Safety in Sport

Without question, one of the most underrated topics in Australian Rules Football Coaching Courses conducted around the country.

We as coaches, spend so much time looking for the perfect training drill and developing our players potential, that safety is not always foremost in our minds.

It is amazing how often players injure themselves at training and it is just considered bad luck. I wonder how much bad luck as opposed to bad planning and execution of training drills? We have all been guilty at some time trying to increase the intensity of a training session by including an extra football into a drill. We have all seen drills that challenge players to change direction and avoid on coming traffic, or reposition to present again for the football (second effort).

Remember as coaches, we have an absolute responsibility to ensure that training is a safe environment for all players. Take a walk around your venue to ensure that there are no pot holes or sprinkler covers missing. Make sure that other teams training on the oval at the same time do not run their drills into your part of training.

Double check all your drills to guarantee that you are not potentially placing your players at risk. Do not complicate your drills without thought to the risk of potential injuries and always think about the safety aspect of things like, allowing your players to wear a hat in warmer weather and have plenty of drink break during a session.

Understand the negative aspect to our sport via parents, teachers and players when a person is injured in a training session. Think about the possible repercussions to the sport if players are lost to other codes as a result of being injured.

Continually remind yourself that there are enough potential dangers with poor lighting, not having any sufficient training staff and having to do everything for your players from pumping up the balls, organizing the drinks, through to ensuring your players are stretching up before training and down at the completion.

Think safety and you will need very little luck keeping your players fit for game day.