an average of 6 years. 43 Long-term outcomes regarding progression of joint degeneration after traumatic chondral or labral damage are not available.

Operative management of shoulder injuries in athletes

Labral tears require repair, whereas shoulder instability is currently approached operatively more often. Conservative management of traumatic shoulder dislocations in adolescents is associated with high rates of recurrent instability (up to 100%), whereas recurrent dislocations were reported in up to 12%, at an average of 3 years after arthroscopic stabilization. Shoulder dislocations are particularly common in rugby, the characteristic mechanism of injury being tackling, whereas labral tears are common in the ‘overhead’ athlete'. Published results in athletes 151 – 162 (Table  7 ) show that operative stabilization of the shoulder is initially successful, but instability and pain can recur in the long term. Results of arthroscopic techniques in the management of intra-articular pathologies are promising, but long-term outcomes are unknown (Table  7 ).

RCT, randomized controlled trial; VAS, visual analogue scale.

Operative management of elbow injuries in athletes

Elbow ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) insufficiency is one of the frequently recognized injuries in the overhead athlete, as a result of excessive valgus stress. It constitutes a potentially career threatening injury and requires surgical repair. 163 The use of a muscle-splitting approach, avoiding handling of the ulnar nerve, and the use of the docking technique for stabilization is recommended 164 , 165 (Table  8 ). Recent advantages in arthroscopic surgical techniques and ligament reconstruction in the elbow have improved the prognosis for return to competition for highly motivated athletes. The results of arthroscopic debridement 150 , 166 (Table  7 ) need to be evaluated in the long term.

Operative management of elbow injuries in athletes.

UCL, ulnar collateral ligament.

Operative management of wrist injuries in athletes

A review of the literature shows that 3–9% of all athletic injuries occur in the hand or wrist, and are more common in adolescent athletes than adults. 46 In this article, we focused on TFCC injuries and acute scaphoid fractures in athletes.

TFCC injuries are an increasingly recognized cause of ulnar-sided wrist pain, and can be particularly disabling in the competitive athlete. Advances in wrist arthroscopy made endoscopic debridement and repair of the TFCC possible. McAdams et al . 47 treated arthroscopically TFCC tears in 16 competitive athletes (mean age: 23.4 years). Repair of unstable tears was performed in 11 (69%) and debridement only in 5 (31%). Return to play averaged 3.3 months (range: 3–7 months). The mean duration of follow-up was 2.8 years (range: 2–4.2 years). Clinical scores (mini-DASH and mini-DASH sports module) improved significantly. No long-term outcomes are available.

Operative management of scaphoid fractures in athletes, even if undisplaced, is recommended if early return to sports is desired. One study followed 12 athletes treated operatively for a scaphoid fracture. They were able to return to sports at 6 weeks. At an average follow-up of 2.9 years, 9 of 12 athletes had range of motion equal to the uninjured side, and grip strength was equal to the unaffected side in 10 of 12 athletes. 49

Participation in sports offers potential benefits for individuals of all ages, such as combating obesity and enhancing cardiovascular fitness. 1 On the other hand, negative consequences of musculoskeletal injuries sustained during sports may compromise function in later life, limiting the ability to experience pain-free mobility and engage in fitness-enhancing activity. 167 Increasingly, successful management of sports-related injuries has allowed more athletes to return to participation. The knee is the joint most commonly associated with sports injuries, and therefore is most at risk of developing degenerative changes. It is not clear whether radiographic OA always correlates with symptoms and reduced quality of life. Furthermore, even effective management of meniscal or ACL injury does not reduce the risk of developing subsequent OA. 137 , 168 OA in an injured joint is caused by intra-articular pathogenic processes initiated at the time of injury, combined with long-term changes in dynamic joint loading. Variation in outcomes involves not only the exact type of injury (e.g. ACL rupture with or without meniscal damage), 137 but also additional variables associated with the individual such as age, sex, genetics, obesity, muscle strength, activity and reinjury. A better understanding of these variables may improve future prevention and treatment strategies. 169

In many of the long-term studies (the majority being retrospective case series), several methodological flaws have to be highlighted. A recent systematic review on OA after ACL injuries 137 suggested that some studies may overestimate the prevalence of long-term OA. The authors in several studies mention that a proportion of the index group of injured athletes were available for follow-up or consented for radiographic examination. One can argue that these patients were the ones with symptoms, therefore the prevalence of OA (after ACL rupture for example) may appear higher than it really is. Presentation of outcomes was not always based on robust criteria. Different clinical scores and radiographic classifications have been used, and therefore results between studies are not directly comparable. In the majority of the studies, it was not clarified whether radiographic appearance correlated with symptoms, and how important these were for the quality of life of the patients. Disabling arthritis requiring intervention may actually be delayed for more than 20–30 years. 107 , 112 Furthermore, long-term studies present outcomes of older techniques, not used any more in clinical practice (e.g. primary ACL repair or total meniscectomy). Evolution in surgical or rehabilitation techniques might have improved outcomes of certain injuries. Therefore, currently known ‘long-term outcomes’ may only reflect the results of techniques used in the past and not what we should expect in the future. Increasing awareness of athletes and trainers, new diagnostic and musculoskeletal imaging modalities, improved surgical and rehabilitation methods, but also analysis of injury patterns in different sports and development of injury prevention strategies might be beneficial to minimize the effects of sports injuries in the years to come.

What is the true incidence of arthritis in the long term? Will it be a disabling condition for the former athlete, in the coming decades? Currently, joint preserving procedures (e.g. microfractures, 145 mosaicplaty, 170 autologous chondrocyte implantation, 171 , 172 realignment osteotomies 173 and implant arthroplasties 174 ) have evolved and allow middle aged or older patients to live without pain and maintain an active life style. Meniscal transplantation shows encouraging results. 175 Should therefore an increased risk for developing musculoskeletal problems prevent children and adults from being active in sports? 176 Do the benefits of participating in sports outweigh the risks?

A survey in Sweden showed that 80% of former track and field athletes with an age range of 50–80 years felt they were in good health, compared with 61% of the referents, despite higher prevalence of hip arthritis in former athletes. Low back disorders were similar in the two groups, shoulder and neck problems were lower in former athletes, and knee arthritis was similar in the two groups. 177

No definite answer can be given to the previously addressed questions, based on available evidence. Future research should involve questionnaires assessing the HRQL in former athletes, to be compared with the general population. 27 , 178–181

Physical injury is an inherent risk in sports participation and, to a certain extent, must be considered an inevitable cost of athletic training and competition. Injury may lead to incomplete recovery and residual symptoms, drop out from sports, and can cause joint degeneration in the long term. Few well-conducted studies are available on the long-term follow-up of former athletes, and, in general, we lack studies reporting on the HRQL to be compared with the general population. Advances in arthroscopic techniques allow operative management of most intra-articular post-traumatic pathologies in the lower and upper limb joints, but long-term outcomes are not available yet. It is important to balance the negative effects of sports injuries with the many social, psychological and health benefits that a serious commitment to sport brings. 9

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• Overview, Symptoms, & Causes
• Diagnosis, Treatment, & Steps to Take

Overview of Sports Injuries

The term “sports injury” refers to the kinds of injuries that most commonly occur during sports or exercise, but they are not limited to athletes. Factory workers get tennis elbow, painters get shoulder injuries, and gardeners develop tendinitis, even though they may not participate in sports. Ultimately, however, “sports injuries” refers to those that occur in active individuals. This health topic focuses on the most common types of sports injuries—those that affect the musculoskeletal system. The musculoskeletal system is the network of muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, and other tissues that provides the body with stability and enables movement.

Sports injuries are divided into two broad categories, acute and chronic injuries. Acute injuries happen suddenly, such as when a person falls,  receives a blow, or twists a joint, while chronic injuries usually result from overuse of one area of the body and develop gradually over time. Examples of acute injuries are sprains and dislocations, while some common chronic injuries are shin splints and stress fractures.

Treatment for a sports injury depends on the type of injury, but minor ones can usually be treated at home by resting, icing, compressing, and elevating (R-I-C-E) the injured part of the body. For more serious injuries, you will need to see a health care provider, and you may need to be set up for a course of physical therapy for rehabilitation and/or fitted for a cast, splint, or brace. In some cases, you may need surgery. A rehabilitation program that includes exercise and other types of therapy is usually recommended before resuming the sport or activity that caused the injury.

While adverse events do sometimes happen when playing sports or exercising, most physical activity is safe for almost everyone, and the health benefits far outweigh the risks.

Who Gets Sports Injuries?

Anyone can suffer a sports injury, but several factors can increase the risk of sustaining injury.

The risk factors for sports injuries include:

• Not using the correct exercise techniques.
• Overtraining, either by training too often, too frequently, or for too long.
• Changing the intensity of physical activity too quickly.
• Playing the same sport year-round.
• Running or jumping on hard surfaces.
• Wearing shoes that do not have enough support.
• Not wearing the proper equipment.
• Having had a prior injury.
• Having certain anatomical features specific to each joint or poor flexibility.
• Taking certain medications, such as fluoroquinolones, a class of antibiotics linked to tendinitis and tendon rupture.

The type of injury you are most vulnerable to depends on the type of activity you participate in, your age, and your sex.

Sports injuries are broadly categorized into two kinds:

• Acute injuries, which happen suddenly.
• Chronic injuries, which are usually related to overuse and develop gradually over time.

In some cases, wear and tear from overuse injuries can set the stage for acute injuries.

Types of Musculoskeletal Injuries

Injuries to the musculoskeletal system that are common in athletes include fractures, dislocations, sprains, strains, tendinitis, or bursitis. These terms are defined below.

• Acute fractures. A fall, car accident, or blow can cause a fracture, and the severity depends on the force that caused the break. The bone may crack, break all the way through, or shatter. Injuries that break through the skin to the bone, which are known as compound fractures, are especially serious because there is an increased risk of infection. Most acute fractures are emergencies.
• Stress fractures. Stress fractures occur largely in the weight-bearing bones of the lower extremity. These include the femur, tibia and fibula, and foot bones. They are common in sports where there is repetitive impact, primarily running or jumping sports such as gymnastics, tennis, basketball, or track and field. Running creates forces two to three times a person’s body weight on the lower limbs.
• Growth plate fractures. The growth plate is an area of cartilage near the ends of long bones, and they enable the bones to lengthen until children reach their full height. Growth plates are especially vulnerable to injury until they are converted to bone, typically by the time a child reaches the age of 20. Growth plate fractures can result from a single traumatic event, such as a fall or car accident, or from chronic stress and overuse. 
• Dislocation. When the two bones that come together to form a joint become separated, the joint is described as dislocated. Contact sports such as football and basketball, as well as high-impact sports and sports that involve significant stretching or falling, cause most dislocations. A dislocated joint typically requires immediate medical treatment, but sometimes the bones move back into place on their own. A dislocation is a painful injury and is most common in shoulders, elbows, fingers, kneecap, and femur-tibia or knee.
• Sprain. Sprains are stretches or tears of ligaments, the bands of connective tissue that join the end of one bone with another. Sprains are caused by trauma such as a fall or blow that knocks a joint out of position. Sprains can range from first degree (minimally stretched ligament) to third degree (a complete tear). Areas of the body most vulnerable to sprains are ankles, knees, and wrists.
• Strain. A strain is a twist, pull, or tear of a muscle or tendon, a cord of tissue connecting muscle to bone. Athletes who play contact sports can get strains, but they can also happen from repeating the same motion again and again, as in tennis or golf. Like sprains, strains can range from a minor stretch to a partial or complete tear of a muscle or tendon. This is most common in muscle or tendons between two joints.  
• Tendinitis. Tendinitis is inflammation of a tendon, a flexible band of fibrous tissue that connects muscles to bones. It often affects the shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, or ankle. Tendinitis can be caused by a sudden injury, but it usually results from carrying out the same motion over and over. People such as carpenters, gardeners, musicians, and certain types of athletes, such as golfers and tennis players, have a higher risk of tendinitis. Tendons become less flexible as you age, so you are more likely to get tendinitis as you get older.
• Bursitis. Bursitis is inflammation of the bursae (plural of “bursa”), small, fluid-filled sacs that act as cushions between a bone and other moving parts, such as muscles, tendons, or skin. Bursitis can be caused by a one-time event like a blow or fall. It can also result from repeating the same motion many times, like throwing a ball, or from prolonged pressure, such as from kneeling on a hard surface or leaning on the elbows. It usually affects the shoulders, elbows, hips, or knees.

Common Sports Injuries

Most sports injuries involve one or more of the types of musculoskeletal injuries described above. The joints are particularly susceptible because a person’s body places significant demands on them. Joints must provide both stability and flexibility, and they are complex structures that include several interconnected parts.

Some of the common injuries experienced by athletes and people who have jobs or hobbies that involve doing a repetitive motion include:

• Rotator cuff injury. These are the most common shoulder injuries. The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles and tendons that stabilize the shoulder joint. Rotator cuff injuries happen when the tendons or bursae near the joint become inflamed from overuse or a sudden injury. They are common in people with jobs that involve overhead motions, like painters, or athletes who repeatedly reach upward, such as tennis players and swimmers.
• Impingement. This happens when the top of the shoulder blade puts pressure on the soft tissues beneath it when the arm is lifted. Tendinitis and bursitis can develop, limiting movement and causing pain. Repeated overhead movements, such as those used by swimmers, increase the risk of impingement.
• Instability. Shoulder instability happens when the round end of the upper arm bone is forced out of its shallow socket, either partially or completely. Once the tendons, ligaments, and muscles of the shoulder become stretched or torn, the shoulder becomes “loose” and dislocations can occur repeatedly.
• Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis). When you play tennis or other racket sports, the tendons in the elbow can develop small tears and become inflamed, causing pain on the outside of the elbow. Painters, plumbers, carpenters, and others who repetitively use their forearms are also at higher risk of getting tennis elbow.
• Golfer’s elbow (medial epicondylitis). This is a form of tendinitis that causes pain in the inner part of the elbow. Pain may spread to the forearm and wrist. Golfers and others who repeatedly use their wrists or clench their fingers can develop it. 
• Little league elbow. This is a growth plate injury to the elbow caused by repetitive throwing in youths. It is most common in pitchers, but any young athlete who throws repeatedly can get it. The pain is in the inner part of the elbow.
• Ulnar collateral ligament injury. Repeated throwing can cause tears to this ligament on the inner part of the elbow, causing pain and decreased throwing effectiveness.
• Runner’s knee. Also called jumper’s knee or patellofemoral pain syndrome, this condition causes pain or tenderness close to or under the kneecap (patella) at the front of the knee. It is common in runners, but it also affects people who are active in other ways, such as those who hike or cycle.
• Fracture. Fractures can happen in any bone around the knee, but the kneecap (patella) is the most common, usually as a result of an event like a bad fall or a blow to the knee.
• Dislocation. A large impact to the knee can cause the kneecap to be forced from the groove in the thigh bone (femur) and pushed out of alignment, causing the kneecap to slip out of position.
• Torn ligament. When the knee is over-extended or twisted, the ligaments within it can tear. Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are especially common in athletes. They often happen when the person changes direction suddenly or lands from a jump.
• Meniscal tear. Meniscal cartilage serves as a shock absorber in the knee. An awkward twist or pivot can cause a tear. They are commonly torn when the knee suffers a sprain or complete tear of the knee ligaments.
• Tendon tear. Tendon tears tend to be more common in middle-aged people who play sports that involve running and jumping. They often happen because of a forceful landing and sometimes from an awkward jump.
• Groin pull. Quick side-to-side motions can strain the muscles of the inner thighs and lead to a groin pull. People who play sports such as hockey, soccer, football, and baseball have a higher risk of groin pulls.
• Hamstring strain. Three muscles run along the back of the thigh and form the hamstring. Activities that involve a lot of running, jumping, and sudden starts and stops place you at risk of a hamstring strain. Basketball, football, and soccer players commonly get them.
• Shin splints. Shin splints refers to the pain caused by inflammation of the muscles, tendons, and bone tissue along the inside length of the shinbone (tibia), the large bone in the front of the lower leg. The pain is usually on the inner side of the lower leg. Shin splints are primarily seen in runners, particularly those just starting a running program.
• Ankle sprain. You can sprain your ankle when you roll, twist, or turn your ankle in an awkward way, stretching or tearing the ligaments in the joint. It can happen when you land awkwardly when jumping or pivoting, when walking on an uneven surface, or when someone else lands on your foot. People who play sports in which there is a lot of pivoting, such as volleyball and basketball, are at risk of an ankle sprain.
• Achilles tendinitis. An Achilles tendon injury results from a stretch, tear, or irritation to the tendon connecting the calf muscle to the back of the heel. The Achilles is the largest tendon in the body and you use it when you walk, run, climb stairs, jump, and stand on the tips of your toes. People with Achilles tendinitis usually feel pain and stiffness at the back of the heel, especially in the morning. Achilles tendinitis is usually a chronic condition caused by overuse, but serious cases can lead to a tear that may require surgery.

Symptoms of Sports Injuries

The symptoms of a sports injury depend on the type of injury you have.

Symptoms of an acute injury include:

• Sudden, severe pain.
• Extreme swelling or bruising.
• Not being able to place weight on a leg, knee, ankle, or foot.
• Not being able to move a joint normally.
• Extreme weakness of an injured limb.
• A bone or joint that is visibly out of place.

Symptoms of a chronic injury due to overuse include:

• Pain when you play or exercise.
• Swelling and a dull ache when you rest.

Cause of Sports Injuries

The cause of an acute sports injury is a force of impact that is greater than the body part can withstand, while a chronic injury is typically due to repeating the same motion over and over again. Sometimes, overuse injuries can degrade tissues and joints and set the stage for an acute injury.

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How to Write a Non-Cliche College Essay About Sports + Examples

What’s covered:, what makes a sports essay cliche.

• How To Make Your Sports Essay Unique

Great Examples of College Essays About Sports

Where to get your college essay edited for free, or by an expert.

You’ve been brainstorming essay topics for your college applications, and you think you’ve finally found the right one: an extended metaphor likening your experience on the field with overcoming personal struggles. The problem: many other students have this same thought. 

The purpose of a college essay is to make yourself stand out as a unique individual, but when students write about sports, they often blend in. Because of that, students are usually advised to pick a different topic.

That being said, it is possible to write a non-cliche college essay about sports if you put in a little extra effort. Read along to learn how to make your sports essay different from all the other sports essays.

Sports essays are cliche when they follow a standard trajectory. Some of these trajectories include writing a story about:

• An agonizing defeat
• Forging bonds with teammates
• Overcoming adversity
• Overcoming an injury
• Refusing to quit
• Victory during a big game

Because sports essays have very similar themes and “lessons learned,” it can be difficult to make your story stand out. These trajectories also often focus too much on the sport or storyline, and not enough on the writer’s reflections and personality.

As you write your essay, try to think about what your experience says about you rather than what you learned from your experience. You are more than just one lesson you learned!

(Keep in mind that the sports essay is not the only college essay cliche. Learn about other essay cliches and how to fix them in our complete guide).

How to Make Your Sports Essay Unique

1. focus on a specific moment or reflection..

The college essay is a way for students to humanize themselves to admissions officers. You do not feel human if you are describing yourself as just another player on the field!

One important way to make your essay about you (not just about sports) is by focusing on a specific moment in time and inviting the reader to join you in that moment. Explain to the reader what it would be like to be sitting in that locker room as you questioned the values of the other players on your team. Ask your reader to sit with you on the cot in the trainer’s room as your identity was stripped away from you when they said “your body can’t take this anymore.” Bring your reader to the dinner table and involve them in your family’s conversation about how sports were affecting your mental health and your treatment of those around you.

Intense descriptions of a specific experience will evoke emotions in your reader and allow them to connect with you and feel for you.

When in doubt, avoid anything that can be covered by ESPN. On ESPN, we see the games, we see the benches, we even see the locker rooms and training rooms. Take your reader somewhere different and show them something unique.

2. Use sports to point out broader themes in your life.

The main risk when writing about sports is neglecting to write about yourself. Before you get started, think about the main values that you want to express in your sports essay. Sports are simply your avenue for telling the reader what makes you unique. 

As a test, imagine if you were a pianist. Would you be able to talk about these same values? What if you were a writer? Or a chemist? Articulating your values is the end, and sports should simply be your means.

Some values that you might want to focus on:

• Autonomy (you want to be able to set your mind to anything and achieve it on your own)
• Growth (you seek improvement constantly)
• Curiosity (you are willing to try anything once)
• Vulnerability (you aren’t afraid to fail, as long as you give it your all)
• Community (you value the feedback of others and need camaraderie to succeed)
• Craft (you think that with deliberate care, anything can be perfected)
• Responsibility (you believe that you owe something to those around you and perhaps they also owe something to you)

You can use the ESPN check again to make sure that you are using sports as an avenue to show your depth.

Things ESPN covers: how a player reacts to defeat, how injuries affect a player’s gameplay/attitude, how players who don’t normally work well together are working together on their new team.

Things ESPN doesn’t cover: the conversation that a player had with their mother about fear of death before going into a big surgery (value: family and connection), the ways that the intense pressure to succeed consumed a player to the point they couldn’t be there for the people in their life (value: supporting others and community), the body image issues that weigh on a player’s mind when playing their sport and how they overcame those (value: health and growth).

3. Turn a cliche storyline on its head.

There’s no getting around the fact that sports essays are often cliche. But there is a way to confront the cliche head-on. For example, lots of people write essays about the lessons they learned from an injury, victory, and so on, but fewer students explain how they are embracing those lessons. 

Perhaps you learned that competition is overwhelming for you and you prefer teamwork, so you switched from playing basketball to playing Dungeons & Dragons. Maybe, when your softball career ended abruptly, you had to find a new identity and that’s when you became obsessed with your flower garden and decided to pursue botany. Or maybe, you have stuck with football through it all, but your junior-year mental health struggle showed you that football should be fun and you have since started a nonprofit for local children to healthily engage with sports.

If your story itself is more cliche, try bringing readers to the present moment with you and show why the cliche matters and what it did for you. This requires a fair amount of creativity. Ensure you’re not parroting a frequently used topic by really thinking deeply to find your own unique spin.

Night had robbed the academy of its daytime colors, yet there was comfort in the dim lights that cast shadows of our advances against the bare studio walls. Silhouettes of roundhouse kicks, spin crescent kicks, uppercuts and the occasional butterfly kick danced while we sparred. She approached me, eyes narrowed with the trace of a smirk challenging me. “Ready spar!” Her arm began an upward trajectory targeting my shoulder, a common first move. I sidestepped — only to almost collide with another flying fist. Pivoting my right foot, I snapped my left leg, aiming my heel at her midsection. The center judge raised one finger. 

There was no time to celebrate, not in the traditional sense at least. Master Pollard gave a brief command greeted with a unanimous “Yes, sir” and the thud of 20 hands dropping-down-and-giving-him-30, while the “winners” celebrated their victory with laps as usual. 

Three years ago, seven-thirty in the evening meant I was a warrior. It meant standing up straighter, pushing a little harder, “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am”, celebrating birthdays by breaking boards, never pointing your toes, and familiarity. Three years later, seven-thirty in the morning meant I was nervous. 

The room is uncomfortably large. The sprung floor soaks up the checkerboard of sunlight piercing through the colonial windows. The mirrored walls further illuminate the studio and I feel the light scrutinizing my sorry attempts at a pas de bourrée, while capturing the organic fluidity of the dancers around me. “Chassé en croix, grand battement, pique, pirouette.” I follow the graceful limbs of the woman in front of me, her legs floating ribbons, as she executes what seems to be a perfect ronds de jambes. Each movement remains a negotiation. With admirable patience, Ms. Tan casts me a sympathetic glance.   

There is no time to wallow in the misery that is my right foot. Taekwondo calls for dorsiflexion; pointed toes are synonymous with broken toes. My thoughts drag me into a flashback of the usual response to this painful mistake: “You might as well grab a tutu and head to the ballet studio next door.” Well, here I am Master Pollard, unfortunately still following your orders to never point my toes, but no longer feeling the satisfaction that comes with being a third degree black belt with 5 years of experience quite literally under her belt. It’s like being a white belt again — just in a leotard and ballet slippers. 

But the appetite for new beginnings that brought me here doesn’t falter. It is only reinforced by the classical rendition of “Dancing Queen” that floods the room and the ghost of familiarity that reassures me that this new beginning does not and will not erase the past. After years spent at the top, it’s hard to start over. But surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become. In Taekwondo, we started each class reciting the tenets: honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet. 

The thing about change is that it eventually stops making things so different. After nine different schools, four different countries, three different continents, fluency in Tamil, Norwegian, and English, there are more blurred lines than there are clear fragments. My life has not been a tactfully executed, gold medal-worthy Taekwondo form with each movement defined, nor has it been a series of frappés performed by a prima ballerina with each extension identical and precise, but thankfully it has been like the dynamics of a spinning back kick, fluid, and like my chances of landing a pirouette, unpredictable. 

Why it works:

What’s especially powerful about this essay is that the author uses detailed imagery to convey a picture of what they’re experiencing, so much so that the reader is along for the ride. This works as a sports essay not only because of the language and sensory details, but also because the writer focuses on a specific moment in time, while at the same time exploring why Taekwondo is such an important part of their life.

After the emotional image is created, the student finishes their essay with valuable reflection. With the reflection, they show admissions officers that they are mature and self-aware. Self-awareness comes through with statements like “surrendering what you are only leads you to what you may become” and maturity can be seen through the student’s discussion of values “honor, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, courage, humility, and knowledge, and I have never felt that I embodied those traits more so than when I started ballet.” These are the kinds of comments that should find their way into a sports essay!

“Advanced females ages 13 to 14 please proceed to staging with your coaches at this time.” Skittering around the room, eyes wide and pleading, I frantically explained my situation to nearby coaches. The seconds ticked away in my head; every polite refusal increased my desperation.

Despair weighed me down. I sank to my knees as a stream of competitors, coaches, and officials flowed around me. My dojang had no coach, and the tournament rules prohibited me from competing without one.

Although I wanted to remain strong, doubts began to cloud my mind. I could not help wondering: what was the point of perfecting my skills if I would never even compete? The other members of my team, who had found coaches minutes earlier, attempted to comfort me, but I barely heard their words. They couldn’t understand my despair at being left on the outside, and I never wanted them to understand.

Since my first lesson 12 years ago, the members of my dojang have become family. I have watched them grow up, finding my own happiness in theirs. Together, we have honed our kicks, blocks, and strikes. We have pushed one another to aim higher and become better martial artists. Although my dojang had searched for a reliable coach for years, we had not found one. When we attended competitions in the past, my teammates and I had always gotten lucky and found a sympathetic coach. Now, I knew this practice was unsustainable. It would devastate me to see the other members of my dojang in my situation, unable to compete and losing hope as a result. My dojang needed a coach, and I decided it was up to me to find one. 

I first approached the adults in the dojang – both instructors and members’ parents. However, these attempts only reacquainted me with polite refusals. Everyone I asked told me they couldn’t devote multiple weekends per year to competitions. I soon realized that I would have become the coach myself.

At first, the inner workings of tournaments were a mystery to me. To prepare myself for success as a coach, I spent the next year as an official and took coaching classes on the side. I learned everything from motivational strategies to technical, behind-the-scenes components of Taekwondo competitions. Though I emerged with new knowledge and confidence in my capabilities, others did not share this faith.

Parents threw me disbelieving looks when they learned that their children’s coach was only a child herself. My self-confidence was my armor, deflecting their surly glances. Every armor is penetrable, however, and as the relentless barrage of doubts pounded my resilience, it began to wear down. I grew unsure of my own abilities.

Despite the attack, I refused to give up. When I saw the shining eyes of the youngest students preparing for their first competition, I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was. The knowledge that I could solve my dojang’s longtime problem motivated me to overcome my apprehension.

Now that my dojang flourishes at competitions, the attacks on me have weakened, but not ended. I may never win the approval of every parent; at times, I am still tormented by doubts, but I find solace in the fact that members of my dojang now only worry about competing to the best of their abilities.

Now, as I arrive at a tournament with my students, I close my eyes and remember the past. I visualize the frantic search for a coach and the chaos amongst my teammates as we compete with one another to find coaches before the staging calls for our respective divisions. I open my eyes to the exact opposite scene. Lacking a coach hurt my ability to compete, but I am proud to know that no member of my dojang will have to face that problem again.

In the beginning, you might think this is another cliche sports essay about overcoming adversity. But instead, it becomes a unique statement and coming-of-age tale that reads as a suspenseful narrative. 

The author connects their experience with martial arts to larger themes in their life but manages to do so without riffing off of tried-and-true themes. Through statements like “I knew I couldn’t let them down. To quit would be to set them up to be barred from competing like I was” we learn about the students values and their desire to be there for those who depend on them. 

The student also brings it full circle, demonstrating their true transformation. By using the “Same, but Different” ending technique , the student places themself in the same environment that we saw in the intro, but experiences it differently due to their actions throughout the narrative. This is very compelling!

“1…2…3…4 pirouettes! New record!” My friends cheered as I landed my turns. Pleased with my progress, I gazed down at my worn-out pointe shoes. The sweltering blisters, numbing ice-baths, and draining late-night practices did not seem so bad after all. Next goal: five turns.

For as long as I can remember, ballet, in all its finesse and glamor, had kept me driven day to day. As a child, the lithe ballerinas, donning ethereal costumes as they floated across the stage, were my motivation. While others admired Messi and Adele, I idolized Carlos Acosta, principal dancer of the Royal Ballet. 

As I devoted more time and energy towards my craft, I became obsessed with improving my technique. I would stretch for hours after class, forcing my leg one inch higher in an effort to mirror the Dance Magazine cover girls. I injured my feet and ruined pair after pair of pointe shoes, turning on wood, cement, and even grass to improve my balance as I spun. At competitions, the dancers with the 180-degree leg extensions, endless turns, and soaring leaps—the ones who received “Bravos!” from the roaring audience—further pushed me to refine my skills and perfect my form. I believed that, with enough determination, I would one day attain their level of perfection. Reaching the quadruple-pirouette milestone only intensified my desire to accomplish even more. 

My efforts seemed to have come to fruition two summers ago when I was accepted to dance with Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet at their renowned New York City summer intensive. I walked into my first session eager to learn from distinguished ballet masters and worldly dancers, already anticipating my improvement. Yet, as I danced alongside the accomplished ballerinas, I felt out of place. Despite their clean technique and professional training, they did not aim for glorious leg extensions or prodigious leaps. When they performed their turn combinations, most of them only executed two turns as I attempted four. 

“Dancers, double-pirouettes only.” 

Taken aback and confused, I wondered why our teacher expected so little from us. The other ballerinas seemed content, gracing the studio with their simple movements. 

As I grew closer with my Moscow roommates, I gradually learned that their training emphasized the history of the art form instead of stylistic tricks. Rather than show off their physical ability, their performances aimed to convey a story, one that embodied the rich culture of ballet and captured both the legacy of the dancers before them and their own artistry. As I observed my friends more intently in repertoire class, I felt the pain of the grief-stricken white swan from Swan Lake, the sass of the flirtatious Kitri from Don Quijote, and I gradually saw what I had overlooked before. My definition of talent had been molded by crowd-pleasing elements—whirring pirouettes, gravity-defying leaps, and mind-blowing leg extensions. This mindset slowly stripped me from the roots of my passion and my personal connection with ballet. 

With the Bolshoi, I learned to step back and explore the meaning behind each step and the people behind the scenes. Ballet carries history in its movements, from the societal values of the era to each choreographer’s unique flair. As I uncovered the messages behind each pirouette, kick, and jump, my appreciation for ballet grew beyond my obsession with raw athleticism and developed into a love for the art form’s emotive abilities in bridging the dancers with the audience. My journey as an artist has allowed me to see how technical execution is only the means to a greater understanding between dancer and spectator, between storyteller and listener. The elegance and complexity of ballet does not revolve around astonishing stunts but rather the evocative strength and artistry manifested in the dancer, in me. It is the combination of sentiments, history, tradition, and passion that has allowed ballet and its lessons of human connection to become my lifestyle both on and off stage.

This essay is about lessons. While the author is a dancer, this narrative isn’t really about ballet, per se — it’s about the author’s personal growth. It is purposefully reflective as the student shows a nice character arc that begins with an eager young ballerina and ends with a reflection on their past. The primary strength of this essay is the honesty and authenticity that the student approaches it with.

In the end, the student turns a cliche on its head as they embrace the idea of overcoming adversity and demonstrate how the adversity, in this case, was their own stereotypes about their art. It’s beautiful!

“Getting beat is one thing – it’s part of competing – but I want no part in losing.” Coach Rob Stark’s motto never fails to remind me of his encouragement on early-morning bus rides to track meets around the state. I’ve always appreciated the phrase, but an experience last June helped me understand its more profound, universal meaning.

Stark, as we affectionately call him, has coached track at my high school for 25 years. His care, dedication, and emphasis on developing good character has left an enduring impact on me and hundreds of other students. Not only did he help me discover my talent and love for running, but he also taught me the importance of commitment and discipline and to approach every endeavor with the passion and intensity that I bring to running. When I learned a neighboring high school had dedicated their track to a longtime coach, I felt that Stark deserved similar honors.

Our school district’s board of education indicated they would only dedicate our track to Stark if I could demonstrate that he was extraordinary. I took charge and mobilized my teammates to distribute petitions, reach out to alumni, and compile statistics on the many team and individual champions Stark had coached over the years. We received astounding support, collecting almost 3,000 signatures and pages of endorsements from across the community. With help from my teammates, I presented this evidence to the board.

They didn’t bite. 

Most members argued that dedicating the track was a low priority. Knowing that we had to act quickly to convince them of its importance, I called a team meeting where we drafted a rebuttal for the next board meeting. To my surprise, they chose me to deliver it. I was far from the best public speaker in the group, and I felt nervous about going before the unsympathetic board again. However, at that second meeting, I discovered that I enjoy articulating and arguing for something that I’m passionate about.

Public speaking resembles a cross country race. Walking to the starting line, you have to trust your training and quell your last minute doubts. When the gun fires, you can’t think too hard about anything; your performance has to be instinctual, natural, even relaxed. At the next board meeting, the podium was my starting line. As I walked up to it, familiar butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Instead of the track stretching out in front of me, I faced the vast audience of teachers, board members, and my teammates. I felt my adrenaline build, and reassured myself: I’ve put in the work, my argument is powerful and sound. As the board president told me to introduce myself, I heard, “runners set” in the back of my mind. She finished speaking, and Bang! The brief silence was the gunshot for me to begin. 

The next few minutes blurred together, but when the dust settled, I knew from the board members’ expressions and the audience’s thunderous approval that I had run quite a race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough; the board voted down our proposal. I was disappointed, but proud of myself, my team, and our collaboration off the track. We stood up for a cause we believed in, and I overcame my worries about being a leader. Although I discovered that changing the status quo through an elected body can be a painstakingly difficult process and requires perseverance, I learned that I enjoy the challenges this effort offers. Last month, one of the school board members joked that I had become a “regular” – I now often show up to meetings to advocate for a variety of causes, including better environmental practices in cafeterias and safer equipment for athletes.

Just as Stark taught me, I worked passionately to achieve my goal. I may have been beaten when I appealed to the board, but I certainly didn’t lose, and that would have made Stark proud.

This essay uses the idea of sports to explore a more profound topic—growing through relationships. They really embrace using sports as an avenue to tell the reader about a specific experience that changed the way they approach the world. 

The emphasis on relationships is why this essay works well and doesn’t fall into a cliche. The narrator grows not because of their experience with track but because of their relationship with their coach, who inspired them to evolve and become a leader.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Sports Medicine — Sport Injuries And Rehabilitation

Sport Injuries and Rehabilitation

• Categories: Injury Rehabilitation Programs Sports Medicine

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Words: 1359 |

Published: May 7, 2019

Words: 1359 | Pages: 3 | 7 min read

Table of contents

Knee joint – a complex joint, soccer and acl, acl and central nervous system (cns), prevention of acl injury, rehabilitation after aclr.

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Stress and Injury in Sports Essay

Introduction, definition of stress, potential causes of injury in sport.

One common characteristic of most team sports such as American football, rugby, soccer and ice hockey is that they often involve a high level of physical and sometimes aggressive contact. This in fact is the main difference between these and other non contact sports such as basketball, netball, volley ball, etc. which involve much less contact.

In studies that focus on the motivation and emotion involved in contact sports, it has been reported that much of the pleasure associated with these sports lies in the aggression involved in the physical aspect. Within such sports it is unlikely to see a player receive punitive action for aggressive response such as a hard tackle or a strong body check and aggressive physical plays form a key aspect of these games (Kerr 1999, Page 115).

Research on the motives and emotion in sport indicate most researchers agree that the violence that characterizes most contact sports is not the same as what is typically understood of aggression outside of sport. In the context of sport aggression is mainly aimed at expressing dominance over opponents.

Within the rules of the games there are often means to check unsporting conduct when it occurs during play. However, despite of the existence of such safety measures it goes without saying that the risks inherent in contact sports can not be compared with those of non contact sports. In non contact sports the greatest risk is often losing the match or failing to complete the task where as in the case of contact sports a real risk of injury exists (Kerr 1999, Page 120).

Another major concern and common cause of decline among top sporting personalities can be associated with stress. Taking the case of George Best, the English soccer star of the 70’s, we have a clear case of stress related decline. It is reported that after having a brilliant career with his team Manchester United, Best suffered from depression, alcoholism and had legal issues leading to his eventual exit from the sport.

Among the reasons cited for this behavior included stress of not being able to perform after the club failed to sustain the high performing squad it once had enlisted. In other cases the sports men and women faced with pressure to produce favorable results resort to use of performance enhancing drugs or other recreational drugs to relieve the associated pressure (Kerr 1999, Page 155).

In this paper the discussion will provide some information on stress and injury in sport with a view to providing the reader with the sports men and women’s perspective.

The term stress is widely used and refers to any factor whether internal or external that makes the adaptation to an environment difficult. In addition to the increased complexity in the environment of an individual this phenomena causes increase in effort to maintain the equilibrium with the external environment (Humphrey, Yow and Bowden 2000, Page 2).

Stress results owing to several contributing factors which in some instances may cause confusion owing to the close relationship between these factors. One of the factors is tension which may be taken to mean unnecessary or exaggerated muscle activity. Tension is a spontaneous reaction resulting from the dominant mental condition that may result in stress. Emotion is factor that may be confused with stress and refers to an individual’s reaction to external stimuli.

Another factor that is often confused with stress is anxiety, which refers to uneasiness of the mind. It may be assumed that anxiety is the source of stress. Another factor that may lead to stress is depression which refers to an intense feeling of sadness in an individual (Humphrey, Yow and Bowden 2000, Page 3-4).

Although individuals react differently to stress there are a few common physiological reactions. For example, an increase in the heart rate, increased perspiration, increase in blood pressure, dilation of pupils, knotting of the stomach, difficulty in swallowing and a tight feeling in the chest.

Professional sports careers are often very demanding on the athletes involved and are a cause of increased stress in the lives of these athletes. It is interesting to note that in some sports such as American Football increased risk of cardiovascular disease that is often associated with stress was reported to have other causes such as large body size and obesity (Selden, Helzberg & Waeckerle 2009, Page 812).

In addition to the possibility of injury that is inherent with sports, stress is also likely to increase the possibility of injury for the athlete. In the recent past there has been a lot of research on the relationship between bone health and exercise.

This research was found to be important owing to the implications of falling victim to a stress fracture on the running career of a young athlete. Data from track athletes indicated that stress related bone injuries comprise between 11% and 21% of all bone injuries in athletics. In addition to this it was also reported that women are especially at a higher risk of experiencing stress related bone injuries.

Among the reasons provided for this include low bone mineral density, menstrual irregularities, dietary factors and prior history of similar injuries. Prevention of such injury can be achieved through maximizing peak bone mass at a young age. In addition to this it is important to maintain adequate calcium based nutrition, proper caloric intake and an optimal balance of hormones and energy (Nattiv 2000, Page 1).

Although the prevalence of stress fractures is high among female athletes’ they also occur among male athletes. It has been reported that among player of Australian Rules football 5% of injuries were stress fractures. This data implies that stress fractures are a more common injury in the sport than groin injuries, dislocation of shoulders and knee injuries. Additional data indicated that the number of games missed as a result of these injuries has been on the rise from 28 in 1995, 66 in 1996 to 83 in 1997.

Furthermore this type of injury was not confined to professional athletes only but also affected amateur athletes’ where 4% of the injuries reported were stress related fractures. It has been suggested that the increase may be attributed to the increases in training load and in particular running training. Most clubs within these leagues have increased pre season cross training to reduce the incidences of the injuries (Brukner & Bennel 1999, Page 1).

The main cause of these injuries is overuse. An injury based on overuse involves certain muscles or bones of the body and develops over a period of time as a result of too much repetitive activity. The nature of the exercises associated with sports has the ability to cause such injuries. The repeated drills and routines that athletes’ are bound to go through on a regular basis are possible triggers. The injury gradually deteriorates over time until corrective therapy is applied (Hodson 1999, Page 1).

This case is evident in young footballers with load, posture, technique and equipment featuring as the main causative factors. It is currently the norm to develop sporting talent at a young age and many adolescents are recruited as potential candidates in sport training facilities.

These adolescents are encouraged to train and play more especially when considered to be gifted in a particular discipline. This induction at an early age without proper training may be the source of such injuries in the future of a player. It has been reported that children experience growth spurts from the ages of 7 to 18 years.

For those children engaged actively in sport at young ages their bodies develop muscle at a faster rate than skeletal development. Factors such as the incomplete development of bone tissue, reduced flexibility attributable to growth spurts are all potential causes for injury. It is reported that fast growing children are at a greater risk than those who grow slowly (Hodson 1999, Page 3).

The data from this report suggests that coaching staff need to be provided with adequate training on the physical aspects related to growth and integrate these into their training regimen. In addition to this the coaching staffs also need training to spot symptoms early and avoid serious injuries occurring within their teams.

Injuries in sport are not entirely isolated to stress and some are the result of contact that characterizes the games. It has been reported that in the game of soccer there is a risk of 13 to 35 injuries per 1000 hours of play. After the thigh, the feet and ankles have the greatest potential for injury in soccer with a potential incidence of 39 injuries per 1000 hours of play. The most common cause of this type of injury (ankle or foot injury) has been reported to be direct contact especially during tackling.

It was also reported that there is a higher incidence of injury during competition than during training which has been attributed to the increased speed of play. Other potential causes of foot and ankle injuries in soccer include hard ground, resumption of training after a break, poor footwear and increased intensity of training and running. This suggests that attention should be paid to these areas to limit the number and prevalence of such injuries among soccer players (Oztekin, Boya, Ozcan, and Zeren & Pinar 2009, Page 22).

Other than bone injuries athletes also suffer from a number of muscle injuries during games. It has been reported that over the past two decades injury trends have changed within the elite soccer circles with hamstring injuries becoming the most prevalent. In the English Premier League these injuries accounted for almost 12% of all reported injuries during a season. In addition to a high prevalence hamstring injuries have a very high rate of recurrence when there is premature return to play or inadequate rehabilitation programs.

It goes without saying that injury to key players can result in reduced performance and eventually have a negative impact of financial well being of the player and team.

As a result of this research has been carried out to identify high risk groups and prepare appropriate remedial actions for these groups. The research indicated that older players were more susceptible to hamstring injuries and as such their training required exercises to allow them adapt e.g. flexibility exercises. In addition to this it was found that screening may be useful within clubs to identify potential targets and adjust the training accordingly (Henderson, Barnes & Portas 2010, Page 397).

Brukner, P. & Bennel, K. (1999). Stress Fractures and Football. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 2(1), 33.

Harry, J. H., Yow, D. A. & Bowden, W. W. (2000). Stress In College Athletics: Causes, Consequences and Coping. Binghamton, NY: Harworth Press Inc.

Henderson, G., Barnes, C. A. & Portas, M. D. (2010). Factors Associated with Increased Propensity of Hamstring Injury in English Premier League Soccer Players. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 13, 397-402.

Hodson, A. (1999). Too Much Too Soon? The Risk of Overuse in Young Football Players. Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies, 3(2), 85-91.

Kerr, J. H. (1999). Motivation and Emotion in Sport: Reversal Theory . Psychology Press.

Nattiv, A. (2000). Stress Fractures and Bone Health in Track and Field Athletes. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 3(3), 268-279.

Oztekin, H. H., Boya, H., Ozcan, O., Zeren, B. & Pinar, P. (2009). Foot and Ankle Injuries and Time Lost From Play in Professional Soccer Players. The Foot, 19, 22-28.

Selden, M. A.., Helzberg, J. H. & Waeckerle, J. F. (2009). Early Cardiovascular Mortality in Professional Football Players: Fact or Fiction? The American Journal of Medicine, 122(9), 811-814.

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1. IvyPanda . "Stress and Injury in Sports." February 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stress-and-injury/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Stress and Injury in Sports." February 7, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stress-and-injury/.

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Preventing sports injuries.

Exercise is good for the body. And with the correct safety steps, sports injuries can often be prevented. The quality of protective equipment—padding, helmets, shoes, mouth guards—has helped to improve safety in sports. But you can still be at risk of injury. Always contact your healthcare provider before starting any type of physical activity. This is especially important for vigorous types of exercises or sports.

Causes of sport injuries may include:

Incorrect or poor training practices

Wearing incorrect sporting gear

Being in poor health

Incorrect warm-up or stretching practices before a sporting event or exercise

Common sports injuries include:

Sprains and strains

Joint injuries (knee, shoulder, ankle)

Muscle injuries

Dislocations

Broken bones (fractures)

Achilles tendon injuries

Pain along the shin bone

How can I prevent a sports injury?

The following are some basic steps to prevent a sports injury:

Create a fitness plan that includes cardiovascular exercise, strength training, and flexibility. This will help decrease your chance of injury.

Alternate exercising different muscle groups and exercise every other day.

Cool down correctly after exercise or sports. It should take 2 times as long as your warm-ups.

Stay hydrated. Drink water to prevent dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke.

Stretching exercises can improve the ability of muscles to contract and perform. This can reduce the risk for injury. Each stretch should start slowly until you reach a point of muscle tension. Stretching should not be painful. Aim to hold each stretch for up to 20 seconds.

Use the right equipment or gear. Wear shoes that give support and that may correct certain foot problems that can lead to injury.

Learn the right methods to play your sport or do strength training

Rest when tired. Don't exercise when you are tired or in pain.

Always take your time during strength training. Go through the full range of motion with each repetition.

If you do have a sports injury, make sure you get as much rehab (rehabilitation) as needed before restarting a strenuous activity.

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This article has been retracted.

Prevention and treatment of sports injuries and rehabilitative physical training of wushu athletes, shenghai wu.

1 Sergeant College, Hunan Sports Vocational College, Changsha, 410000 Hunan, China

2 Sports Department, Hunan Sports Vocational College, Changsha, 410000 Hunan, China

Associated Data

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

This paper is aimed at exploring the characteristics of research on prevention and treatment of sports injuries and rehabilitation physical training of Wushu athletes. It also considers the application of rehabilitation physical training in the rehabilitation of Wushu athletes. By searching literature, conducting questionnaires, and combining mathematical statistics, it studies the injury prevention and rehabilitation training of Wushu athletes. This paper chooses the level of first class and above of sports, and a total of 50 elite male and female Wushu athletes were systematically trained as subjects of study. Athletes, aged 15 to 20 years, were trained for 2 to 5 years, 35 male athletes and 15 female athletes. Different from traditional rehabilitation therapy, athletes' physical rehabilitation training is also different from traditional sports rehabilitation treatment. By evaluating the physical condition of athletes, the causes of sports injuries were analyzed, to formulate special rehabilitation training programs and carry out athletes' rehabilitation training targeted and purposeful. Record the experimental data and analyze the experimental results. The experimental results show that physical rehabilitation training can make athletes avoid the influence of unsafe factors of sports injury, improve the safety of training, and effectively prevent sports injury. The experimental results show that physical rehabilitation training combined with rehabilitation medicine has obvious advantages, which can make Wushu athletes recover quickly without sequelae.

1. Introduction

Physical fitness is an important manifestation of athletes' athletic performance. The stress that the body can withstand and the limits of the body's ability to withstand the hit and the load of the body are based on daily training, which is the accumulation of daily training [ 1 ]. Because the strength and density of martial artists before the game is very high, the training is quite extensive and directs confrontation training. This kind of training can easily lead to fatigue. During the training, the mind is not concentrated, and some even continue to participate in the struggle during the disease stage [ 2 ]. However, strenuous exercise is more likely to cause new sports injuries or worsen the original damage. In addition, due to intensive training, the load on some parts of the body is too large; so, these parts are easily damaged. If a martial arts athlete receives special technical training, he must first practice the technique and then perform special strength training with his hand and waist. When training legs, etc., the load is relatively intensely concentrated on the elbows, waist, and knees, which can also cause fatigue and damage in various parts [ 3 ]. New rehabilitation training can improve your health and meet your daily exercise needs. Physical rehabilitation training is a comprehensive discipline that helps to correct and restore motor dysfunction using physical training methods, also known as rehabilitation training [ 4 , 5 ]. Physical rehabilitation training is different from traditional sports training. It has a strong correlation and help and is a new concept of sports training. In sports, the athlete's physical performance (including general physical fitness and physical fitness) is the basis of the athlete's athletic ability [ 6 , 7 ]. At present, the physical fitness of Chinese athletes is mostly in a state of poor health. As part of special sports training, athletes are subject to various injuries or injuries. Traditional medical rehabilitation methods cannot quickly solve the problem of athlete training. Physical rehabilitation training can better promote the recovery of athletes' physical fitness and improve their physical fitness. Physical rehabilitation training effectively combines various concepts such as sports medicine, functional rehabilitation, exercise training, and sports nutrition [ 8 , 9 ]. The causes of athletes' sports injuries and the use of personalized rehabilitation training methods and nutritional supplements to improve athletes' health effectively prevent sports injuries and enable athletes' physical function and physical health to meet specific exercise requirements [ 10 , 11 ].

Long-term large-scale exercise training makes the athlete's muscle strength unbalanced, resulting in decreased joint stability or joint displacement, resulting in joint damage in athletes during daily training. This requires effective training methods to prevent the occurrence of sports injuries and help athletes to recover quickly. In sports training, no matter how serious the sports injury, the athlete's physical fitness will decline, and the decline in physical fitness will aggravate the injury. Therefore, when there is a sports injury, only medical rehabilitation cannot completely treat the injury of the athlete [ 12 , 13 ]. Physical rehabilitation training combines rehabilitation and physical training. It can carry out physical exercise while the athlete performs rehabilitation training, promote the recovery of the athlete's physical health, and make the athlete's physical state transition to the best state, which not only meets the needs of sports training, uninterrupted, shortening the athlete's physical recovery time and providing a strong guarantee for the athletes to resume normal training [ 14 , 15 ]. Physical rehabilitation training includes rehabilitation. Unlike traditional exercise rehabilitation therapy, it evaluates the athlete's physical condition from both nutritional support and sports medicine, analyzes the causes of sports injuries, and develops special rehabilitation training programs based on the athlete's injury. Targeted and purposeful athlete rehabilitation training is as follows: physical rehabilitation training can enable athletes to avoid the unsafe factors of sports injuries, improve the safety of training, and effectively prevent the occurrence of sports injuries [ 16 ]. At the same time, during the athlete's physical exercise, the corresponding training can be used to treat the athlete's injury, promote the athlete's health recovery, and shorten the treatment time [ 13 , 17 ].

This paper applies the research findings of the scholars. Scholars such as Shutze contacted eligible patients by phone and invited them to complete nine surveys to assess the long-term effects of FRR. The use of analgesics, postoperative physical therapy time, patient satisfaction, symptom relief, activities of daily living, athletic performance, exercise recovery time, etc. is as follows: multivariate analysis of risk factors: age, chest muscle release, preoperative anesthesia use, and exercise load. takes part in throwing exercises. Results are as follows: 232 athletes met the inclusion criteria, of which 67 (14-48 years; 35; 99% were white) answered the survey. The average time from surgery to investigation was 3.3 years (2.2-7.0 years). The most common sports in this group are baseball and softball ( n = 44 [66%]), volleyball ( n = 7 [10%]), cheerleaders, and gymnastics ( n = 5 [7%]), from high school to professional level [ 14 ]. The results of the survey showed that 96% of painkillers improved, 75% required contralateral FRRs, 82% had symptomatic regression, 94% had unrestricted daily activities, and after FRRs, 70% returned to the same or better exercise level which reached 50% during the year. Multiple regression analysis found that the younger the age, the more predictable the duration of physical therapy. Conclusion is as follows: in this center, 40% of patients who require FRR treatment are competitive athletes. The results of this study show that most companies are able to return to precompetitive status after FRR, and there is almost no empirical limit in daily activities. Within six months of surgery, half of the game can return to pr-disease levels. Most people are satisfied with the decision to accept the FRR. Further research is needed to determine the predictors of successful recovery of competitive sports [ 15 , 16 ]. Hoover and other scholars have found that as strength and training coaches increasingly use phased models to inform athletes about their training programs, athletes' exercise prescriptions and training programs are growing rapidly. Similarly, exercise prescriptions and exercise processes are the basic skills of a sports therapist and are necessary to balance the physical stress of injury and recovery of the athlete [ 17 , 18 ]. This course will outline the staging model of a sports therapist and its application in rehabilitation. They found that models of exercise prescriptions and exercise progression were developed both in theory and scope, and that these models helped to improve the resilience of countless athletes compared to the care of previous generations of athletes. Despite this, despite these advances, these models often do not fully bridge the gap between these rehabilitation programs and coaches to help athletes reach their peak. More staging model knowledge can help sports therapists assess, clinical reasoning skills, exercise progression, and goal setting, enabling athletes to continue to participate in high-level competitions [ 19 , 20 ].

Different from the traditional sports rehabilitation treatment, the injury situation and physical rehabilitation training of athletes are different from traditional sports rehabilitation therapy. They evaluate the physical condition of athletes, analyze the causes of sports injuries [ 21 , 22 ], and analyze the causes of sports injuries. The situation is formulated with a special rehabilitation training program to carry out rehabilitation training for athletes in a targeted and purposeful manner [ 23 ].

2. Proposed Method

2.1. body shape characteristics of martial arts mobilization.

Martial arts are classified according to the dominant factors of competitiveness and belong to the difficulty performance of skills; according to the classification of action structure, they belong to variable combination items in multiaction structure. The physique characteristics of martial arts routine athletes are usually body shape, facial features, slightly longer neck, shorter clavicle and scapula, slightly longer limbs, straighter arms, longer calves than thighs, straight knees, slightly shorter ankles, and thinner Achilles tendons. Clear, hands and feet are large, the pelvis is narrow, the buttocks muscles are tightened upwards, and the muscles are peeled off. From a physical function point of view, technology-led athletes, if aesthetically difficult to please, need good cardiovascular, nervous, and visual, auditory, and other sensory system functions.

2.2. Operational Requirements

In order to develop martial arts as part of competitive sports, we must move in this direction. This is the development model of the world's hard and beautiful sports and also the requirements of the competitive sports technology movement. If the technical characteristics of competitive martial arts form the essence of competitive martial arts, then “high, difficult, beautiful, new, stable” is the requirement of martial arts training. During the drilling process, the attitude, direction, and force of the action are required to achieve the standardization of the action, the accuracy of the method, the graceful shape, and the grounding action.

2.3. Training Requirements

Martial arts is a high-intensity, short-term intermittent exercise. Its functional mode is based primarily on the aerobic and anaerobic threshold characteristics of lactic acid. In order to improve the endurance of martial arts athletes in competitions, aerobic and anaerobic training is needed to improve their endurance and ability. Athletes have high physical fitness and pay special attention to the function of lactic acid anaerobic training. Therefore, strength, speed, and endurance are essential for excellent martial arts athletes, and all three are indispensable. Prematch training due to different levels, different strengths, different opponents, etc., the damage caused in actual combat, it is likely to cause acute injury due to the use of weight difference, directional error, and excessive technical action. In the investigation, the knee joint was the most damaged, because the martial arts movement could not do without the knee joint strength from standing to squatting. In order to participate in a level that is more conducive to their excellent performance, martial arts athletes need to strictly control their weight in pre-competition training, but because they do not reduce the amount of exercise, even in the process of controlling weight, increase the amount of exercise, exercise load increases, due to weight. The excess water and fat are reduced, the water cannot be replenished after training, the body's water cannot reach equilibrium, the muscle loses its original elasticity, and the stretch of the ligament is also reduced. Because fat protects the body and joints, joint loss is lost if fat is reduced. Therefore, athletes control their weight with large capacity and high intensity before the game, which is prone to sudden damage. Before the game, the athletes were physically exhausted and their ability to each part decreased. It tends to be listless, with nerves and muscles sticking stronger than usual, especially for athletes who control their weight before the game. Ordinary people must be strong. General preparation activities can reach the central nervous system excitement in 15 minutes, while weight control athletes need 18 to 35 minutes or even longer. Therefore, if the athlete neglects the preparatory activities before training and performs heavy-duty and high-intensity exercises, it is easy to cause sports injuries.

2.4. Training Guidance

The so-called training guiding ideology refers to the theoretical understanding of the characteristics of sports, the actual situation of sports teams and athletes, and the expected goals achieved through training practice. According to the guiding ideology of the characteristics of competitive martial arts, the martial arts training program aims at the development trend of “beauty, high, new and stable,” using a large amount of theoretical knowledge, combined with sports practice, and training according to the principles of the system. Sports training examples, sports training and technical principles combined with sports characteristics, strength, and endurance training are the core principles of training. Unreasonable technical actions cause damage. Athletes cannot master the technical and technical essentials scientifically and correctly, and it is very easy to cause damage during training. This puts higher demands on the martial arts coaches, not only asking the coaches to teach the athletes technical movements but also asking for teaching.

The trainer explains the principle of technical movements and explains the principles that help athletes to use their brains to find ways to attack their opponents and how to restrain their opponents' attacks, without being damaged during training.

2.5. Training Content

Martial arts have a more comprehensive physical fitness requirement for athletes. According to the characteristics of martial arts and the needs of technological development, martial arts athletes should focus on speed, strength, jumping ability, flexibility, agility, and endurance training. Martial arts athletes must practice hands, eyes, body, step, spirit, qi, force, and these movements in the field and always support strong physical strength. Traditional basic martial arts skills and basic sports practice are important tools for developing martial arts' special physique. The martial arts athlete's body not only can get a more comprehensive exercise but also can improve the flexibility and coordination of each joint, improve the control of muscle flexibility and improve the function of the body-related structure. On the other hand, the level of equipment upgrade technology also laid the foundation for athletes. Stretching in combat, the goal of stretching soft tissue and muscle in martial arts is to be more flexible in exercise, stretching soft woven or relaxing muscles during exercise, which helps to eliminate muscle fatigue and maintain muscle elasticity. Prevent muscle tension and avoid deformation and stiffness of sports equipment. Stretching exercises are mainly used to prepare and the final action. The main purpose of active stretching is to minimize the internal viscosity of soft tissues and muscles before training, to keep it light, to increase muscle temperature, increase elasticity, and to prevent muscle tension during training, thus requiring active stretching. In addition, the main purpose of stretching after exercise is to relax the muscles after exercise, to get rid of fatigue, accelerate the release of muscle metabolites, reduce muscle soreness, and allow athletes to restore their body shape as soon as possible, ready for the next muscle exercise. The method of stretching after training mainly uses passive stretching, allowing athletes to stretch each other or let the trainer stretch.

2.6. Sports Training Methods and Methods for Athletes

2.6.1. strength training.

Martial arts is a combination of exercise and rest, with a focus on “lightning movement.” In martial arts, the difficulty of jumping and the difficulty of balancing static movements both require static muscle strength. In general, fitness training, speed, and strength training should be performed first. For loads, athletes use a maximum load of 40% to 600 and perform 6-8 sets. In order to increase maximum strength, athletes weigh from 100% to 120%, barbells, semicircles, jerk weights, etc., as well as 4-6 groups, intermittent training methods and repeat methods. Finally, in the development of strength endurance, strength endurance should be the main content of strength training, and you can use about 80% of the maximum strength for strength training until the body is exhausted; in the process, you can use some training tools group cycle. Special strength training uses martial arts in the form of bows, “horse,” or “equestrian” steps, steps, virtual steps, steps, etc. These basic achievement methods can improve the static strength of martial arts. In addition, martial arts athletes also need good motivation and mainly use super-sensory, jumping, flashing, display, ripple, spin, fold, and other personal practice skills.

2.6.2. Speed of Quality Training

Movement speed is the core of completing martial arts. Only “a fist - like a meteor, the eyes are like electricity”. For routine training, athletes must demonstrate the characteristics and style of wavy, fast, bold, and enduring martial arts. In addition, athletes must complete many actions in a short period of time.

2.6.3. Flexible Exercise

Flexible, high-quality martial arts exercises use artificial methods such as vibration, displacement, stretching, and torsion to stimulate the external forces of the shoulders, arms, waist, legs, and ankles to obtain joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Develop the flexibility of the above components. Basic skills in basic and basic sports can enhance athletes' flexibility. Such as shoulders, shoulder pressure training, ring, arm, and other exercises, the legs have positive pressure, the legs have side pressure, the hind legs are pressed, the legs have a positive pulling force, the legs have a back, the legs are pushed, and the legs are kicked.

2.6.4. Other Physical Health

In addition to good strength, speed, and flexibility, martial arts athletes must have good quality endurance, sensitivity, and coordination. As for endurance, you can run 400-800 meters quickly and use the overtime training method, that is, do half or two trainings without interruption, to improve the athlete's endurance in sensitivity and coordination. It can be improved through special training, such as improving knee balance, swallowing balance, and exercising with the ball.

3. Experiments

3.1. experimental settings, 3.1.1. research object.

This paper selects the level 1 and above sports level and 50 male and female excellent martial arts athletes who are systematically trained as the research object. The athletes are 15 to 20 years old, with a training period of 2-5 years, 35 male athletes and 15 female athletes. Different from the traditional sports rehabilitation treatment, the injury situation and physical rehabilitation training of athletes are different from traditional sports rehabilitation therapy. They evaluate the physical condition of athletes, analyze the causes of sports injuries, and analyze the causes of sports injuries. The situation is formulated with a special rehabilitation training program to carry out rehabilitation training for athletes in a targeted and purposeful manner. Physical rehabilitation training mainly includes three types: the first type of physical fitness athletes to improve their physical fitness and athletic ability; the second type of athletes in the injured or subhealth state to diagnose the athlete's physical condition, find out the reasons for the decline in physical fitness, and develop special training to restore the athlete's health; the third category through specific physical fitness training to help athletes reduce the pain and restore exercise capacity.

3.1.2. The Experimental Arrangement

In this experiment, 50 Wushu athletes were trained in three stages for 6 weeks.

3.2. Functional Rehabilitation Physical Training

For various reasons, the athlete's physical fitness will decline after the injury, and the decline in physical fitness will reduce the athlete's own recovery ability and increase the athlete's injury. Therefore, once an athlete is subjected to sports injuries, in order to ensure that his athletic ability and function are not harmed, it is necessary to combine the relevant knowledge of rehabilitation medicine with the function and institutional needs of the physical activity to recover, according to the actual situation of the athletes bodies, and the relevant knowledge of rehabilitation medicine is the fulcrum. Stand up for skill-based rehabilitation physical training, timely adjust the rehabilitation program according to the problems existing in the rehabilitation physical training, and promote the early rehabilitation of athletes' injuries.

3.3. Physical Training for Disease Prevention and Rehabilitation

Athletes often need to exercise for a long time, which can lead to muscle fatigue or joint instability, which can easily cause different degrees of damage. Effective prevention of physical injuries is very important for physical education. By analyzing the damage mechanism, an appropriate training plan is developed, and measures are taken to avoid damage in practice to effectively prevent the deterioration of injured athletes and avoid repeated injuries. For example, humeral pain is one of the common injuries of athletes, mainly due to the imbalance of muscle strength inside and outside the thigh, resulting in displacement of the lower leg. If the knee is stretched during training, this will exacerbate the pain caused by abnormal movement of the lower leg. Therefore, during sports, avoid injury to the athlete's sports injuries; so, a closed-circuit exercise with a fixed foot position should be chosen to position the knee and toe vertically to relieve pain and avoid knee flexion.

3.4. Functional Rehabilitation Physical Training

Functional rehabilitation training is an important principle of physical rehabilitation training. In sports training, most of the movements are three-dimensional movements performed by multiple joints. A drop in joint function can cause the movement to fail or fail to meet the standard. For example, in a baseball throw, the abdominal muscles simultaneously participate in abdominal adduction and rotation. The traditional sit-up training does not aim at the training of the abdominal muscles and cannot fully exert the advantages of coordinated movements such as the abdomen, lumbar vertebrae, and upper limbs. If we use the rubber band tension to do the sit-up abdominal abdomen adduction exercise, we can better exercise the abdominal muscle function and make the athlete more flexible.

3.5. Neurological Rehabilitation Physical Training

The center of the body is an important part of maintaining body posture and ensuring body movement. In traditional sports training, there is no exercise or pertinence for the center of the body. More than half of the central muscles of the trunk are vertically or horizontally aligned. Traditional sit-ups are not enough to exercise nerves. Refined abdominal flexion and rotation in physical rehabilitation training can fully exercise the central muscles of the trunk, stimulate the central nervous system, and better coordinate the posture and movement.

3.6. Balance and Joint Rehabilitation Physical Training

Balance and joint stability training is the primary method of preventing joint damage. Balance training in physical rehabilitation, simple equipment is often used to achieve the required exercise requirements. For example, trampoline athletes often sprain their ankles. During training, they usually use a balance board to balance their ankles. After a month or so of training, the ankle joint muscle group is significantly enhanced, and it is easy to complete the balance control of the unstable plane and improve the athlete's balance control ability: the function of the joints.

4. Discussion

4.1. functional rehabilitation physical training.

When an athlete is injured, first assess the degree of injury, consult relevant medical books, and develop their functional rehabilitation physical training. Three sets of experiments were set up, as shown in Table 1 . For example, each group of 15 male athletes suffered an ankle injury. The external application of Yunnan white ointment was taken, and the western medicine was taken orally. The training continued except for the ankle. The training intensity and ankle recovery of the athletes are shown in Table 2 . After fully recovering from the athletes, the proficiency of the original action is shown in Table 3 .

(a) Knee rehabilitation training

(b) Ankle rehabilitation training

Training intensity and ankle recovery.

Proficiency of the original action (%).

Table 2 shows that the longer the training time, the longer the recovery time is consumed.

Table 3 shows that the longer the training, the higher the proficiency of the original movement.

4.2. Disease Prevention Rehabilitation Physical Training

Athletes usually need long-term exercise training, which can cause muscle fatigue or joint instability, which can easily cause different degrees of injury. Effective prevention of injuries in physical training is essential for sports training. By analyzing the mechanism of injury, formulating relevant training programs, and choosing to avoid the movements that cause athletes to hurt, practice to effectively prevent the injury of the injured athletes and avoid the occurrence of reinjury. The experiment analyzed the impact of the relevant actions on the related injuries with the recovery time as a reference, as shown in Figure 1 .

Related actions on the impact of related injuries.

Figure 1 shows that the ankle is prone to injury when flipping, and the knee is prone to injury when bouncing.

4.3. Functional Rehabilitation Physical Training

In the long term, a large number of sports training, the muscle strength of athletes is not balanced, which leads to a decrease in joint stability or joint displacement, which leads to joint injuries in athletes during daily training. In the case of sports injuries, athletes must influence their physical fitness and cannot perform various training sessions or compete. It also requires effective training methods to prevent sports injuries and help athletes recover as soon as possible. In sports training, no matter how serious the injury, this will lead to a decrease in the athlete's physical strength, and a decrease in physical fitness will aggravate the injury. Therefore, when there is a sports injury, only medical rehabilitation cannot fully treat an athlete's injury. Physical rehabilitation combines both rehabilitation and physical preparation, and it can perform physical training of athletes during rehabilitation, help restore athletes' physical fitness, and ensure that the athlete's physical condition is in a better condition, which not only corresponds to sports training. Continuous, it reduces the athlete's physical recovery time and provides a reliable guarantee of a special training after the athlete returns to normal. Physical rehabilitation training includes rehabilitation therapy; unlike traditional sports rehabilitation therapy, it assesses the physical condition of athletes in terms of nutrition support and sports medicine, analyzes the causes of sports injuries, and develops special rehabilitation training programs in accordance with the injuries of athletes. Physical rehabilitation can help athletes avoid unsafe factors that cause sports injuries, improve training safety, and effectively prevent sports injuries. At the same time, during the physical preparation of athletes, appropriate training can be used to treat injuries to athletes, to help restore athletes' health, and reduce treatment time. A decrease in joint function can result in incomplete or inconsistent exercise, attempting to adopt a new action or training method, randomly grouping 25 groups of each group, and the questionnaire is satisfied with the current action and the improvement of future actions. The attitude is shown in Figures ​ Figures2 2 and ​ and3. 3 . A questionnaire for the number of people looking forward to improvement and having a good method is shown in Figure 4 for each age group.

Satisfaction with the current action.

Attitudes toward future action improvement (%).

Looking forward to improvement and good methods.

Figure 2 shows the highest satisfaction with jumps and the lowest satisfaction with spins.

Figure 3 shows the highest percentage of positive optimism, while the percentage of full and partial changes is the same.

4.4. An Important Part of an Athlete's Athletic Ability Is Physical Health

There is an important manifestation of sports skills in daily training of athletes practice. The development of medical technology to this day, the practice of physical rehabilitation, and this new teaching method has been widely used in sports training. Physical rehabilitation can effectively help athletes to restore health and control healing injuries and prevent recurrence, and improve fitness to meet the needs of daily training. In the training, there are deep understandings of the athletes of various movements, and the number of people who are looking forward to improvement and good methods is 10 in each age group as shown in Figure 4 .

Figure 4 shows that people aged 18-23 are more expected to improve.

5. Conclusions

• During the experiment, it was found that the human muscles were divided into large muscle groups and small muscle groups in the form of fixed joints. General strength exercises are usually performed on large muscle groups, ignoring the practice of small muscle groups. The damage caused by the battle is difficult to deal with, and many harmful upper limb exercises are needed to recover. Conversely, training a small group of muscles with a small weight of rubber tension band or small dumbbells can be more easily trained and does not allow injury. In addition, small muscle groups typically have multiple directional motor functions and are also multidirectional in training. Small muscle groups move more accurately than large muscle groups, and they can be easily trained in place, which puts high demands on the trainer's biomechanics and human anatomy
• Joint stability and balance training can effectively prevent joint damage. Since joint stability is mainly determined by joint body sensation, joint body sensation plays an important role in time. Adjusting the position of the joint and preventing damage, balance training usually uses unstable plans to restore and utilize the power of proprioception. In foreign balance training courses, balance equipment of various difficulty levels is designed using simple equipment such as ski balance, hemisphere, fitness ball, and balance board. Take martial arts as an example: he usually has an ankle sprain, and his limbs cannot be properly trained without the thick bandage. Therefore, we require athletes to use the balance board to balance the ankle joints. At first, the athlete can complete the training in 2-3 seconds. But after a month of balanced training, the muscles around the ankles will strengthen and stand for more than 5 minutes without falling. The result is that athletes no longer need a lumbar support ankle and can return to the team for normal exercise. Martial arts exercises involve stretching soft tissues and muscles before, during, and after struggling, so that stretched soft tissue or muscles are completely relaxed. This helps to eliminate muscle fatigue, maintain muscle elasticity, prevent muscle tension, and prevent technical deformation and stiffness. Stretching is primarily used to prepare and organize activities. The main goal of stretching is to minimize the internal viscosity of soft tissues and muscles before training, increase muscle temperature and elasticity, and prevent muscle damage during training. Use active stretching exercises. The main purpose of stretching after exercise is to relax the tense and tired muscles after exercise, accelerate the release of muscle metabolites, relieve muscle irritation, and allow athletes to restore their body shape as soon as possible, in preparation for the next exercise
• Through the analysis and comparison of the data, it is found that the injury and physical rehabilitation training of athletes in daily training is different from traditional sports rehabilitation therapy, starting from the support of nutrition and sports medicine, by assessing physical fitness, athletes' condition, and sports injuries. The reason for this is that a special rehabilitation training program was developed based on the athlete's traumatic situation, and the athletes were purposefully and purposefully trained for rehabilitation. The experimental results show that physical rehabilitation training can enable athletes to avoid the unsafe factors that cause sports injuries, increase the safety of training, and effectively prevent the occurrence of sports injuries

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Second Batch of National Vocational Education Teachers' Teaching Innovation Team Research Project of the Ministry of Education of China, project name: Innovation and Practice of Team Teachers' Education and Teaching Reform in the Field of Sports Training in Vocational Colleges in the New Era, project number: ZH2021080401.

Data Availability

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.