Wie gefährlich ist American Football im deutschen Amateurbereich? Eine positionsbezogene Verletzungsanalyse über vier Spielzeiten

Translated title of the contribution: How dangerous is American football in a German amateur league?: An injury analysis according to playing position over a period of four seasons

Markus Geßlein* (First author), Andreas Frodl, Michael Millrose (Co-author), Roland Biber (Co-author), Hermann Josef Bail (Co-author), Alexander Wolpert (Last author)

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalOriginal Articlepeer-review

1 Citation (Web of Science)

Abstract

BACKGROUND: American football is known for its high risk of injury, especially in the professional field. Although the number of players in the German football league (GFL) has risen in recent years, data concerning the injury rates of German amateur players in American football are scarce.

OBJECTIVE: Analysis of the injury rates in league games and training sessions in amateur football according to playing positions and body region.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Injuries of 123 American football players in a club playing in the second GFL (first and second team) were prospectively recorded over a period of 4 seasons (2014-2018). A complete history of injuries was obtained from 72 players. The injuries were classified using the Orchard sports injury classification system 10.1 (OSICS 10.1). The injury rates were calculated per 1000 athlete exposures (AE) for training as well as for league games with respect to the playing position and for each body region.

RESULTS: Overall 142 injuries were recorded. On average there were 35.5 injuries per season and 1.9 injuries per player. Of the injuries 54.7% occurred during training and 46.1% during games. The risk of injury was significantly increased during league games (15.6 ± 16.3) compared to training (3.1 ± 2.7, p < 0.0001). While wide receivers and cornerbacks had the highest overall injury rates, running backs had the highest injury risk during games (p = 0.046). Injuries to knees (27.3%) and shoulders (20.1%) were the most frequent. The shoulder was the body region injured most frequently during games (p = 0.002). Regarding the injury pattern, distorsions (30.9%) and contusions (22.5%) occurred more often compared to fractures (12.6%) and dislocations (16.1%). Concussion only contributed to 2.9% of the injuries.

CONCLUSION: American football is a contact sport with high injury rates even in the German amateur field, especially during league games. Regarding body regions, shoulders and knees were predominantly affected while regarding the playing position, wide receivers and cornerbacks were particularly jeopardized. Therefore, a continuous close medical supervision during games and an intensive position-specific training seem to be necessary even in the amateur field in order to reduce the injury rate.

Translated title of the contributionHow dangerous is American football in a German amateur league?: An injury analysis according to playing position over a period of four seasons
Original languageGerman
Pages (from-to)473-478
Number of pages6
JournalUNFALLCHIRURG
Volume123
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2020

Keywords

  • HIGH-SCHOOL
  • COLLEGIATE FOOTBALL
  • EPIDEMIOLOGY
  • SPORTS
  • TEAM

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'How dangerous is American football in a German amateur league? An injury analysis according to playing position over a period of four seasons'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this