Netball is a sport that places high physical demands on players. Quick acceleration,
changing of direction, high jumps to receive a ball or to intercept an opponentâs pass is
some of the tasks that players are required to perform. These requirements leave the
players vulnerable to injury. From international studies it is clear that netball players
have an increased risk to sustain injuries to the lower limbs. The ankle is the joint most
likely to be effected. Injuries to the ankle can account for more than 80% of all netball
injuries. The ligaments are the most commonly injured structures. Due to a lack of
literature on injuries in South-African netball players, injury patterns in South-Africa
cannot be compared to international trends. Epidemiological studies provide the proof
on which risks for specific sporting codes are assessed as well as the success of
therapeutic intervention programs. The aim of the study was therefore to assess the
incidence and severity of injuries in a cohort of elite South-African netball players. The
subjects were all the players (n = 1280) that participated in three elite netball
tournaments during the 2009 season. The medical staff of each team completed a
questionnaire for each player that sustained an injury during the three tournaments.
The completed questionnaires were collected at the adjournment of each days play.
For those players whose teams did not have their own medical officer, completed
questionnaires were collected from the First Aid station where the players received
medical attention. Most injuries occurred to the ankle joint (36%) followed by the knee
(18%) and injuries to the fingers, hand and wrist (15%). There was a high total injury
rate of 500.7 injuries per 1000 playing hours, but the severity of injuries were low, with
the majority of the participants being able to continue play or being available for the next
match. In order to reduce the amount of injuries to the lower extremities it is
recommended that netball players follow a structured program aimed to enhance
proprioception and optimize biomechanical execution of functional movement patterns.
These exercises should not only be done as part of the pre-season program but
continued throughout the remainder of the season.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-10172011-102227 |
| Date | 17 October 2011 |
| Creators | Langeveld, Emile |
| Contributors | Dr LJ Holtzhausen, Dr FF Coetzee |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-10172011-102227/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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