CJSM Podcast #9: A Conversation with Australia’s Dr. Alexander Donaldson

June 4, 2015 by

jsm-podcast-bg-1FootyFirst:  that’s the subject of our newest podcast.

Australian Rules football (AKA ‘Footy’) is big sport Down Under:  by some measures it is the country’s most popular sport.  Footy is played on the professional level–the Australian Football League (AFL) season is fully under way.  It is also played by many on the community level, and the injury rate is apparently rather high.

The May 2015 CJSM has as one of its “Editor’s Picks” new research on injury prevention in community Footy, coming to us from the Australian Centre for Research Into Injury in Sport and Its Prevention (ACRISP).  Lead author Dr. Alexander Donaldson and the ACRISP team have been conducting on-going research into establishing an intervention to reduce lower limb injuries in the sport; the exercise program is known as “FootyFirst.”

I came away from this podcast having learned a lot from Dr. Donaldson:  about injury prevention, about FootyFirst, and about Footy.  For a guy who used to think of “Arena Football League” when he heard the term “AFL”; a guy who thought of Brad Wing when he thought of Footy…..well, let’s just say, I think I’ve come a long way.

I know I’m already looking forward to getting to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) some day to see a game!  You’ll feel the same way when you listen to the podcast or read the blog post interview I conducted with Dr. Donaldson.  And for a limited time, this “Editor’s Pick” is freely available on our website:  check it out.

Injury prevention, that’s the name of the game in sports medicine: whether it is the AFL (Footy) or the AFL (Arena Football)!  So click on this link to hear our conversation with Dr. Donaldson, or go to iTunes to download the podcast. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Filed under CJSM Podcasts, Injury Prevention Tagged with , , ,

FootyFirst: 5 Questions with Dr. Alexander Donaldson

May 13, 2015 by 1 Comment

Dr Alexander Donaldson

Dr. Alexander Donaldson, lead author of new research in CJSM

One of the studies in our May CJSM issue that has already made a big splash is injury prevention work coming to us from researchers in Australia:  “Bridging the Gap Between Content and Context: Establishing Expert Consensus on the Content of an Exercise Training Program to Prevent Lower-Limb Injuries.”  This is work looking at prevention of some very common injuries seen in Australian Rules Football, or “Footy.”

As an American who has yet to visit Australia (for shame!), I have only a dim appreciation of the sport.  I have previously written about Footy in a blog post and I read eagerly the occasional article on the sport that make it into the U.S. press; the New York Times, for instance, had a recent article on the search for American talent that may cross-over to Australian rules football.  Who knew that basketball players may make great ruckmen?  Well, plenty of Australians apparently!!!!

The Twitter chatter about the study has been substantial, and it has hit the mainstream press as well.   Our Editor-in-Chief Chris Hughes has made it one of the ‘Editor’s Picks’ this month–it is freely available for a short time.  And now we have the pleasure of having the lead author, Dr. Alexander Donaldson, join us for “5 Questions with CJSM” to talk about Footy and FootyFirst, the exercise intervention which is the subject of the study.

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1) CJSM:  Asking as an ignorant American:  What are some of the significant differences between Australian football and American gridiron football?  Or for that matter, between Australian football and rugby, a sport with which I do have some familiarity?

AD:  Where do I start to answer this question? Firstly, unlike American gridiron football or rugby, Australian football does actually involve a lot of kicking a ball to gain ground rather than throwing or running with the ball. In fact, to score a goal in Australian football the ball has to be kicked between the goal post, not caught in or carried into an end zone. Another key difference is that unlike any other form of football, Australian football does not have ‘line of play’ or any sort of off-side rule. It is more like basketball or ice hockey in that players can position themselves anywhere on the field at any time and can enter a contest for the ball from any angle or direction. Like American football and rugby, Australian football is a full contact collision sport However, the only protective equipment commonly worn by Australian football players is a mouth guard to prevent dental injuries – no shoulder pads, and only the occasional soft-shell helmet and body padding, usually only worn to protect an existing injury. At the elite level there are some similarities between the way the American football and Australian football are administered with both having a salary cap and a draft system to embed a certain degree of equalization of the competition over time.

2) CJSM:  What is “FootyFirst”? At the risk of conflating two dissimilar interventions:  how may it resemble (or differ from) the FIFA 11+ warmups that have been used in football (soccer)?  As an injury prevention intervention—how much time is required to perform FootyFirst for the teams adopting the program?

AD:  A very good question. Read more of this post

Filed under General Interest, Injury Prevention, Public Health in Sports and Exercise Medicine Tagged with ,

5 Questions with Christian Baumgart

April 28, 2015 by

Baumgart, Christian

Christian Baumgart, lead author of new study, Pubished Ahead of Print

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to ask a guest ‘5 questions,’ a recurring feature of this blog.  Our May issue is still a few days from being published…..too soon for guests!  And so I thought it was time to give readers a taste of our ‘Published Online First’ feature.

Once a manuscript has passed CJSM’s rigorous peer review process, ‘made the grade’ and been accepted, it is still a few months away from being published in print.  Like many journals, we have a healthy backlog of manuscripts which have been accepted but await publication.

But it’s not too soon for the authors to break out the champagne, because the article can be fully formatted and made available electronically prior to print–fully searchable in PubMed, prime time for the C.V.

One such study came to us from researchers in the Department of Movement Science at the University of Wuppertal in Germany: Effects of Static Stretching and Playing Soccer on Knee Laxity.  This is a randomized clinical trial looking at the effects of static stretching and playing soccer on anterior tibial translation.  I emailed the lead author, Christian Baumgart, and he was more than happy to join us on funf fragen…er, five questions!

Danke Christian!  I hope to meet you some day in Germany.

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1) CJSM: What would you say was the most notable finding in your study?

CB: Previous studies have shown that different exercises lead to an increase in the sagittal knee laxity. The surprising finding of our study was that static stretching also increases the sagittal knee laxity and even to a greater extent than playing soccer. From a biomechanical point of view this fact seems to be logical, because in healthy athletes the joint mobility during stretching is limited primarily by ligaments and capsules. Subsequently, these connective tissues were short-termed plastic deformed. It is unclear whether the connective tissues adapts structurally, if the external load is applied long-term.

2) CJSM: Do you think the statistically significant increases in anterior tibial translation (ATT) you found both in static stretching and playing football (soccer) are clinically significant? Read more of this post

Filed under Basic Sciences in SEM, General Interest, Injury Prevention Tagged with , ,

In the Press

February 21, 2015 by

buttons 2

Our Main Website is a treasure trove of information: radio buttons often highlight associated characteristics of individual studies

The Atlantic, a highly-regarded monthly magazine published in the United States, recently published an article entitled “The Genetics of Being Injury Prone.”  It has garnered a lot of buzz on social media.

The study chiefly referenced in the article was recently published in our January 2015 CJSM:  “The Dawning Age for Genetic Testing in Sports.”  I found the same study–the lead study for the January CJSM–to be so important to disseminate that I blogged about it a month ago, and am reblogging that post (see below) so the study and the concept get the attention they deserve.

The Atlantic article went on to cite another CJSM study from 2013, as well:  Collagen Genes and Exercise-Associated Muscle Cramping, which I commend to you as well.

Enjoy the studies, the blog posts, the Atlantic article.  And take the time to head to our main website at cjsportmed.com, a treasure trove of information:  studies, polls, podcasts……An interesting feature of the site are the ‘buttons’ next to published studies that may be ‘inthe news,’ ‘open access,’ ‘free,’ or have other media associated with them–blog posts, podcasts, and the like (see above image).

Have a great weekend.

sportingjim's avatarClinical Journal of Sport Medicine Blog

The recent NFC championship game proved, I think, this truth: a true champion is not dead until the final whistle blows. The Seahawks  won in dramatic fashion over the Packers, my favorite team.  As many commentators noted, Seattle played horribly for 58 minutes, but were stellar for the last two; and that was all that mattered in the end.

As a fan, my initial reaction is to think “we gave it away.”  But that is a disservice to the champions.  The Seahawks never lay down, and they seized the moment when it presented itself.

Still…..as a fan, I wonder–if Aaron Rodgers’ calf were 100%, would we have pulled away more decisively earlier in the game?  The field goals in the red zone: would they have been touchdowns instead if our quarterback had his usual mobility?

Bdna_cropped Does Rodgers carry a valuable SNP in the genes of his gastrocnemius? I…

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Filed under General Interest, Injury Prevention, Technology in Sports Medicine Tagged with

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