MOST INJURIES RECORDED BY DOCTORS ARE SPORTS INJURIES

– Sandra Lievrouw –

PROJECT MANAGER INJURY PREVENTION GET FIT 2 SPORT

Sandra Lievrouw - Master of Rehabilitation Sciences and Physiotherapy - has been active as a sports physiotherapist at various sports clubs and associations for many years. With the wisdom of 'Our bodies are built to move' in mind, she specialised further in manual therapy, myofascial therapy and in injury prevention. As a practical assistant in the programme of Rehabilitation Sciences and Physiotherapy at the University of Ghent, she developed an interest in communication and education. Since 2019, Lievrouw has been working at Gezond Sporten Vlaanderen as a project manager for injury prevention (Get Fit 2 Sport). For example, she supports the policy of healthy sports at sports federations and clubs.

Mrs Lievrouw, could you please explain exactly what the 'Get Fit 2 Sport' project is ?

What is the importance of this programme for the sport of hockey ?

This programme is a primary injury prevention programme, developed by the Movement and Sports Sciences department at UGent, under the direction of Professor Dirk De Clercq. It aims to improve the implementation of primary sports injury prevention among young athletes in Flanders. Gezond Sporten Vlaanderen has taken the initiative to provide the various federations and clubs with support in this programme and to organise the necessary training courses. All this aimed at a continuous focus on the implementation of injury prevention.

Most injuries recorded by sports physicians and General practitioners in Flanders are sports injuries. On average, one hundred Flemish athletes suffer 12.9 injuries annually, according to an estimate. The total annual cost of sports injuries in Flanders is estimated at more than EUR 125 million. Injuries should therefore be avoided as much as possible and the creation of a safe and responsible sporting context is one of the basic tasks of the sports trainer/teacher. This can be done by implementing injury prevention. As a sports trainer/teacher you can set a good example so that (young) athletes adopt the right attitude for the rest of their sports career. Moreover, a previous injury is the most important risk factor for further sports injuries. Therefore, if we can prevent sports injuries in the present, we also ensure that there will be less risk of sports injuries in the future. You can imagine that all this also has an impact on the performance of the athlete and the team. The ‘Get Fit 2 Sport’ programme - developed by order of the Flemish Minister of Sport - is tailored to nineteen sports, including hockey. For its application in the field, a top-down waterfall structure was set up. Get Fit 2 Sport is a two-time three-hour refresher course for trainers or sports coaches, organised by the relevant sports federation and a trained mediator.

What can hockey (trainers, players, assistants ...) and possibly physiotherapists rely on ?

Get Fit 2 sport is, as mentioned, a primary injury prevention programme. So we are going to take preventive action before there is an injury. In most sports, this is considered a task for the trainer. After all, he or she accompanies the athletes on a regular basis - sometimes daily. The dissemination of the knowledge takes place through two important channels: the future trainers and sports coaches get acquainted with the Get Fit 2 Sport programme during their training trajectory through, for instance, the Flemish Trainers School and, in addition, certified trainers or interested sports coaches (including physiotherapists) can follow an additional training. These people are taught how to integrate sports injury prevention in their training sessions or lessons in a scientifically based manner.

Is the response from the different sports sufficient ?

Unfortunately, I cannot give you the exact figures. The in-service training for qualified trainers is organised by the sports federations. It is also true that the Get Fit 2 Sport programme is part of various courses (VTS, UGent, ...) so that there is no real ‘response’, because the knowledge is offered in the course. During the project at UGent, however, research was carried out into the implementation of the programme in the period 2016-2018. By the end of 2018, it is estimated that more than 75,000 young athletes have been reached through the 3354 mediators trained by Get Fit 2 Sport. The implementation of sports injury prevention strategies among these young athletes by the mediators was high (application in more than half of the sports activities). Moreover, not only did this application increase significantly after the mediators had attended the in-service training, it also remained at such a high level for months afterwards.

How do you see this initiative evolving in the future ?

At Gezond Sporten Vlaanderen, we want to continue to encourage and support the implementation of primary injury prevention. At the moment, Healthy Sports Flanders is busy developing a tool to make the knowledge on primary injury prevention interactively accessible to all trainers and sports coaches, regardless of their level of training and sports discipline. We are still in the design phase, so unfortunately I cannot communicate very concrete information yet. But as you can see, we are certainly not standing still!