Health and Wellness

Injury Prevention

The following is from the PA West Website:

 

One of the most important aspects of playing soccer, regardless of skill or talent, is injury prevention and recognizing when an injury might occur. This is a very important skill that some athletes might not think is overly important. These tips will help you prevent injuries and how to recognize when an injury may occur.

Injury Prevention 

Strength and Conditioning

  • Weight room conditioning can help prevent injuries and strengthen your muscles
  • Lower Body exercises
    • Back Squats
    • Front Squats
    • Deadlifts
  • Upper Body exercises
    • Bench Press
    • Hang Clean
    • Shoulder press
  • Body Weight Exercises
    • Air squats
    • Pistol squats
    • Lunges
    • Walking Lunges
    • Push ups
    • Pull ups
    • Toe Raises
    • Single Leg Hops

Muscle Flexibility

  • Stretching before and after training
    • Give yourself 10-15 minutes to stretch before and after training
    • YOGA is a great exercise to help increase flexibility
  • Foam Rolling
    • Hamstrings
    • Quads
    • Groins
    • Back muscles
    • IT bands
    • Calves

*** roll each muscle out ten times

 

What to do if you are injured?

 

Suffering an injury and missing training and game time can never be fun. It can be tough but these tips will help you get back on the field as soon as possible!

Always advice a medical professional to diagnose your injury!!

Treating a sprain or strain use RICE Treatment

  • Rest– keep off the injury and relax
  • Ice – Apply ice to the injured area for twenty minutes every hour
  • Compression- use a wrap to stabilize your injury
  • Elevate- Raise the leg to help with the swelling and pain

Physical therapy after four-five days of RICE Treatment

  • Range of motion exercises
  • Weight bearing training
  • Focus on your weaknesses

Improve your core and flexibility while sitting out

  • Light stretches
  • Light core workouts
    • Sit ups
    • Planks
    • Side planks
  • YOGA

 

Do not rush back from your injury, be patient and make sure you are cleared by an athletic trainer or a doctor before returning fully to training or games!!

 

Heading Protocol

The following are PA West’s guidelines:

In concurrence with US Soccer’s concussion initiative the Youth Board adopted the following provision from the USSF R2R Guidelines.

  1. No header for any player age 10 or younger, regardless of the age group in which they are playing.
  2. No headers for all players in U11 age group or younger.
  3. Limited headers in practice for players age 11 to 13; no more than 20 per week.
  4. No limit on heading in games for players age 11 and older.

 

Violations during a game will result in the referee awarding an indirect free kick to the opposing team when a player deliberately heads the ball from the spot of the offense. If the deliberate header occurs in the goal area, the indirect free kick should be taken on the goal area line nearest to the point where the infringement occurred. If a player does not deliberately head the ball, then play should continue.

Concussion Protocol

Under PA West, we recognize the Recognize to Recover's Concussion and Head Injuryposition. You can read all about it here.