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

Background: Canadian rugby coach injury prevention beliefs and attitudes have not been studied, yet are key to informing injury prevention strategy implementation. Despite neuromuscular training (NMT) warm-up success in reducing injury, adoption of these programs is variable. Therefore, objectives of this study included (1) describing Canadian youth rugby coach injury prevention beliefs and attitudes and current warm-up practices and (2) evaluating intention to use a rugby-specific NMT warm-up.Methods: High school rugby coaches completed a questionnaire before and after a rugby-specific NMT warm-up workshop. The pre-workshop questionnaire captured demographics, current warm-up practice, and NMT warm-up knowledge and use. Both questionnaires captured injury prevention beliefs, attitudes and behavioral intention.Results: Forty-eight coaches participated in the workshops. Pre-workshop, 27% of coaches were aware of NMT warm-ups. Coaches primarily included aerobic and stretching components, while balance components were not common in their warm-ups over the past year. Additionally, 92% of coaches agreed to some extent they would “complete a rugby-specific warm-up program prior to every game and training session this season.” Post-workshop, 86% of coaches agreed to some extent that they would use the program in every rugby session. No differences were observed between pre- and post-workshop intention to implement the warm-up (p = 0.10).Interpretation: This is the first study to examine current Canadian youth rugby coach warm-up practices and intention to use NMT warm-ups. Canadian rugby coach intention to use a rugby-specific NMT warm-up is high, providing ample opportunity to investigate the efficacy of a NMT warm-up in youth rugby.

Influence of a Field Hamstring Eccentric Training on Muscle Strength and Flexibility

Muscle strength imbalances and poor flexibility are frequently described as risk factors for hamstring injury. Preventive strategies include eccentric exercises, but the influence of field eccentric exercises on these risk factors remains unclear. We investigated the influence of a field hamstring eccentric program on hamstring strength and flexibility. Twenty-seven amateur athletes were randomly assigned to an intervention (n=13) or control group (n=14). In the intervention group, participants were involved in 15 sessions of four eccentric exercises. Peak torque, hamstring-to-quadriceps ratios, passive and active flexibility were analyzed. No significant modifications of strength, passive or active flexibility were observed in the control group (p>0.05). Hamstring eccentric peak torque (+7.1%) and functional hamstring-to-quadriceps ratios (9.3%) were significantly increased (p<0.05) in the intervention group, but not concentric strength (p<0.05). Passive straight leg raise was significantly increased by 11.4° (+12.7%, p<0.001), but not active flexibility (+3.1%, p>0.05). In conclusion, a 6-week eccentric program, including four field exercises for hamstring muscles, is an effective method of improving eccentric strength, functional ratios and, especially, passive flexibility. As this program may be easily implemented in a real-world context, this association of multiple eccentric exercises might be useful in an injury prevention strategy.