Patterns of injuries during the 12th Africa women's volleyball club championship in Nairobi

Abstract

Injuries are common in sports, especially dynamic ones such as volleyball. An accurate documentation of such injuries will provide useful information for future planning, prevention, treatment and management. But literature seems non-existent on. the incidence of volleyball injuries in Africa. This study investigated the injuries sustained during the 12th Africa volleyball club championship in Nairobi (26th April - 3rd May 1997). A total of 130 sport injuries were recorded. Majority of the injuries affected the fingers (44.61 %). The most prevalent complaint was muscle soreness (33.85%) followed by contusions (25.38%). Most of the injuries resulted from overuse (39.24%) while 27.69% of the injuries were caused by the ball. Since most of the injuries were specific to volleyball, it was concluded that preventive measures lay in the training of players in line with sound scientific principles and the taping of fingers during practice or games. This study was done as basis for the accumulation of literature on the incidence of volleyball injuries in Africa.