Contents
Regularity first
In every trial, the effect depends first on regularity. Football players who did the programme most often had fewer injuries than those who did it less (relative risk 0.65, Soligard 2010). In rugby, the clearest effect is in teams that did it at least three times a week (Hislop 2017). A simple programme kept up all season beats a perfect one dropped in October.
Where it is proven
The relative risk compares the group doing the programme with the group that does not: 0.61 means about 39% fewer injuries. In brackets, the 95% confidence interval.
| Sport and age | Programme | What the trials show |
|---|---|---|
| Football, 14 and over | FIFA 11+ (warm-up of about 20 min, at least twice a week) | 0.61 (0.48 to 0.77), 4 trials pooled (Thorborg 2017) |
| Football, 7 to 13 | FIFA 11+ Kids | 0.52 (0.32 to 0.86), 3,895 players including in Switzerland and Germany; severe injuries −74% (Rössler 2018) |
| Football, girls | Knäkontroll (Swedish Football Association) | ACL ruptures: 0.36 (0.15 to 0.85) (Waldén 2012) |
| Handball, 15 to 17 | Structured warm-up (Olsen 2005) | Acute knee and ankle injuries: 0.53 (0.35 to 0.81) |
| Rugby | World Rugby Activate | 0.28 in teams doing it at least 3 times a week (Hislop 2017); in adults, 0.4 with good regularity (Attwood 2018) |
| Youth, all sports | Neuromuscular training | 0.64 (0.49 to 0.84) (Emery 2015) |
| Adults, all sports | Strength training | 0.34 (0.24 to 0.48), 6 trials (Lauersen 2018) |
For girls' and women's teams (ACL injuries, the menstrual cycle, puberty, running after childbirth), see the Girls and women guide.
Contested or null
- The Nordic hamstring exercise: a 2019 meta-analysis found 0.49 (0.32 to 0.74), but a 2026 network meta-analysis finds no significant effect (0.78; 0.34 to 1.78). The evidence is contested.
- The handball thrower's shoulder: one programme showed 0.72 (0.52 to 0.98) in elite players (Andersson 2017), but a second trial of 579 players did not confirm it (Achenbach 2022).
- Badminton: a first trial in 273 young players is encouraging (0.30; 0.12 to 0.75), but on only 20 injuries: it is preliminary.
- Trials with no significant effect: judo (IPPON, 2023), tennis (fewer than one player in ten followed the programme, and its authors advise against rolling it out), athletics (2021), running (several trials), taekwondo (2026), volleyball (youth and adults).
Where no programme has been validated
Karate, Kyokushin, boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA, fencing, squash, table tennis, archery, climbing, swimming: no prevention programme has been tested with injuries as the outcome. That is no reason to do nothing. A good general warm-up, a load that rises gradually and the safety rules of the discipline (youth protection, equipment, techniques banned by age) remain the basis. Each sport's page, below, details them.
Tests and load monitoring
- No test predicts an injury. "There is currently no example of a screening test for sports injuries with adequate test properties" (Bahr 2016). The field tests follow fitness; they do not sort athletes.
- The acute:chronic workload ratio (ACWR) has no solid basis for steering training (Impellizzeri 2020). Simple, regular monitoring works: the session rated by the athlete from 0 to 10, multiplied by its duration, has been validated by many studies (Foster 2001; Haddad 2017 review).
By sport
Each Coach Corner guide has its own physical-preparation page, with the injuries typical of the sport and what reduces them:
- Football
- Handball
- Basketball
- Rugby
- Tennis
- Table tennis
- Badminton
- Squash
- Fencing
- Boxing
- Taekwondo
- Kyokushin karate
- Archery
In Paak
With Paak Pro, a club can switch prevention on for the teams it chooses: the prevention warm-ups of the library then show, in the session plan, their evidence level and the recommended weekly dose. See how it works.
Sources
- Thorborg K. et al. 2017, British Journal of Sports Medicine, FIFA 11+ meta-analysis.
- Rössler R. et al. 2018, Sports Medicine, PMC5948238.
- Soligard T. et al. 2010 (regularity); Hislop M. et al. 2017 and Attwood M. et al. 2018 (rugby); Olsen O.-E. et al. 2005 (handball); Waldén M. et al. 2012 (Knäkontroll).
- Emery C. et al. 2015 (youth); Lauersen J. et al. 2018 (strength training).
- van Dyk N. et al. 2019 and Hong et al. 2026, PMC13578199 (Nordic hamstring).
- Andersson S. et al. 2017 and Achenbach L. et al. 2022 (handball shoulder); Phomsoupha M. et al. 2025 (badminton).
- Bahr R. 2016, British Journal of Sports Medicine, PMID 27095747.
- Impellizzeri F. et al. 2020, PMID 32502973; Foster C. 2001 and Haddad M. et al. 2017 (session load).