Soccer Is a Popular European Football Game Style - Essay Example

Soccer Injures Soccer is a popular European football game style, which is very popular around the world. Unlike the known American football, two opponent teams made of eleven players each play Soccer, and it is played without employing the use of arms. It is the most popular sport in the world and it is growing very fast in America. According to statistics, around 8 million Americans play or participate in European soccer (Noble and Hesdorffer 273). As a sport, soccer helps its players to improve on their balance, agility, sense of teamwork and coordination. Besides this, many consider it an enjoyable form of aerobic exercise. Besides soccer being very much enjoyable, this paper tries to put forward the argument that it also injures. The essay explains how soccer as a game is a cause to many diverse injuries and that it is fundamental for it to be realized for the right prevention measures to be employed. The effects of the injuries are also clearly explained that the extent of the injuries caused by soccer may come out clearly. Beside Soccer being an enjoyable sport and with fast growing popularity, many people do not consider the fact that soccer in itself is quite dangerous and can cause injuries both serious and minor. Many people view soccer as a very safe game and very soft, thus, many people who join the sport do not have any anticipation of being injured. Some other people, including players who know that soccer can cause injuries only believe that those injuries can only be mild. They also assume that these injuries can simply be cured by physicians who are present on the field. I figured out that it is important to understand and accept the fact that soccer can cause injuries and thereby it will be easy to take precautions and even prevent some of the injuries. Although it is widely argued that most of the injuries that players get on the field cannot be prevented, since they are not planned for, I believe that once the players know what to expect of the game, they can avoid the injuries, and besides that, they will also learn how to manage them (Per, Kristian and Kim 1248). Soccer as opposed to the thoughts of many can cause injuries from mild ones to very serious ones and worse off, they can even cause death. I consider all of these together as dangerous. Taking an example of mild injuries, repeated mild injuries can lead to serious problems. One can even end up with a permanent injury because of repeated mild injuries. This can lead to suspension from the game or even termination of one’s career as a soccer player. Minor injuries can include scratches, dislocations among others. Serious injuries like fractures and concussion can lead to permanent injury and termination of the soccer-playing career too. This also means a total change in one’s life. In the attempt to understand that soccer injures, it is fundamental that we know the types of injuries that can be caused by soccer and how the injuries are caused. Most of these injuries are obtained in virtually different ways: Concussion is one of the injuries, which can be caused by soccer. Concussion is usually caused when someone knocks his head hard on something or something knocks him. Looking at the soccer field setting. One can have concussion when he knocks on the ground with his head, when he has a head on collision with a fellow player, when he is knocked by some other part like arm, elbow or leg, knocks on the goal posts or when he is hit really hard with the ball on his head (Edwards and Bodle 131). According to statistics, soccer alone causes concussion to around 300,000 people in America only every year, and this number is increasing, according to the trend comparison between the period of 2005 to 2006 and 2011 to 2012 (Noble and Hesdorffer 273). Concussion is known to have serious impacts including headaches, negative effects on neurology activity, sleep-related issues, cognitive functioning, changes of personality, which is caused by irritability, decline in concentration levels, psychological disorders, and reduction in attention span (Edwards and Bodle 129-130). Soccer is also responsible for sprains. These are the most common soccer injuries, which occur in the field. Although this is a minor injury, it is known to cause massive pain. It is common at the lower leg, knees, and ankles. It is caused by bad landscape of the field and lack of good warm up and stretching exercises. Strains are also minor injuries, which can be caused by soccer. This is usually caused by muscle contractions against resistance. They are very common with groin muscles, quadriceps and groin muscles. Although it is not a very serious injury, it causes serious pains and can even send a player off the field for one or two days. Fracture is one of the very common injuries in soccer. Most of these fractures occur due to contact with a hard object, or even a moving object (Wouter, Goedhart, et al 3). It has also been on several occasions when a player is accidentally or intentionally knocked by an opponent ending up acquiring a fracture. Besides this, a soccer player can also get a fracture when he falls on his arm or even his leg. Fractures that can be acquired range from minor fractures to serious ones that can land someone on a wheelchair for the rest of his life. This can cause an end in one’s career life or a long hospitalization period. Besides fracture, one can acquire a knee injury because of putting excessive weight on the knee. This is also very common in soccer. Moreover, one can also get a dislocation of the knee or even the ankle. It is common for soccer players to fall down during the game. The way someone gets to the ground can cause him such injuries. There other injuries related to the head apart from concussion, and these may include the eye injury, the dental injury including jaw dislocation and the brain. These injuries just like concussion are caused by collision of the players’ heads or hitting hard on a hard ground. These injuries can lead to serious head problems and chronic injuries especially when they happen repeatedly (Beijsterveldt, Kathrin, and Frederiks 340). Generally, in the soccer game all body parts are vulnerable to injuries. They can be because of the ball hitting someone, falling down, being hit by a fellow player or just falling down. Other additional injuries can be in the stomach, chest, ribs, and many other places. It is very clear that injuries are very many in the soccer game than some people think, and severally have people died inside the soccer field because of these injuries. Other players have died in hospitals because of injuries they obtained in soccer. Soccer game is not the safest game as it may be thought, and the players and soccer fans should be aware of this. It is therefore very important to know the risks, which are involved in the soccer game for better prevention measures and solutions to be formulated. The understanding that soccer injures will facilitate prevention measures to be taken prior to the game. This can involve the use of knee caps, mouth guards, protective pads and other things. This will prevent most of the injuries, which are likely to occur in the game. Besides this, proper stretching and warm up will also be done in prevention of sprains. The players will also be very keen when hitting the ball in ensuring that they do not lose balance or put a lot of weight on the joints like the knees. These measures can be better reached at by first understanding that soccer injures, and in fact a great deal (McKay, Carly, et al 7). In conclusion, soccer has been seen to cause many injuries and even to the extent of death. Many people assume that soccer is one of the safest sports. It is important to understand the fact that soccer causes very many injuries so that solutions and prevention methods can be formulated. Various injuries that are as a result of soccer have been discussed including fractures, concussions and other head injuries, knee injuries, strains, sprains and other minor injuries. Suggestions have also been made to prevent basing on the injuries. It is also evident from the essay that soccer is one of the leading sports, which cause injuries, and as a matter of fact, one of the major sports causing very many injuries. In conclusion, Soccer is a popular European football game style, which is very popular around the world. Unlike the known American football, two opponent teams made of eleven players each play Soccer, and it is played without employing the use of arms. One can have concussion when he knocks on the ground with his head, when he has a head on collision with a fellow player, when he is knocked by some other part like arm, elbow or leg, knocks on the goal posts or when he is hit really hard with the ball on his head (Edwards and Bodle 131). Works Cited Beijsterveldt, Van, Steffen Kathrin and Janet Frederiks. "Soccer Injuries and Recovery in Dutch Male Amateur Soccer Players: Results of a Prospective Cohort Study." Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine (2014): 337-342. Edwards, Jonathan C., and Jeffrey D. Bodle. "Causes and consequences of sports concussion." The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 42.2 (2014): 128-132. McKay, Carly D, et al. "The effect of coach and player injury knowledge, attitudes and beliefs on adherence to the FIFA 11+ programme in female youth soccer." British Journal of Sports Medicine (2014): 1-7. Noble, James M., and Dale C. Hesdorffer. "Sport-related concussions: A review of epidemiology, challenges in diagnosis, and potential risk factors.” Neuropsychology review 23.4 (2013): 273-284. Per, Hölmich, et al. "Incidence and clinical presentation of groin injuries in sub-elite male soccer." British Journal of Sports Medicine (2014): 1245-1250. Wouter, Smits and Goedhart Edwin, et al. "The preventive effect of the Nordic hamstring exercise on hamstring injuries in amateur soccer players: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial." Injury Prevention (2014): 1-5. Read More