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Organised soccer is
relatively safe. Indeed, the health of millions of boys and girls is
significantly improved as a direct result of their participation in the
'beautiful game'. For example, a child who plays soccer regularly will
usually:
In addition to the
health benefits of regular exercise, kids who are physically fit sleep
better and are better able to handle the physical and emotional challenges
that a typical day presents - be that running to catch a bus, bending down
to tie a shoe, or studying for a test.1
However, in 2002, nearly 76,200 American
children ages 5 to 14 were treated in
hospital emergency rooms for soccer
related injuries.2
While most soccer related injuries are
fairly trivial (mostly
sprains and strains), every
year some children suffer serious injuries and some may even lose their
life. In England, at least nine children including Jack Sheerin, a seven
year old from West Yorkshire, and Jonathan Smith, an eleven year old from
Essex have been killed by falling goalposts.3
But even the most trivial injuries are
painful and almost certainly some of the injured children will have been
put off soccer for life. It is also almost certain that a significant
proportion of the injuries sustained by children on the soccer field could
have been prevented if their coaches properly exercised their ‘duty of
care’ and adopted a more structured and clearly thought out approach to
the health and safety of their players.
Your 'duty of care'
The ‘duty of care’ is a general legal duty
on all individuals, sports clubs and governing bodies to avoid carelessly
causing injury to persons. It applies to you, regardless of the size of
your organisation, its income or whether or not you have paid staff.
It is also worth pointing out that if any
sports organisation asks a volunteer to carry out a task which results in
them injuring themselves or anyone else, the members of the club or
governing body may be liable. Liability depends on establishing that the
club/governing body failed to take reasonable care.4
No-one suggests that all risk can be
eliminated from soccer and, equally, it is recognised that children will
get injured and be involved in accidents no matter how carefully soccer
coaches approach their task. However, minimising the number of injuries
suffered by your players should be your number one priority.
Risk assessments
To do this, you need to identify the hazards
that soccer activities create. You then need to consider what the chances
are of an injury actually occurring because of the hazards (the risk) and,
finally, if the control measures you have in place to reduce the risks are
adequate. This is called a risk assessment.
Don’t let the terminology put you off.
Carrying out risk assessments is not difficult. It simply means taking a
look at what could go wrong - both before and during the activity - and
then deciding on ways to prevent - or minimise - the potential problems.
In fact, we all carry out informal risk
assessments all the time without realising it. For example, what would you
do before crossing a busy road? Instinctively we stop and look. We
consider the speed and amount of the traffic and have in mind other
factors such as bad weather (wet roads: increased stopping distance) or
poor visibility (either the bad lighting - at night - or mist, or you
cannot see much of the road because of bends). Based on proper training
and our experience of crossing a road before, we either decide it is safe
to cross on this particular occasion, or that we need to move elsewhere.
How to risk assess a soccer coaching
session
Let’s look at how a risk assessment could be
made of a coaching session. The equipment could represent a hazard if, for
example, the goalposts are in poor condition or not secured. The control
measures for this hazard would be to use good quality goalposts and to
inspect them before they are used to make sure they are not damaged and
are properly erected and secured. The weather could also represent a
hazard. Too hot and your players could get burnt or dehydrated. To control
this risk you would make sure you had plenty of drink breaks and that your
players wore sunblock. The hazards resulting from the activities you’ve
planned also need to be considered. Children could be injured, for
example, playing small sided matches if they wore inappropriate footwear
or if they didn’t wear shinpads. The control measures are obvious – make
sure everyone knows that they have to wear boots (cleats) and shinpads.
Your players could also be injured as a result of foul play or poor
technique. The control measures here would include good quality coaching,
making sure that children involved in competitive games are evenly matched
in terms of size and ability and making sure that everyone plays by the
rules.
As you can see, it’s not hard to risk assess
your soccer activities.
When you've finished you should record your
findings and review them periodically (and whenever one of your players
suffers an injury) to make sure they're still relevant.
Click here to see
an example of a completed soccer risk assessment.
Summary
If you follow the advice in this article and
adopt a clear and structured approach to the heath and safety of your
players they should suffer fewer injuries as a result. It's a
'no-brainer'!
References
1
kidshealth.org
2
preventinjury.org
3
theFA.com
4
Brighton and Hove volunteers.org.uk
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