Reducing injury risk in young athletes

Strength and conditioning provision for young athletes offers unique challenges for coaches. For example, periods of rapid and non-uniform growth in skeletal structures are common, resulting in temporary reductions in performance and heightened injury risk. This chapter first identifies pertinent risk factors for prevalent injuries experienced in this cohort and multifactorial components that must be considered when assessing an athlete’s risk profile. After this, the chapter reviews and critically analyses the effectiveness of current injury prevention programmes administered to youth athletes, specifically relating to improvements in function and reductions in injury incidence. Finally, practical tools and applied examples are provided to aid in the design of effective training programmes, concluding with a hierarchical injury risk factor training model, which systematically integrates risk factor screening with the development of individualised programmes that target deficits in neuromuscular control.