B) Muscle injuries
Tennis or golfers elbow.
This is when the area around the elbow is inflamed, tender and sore. This is caused by overuse of muscle in lower arm.
Treatment
-The elbow must be rested until it recovers.
-It may need physiotherapy and injection of a steroid into the muscle.
Strain or pull
A strain or pull is a tear in a muscle or tendon, due to violent over-stretching.
The hamstrings and calf muscles are at special risk if you don’t warm up properly. The Achilles tendon of the calf muscle can tear completely.
Signs and symptoms
-A sudden sharp pain at the tear.
-Then swelling, stiffness and sometimes cramp.
-a casualty with a torn Achilles tendon collapses and cant get up again.
Treatment
-For minor strains follow the RICE routine.
-For a serious strain bring the casualty to hospital.
Other types of muscle damage
- Tear
- Contusion
- Muscle soreness
C) Tendons!
Tear
A tear is normally caused by a force like being tackled in rugby, over-use, turning to quick or landing heavily on a specific part of the body.
Signs and symptoms
The symptoms of a tear are normally
- Soreness
- Swelling
- Bruising
- Extreme pain.
Treatment
-The RICE routine.
-Take the casualty to hospital in severe cases.
-It may need physiotherapy
D) Joint injuries
Dislocation
A bone is pulled out of position at a joint, usually by violent twisting. It happens most often at the shoulder, elbow, finger, and thumb joints.
Signs and symptoms
- Pain on one side of the joint.
- The joint appears deformed and the casualty can’t move it.
- Swelling around the joint, followed by bruising.
Treatment
- Dial 999 for an ambulance.
- Support the injured part using clothing or towels. Use slings or bandages for elbow and finger joints.
Sprain
A ligament at a joint gets stretched and torn. For example, twisting your foot when running can cause a sprained ankle.
In a severe sprain the ligament is badly torn and the injury looks like a fracture.
Signs and symptoms
- Pain and tenderness around the joint. Movement makes this worse.
- Swelling occurs, followed by bruising.
Treatment
- If in doubt treat as a fracture.
- For minor sprains follow the R.I.C.E routine
Torn knee Cartilage
There are two curved pads of cartilage at the knee joint. These may tear if the knee is twisted violently.
Signs and symptoms
- Pain on one side of the joint.
- The joint may ‘lock’ and not straighten fully for a period of time.
- It may swell later.
Treatment
- Use an ice pack for the swelling.
- Get the casualty to the doctor this injury may need surgery.
E) Bone injuries
Fracture
A fracture is a break or crack in the bone.
In a simple or closed fracture the skin is not In a open or compound fracture the
damaged. Skin is damaged too.
Types of closed fractures.
Signs and symptoms
- The casualty may have heard or felt a snap.
- Pain and tenderness around the injury.
- The casualty can’t move the part normally.
- Swelling and bruising occur.
- The limb may look deformed or twisted.
Treatment
- Dial 999 for an ambulance.
- Do not move the casualty and do not try to straighten the fractured limb.
- Support the limb at each side of the fracture using cushions or clothing.
- A sling made from a towel or bandage can be used to support a fractured arm bone.
- If a leg bone is fractured, the leg can be tied gently to a splint to stop movement. For example to the other leg or to a hockey stick.
Don’t try using a sling or splint unless you have taken a first aid course.
Prevention of injury
There are many factors to injuries in sport which can be reduced by the following .
The main ways to reduce injuries
-Warm up
Warming up prepares the body both mentally and physically.
A warm up should consist of four parts
-Rehearsal
-Passive stretching
-Ballistic bouncing
-Exercise to raise the heart rate
Correct training
-The purpose of training is to enhance or increase fitness
-Fitness is a combination of -Speed
-Endurance
-Power
-Flexibility
-Strength
Training should be specific to individual taking into account for many things such as-Weight -Height
-Age
-Gender
-Health
-Diet
Use appropriate equipment
All equipment that performers use should be the correct size.
Equipment which is the incorrect height or weight may lead to back injuries or tennis elbow.
Fluid intake
-athletes should control their fluid intake to stop dehydration or cramp.
-
Water is the best fluid to intake during the extreme heat.
Common sense
-Your body gives you many warning sings such as the feelings of soreness,tiredness and illness.
These feelings should not be ignored as they often are the first sign that an injury is about to occur.
-Common sense should be used to decide whether your body can cope with the event ahead.
-Warm down after the round.
Task 2
Bones
Causes
A knock or hard force being applied at speed
Symptoms
Pain and bleeding because bones contain nerves and blood vessels, the casualty may have heard or felt a snap, the casualty can’t move the part normally, swelling and bruising occur, the limb may look deformed or twisted.
A short term affect would be swelling and bruising to the bone, to a performer this may reduce a specific movement or be made worse if the performer keeps participating in there chosen sport .
A Long term affect would be as little as six weeks out of your sport depending on how bad the fracture or break is. This may work as an advantage as you can have a break from your sport and can work on fitness to another area of your body.
Joint
Causes
Unusual twisting at were two bones meet.
Symptoms
Pain on one side of the joint, the joint appears deformed and the casualty can’t move it, swelling around the joint, followed by bruising or the joint feels very sore and you feel a sensation of burning at the joint.
A long term affect of a joint injury is that you may be out of action for a long period of time and will have to spend time with a physio or in some extreme cases an operation may be needed, which could take you out of the sport for a year or so. An example of this would be Jamie Redknapp in the 2000/2001 season. If this injury was to occur then your fitness and performance would drop from lack of practice but in this time you could work on other areas of your game were the joint is not being used.
A short term affect of a joint injury would be constant rubbing which makes the joint very sore and a feeling sensation of burning. This often occurs in the heel and a good way to recover from it is to rest and apply ice.
Muscle
Causes
This is caused by overuse of muscle in lower arm or a poor warm up were not enough stretching was done the result of this is a tear or pull.
Symptoms
A sudden sharp pain at the tear, swelling, stiffness and sometimes cramp. A casualty with a torn Achilles tendon collapses and cant get up again.
A long term affect of a muscle injury could be that you have to have physio therapy and be out of action for a long period time this could be good for game as you could work on fitness to a different area of your body, but could be bad as you may be worried whilst performing of the injury reoccurring.
A short term affect could be a muscle tweak giving you pain for a period of time but being able to resume to your after a few weeks.
Tendon
Causes
Being tackled in rugby, over-use, turning to quick and landing heavily on a specific part of the body.
Symptoms
Soreness, swelling, bruising and a severe pain to the affected area.
Short term affects
- Restricts athlete from specific movements
- Could lower the athletes confidence
- Stiffness
Long term affects
-
Could cause athlete to have an operation which stops the player from playing for 1-12months
- Could lower a players performance because he/she wont have the same flexibility an quickness of movement
- Could be a regular injury for the athlete throughout the rest of his/her career
Skin
Causes
Skin injuries are normally acute injuries they occur from a sudden force like diving to catch a ball and cutting your self on glass that has been left on the pitch.
Symptoms
There are many types of skin injuries and there symptoms but hear are the symptoms of a cut.
Visible laceration to the skin, blood leaking from damaged tissue, PAIN-damaged nerves swelling-leaking blood/fluid from damaged cell.
A long term affect of a skin injury could be that you could be out of your sport for a long time from a first degree burn which would give you time to relax and maybe work on an area that is not suffering but disadvantage of the injury could be a lack of confidence or anxiety of the injury reoccurring, you wouldn’t find this type of injury very often the main way it occurs is through motor sport.
A short term could be a small cut which you may have too be substituted for but you would be able to take part in the next game as long as you take good care in keeping the cut clean.
Task3
Effects on sport performance from long and short term injuries
Question (A)
Short term injury has a variety of effects on athlete’s short term performance. Say the athlete gets an injury such as a pulled hamstring from stretching for the ball it can lower the athlete’s confidence straight away. Lowering the athlete’s confidence means lowering the athlete’s performance. By lowering the athlete’s performance means that he/she could:-
- Get substituted off the game because he/she is not performing well.
- He/she might have to be taken off the game because he/she cannot continue any longer.
- And if the athlete continues in the event carrying an injury he/she could make it worse and could also get tackled very easily by another player meaning he/she will be affecting the team’s performance if it is a team event.
- He/she could also get very stressed in the game because the athlete can’t perform at the level they were before the injury occurred.
Question (B)
Long term injuries are much more serious on the athlete’s performance than short term injuries are. Long term means that it affects his/her game and takes much more time to recover the injury. A long term injury can happen in many different ways. For example if the athlete was to be tackled violently by an opposition player then he/she could easily break his/her leg and be out of the game for as little as 1 month to 3 months depending on how serious it is. This is a long term injury. This could affect the athlete’s performance in the following ways:-
- It could stop the athlete from playing for a long period of time which will stop the athlete from performing.
- In the time that the athlete is out of the game, then the athlete could put on weight which will slow the athlete down when he/she comes back into the game and performs.
- The athlete could get very stressed in the time he/she is out.
- When the athlete comes back off the injury it could take along time before he/she could get back in the team which will stop him/she from performing.
- The injury could keep causing problems in the rest of the athlete’s career.
- In the time that the athlete is out of the game, somebody else could take his/her place which would stop the athlete from playing temporarily or permanently for the team.
Summary
In this assignment I have completed all the tasks set completing all the points that I have been told to do on the task sheet. Including introductions to every task.
Conclusion
I feel that most injuries can be avoided by common sense if you read this assignment you will know how too reduce injury you will also find out more about injuries and what to do if they occur.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Sean Elliot for fine combing my work, proof reading it and given me a reference (www.sports-injuries.co.uk)
References/Bibliography
Physical Education – Rosemarie Gallagher
Sally Fountain
Linda Gee
Peterson and Renstrom – Sport injuries their prevention and treatment.
Dunitz
