General Injury Prevention Tips
Here’s the gist: train smart, and listen to your body. If it hurts, your body is probably telling you something, or giving you a warning. Now, that’s not to say you can’t always work around these things, but your attention may be warranted to avoid further, more serious damage – or, if nothing else, for your own comfort.
The injuries that occur in soccer can be either contact or non-contact in nature. Contact injuries are very hard to successfully prepare for and avoid, as the actual injury is not purely dependent on your performance. Rather, it is largely dependent on the other person making contact with you, as well as the game situation that determines the outcome.
Non-contact injuries, on the other hand, you can prepare your body for via training intelligently and treating your body well, thereby decreasing your risk. Non-contact injuries can further be categorized as acute or chronic. Acute injuries are by far the majority of injuries that occur in soccer, and those typically thought of when the word “injury” is used. With acute injuries, there is a specific moment during play when things go south and you start to feel the pain. These are things like strains (muscle; e.g. ‘pulling a ___’ (insert hamstring, calf, groin, etc. here)) and sprains (ligament; e.g. ‘rolling an ankle’, ‘tweaking a knee’…etc.).
The far less common ‘injuries’ in soccer are those chronic aches/pains. These include things like bursitis, patellofemoral pain syndrome, shin splints, tendonitis (Achilles, patellar, etc) and other inflammation-dependent conditions. Managing these aches and pains is extremely critical. For one, these pains indirectly limit your performance (whether your are aware of it or not, your body will move differently to avoid aggravating the pain). Secondly, some of the most prevalent chronic conditions often lead to a more serious acute injury.