Efficacy
of the FIFA 11+ Injury Prevention Program in the Collegiate Male Soccer Player.
of the FIFA 11+ Injury Prevention Program in the Collegiate Male Soccer Player.
Silvers-Granelli H, Mandelbaum
B, Adeniji O, Insler S, Bizzini M, Pohlig R, Junge A, and Snyder-Mackler L. Am J Sports Med. 2017. [Epub Ahead of
Print].
B, Adeniji O, Insler S, Bizzini M, Pohlig R, Junge A, and Snyder-Mackler L. Am J Sports Med. 2017. [Epub Ahead of
Print].
Take
Home Message: Implementing the FIFA 11+ injury prevention program decreases the
risk of injury among collegiate male soccer players.
Home Message: Implementing the FIFA 11+ injury prevention program decreases the
risk of injury among collegiate male soccer players.
Soccer is an increasingly popular
contact sport, which has seen participation at all levels increase. With this
increase in participation comes an increased need to identify and optimize pre-activity
injury prevention programs. Therefore, Silvers-Granelli and colleagues
completed a cluster randomized control trial to compare the FIFA11+ injury prevention program with a control group among collegiate men’s
soccer athletes. The authors randomized 65 of the 396 NCAA Division I and II
soccer teams (299 teams refused to participate). Specifically, they included teams
that competed at the Division I or II level and had no history of participating
in an injury prevention program. Researchers randomized teams into either a
FIFA 11+ group or a control group (CG). The FIFA 11+ teams received
instructional materials to implement the FIFA 11+ program. The team’s athletic
trainers recorded all data during the intervention season, with an
internet-based injury surveillance system. Sixty-one teams (34 out of 34 teams
= control group, 27 out of 31 teams = FIFA 11+ group) completed the study. Overall
the teams that completed the FIFA 11+ program had 46% and 76% lower risk of any
injury or anterior cruciate ligament injury compared to the teams in the control
group.
contact sport, which has seen participation at all levels increase. With this
increase in participation comes an increased need to identify and optimize pre-activity
injury prevention programs. Therefore, Silvers-Granelli and colleagues
completed a cluster randomized control trial to compare the FIFA11+ injury prevention program with a control group among collegiate men’s
soccer athletes. The authors randomized 65 of the 396 NCAA Division I and II
soccer teams (299 teams refused to participate). Specifically, they included teams
that competed at the Division I or II level and had no history of participating
in an injury prevention program. Researchers randomized teams into either a
FIFA 11+ group or a control group (CG). The FIFA 11+ teams received
instructional materials to implement the FIFA 11+ program. The team’s athletic
trainers recorded all data during the intervention season, with an
internet-based injury surveillance system. Sixty-one teams (34 out of 34 teams
= control group, 27 out of 31 teams = FIFA 11+ group) completed the study. Overall
the teams that completed the FIFA 11+ program had 46% and 76% lower risk of any
injury or anterior cruciate ligament injury compared to the teams in the control
group.
For clinicians considering implementing
an injury prevention program, this article is of interest as the data suggests
that the FIFA 11+ is superior at decreasing injury risk compared to a control
group. For those clinicians, whose team already uses an injury-prevention, the
current study provides additional evidence that the program is effective at
reducing the injury rate and it should continue to be implemented. It would be
interesting to see how these results would look if the study followed the teams
for more than one season. To truly understand its effectiveness over time, a
longer intervention time should be looked at. Furthermore, the implementation
of the FIFA 11+ program in the current study was relatively unsupervised and
based off instructional materials alone. Therefore, this is another study
showing that it is feasible to implement an injury prevention program without
direct supervision from a clinician. However, it would be interesting to see
how each team deployed the FIFA 11+ program and how this affected the results
within each team. This study adds to the growing body of evidence that injury
prevention programs, like the FIFA 11+ program, may be one of the most
effective tools we have for preventing injuries.
an injury prevention program, this article is of interest as the data suggests
that the FIFA 11+ is superior at decreasing injury risk compared to a control
group. For those clinicians, whose team already uses an injury-prevention, the
current study provides additional evidence that the program is effective at
reducing the injury rate and it should continue to be implemented. It would be
interesting to see how these results would look if the study followed the teams
for more than one season. To truly understand its effectiveness over time, a
longer intervention time should be looked at. Furthermore, the implementation
of the FIFA 11+ program in the current study was relatively unsupervised and
based off instructional materials alone. Therefore, this is another study
showing that it is feasible to implement an injury prevention program without
direct supervision from a clinician. However, it would be interesting to see
how each team deployed the FIFA 11+ program and how this affected the results
within each team. This study adds to the growing body of evidence that injury
prevention programs, like the FIFA 11+ program, may be one of the most
effective tools we have for preventing injuries.
Questions for Discussion: Do your soccer teams use the
FIFA 11+ program? If so, have you noticed a decrease in the number of injuries
sustained by these athletes? Should injury prevention programs be considered
part of the standard of care for youth and college athletes?
FIFA 11+ program? If so, have you noticed a decrease in the number of injuries
sustained by these athletes? Should injury prevention programs be considered
part of the standard of care for youth and college athletes?
Written by: Kyle Harris
Reviewed by: Jeffrey Driban
Related Posts:
Silvers-Granelli HJ, Bizzini M, Arundale A, Mandelbaum BR, & Snyder-Mackler L (2017). Does the FIFA 11+ Injury Prevention Program Reduce the Incidence of ACL Injury in Male Soccer Players? Clinical orthopaedics and related research PMID: 28389864
Although I do not work with a soccer team, I found the results of the study to be very fascinating. Injury prevention is such an important and interesting field. I do believe that these types of programs should be implemented at the youth level in addition to the college level. Teaching children proper mechanics at a young age will hopefully help to perpetuate good habits for the future. Especially with the growing popularity, and demand of youth sports around the nation, I believe that injury prevention will reach this population soon. With that being said, I believe that is a very optimistic view. Time and cost are important variables to take into consideration when beginning a new program. Beyond that, if this program is going to be implemented, it should be done so properly. A professional should help during the initial stage of implementation (teaching the athletes and coaches) but should also be available for follow-ups in order to correct any bad habits that may have been learned at times when they we absent.
I would be interest to see the long term outcome of this program. Based solely off of the year time period that this study was conducted, the results appear to be great. However, there are a lot of different variables that could influence these outcomes. I would be interested to see if these findings would hold true for a longer term study.
Sarah,
Thank you for the great comment. I could not agree more. I think professional intervention really accomplishes a lot. I think it would create a closer bond between the coaches and clinicians but also ensure that things are implemented properly. With that being said though, some research has been done which evaluated the effectiveness of coach-led programs vs. clinician/coach-led programs. The study showed that the coach led program was as effective as a program led by both clinician and coach. I recently did a post on SMR about it titled "Coaches Can Be a Part of Your Prevention Plan" Take a look, I would really like to hear you thoughts on that article as well. Thanks again.
Kyle