- Title
- The propensity of non-concussive and concussive head contacts during elite-level women's rugby league matches: A prospective analysis of over 14,000 tackle events
- Creator
- Spiegelhalter, Mily; Scantlebury, Sean; Jones, Ben; Heyward, Omar; Hendricks, Sharief; Cummins, Cloe; Gardner, Andrew J.; Halkier, Matt; McLeod, Shreya; Phillips, Gemma; Owen, Cameron
- Relation
- Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport Vol. 26, Issue 3, p. 195-201
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2023.03.003
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2023
- Description
- Objectives: Identify the frequency, propensity, and factors related to tackle events which result in contact with the head in elite-level women's rugby league. Design: Prospective video analysis study. Methods: Video footage from 59 Women's Super League matches were analysed (n = 14,378 tackle events). All tackle events were coded as no head contact or head contact. Other independent variables included: area contacting head, impacted player, concussion outcome, penalty outcome, round of competition, time in match and team standard. Results: There were 83.0 ± 20.0 (propensity 304.0/1000 tackle events) head contacts per match. The propensity of head contact was significantly greater for the tackler than ball-carrier (178.5 vs. 125.7/1000 tackle events; incident rate ratio 1.42, 95 % confidence interval 1.34 to 1.50). Head contacts occurring from an arm, shoulder, and head occurred significantly more than any other contact type. The propensity of concussions was 2.7/1000 head contacts. There was no significant influence of team standard or time in match on the propensity of head contacts. Conclusions: The observed head contacts can inform interventions, primarily focusing on the tackler not contacting the ball-carrier's head. The tackler's head should also be appropriately positioned to avoid contact with the ball-carrier's knee (highest propensity for concussion). The findings are consistent with other research in men's rugby. Law modifications and/or enforcement (reducing the number of un-penalised head contacts), concurrent with coaching interventions (optimising head placement or reducing the head being contacted) may help minimise head contact risk factors for women's rugby league.
- Subject
- injury; female; contact sport; brain concussion
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1490853
- Identifier
- uon:53006
- Identifier
- ISSN:1440-2440
- Rights
- © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Sports Medicine Australia. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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