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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Sports Coaching: Performance and Development
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1430287
This article is part of the Research Topic Women in Coaching and Leadership View all articles

A qualitative exploration of perceived challenges and opportunities in the implementation of scieinjury prevention and management in amateur female sport

Provisionally accepted
Ayrton Walshe Ayrton Walshe Ed Daly Ed Daly Lisa Ryan Lisa Ryan *
  • School of Science and Computing, Atlantic Technological University, Galway, County Dublin, Ireland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Coaches, practitioners, and leadership in amateur female sport must navigate many obstacles in the pursuit of athlete availability and optimal performance. The present study aims to evaluate opportunities and challenges to both injury prevention and management in amateur female sport, as experienced by mixed-gender coaches, allied healthcare professionals, and general practitioners.Methods: Semi-structured virtual interviews of coaches, allied healthcare professionals and general practitioners (N = 25), recruited via convenience snowball sample. Data transcribed verbatim with reflexive thematic analysis through a critical realism framework.Results: Female-specific issues, education, and resource capital were challenges to the implementation of injury prevention and management sport science and medicine in amateur female sport thus negatively impacting on performance, injury prevention, and rehabilitation. Opportunities for improved care for female athletes were communication and relationships, outsourcing responsibility, and despite the lack of education; desires for such, and lastly exposure to elite sport and national governing bodies protocols.Discussion: In amateur female sport, developing communication pathways and relationships, along with upskilling coaches can help better support female athletes, coaches, and healthcare professionals. Leaders and stakeholders must advocate for and support greater education, resourcing and an understanding of female-specific issues in amateur female sport. It is intended that these findings provide evidence and opportunities for discourse between stakeholders in amateur female sport to improve standard of supports for female athletes, coaches and healthcare professionals. Findings may also help practitioners better exploit opportunities and circumvent challenges to improve welfare and performancecare of amateur female athletes.

    Keywords: female, Qualitative, sports science, Sports Medicine, Field-Sport, injury

    Received: 09 May 2024; Accepted: 20 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Walshe, Daly and Ryan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lisa Ryan, School of Science and Computing, Atlantic Technological University, Galway, County Dublin, Ireland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.