Soccer Injuries

Here is 10 ideas to address the ever increasing concussion rates in soccer.   

Osgood Schlatter's Disease is one of the most common knee injuries among youth soccer athletes. Although it is rarely surgical, it is often a nagging and at times debilitating pathology with a capacity to sideline a soccer player for quite some time.

Performing leg strength and stability exercises are key components to improving performance and limiting injuries on the soccer field. In today's busy youth sports world with club and high school practices and games, private training and let's not forget school, time can become a factor.

I divide my off seasons into 3 phases: Recovery, Volume Building, Intensity Building.  This article discusses the 1^st of 3 phases, recovery.

Dealing with muscle soreness, and lack of flexibility is commonplace in soccer. Not to mention the chronic issues of patellar tendonitis or IT band issues that often nag and hinder a soccer player’s performance. These are all concerns that every soccer athlete has to deal with. Unfortunately, if unattended, these concerns can easily worsened and negatively impact an athletes soccer career. That is why it is absolutely critical that you have a recovery protocol in your training that includes some form of stretching, and soft tissue work (basically some form of massage).

There are many benefits to incorporating aqua therapy into your training program. From a rehabilitation standpoint, aqua therapy has been shown to reduce stress on the joints and muscles, offers resistance in all direction, and swelling reduction. 

Concussion injuries are really not the problem. The real problem is in effectively managing it. In my opinion,  this holds especially true for soccer athletes at the high school/club level.

 While you can never completely eliminate an athlete's chances of injury, you can take certain measures to at least make the body more tolerant to the physical stresses competitive soccer places on it. That's why incorporating injury prevention into your soccer fitness program is key.

I frequently have players with six-pack abs that can easily do 100 sit-ups in a minute but fail to stabilize their core and pelvis. Before long, they start to have issues with their hip flexors and groins, often leading to a sports hernia.  

As soccer continues to increase in popularity, so too are the injuries that go with it. Fortunately, specialties in medicine and physical rehabilitation have kept up with the times. However, in spite of the advancements made in sports medicine, the basic question in dealing with injuries such as muscle strains and ligament sprains still arises- should I use ice or heat?