This is a new placement that I have just begun; within this experience I am required to lead and work with second year students in the provision of virtual injury prevention and strength and conditioning sessions to the women’s hockey team.

Reflective Summary

Within these two hours, I made a template needs analysis with the appropriate headings including physical/functional demands, time motion data, performance testing and common injuries. I began to fill the document in so that the other students could recognise the type of information that needed to be included.

It is important to complete a needs analysis so that key performance demands can be identified and reflected in training programmes (West, 2018). It also allows common injuries to be identified so that us as therapists can understand what specific joints etc need to be targeted within injury prevention.

In field hockey, the literature reports that lower limb injuries (ankle, knee, lower leg and thigh) are the most common, followed by the head, upper limb and trunk (Barboza, Joseph, Nauta, Mechelen & Verhagen, 2018). The most prevalent types of injuries are ankle sprains, hand fractures and head/face injuries (Badr & Gaballah, 2016). However, a study by Theilen, Muller-Eising, Bettink & Rolle (2016) found that injuries to the head and face were most common for women (40%) with most of these injuries occurring in the circle (50%). This was important for us to recognise as we are working with this gender. Furthermore, this figure has prompted us to include some virtual educational sessions, specifically surrounding concussion. Regarding positional differences with injury, it has been highlighted that goalkeepers have the highest frequency of injury (0.58 injuries per year), whereas midfielders were the most injured field players (0.36 injuries per year)(Bishop et al., 2015). This means that we can begin to understand who the prevention programmes should be targeted towards (Cameron, 2010).

I was very organised when setting up a group chat for the team to communicate, in as I did it soon after we got put with specific teams. This has meant that we have completed tasks in a comfortable amount of time before the due date.I led the needs analysis task well by creating a resource explaining what was needed under each section.

Areas for Improvement	Action Plan
Understand the demands of other sports.	Begin to develop a needs analysis for a variety of sports, focussing on the common injuries.
When I am researching data as part of evidence-based practice, I need to ensure it is accurate using critical thinking	Read and compare specific data and question if it would make sense

Closing the Loop 

Since writing this reflection I have started to compose a needs analysis for other sports, so I understand the demands placed on the athletes. Furthermore, as I am now nearing the end of my degree, I can identify data that may be inaccurate, if it does not make sense given my knowledge.

References

Badr, M. A., & Gaballah, A. M. (2015). Common injuries among male field hockey players according to playing positions. Journal Applied Sport Science, 5, 19-26.

Barboza, S. D., Joseph, C., Nauta, J., Van Mechelen, W., & Verhagen, E. (2018). Injuries in field hockey players: a systematic review. Sports Medicine, 48(4), 849-866.

Bishop, C., Brazier, J., Cree, J., & Turner, A. (2015). A needs analysis and testing battery for field hockey. Professional Strength & Conditioning, 36, 15-26.

Cameron, K. L. (2010). Time for a paradigm in conceptualizing risk factors in sports injury research. Journal of Athletic Training, 45(1), 58–60.

Theilen, T. M., Mueller-Eising, W., Bettink, P. W., & Rolle, U. (2016). Injury data of major international field hockey tournaments. British journal of sports medicine, 50(11), 657-660.

West, J. (2018). A review of the key demands for a football goalkeeper. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 13(6), 1215-1222.