THE EFFICACY OF COMPREHENSIVE WARM-UP PROGRAM IN MALE ADOLESCENT FOOTBALL PLAYERS

Background FIFA 11+ program has been shown to reduce injury risk in female football players but has not been evaluated in an Asian male adolescent players. Objective To investigate the effects of the FIFA 11 + on injury risk in a Japanese male adolescent football players. Design Cohort study. Setting 6 Japanese U-18 (age: 16–18) and U-15 (age: 13–15) football teams followed for three seasons (2010, 2011 and 2012). The 2010 season, players completed the usual warm-up as control group, whereas the 2011 and 2011 players performed the FIFA 11+ throughout the entire season as intervention group. Participants A total 986 male athletes (age: 12–18 years). Interventions FIFA 11+program was conducted twice a week or more in entire season in 2010 and 2011. Main outcome measurements Injury rate during football (match and training), match and training were reported as the number of injuries per 1000 player-hours. Results The injury rate during football, match, and training in the control season were 4.0, 8.9, and 3.4 injuries per 1000 player-hours and 2.0, 4.4, and 1.5 injuries per 1000 player-hours in the intervention season. The intervention season had reductions in relative risk (RR) of game of 29% (RR=0.71, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.664 −0.747), of match of 46% (RR=0.54, 95% CI=0.477–0.611), and of training of 28% (RR=0.72, 95% CI=0.674–0.768). The injury rate of lower extremity was reduced significantly in intervention season compared with control season. Conclusions The FIFA 11+ program reduced overall injury risk and lower extremity injury risk in a Japanese male adolescent football players.