Injury prevention in football: Coaches’ practices, perceived expertise, and influencing factors

The purposes of the study were to identify the key components of injury prevention exercise programmes (IPEPs) used by football coaches during training sessions, to explore the association between personal characteristics and IPEPs component use, and to examine coaches’ self-perceived competence in injury prevention. Football coaches from the French-speaking region of Belgium were invited to participate in a cross-sectional online survey. They were asked to report the components of the IPEPs they used in their training routines. Additionally, they were invited to self-assess their perceived level of expertise in injury prevention and to suggest potential avenues for improving this expertise. A total of 356 coaches fully completed the questionnaire. Among the injury prevention exercises used at least once a week, aerobic warm-ups were the most commonly used (96%), followed by stretching (74%), balance/agility exercises (66%), running/plyometrics (65%), core stability exercises (51%), and lower limb muscle strengthening (46%). Chi-squared tests indicated that higher levels of coach education and higher competitive levels of the teams coached were associated with a greater use of preventive exercises . More specifically, only 21% of respondents reported using the FIFA 11 + programme. A large majority (77%) of coaches reported feeling insufficiently qualified in the area of injury prevention. In conclusion, the core components of IPEPs used in Belgian football clubs were identified and their use appears to be primarily associated with the coaches’ level of education. Coaches indicated that they perceived themselves as insufficiently qualified with regard to injury prevention.