Volleyball players are exposed to numerous injuries due to sport-specific movements and the resulting biomechanical loads on the locomotor system. One of the most common acute injuries in volleyball is a sprained ankle, while others include injuries to the meniscus, cruciate ligaments, spondylolysis, lumbar muscle strains, and lumbar spinal ligament injuries. With changes in the dynamics and pace of the game—resulting from an increased number of weekly training sessions, the number of overuse injuries is also increasing. These include shoulder joint injuries, lower back pain, and patellar tendinopathy. Injuries are an integral part of sports, but by understanding the biomechanical demands of the sport, sport-specific movements, players’ physical fitness and playing position, injury history, injury characteristics, risk factors, and injury mechanisms —and by implementing preventive exercises—the incidence of injuries can be significantly reduced.
The aim of this master's thesis was to present the most common injuries in volleyball and to analyse existing injury prevention programs, and in the second part, based on the reviewed literature, to provide suggestions for exercises targeting the most common injuries in volleyball.
Preventive exercise is crucial and should include strength training, flexibility exercises, neuromuscular training and sport-specific skill development. It was found that most volleyball preventive programs emphasize strength and proprioception training, while fewer include flexibility and technique-improvement exercises. Like any training regime, preventive programs should specify information about the frequency, intensity, duration, and type of exercise, and allow for individual adaptation. However, it was observed that many prevention programs lacked detailed information about training load and only a few allowed for individualized adjustments.
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