High levels of coach intent to integrate a ACL injury prevention program into training does not translate to effective implementation.

Abstract

Evaluate the effect of a anterior cruciate ligament injury prevention program coaching workshop on elite-level youth soccer coaches' behavioral determinants to implement a injury prevention program and describe coaches' subsequent injury prevention program implementation compliance. Descriptive study. We evaluated a soccer club's coaches' behavioral determinants regarding injury prevention programming implementation before and after a coaching workshop using pre- and post-workshop surveys. We then described the club's coaches' subsequent adoption of and implementation compliance with the injury prevention programming during the following season. The injury prevention workshop increased coaches' attitudes toward conducting a program at the beginning of practice (p<0.05), substituting the program for a warm-up prior to practice (p<0.05), and improving player cutting and landing technique by implementing the program (p<0.05). The injury prevention program workshop increased coaches' perceived behavioral control; feeling more comfortable in their ability to teach their team a program (p<0.05), and more confident leading a program if given instructions (p<0.05). The injury prevention program workshop increased coaches' intent to implement a program the next season (p<0.05), to implement a program for 15min (p<0.05), and 20min (p<0.05) prior to the start of a training session. Only 53% of the club's teams implemented the injury prevention program, with implementers demonstrating high variability in program fidelity. Coaching workshops can effectively increase coach attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and intent to implement a injury prevention program. However, high levels of behavioral determinants do not appear to translate to high levels of implementation compliance.