The dangers of contact sport

Playing sport can provide many benefits: it’s a great way to regularly exercise, can boost your mental health and it can help develop leadership and teamwork skills. However, one of the drawbacks of this is that contact sports carry the risk of injury. While this doesn’t mean you should stop yourself or your children from playing, it’s worth being aware of the dangers. Below, we explore the dangers of contact sport.

Playing sport can provide many benefits: it’s a great way to regularly exercise, can boost your mental health and it can help develop leadership and teamwork skills. However, one of the drawbacks of this is that contact sports carry the risk of injury. While this doesn’t mean you should stop yourself or your children from playing, it’s worth being aware of the dangers. Below, we explore the dangers of contact sport.

Popular contact sports

Some contact sports see more injuries than others. This could be because they’re played by more people, or because the mechanics of the sport carry more risk. Nevertheless, football, basketball and cycling are amongst the most common sports to lead to injury. Meanwhile, rugby, skateboarding and trampolining can all lead to accidents if you’re unfortunate too.

Common injuries

By anticipating common injuries, you’ll be able to take preventative action when you train or know how to treat a problem quickly. One of the most common injuries are muscle strains – these won’t cause you too much trouble unless they’re chronic. Dislocations and fractures are more of a problem. You’ll see the signs for these with significant swelling and pain upon impact. These injuries can often require surgery but should allow you to recover after a few months. Sprains occur when there is ligament damage, and these are common injuries too. These injuries carry a risk of reinjury with them and you’ll need to be careful when you’re returning to sport following this type of injury. Ultimately, you can try and prevent these injuries by going through meticulous warmups and cooldowns whenever you play contact sport.

Treating impact injuries

Treatments depend on the type of injury you’ve suffered. Often with impact injuries, you’ll be attempting to reduce the inflammation in the following days. You can do this by resting the injured area, icing it consistently, compressing the area consistently and elevating the injured area. You can remember this process by using the acronym RICE. However, some impact injuries will require treatment at a hospital. Head and spinal injuries are often emergencies and will require urgent medical attention. If you’re playing for a contact sports team, everyone in the squad should be prepared to quickly stop the game and seek medical help.

If you or a loved one have suffered an injury from contact sport, you still have options. For instance, if they suffered an avoidable head injury, you could consider seeking professional advice on a brain injury compensation claim. This can give you peace of mind that you have the appropriate help to try and help you move forward with your life after a serious injury.