A Comparison of Collegiate Women’s Court and Beach Volleyball Injury Data: A Three Year Retrospective analysis

Abstract

Objectives: NCAA Division I beach volleyball is a recently introduced sport that has been played for 3 seasons to date. Since the introduction of this new level of athletic participation for women’s’ beach volleyball, no study has been performed to compare the injury patterns between court and sand volleyball playing surfaces. The goal of this study is to compare the injury patterns and incidence in women’s collegiate court and beach volleyball in order to aid trainers, coaches and medical staff in effectively preparing and treating these collegiate athletes. Methods: A 3 year, retrospective review of all training room injury reports were analyzed for both beach and court volleyball from the 2015 through 2017 seasons. Non-athletic injuries or illness were excluded from analysis. Standardized injury rates for beach and court surfaces were calculated by normalizing the total number of injuries by the number of athletes and sets played. To compare the injury patterns among court versus beach volleyball players, injuries were categorized into one of six body regions (abdomen, lower extremity, upper extremity, thorax, head, and back). The proportion of injuries to each of these regions by playing surface was then calculated to compare injury patterns by playing surface. Chi-squared test and odds ratios were used to compare injury rates. Results: Between 2015 and 2017, 90 court volleyball injuries were recorded, while 49 beach volleyball injuries were recorded in the same time period. Court volleyball players had nearly quadruple the injury rate when compared to beach volleyball players, 0.039 and 0.010 injuries per athlete-set respectively (OR 4.05, 95%CI 2.85-5.76, p<0.0001). Court volleyball players suffered a higher proportion of lower extremity injuries when compared to beach volleyball players (51.5% vs. 12.8% respectively, p=0.004), and beach volleyball players suffered a significantly higher proportion of back injuries when compared to court volleyball players, (23.4% vs. 7.8% respectively, p=0.010). Conclusion: The data suggests a significantly higher incidence of injury for court volleyball players when normalized for gameplay exposure. There were, also significant differences in injury patterns with court volleyball players having a higher proportion of lower extremity injuries and beach volleyball having a higher proportion of back injuries. Recognizing these differences can aid in the establishment of preventative strength and conditioning programs as well as post training treatment protocols for these athletes which may increase both the individuals as well as the teams overall competitive success.