Assessment of knowledge, attitudes and practices in coaches regarding musculoskeletal sport injuries and sports safety measure use among sports participants

Coaching is an interactive process that helps sport participants & athletes to learn, improve, or take performance to better level. Sports participation has risks of sports injury which can be devastating for their hard earned fitness and performance level. A descriptive study was carried out to evaluate knowledge of 40 voluntarily participated coaches regarding sports injury & mechanism causing it in sports participants along with their attitude towards injuries and prevention practices. Result: The direct condition enquiry questionnaire revealed that all 40 coaches had observed musculoskeletal injuries in past one year, of which maximum i.e. 85% was during competition. Sprain or strain or pulled muscle/ligament was common injury noted by 92.5% coaches. Specific sports action which involved skilled movement (100%) and running (80%) was identified mechanism of injury. Ankle joint (75%) was commonly injured area and poor technique (80%), lack of flexibility (75%), inadequate warm up (70%) and poor field conditions were the noted risk factors causing musculoskeletal sports injuries in participants. None of the coach had undergone the specific training for injury prevention and was neither acquainted with Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) technique. Though coaches had knowledge of protective gear use, but still 32.5% allowed sports participants to practice without sports gear. Conclusion: There is need for appropriate measures and education for the coaches in sports injury prevention and proper sports injury registration. Keywords: Sports, Coach, Sports Injury, Musculoskeletal, Ankle, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Sports Equipment, Protective Gears.