How to make it work - a qualitative study on amateur football players' perspectives on injury prevention training

Players are the intended end-users of injury prevention exercise programmes, but their experiences using these programmes have not been studied in amateur football. This qualitative study employed focus groups to explore amateur male and female football players' experiences of injury prevention training and motivators and facilitators of continuous injury prevention training. Six focus group discussions were accomplished - three with male and three with female players - totalling 36 players. A semi-structured interview guide was used, and the transcripts were analysed using qualitative content analysis and an inductive approach. Three main categories were described: 'Injury insights: From neglect to active injury prevention strategies', 'Empowering players and coaches: Shared responsibility and perceived value of injury prevention training', and 'Making it work: Adding fun elements and organising effective injury prevention training'. Players described that they were mainly motivated to engage in injury prevention training when they were already injured. They recognised the coach as having the main responsibility for injury prevention, but acknowledged that they could support the coach in this work. According to players, programme exercises and set-up could be arranged to make training fun and feasible for use in the long-term; for instance, by including partner exercises, integrating exercises in the football training, and establishing routines early on. Based on these results, we could try to encourage player motivation through education, increased player autonomy, and by structuring prevention training to be perceived as fun.