For more powerful safety messages, focus on adverse outcomes not risk factors

  Cross Fertilising British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) and Injury Prevention (IP)   An interesting paper, by Morrongiello et al., in the most recent issue of the Injury Prevention Journal (Volume 20, Issue 1) presents the results of a study that investigated the nature of images that should be used for powerful safety messages. […]

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Baffled by the barefoot running vs traditional running shoe controversy? How to make an informed choice!

By Takami Shirai, Michael Hsu and Anthony Chang Barefoot and “minimalist” running definitely has momentum. Christopher McDougall’s National Bestseller, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen has sparked worldwide interest and inspired many to pursue barefoot running. Influential companies such as Nike, New Balance and Vibram have designed minimalist […]

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“Leaders in Performance” (2013): A wider, influential audience for turning research into action and policy. Managing Concussion // Performing in the Heat

Leaders in Performance  was held in London last week – the world’s largest summit of sport owners/managers, high performance teams, sports medicine and science leads. Aspetar – Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital sponsored two workshops there: 1. Concussion Management with Professors Paul McCrory, Jiri Dvorak, Michael Turner and Roald Bahr.  The Consensus statement on concussion in […]

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Injury prevention, advances and challenges of the international paralympic committee, and countdown to the next games

It has been 12 months since Rowan Atkinson plonked the piano with his umbrella to Chariots of Fire in the London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. Wikipedia says he is worth 85 million pounds, loves cars, has retired ‘Mr Bean’ and has been married to Sunetra Sastry for 23 years. But I digress already. Now, Professor […]

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Even players at the highest level get it wrong sometimes…the attempted tackle by Christian Lealiifano on Jonathan Davies

by Dr Sharief Hendricks (@Sharief_H) On Saturday 22 June 2013, the British and Irish Lions recorded a historic win over the Wallabies in the First Test (of three) in Brisbane. As the score suggests, it was a fiercely contested match, and made for some entertaining rugby with debutant Israel Folau crossing the try-line twice, George […]

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We need to promote protective equipment differently

Cross Fertilising ‘Injury Prevention’ journal (IP) and BJSM                                Protective sports equipment can prevent serious injury (McIntosh et al, BJSM, 2011). Why then doesn’t everyone use it? Behaviour change theory tells us that, first, attitudes need to be right. But if people do […]

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Safer bicycling. Better roads? More helmets? Increased legislation and enforcement?

  Last month in a BMJ blog, Domnhall Macaulay stated “Cyclists deserve our support; we need to address the risks of riding on the road and make cycling safer.” In one of my earlier BJSM blogs, I also pointed out that bicycling safety has long been a research and action goal of many injury prevention […]

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Injury prevention in high level snowboard: A need to return to first principles?

 Guest blog by @CarolineFinch In the recent BJSM blog Is high level snowboard too dangerous to allow your children to participate? Prof Engebretsen raises an important question, namely how to prevent injuries in a sport where pushing the extremes of physical performance in challenging and harsh environments is both an individual athlete and sporting organisation goal.[1] Most recent advances in […]

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Sports injuries are freak accidents – or are they?

 Guest Blog by @CarolineFinch Cross Fertilising ‘Injury Prevention’ journal (IP) and BJSM Compared to many other health issues, it seems that it is not hard to get media stories about sports injury into our daily newspapers.  What seems to be hard, is the coupling of such stories with positive injury prevention messages. An interesting paper in the February […]

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Born to run or shoes are made for running? Adding science to the strident debate.

Guest blog by George Murley There is an increasingly strident debate on the use of minimalist/barefoot versus traditional sports footwear in running, and there appear to be advocates for both sides who believe there is no need for a rational discussion. The debate appears to have escalated following publications by Richards and colleagues (2008) ‘Is […]

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