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important? 

Why is this research important? 

Comparatively, female youth football lacks research (1) despite females‘ increased susceptibility to injury through reduced neuromuscular control during adolescence (2). Assessing a participant’s neuromuscular ability is therefore imperative.  

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Sparse research detailing the implementation of neuromuscular-specific screening in grass-roots female football leaves a knowledge gap between the design of neuromuscular screens and adoption.  Whilst little evidence exists regarding implementation of NSTs, O'Brien and Finch (3) reviewed the implementation of similar programmes (injury prevention exercise programmes [IPEP]) across ball sports, finding only 6% of IPEPs feature a coach education aspect. The success of any IPEP implementation is significantly reduced if end-users believe the programme is too time consuming nor relevant to their sport, concluding there is a general lack of detail regarding the implementation of IPEPs. The implementation of NSTs are improved with early involvement of end-users (4). Given the aforementioned football-specific requirements for successful IPEP adoption by end-users, investigation of how early end-user involvement influences implementation of NSTs is needed; without successful implementation strategies, evidence-based screening tools will never attain their desired real-world benefits (3). 

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Although a variety of NSTs and individual screens have been presented, some have questionable relevance to lower-limbs, thus end-users may not acknowledge football-specific relevance. Others are proven valid and reliable for similar populations (the TJA), yet their application by novice raters has yet to be established. Finally, implementation of any of the aforementioned NSTs in real-world settings has not been reported nor evaluated. 

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This project  aims to tackle a variety of issues regarding the implementation of a NST for grass-roots coaches, namely (i) creating a NST that can be feasibly implemented within grass-roots coaching practice, (ii) negates the need for specialist education/training (iii) is reliable, (iv) is evaluated according to an evidence-based framework (RE-AIM).

 

  1. Cumming, S., Battista, R., Standage, M., Ewing, M., & Malina, R. (2006). Estimated maturity status and perceptions of adult autonomy support in youth soccer players. Journal of Sports Sciences, 24(10), 1039-1046. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640410500386142

  2. Hewett, T. E., Myer, G. D., Ford, K. R., Paterno, M. V., & Quatman, C. E. (2016). Mechanisms, prediction, and prevention of ACL injuries: Cut risk with three sharpened and validated tools. Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 34(11), 1843-1855. https://doi.org/doi:10.1002/jor.23414

  3. O'Brien, J., & Finch, C. (2014). A systematic review of core implementation components in team ball sport injury prevention trials. Injury Prevention, 20(5), 357-362. https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2013-041087

  4. Kujala, S., 2003. User involvement: A review of the benefits and challenges. Behaviour & Information Technology, 22(1), pp.1-16.

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