Missouri research suggests academic stress increases injury risk among college football players
By Kevin Duffey
Published:
University of Missouri research suggests that players are more likely to get injured during test weeks than training camp, according to an article via Life Sciences and Medicine.
“Stress is systemic,” said Bryan Mann, an assistant professor of physical therapy in the MU School of Health Professions and assistant director of strength and conditioning for Mizzou Athletics. “Everything players deal with on a daily basis creates stress. They don’t have separate accounts to withdraw from for practice, school and relationships. Whenever there’s stress, something’s got to give. Otherwise, it’s similar to when unexpected expenses arise at the same time and you’re likely to overdraw your checking account. It’s the same idea but on a physiological basis rather than a monetary one.”
Here’s how the study was conducted:
The researchers studied weekly injury reports for 101 student athletes on a Division 1 college football team during a 20-week season. Sixty different athletes had 86 injury restrictions during the season. The researchers found players were 3.19 times more likely to have an injury restriction during weeks when they had high academic stress, such as midterms or finals, than during weeks when they had low academic stress. When the researchers compared players’ injury restrictions for weeks of high physical stress – such as training camp – and weeks of low academic stress, athletes were 2.84 times more likely to have injury restrictions.
Missouri, however, takes into account when players will be facing midterms and exams, and the school tailors the schedule to help minimize injuries.
“We know when there will be midterms or finals, and we can plan for these academic stressors and accommodate practices accordingly to minimize the risk of injuries,” Mann said. “Some stressors we can’t predict, but if we know about them, then there are things that we can do. Coaches should get to know the athletes and watch how their attitudes change. As attitudes change, it usually indicates that something else is going on in their lives. We’ve got to find those causes so we can be proactive and get the athletes counseling or find other ways to meet their needs.”
Teams around college football are consistently building out support staffs. In the coming years, support staffs could double or even triple, allowing for more recruiting personnel and more staff to assess and decrease stressors for football players like mentioned in this article.
Everyone’s well aware that Gary Pinkel and Nick Saban come from the same school of “processes”, as each coach shares roots as Don James disciples. This is just another addition to Pinkel’s process at Missouri and probably one that will be adopted by many other programs.
A graduate of the University of Florida and founder of Saturday Down South, Kevin is a college football enthusiast.
