Warm-Ups and Coaches' Perceptions: Searching for Clues to Improve Injury Prevention in Youth Basketball

Abstract

Introduction: Regular use of neuromuscular training (NMT) warm-up programs improves performance and prevents injuries. However, low level of adoption of these programs remains a problem. Understanding the current warm-ups in youth basketball and coaches' perceptions on injury prevention can guide the design of superior implementation strategies. This study describes warm-ups in youth basketball and coaches' injury prevention-related knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and information sources.Methods: Youth basketball coaches (n = 50) completed a preseason questionnaire. The questionnaire covered warm-up length, use of aerobic/agility/balance/strength/other exercises in the warm-up, injury-related knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and sources of information.Results: Typical warm-up duration was ≤ 10 min (48.0% of coaches, 95% CI: ±13.8%). All coaches included aerobic exercises in their warm-up. Agility, strength, and balance exercises were utilized by 80.0% (95% CI: ±11.7%), 70.7% (95% CI: ±13.6%), and 26.8% (95% CI: ±13.6%) of coaches, respectively. Most coaches agreed to some extent that basketball injuries are preventable (94%) and that participating in a NMT warm-up program would reduce player's risk of injury (92%). Other coaches were identified as the most common source of information on warm-ups and injury prevention.Discussion: Coaches use parts of effective NMT warm-up programs, but balance exercises are not well adopted. Considering the level of evidence supporting the importance of balance exercises in injury prevention, it is crucial to improve the implementation of NMT warm-up programs in youth basketball, for example, through educational courses. As fellow coaches were identified as the most important source of information, coaches' role in knowledge translation should be emphasized.

Youth Basketball Coaches’ Perceptions and Implementation of Fundamental Movement Skills Training: Toward a Realist Evaluation

“…Our findings that context mediates enactment of behavior mechanisms seems to be consistent with recent studies (Räisänen et al 2021;Owoeye et al, 2020) and the findings related to realist evaluation (Mitchell, 1997;Pawson & Tilley, 1994), and policy enactment studies in physical education and sport pedagogy (Hammond et al, 2020;Landi et al, 2021;O'Gorman et al, 2021). Owoeye et al (2020) found coaches were inclined to remove strength and balance related tasks in favor of exercises deemed to be more relevant to basketball performance.…”

“…to vary (Norcross et al, 2016;Owoeye et al, 2020;Räisänen et al, 2021). A recent study by Owoeye et al (2020), found that coaches altered NMT programs based on perceived relevance to performance as well as player interest.…”

Canadian High School Rugby Coaches Readiness for an Injury Prevention Strategy Implementation: Evaluating a Train-the-Coach Workshop

“…Of the coaches that reported using a warm-up routine in the past 12 months, the use of NMT components (i.e., aerobic, balance, strength, agility) within their warm-ups was variable with most coaches always using aerobic components and few using balance. This is similar to findings in Canadian youth basketball, where coaches reported including an aerobic component in their warm-up, but only 27% utilized balance exercises prior to attending a workshop on a NMT warm-up (Raisanen et al, 2021 ). Within the literature, balance appears to be the most neglected component of coaches' previous warm-ups, though research suggests that it is an effective and important component (Brunner et al, 2019 ).…”

Can We Go Online for Sports Injury Prevention? A Systematic Review of English-Language Websites with Exercise-Based Sports Injury Risk Reduction Programmes

“…Ninety percent of those who verify the information use basic Google search [ 33 ]. In the injury prevention context, 32% of basketball coaches are sourcing their injury prevention knowledge from the Internet; the only more popular resources are other coaches [ 11 ]. Without the high-quality resources freely available online, it may be difficult to achieve the goal of reducing injuries in sport.…”

“…The Internet’s ubiquity and low entry barrier allows for easy dissemination of health-related information online [ 10 ]. Online injury prevention resources may contribute to a wider distribution of injury risk reduction programmes and their subsequent implementation [ 11 ]. On the Internet, there are no restrictions on the format, the number of words, figures or diagrams used, and videos are relatively easy to implement.…”