Sports Injury – Prevention and First Aid Management

Includes – Diet, hazards, causes of injury and illness, environmental factors, overtraining. How to reduce incidence of injuries, choice of program, physical characteristics, interest, children and young folks, women, veterans and disabled people. Assessment, requirements, flexibility, strength, speed, endurance.

Safety and preventive measures – warm-up, cool-down, skill, clothing, equipment, facilities, supervision.

Aims of first aiders in sport, bleeding, shock, unconsciousness. Head injuries, concussions, compression of the brain. Facial injuries, nose bleeding, eye injuries. Drowning, bends/decompression sickness.
Note: SCUBA stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

Chest and abdominal injuries, winding, female breast, testicular injuries. Note: A blow to the testicles is described as sickeningly painful. So true yet so far away from the real description. Soft tissue injuries, cuts, grazes, bruises. Injuries – muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones, joints, spine, arcomio-clavicular joint, knee, ligament, Achilles tendon and ankle.

Fractures – Collar bone/clavicle, upper arm bone/humerus, forearm, wrist, thigh and leg.

Dislocation – Shoulder, elbow, fingers and hip. Tennis and golfers elbow, thump and finger joint sprains, ‘mallet’ finger. Groin strain, kneecap pain, torn cartilage/meniscus, shin splints, acute compartment compression syndrome, Achilles tendonitis and other foot problems.

Cold exposure – Hypothermia, frostbite.

Overheating – Heat exhaustion, heatstroke.

ABC of resuscitation, recovery position, log roll technique.

Slings – Triangular, Arm and Elevation. Immobilisation of upper and lower limps.

Cervical collar, Ice (Cool therapy/cryotherapy), the trainers magic sponge, pain relieving aerosols, compression bandaging, adhesive strapping.

Handling and transport – placing blanket under casualty, loading stretcher with 4 peeps, loading on pole and canvas stretcher, carrying a stretcher, lifting casualty from water. First aid equipment. Returning to sport and what to do next. I know this is not a proper review but simply put mi ‘ant ‘ave time!