UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA VOLLEYBALL INJURIES BY THE NUMBERS What is Most Common: Lower Extremity (~50 %) > Upper Extremity (~20%) Ankle Injuries, Soft Tissue Strains, Internal Knee Injuries Overuse Injuries common in clinic  under reported in NCAA studies because only accounted for injuries which caused training time to be lost When Injuries Happen: Contact injuries during games, non-contact injuries during practices Majority occur during preseason or return from a break  periods where workload has not been monitored or is increasing in a short period of time *Based on NCAA Injury Surveillance System’s data collection*

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA LOAD MONITORING AND VOLLEYBALL Load Monitoring in the Literature Well established in field sports Successful mitigation of drastic changes in load  Preseason, following breaks, etc Volleyball Presents a Unique Challenge Traditionally, big systems monitor mileage, minutes played, etc Not a ton of research on volleyball Most of the data is on ADULT athletes Not quite applicable!

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA LONGTERM LOAD MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE The Problem: Youth Baseball (9-14 yrs old)  Significant spike in overuse injuries 26-35% of pitchers experience shoulder or elbow pain each year 5% incidence in serious injury requiring surgery or retirement Most common in athletes who play multiple seasons The Intervention: 2007 Little League Recommendations Based on research by USA Baseball Medical & Safety Advisory committee (USAB-MSA) Age-based pitch count restrictions (per game, week, season, year) Amount of rest required before a pitcher can throw again The Results: Still in the works…but the preliminary studies seem promising **BASEBALL IS A “non traditional” monitoring sport (like VB) 10 yr study looking at 9-14 yr olds 5% surgery/retirement USAB-MSA includes baseball experts, coaches, ortho surgeons **Similar pitch count and rest recommendations seen in high school (formerly inning restrictions) Stiil too soon to tell a lot because took some time to gain traction and increase coach/player compliance

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TARGETS FOR THE RADAR Overuse injuries are an overlooked, but COMMON issue 2. There’s a lot out there about monitoring, BUT it is might not entirely translate to volleyball 3. Perhaps simple solutions can be useful for monitoring athletes **Baseball is “non traditional” monitoring sport (like VB), using a simple intervention (pitch count) to make it widespread 10 yr study looking at 9-14 yr olds 5% surgery/retirement USAB-MSA includes baseball experts, coaches, ortho surgeons **Similar pitch count and rest recommendations seen in high school (formerly inning restrictions) Stiil too soon to tell a lot because took some time to gain traction and increase coach/player compliance