Page 69 - Safe Wrestling

Models of Injury Occurrence, Prevention and Prediction

Table 4.1 Haddon Matrix for an Example from Combat Sports
Phase/ Host (athlete) Agent (energy Vector (oppo- Environment
factor nent/equipment)
Pre-event Physical prepa- Limiting ex- Appropriate Organisation of
ration, previous treme loads, equipment, in- training, rules,
injuries, techni- gradual pro- spection of the coach-athlete
cal knowledge gression of mat ratio
of falling tech- training
niques
Event Reaction time, Reduction of Controlled Presence of a
use of learned jerky and un- grips, safe ex- referee, safe
protective tech- controlled ecution of mat edges
niques movement throws
Post-event Ability to self- Limiting further Appropriate as- Availability of
report pain, ad- exposure sistance from first aid, return-
herence to in- training part- to-training pro-
structions ners/coaches tocols

• education – raising awareness among athletes and coaches about
risks and safe behaviour;
• engineering – modifications to equipment and the environment
(e.g., mat quality and the design of the competition area);
• enforcement – sport rules, safety standards for equipment, and mon-
itoring of their implementation.
The literature suggests that strategies based on engineering and en-
forcement are often more effective in reducing the most severe injuries
than education alone, which increases awareness but does not necessar-
ily lead to sustained behavioural change (MacKay et al., 2006).

Public Health Model and Transition to Sport-Specific Models
In public health, injury prevention is often addressed using a four-stage
model that includes (Lett et al., 2002):
• definition of the problem: systematic collection of data on the fre-
quency and severity of injuries (What is the problem?);
• identification of risk factors (What are the causes of the problem?);
• development and evaluation of interventions (What works, and for
whom?); and
• implementation and evaluation of programmes within the wider
population (How can measures be implemented effectively in prac-
tice?).

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