Injury Prevention in Children´s Football

The injury prevention program will be included at the beginning of the usual football training by replacing the traditional warm-up. The programme will be conducted by the coaches at least two times a week (with exception of school holidays). The prevention programme contains seven exercises and lasts about 15 min after familiarisation. Three exercises focus on unilateral, dynamic stability of the lower extremities (hopping, jumping and landing). Further, three exercises emphasize whole body and trunk stability. The last exercise contains rolling movements to improve fall technique. The difficulty of each exercise can be progressively increased in five steps. Players start at the level of difficulty which corresponds to their current performance level. They will proceed to the next level when they perform the exercises with good control. This will be assessed by the coaches.