A new research study in Sweden shows that the injury prevention programme Knee Control reduces the risk of acute injuries in floorball by 45 percent.
– These are important results and the effect is bigger than most people could have expected, says Swedish Floorball Federation’s Development Manager Anders Jonsson.
In floorball, players are at risk of suffering mainly ankle and knee injuries. Now a research group at the Linköping University, led by Martin Hägglund and Ida Åkerlund, has investigated how the programme Knee Control affects the risk of injury.
Nearly 500 players aged 12-17, from 47 different teams, have participated in the research study. During one season, one group was allowed to use the Knee Control warm-up programme for all workouts and matches, while the other group continued to work out as usual without the programme.
Thereafter, the occurrence of injuries that had taken place during the season for both groups was measured. It showed that the risk of acute injury for those who used Knee Control decreased by 45 percent.
– These are important results and proof that the exercises work. It is gratifying that only 15 minutes of special training can make a difference – a much greater difference than most people could have expected, Anders Jonsson, comments.
– The study shows that regular training with Knee Control is an effective tool to reduce the risk of injury, a message that every youth leader should absorb. The teams that participated in the study have done the training in an excellent way and have shown that even with limited resources this can work, says Professor Martin Hägglund, principal researcher of the study.
The study has received support from the Floorball Competence Centre (Innebandyns kompetenscentrum, IKC) in Umeå. Now, the Swedish Floorball Federation will evaluate how the programme can become a larger part of the associations’ daily activities.
– This should be an eye opener for all clubs that have not yet used the programme. I hope there will be a difference in the future, but at the same time it requires work on our part to spread the knowledge, Anders Jonsson, concludes.
The study was led by four researchers at Linköping University: Martin Hägglund, Ida Åkerlund, Markus Waldén and Sofi Sonesson, with financial support from the Swedish Research Council and the Centre for Sports Research.
The Knee Control programme was developed by Folksam, Sisu and the Swedish Football Association. The study has been published in BMJ here. More information about Knee Control programme and training is found here.
Results support earlier research
Similar studies have been conducted earlier by Finnish researcher Kati Pasanen. She has for example investigated the floorball injuries in women’s floorball and how injury prevention programmes reduced the injury risk: Floorball injuries: epidemiology and injury prevention by neuromuscular training (2009) and Floorball Injuries – Epidemiology and Prevention (2019).
Kati Pasanen, who is currently the Assistant Professor at the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre in the University of Calgary, Canada, has also been the head researcher of the IFF Injury Studies. The first study about Injuries during international floorball tournaments 2012 -2015 was published in 2017 and the IFF has continued to collect injury data with the aim to publish more research studies in the future.
