Rugby coaching tips to ease common injuries in players

Use the following rugby coaching tips to deal with some of the common rugby injuries and causes of pain your players are likely to encounter.

Delayed onset of muscle soreness

Delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) represents micro-damage to muscles. It is all part of the muscle-building process and is nothing to be alarmed about.

Rugby coaching tips to help players

To avoid severe DOMS you should always build up the intensity and time of your rugby coaching sessions, especially weight training. Eccentric muscle exercise (using muscles while they lengthen at the same time) causes the most damage.

As muscles become more accustomed to the training regimes and routines, the intensity of DOMS will reduce and eventually disappear.

DOMS is commonly experienced by people starting out in the gym for the first time. It particularly affects the legs from intense weight bearing activities. This can make going up and down stairs a painful task.

Symptoms

A dull aching type pain is experienced, due to training muscles unaccustomed to such stresses. It becomes most obvious approximately 48 hours after training or playing.

Treatment

The pain associated with DOMs can be relieved in a number of ways, including:

Warming the muscles with a hot bath or compresses, followed by a massage.
Carrying out a light warm-down rugby drill after exercise or a game, followed by sustained passive stretches.

Taking pain or anti-inflammatory medication does not relieve DOMS.

Dead legs

Receiving a blow to the large muscle mass of the upper or lower leg can cause what is known as a "dead leg". More accurately, a dead leg is a deep hematoma (bruise) to muscle and nerve tissue.

Symptoms

The symptoms include a heaviness and numbness of the leg. Tenderness in the muscle where it received the impact can also be evident. There may be some bruising evident, but often it is quite deep and does not come to the skin surface straight away, if at all.

Treatment

In common with other bruises, the application of heat is not advised as this only exacerbates the bruising. However, some rugby players have benefited from massaging of the leg (avoiding the direct area that received the blow).

The massage should start off light and consist of long upward sweeping strokes. Normal sensation should return after several days.

Muscle strains and tears

Muscle strains and tears occur when too much force is transmitted through the muscle too quickly. This can be caused when a player accelerates or decelerates rapidly and can occur in the muscle belly itself, the muscle-tendon junction or the point where the tendon attaches to the bone.

The hamstring muscles are particularly vulnerable to strains and tears because they cross both the hip and knee joint and lengthening and stretching can occur at both ends of the muscle at the same time.

The gastrocnemius (calf muscle) is another vulnerable muscle as it crosses the knee and the ankle.

To reduce the risk of a muscle strain or tear, always get your players warmed-up before training and a game. If players are returning from an injury make sure they are match fit, as being tired will increase the chances of muscle injury.

Symptoms

Minor strains and tears cause localised pain, but not enough damage to cause loss of strength. A greater amount of damage is classified as a Grade II strain or tear. This is characterised by a greater degree of pain and swelling due to the larger number of torn muscle fibres.

A Grade III tear is almost a complete rupture of the muscle, where considerable bruising, swelling and pain are evident.

Treatment

Muscle strains and tears should be treated as a soft tissue injury with RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation). This will reduce some of the inflammation and swelling, and will help reduce the pain.

Physiotherapy treatment will probably need to be administered with Grade II and III injuries. Active treatment should be sought as early as possible once the swelling and inflammation have subsided.

Scar tissue will build up at the site of injury and, if this is allowed to develop into a hard lump, it becomes imbedded within the muscle and becomes a weak point where future tears will occur.

Stretching (within pain limits) will help reduce the build-up of scar tissue. Substantial scar tissue must be treated by a therapist to have it broken down. Rehabilitation exercises will also be needed to strengthen the muscle.

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