A comparison of the sports safety policies and practices of community sports clubs during training and competition in northern Sydney, Australia

Abstract

Objectives:To compare the safety policies and practices reported to be adopted during training and competition by community sports clubs in northern Sydney, Australia.Methods:This cross sectional study involved face to face interviews, using an 81 item extensively validated questionnaire, with representatives of 163 community netball, rugby league, rugby union, and soccer clubs (response rate 85%). The study was undertaken during the winter sports season of 2000. Two separate 14 item scales were developed to analyse the level of safety policy adoption and safety practice implementation during training and competition. The statistical analysis comprised descriptive and inferential analysis stratified by sport.Results:The reliability of the scales was good: Cronbach’s α = 0.70 (competition scale) to 0.81 (training scale). Significant differences were found between the safety scores for training and competition for all clubs (mean difference 11.2; 95% confidence interval (CI) 10.0 to 12.5) and for each of the four sports: netball (mean difference 14.9; 95% CI 12.6 to 17.2); rugby league (mean difference 10.3; 95% CI 7.1 to 13.6); rugby union (mean difference 9.4; 95% CI 7.1 to 11.7); and soccer (mean difference 8.4; 95% CI 6.5 to 10.3).Conclusions:The differences in the mean competition and training safety scores were significant for all sports. This indicates that safety policies were less often adopted and practices less often implemented during training than during competition. As injuries do occur at training, and sports participants often spend considerably more time training than competing, sporting bodies should consider whether the safety policies and practices adopted and implemented at training are adequate.

Governance and implementation of sports safety practices by municipal offices in Swedish communities

“…Previous studies have suggested that adequate maintenance of sport ground safety in local sports clubs is more likely in the presence of a governing body policy or guidelines (Donaldson, Forero, Finch, & Hill, 2004;Swan, Otago, Finch, & Warren, 2009). Therefore, it was hypothesised that municipality offices in municipalities that explicitly mentioned sports safety in policy documents would be more likely to perform frequent inspections and involve sports clubs in the inspection of sports grounds.…”

“…Few studies have previously investigated community initiatives to reduce safety hazards at local sports facilities (Donaldson, Forero, Finch, & Hill, 2004). This study therefore first describes the existence of explicit sports safety policies in a set of Swedish municipalities with and without allpurpose health or safety promotion programmes.…”

The development of healthy tennis clubs in the Netherlands

“…An audit of 163 community sports clubs (rugby, netball and soccer) showed that the implementation of safety policies was low, especially during practice 28. Based on these results, a risk management training module was developed, consisting of three 2 h training sessions, using problem-centred learning strategies.…”

Evaluating SafeClub: can risk management training improve the safety activities of community soccer clubs?

“…SafeClub was developed in response to a survey that found that few community soccer clubs adopted a strategic approach to safety or had the infrastructure to implement sustainable injury prevention initiatives 27. Additional informal consultations with regional sports associations and community clubs also suggested that the safety issues of concern varied significantly from club to club depending on the club’s size, facilities, human resources, location, and player and spectator characteristics.…”