ECU 2010 Tom Greenway DC, ICSSD, FCC(Sports), FBCA

Screening Athletes to Reduce Injury Rates

This workshop will look at how pre-season screening of athletes might be used more effectively to try and identify potential injury risks in certain athletes. If these patterns are identified and furthermore athletes with these patterns consistently show a particular type of injury predisposition then systems can be put in place to try and change things. This whole area of injury prevention is still in its infancy but there is increasing evidence within the literature that much more could and should be done in this area.

This workshop will introduce some of these concepts and the evidence behind them. It will then show how these can be put into a pre-season screening format that is very applicable to Chiropractic. It will show how this information is then used to support those athletes at risk and there by potentially reducing the risk of future injury in their sport.
The screening has already been utilised at Chelsea Football Club and some of the research comes from the outcomes of these initial studies.

The workshop will include demonstrations on some strength and conditioning exercises and other preventative strategies that can be done in the office or sports club.

Leading the Prevention of Injuries in the Sporting Arena

Recently there has been recognition within sport that more has to be done to try and prevent elite athletes from being injured. Epidemiological studies show that injuries seen by a physician, in Scandinavia, every sixth is sustained during sporting activity (Bahr et al., 2002). Not only are injuries expensive ($500 million annually in the USA alone and that is just in the emergency department) and none more so than in professional sport (where injuries are occurring 36 injuries per 1000 hours in soccer for example). The problem with injuries to the athlete is that it stops them from training and this in turn has consequences on their performance.

The International Olympic Committee’s Medical Commission amongst others involved in sport is now seriously looking into prevention strategies and how these can reduce injuries. This is not as simple as it sounds because often injuries are intrinsic to some sports but if these injuries have a pattern and a frequency then there is also the opportunity for reducing the injury. This has potentially huge ramifications for the Chiropractic profession that often sees itself at the forefront of injury prevention. This lecture will look at the evidence and this in turn will perhaps introduce some thoughts on the route the profession needs to take to secure its future involvement in this growing debate.

Assessing and Treating the Elite Athlete in a Multidisciplinary Setting

Increasingly within sport there is increasing utilization of different specialist groups within the sports medical team. This increasing specialisation means that the utilisation of Chiropractors is on the increase in sport. However, this has ramifications for the profession as our role in sport is changing. The increased degree of specialisation means there is now less need for generalists in sports medicine. Does this diversity in practice actually diminish or enhance the role of the Chiropractor within the team?
This will be explored in 2 ways in this workshop. Dr. Brian Nook will report on the data collected at the World Games in 2005 and what the Chiropractic team did. Dr. Tom Greenway will look at how he assesses, then categories and then treats elite athletes while including all the other specialists in the sports medicine team. It is vital that Chiropractors are seen to work in unison with the other professions and much of this workshop will focus on how to nurture and build those relationships. If this is done well then the benefits to the athlete are huge.