Citation

Iguchi J, Watanabe Y, Kimura M, Fujisawa Y, Hojo T, Yuasa Y, Higashi S, Kuzuhara K. J. Strength Cond. Res. 2016; 30(12): 3405-3411.

Affiliation

1Department of Health and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Kyoto Gakuen University, Kyoto, Japan;2Faculty of Health and Sports Science, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan;3Center for Athletics and Sports Activities, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, Japan; and4Department of Human Health, Faculty of Human Studies, Aichi Toho University, Nagoya, Japan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, National Strength and Conditioning Association)

DOI

10.1519/JSC.0000000000001429

PMID

27870698

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify how risk factors for injury during American football are related to players' physical strength as determined using typical performance tests. One hundred 53 Japanese collegiate players of American football were recruited for this study. Eight potential risk factors were evaluated: position (skill vs. lineman), body mass index, back squat one-repetition maximum, vertical jump height, power, height, body weight, and previous injury. Using multivariate Cox regression, we examined how these factors were associated with knee sprain, ankle sprain, and hamstring strain. We recorded 63 injuries (17 knee sprains, 23 ankle sprains, and 23 hamstring strains). Players with higher power were at significantly greater risk for knee sprains (p = 0.04), those with low power had a significantly higher incidence of ankle sprain (p = 0.01), and vertical jump height was a significant predictor of hamstring strain (p = 0.02). We identified several independent predictors of injuries associated with American football. Our findings may contribute to the development of effective screening tests and prevention exercises.

Language: en