Preventing Injury as Community Sport Returns

Personal trainer Michael Costello has his hands full post-lockdown. Photo: Lachlan Robb

On Friday October 29, local gyms and sports facilities finally flung their doors open to hundreds of thousands of patrons across all of metropolitan Melbourne, signifying the return of community sport.

However, as one pandemic slows down, a different kind of plague threatens to run rampant in 2022: the injury bug.

Because of the interruptions and delays brought about by snap lockdowns and the inability to train, soft tissue injury rates in local sport skyrocketed through 2021.

Personal trainer Michael Costello believes that unless proper steps are taken as we prepare for the return of amateur sport next year, the injury plague may be set to have a second wave of its own.

“Coming from such a long period of downtime, there’s a real risk we’ll see the same injury issues surface again,” Mr Costello said.

Getting people active as soon as possible and easing back into training is an important hurdle.

“The earlier you can start, the better. For the average person, if you’ve been inactive, that first running session is going to be disgusting, but you’ll be taking the first step towards looking after your body long term,” he says.

“There’s never going to be a situation where people are totally free of injury risk, but there is a lot of work that can be done to minimise risk for the long run.”

Having worked alongside the Aquinas Old Collegians Football Club for the past two seasons as a strength and conditioning coach, Mr Costello says knowledge is generally the biggest issue surrounding injury prevention in local sport, and a key area that will need to improve if an injury plague is to be avoided.

“A lot of players at local level, whether it’s basketball, soccer or footy, are first and foremost there to enjoy themselves with their mates, so there’s less of a focus on the serious aspects of sport such as injury prevention”.

Mr Costello has already begun training  for the Aquinas senior men’s football team, and believes other community sports coaches should also be touching base with their playing groups as soon as possible in order to prepare for the various upcoming sports seasons and prevent soft tissue injuries taking hold.

“As a trainer, having knowledge of the impacts the time off can have, the main piece of knowledge I would try to instill for anyone is to be aware of where you’re at right now, rather than where you were physically six or even 12  months ago.

“That way you can start your training or your preseason off the right way, so heading into the season proper you’ll be able to avoid many of the soft tissue injuries we saw this year”.

Although there are clear difficulties surrounding the management of injury risk in local level sport, the Coburg Football Club’s assistant strength and conditioning coach Zoe Smith says the women’s team provides a perfect example of how it can be successfully done.

“Our women’s team had virtually no soft tissue injuries this prior season, at all,” Ms Smith said.

“This was because the players were properly prepared and gradually eased back into training after every interruption and break, so when it came time to play the girls had their bodies ready to handle everything”.

Ms Smith acknowledges that Coburg has gone above and beyond the level of most local sports clubs, football or otherwise, in terms of injury prevention. 

“I might be biased, but I do believe that there needs to be a greater focus within the local sports community on prevention rather than just rehabilitation alone”.

As a club renowned for developing young amateur athletes with aspirations of playing professionally, Coburg can be considered almost the gold standard for an amateur football club, especially in regard to their training and preparation.

“Coburg has a large pool of resources considering we are a non-VFL club, and many local sporting clubs aren’t as lucky”.

Ms Smith suggested that extra funding for community sports to increase awareness of the importance of injury prevention and general strength and conditioning in amateur sports would be highly beneficial.

Likewise, Mr Costello says there is a definite need for local sports clubs to take the next step and consider investing in strength and conditioning coaches moving forward.

“Personally, I’d love to see it, even if it’s just as simple as getting in a first or second-year student. It’s the perfect pathway to bridge the gap for them to the professional world”.

“It would also go a long way to reducing injury rates at the local level, not just in the immediate future, but for the long term as well”.