Skateboarding Injuries in Spain: A Web-Based Survey Approach

Skating into the Unknown: Scoping the Physical, Technical, and Tactical Demands of Competitive Skateboarding

BACKGROUND

The inclusion of skateboarding in the Olympics suggests that athletes and coaches are seeking ways to enhance their chances of succeeding on the world stage. Understanding what constitutes performance, and what physical, neuromuscular, and biomechanical capacities underlie it, is likely critical to success.

OBJECTIVE

The aim was to overview the current literature and identify knowledge gaps related to competitive skateboarding performance and associated physical, technical, and tactical demands of Olympic skateboarding disciplines.

METHODS

A systematic scoping review was performed considering the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (Extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines. Data sources were MEDLINE (Ovid), Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and PubMed. We included all peer-reviewed literature after 1970 describing the physiological, neuromuscular, biomechanical, and/or tactical aspects of skateboarding.

RESULTS

Nineteen original articles explored the physiological (n = 9), biomechanical (n = 8), and technical (n = 10) demands of skateboarding. No research explored the tactical demands of competition. Moreover, although competitive males (n = 2 studies) and females (n = 1 study) were recruited as participants, no research directly related skateboarding demands to performance success in competitive environments.

CONCLUSIONS

Ultimately, what constitutes and distinguishes competitive skateboarding is unexplored. There is some evidence indicating aspects of the sport require flexibility and elevated and fast force output of the lower limbs, which may be valuable when attempting to maximise ollie height. Nonetheless, a lack of ecological validity, such as using static ollie tests as opposed to rolling, restricted our ability to provide practical recommendations, and inconsistency of terminology complicated delineating discipline-specific outcomes. Future researchers should first look to objectively identify what skaters do in competition before assessing what qualities enable their performance.

Cushioning mechanism of the metatarsals during landing for the skateboarding ollie maneuver

Skateboarding is an Olympic event with frequent jumping and landing, where the cushioning effect by the foot structure (from the arch, metatarsals, etc.) and damping performance by sports equipment (shoes, insoles, etc.) can greatly affect an athlete's sports performance and lower the risk of limb injury. Skateboarding is characterized by the formation of a "man-shoe-skateboard system," which makes its foot cushioning mechanism different from those of other sports maneuvers, such as basketball vertical jump and gymnastics broad jump. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the cushioning mechanism of the foot structure upon landing on a skateboard. To achieve this, a multibody finite element model of the right foot, shoe, and skateboard was created using Mimics, Geomagic, and ANSYS. Kinetic data from the ollie maneuver were used to determine the plantar pressure and Achilles tendon force at three characteristics (T1, T2, and T3). The stress and strain on the foot and metatarsals (MT1-5) were then simulated. The simulation results had an error of 6.98% compared to actual measurements. During landing, the force exerted on the internal soft tissues tends to increase. The stress and strain variations were highest on MT2, MT3, and MT4. Moreover, the torsion angle of MT1 was greater than those of the other metatarsals. Additionally, the displacements of MT2, MT3, and MT4 were higher than those of the other parts. This research shows that skateboarders need to absorb the ground reaction force through the movements of the MTs for ollie landing. The soft tissues, bones, and ligaments in the front foot may have high risks of injury. The developed model serves as a valuable tool for analyzing the foot mechanisms in skateboarding; furthermore, it is crucial to enhance cushioning for the front foot during the design of skateboard shoes to reduce potential injuries.

Returning to sport after injury: the influence of injury appraisals and post-traumatic stress symptoms on adolescent risk-taking intentions post-injury

OBJECTIVE

How youth think about injury risk can affect their decisions about whether to engage in behaviors that can lead to injury. Appraisals also influence the development of post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), which occur in approximately 20% of children after a medically treated injury. The current study examined how the injury appraisals of youth are associated with the development of PTSS post-skateboarding injury, and if PTSS or perceived benefits of the sport are also associated with youths' intentions to return to the sport.

METHOD

One hundred three youth who had a medically treated skateboarding injury within the last year provided survey data on injury appraisals, PTSS, the benefits of skateboarding, and intentions to return to the sport.

RESULTS

A two-stage moderated statistical mediation path model was specified. In the first stage, there was a positive relationship between pain at injury and PTSS, which was attenuated by the moderator, perceived bad luck. PTSS fully mediated the association between perceived pain at the time of injury and intentions to return to skateboarding. In the second stage of the mediation model, the moderator perceived benefits of skateboarding, reversed the negative relationship between PTSS and intentions to return to skateboarding.

CONCLUSIONS

Skateboarders are a group at risk for injury that can lead to PTSS, and they also are likely to return to the sport despite PTSS. This research identifies factors that impact the decision to return to skateboarding after injury. Limitations of the study and implications for mental health support and injury prevention are provided.

Relevant Biomechanical Variables in Skateboarding: A Literature Review

Skateboarding, once regarded primarily as a means of transportation and entertainment for youth, has become a recognized professional sport, gaining global popularity. With its recent inclusion in the Olympics, a growing imperative exists to comprehensively understand biomechanics explaining skateboarding performance. This literature review seeks to consolidate knowledge within this domain, focusing on experimental and modeling studies about skateboard riding and tricks. The criteria for study selection encompassed content relevance and publication year, spanning from the last two decades and extending further back to 1980 following cross-referencing of seminal works. Peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, and books were considered, with comprehensive searches conducted on electronic databases, including SCOPUS, PubMed, Scielo, and Taylor & Francis. Comprehending the biomechanical facets of skateboarding is essential in promoting its use and ensuring safety among all practitioners. Insights into factors such as body kinetics, kinematics, and muscle activation represent a foundational step toward understanding the nuances of this sport with implications for both clinical and biomechanical research. Modern data collection systems such as inertial measurement units (IMU) and electromyography (EMG) offer unprecedented insights into human performance during skateboarding, such as joint range of motion, coordination, and muscle activation, whether in casual riding or executing complex tricks and maneuvers. Developing robust modeling approaches also holds promise for enhancing skateboarding training and performance. Crucially, these models can serve as the initial framework for understanding injury mechanisms and implementing strategies to improve performance and mitigate injury risks.

Peer and parent influences on youth skateboarding and factors that affect their decision to return to the sport after injury

Skateboarding is an increasingly popular sport among youth, despite the fact that they are a high-risk group for injuries during this activity. The purpose of this study was twofold: to explore youths' perceptions about the influences that peers and parents have on their skateboarding; and to identify factors that affect their decisions about returning to the sport after injury. Virtual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 youth, 14-17 years of age, who had experienced a medically-treated injury while skateboarding during the past year. Applying thematic analyses, major findings indicated that sharing the activity with peers fosters psychological well-being, companionship, and a valued sense of community that motivates return to the sport even after serious injury and sometimes before they are fully physically ready to do so safely. Parental concerns about physical injury (vulnerability, severity) were acknowledged but not influential, with youth feeling that parents do not appreciate the valued mental health benefits that they experience from the skateboarding community. Youth reported withholding injury information from parents, hiding injuries and downplaying their severity, and not always disclosing returning to the sport. Youths' decisions to return to the sport after injury was motivated by their feelings that skateboarding enhances their sense of identity, promotes their mental health, and provides respite because it allows them to escape from reality temporarily. Recommendations for reducing risk of injury to youth skateboarders at skateparks are provided.

Adolescents at the skatepark: identifying design features and youth behaviours that pose risk for falls

BACKGROUND

Skateboarding is an increasingly popular leisure activity for youth, yet injuries due to falls are common. This study aimed to identify the features at skateparks and tricks performed by youth that pose an increased risk of falls in skateboarders.

METHOD

Video recordings were unobtrusively taken at a large skatepark of youth designated as young (11-15 years) or old (16-20 years). Videos were coded to identify the popular skatepark features used and tricks performed, and to assign a fall severity outcome rating for each feature and each type of trick attempted.

RESULTS

The results identify features and tricks that pose increased risk of falling for youth at skateparks.

CONCLUSIONS

Implications for injury prevention are discussed, including a consideration of environmental (skatepark design) and individual (youth behaviour) factors relevant to reducing skateboarding injuries due to falls among youth.

Adolescents' Perspectives on Skateboarding and Injury Risk: The Benefits Outweigh the Risks

OBJECTIVE

Skateboarding is an increasingly popular sport among youth, despite the fact that children and adolescents are the age groups most frequently injured when skateboarding. A greater understanding of the psycho-social factors that motivate participation in skateboarding, including why youth return to the sport after serious injury from skateboarding, is needed to inform injury prevention efforts. This study addressed that gap in knowledge.

METHODS

Twenty-six Canadian adolescent skateboarders 14-17 years of age (20 males and 6 females) who had previously sustained medically attended injuries while skateboarding participated in individual interviews to explore their perspectives on skateboarding and injury risk, including reasons for returning to the sport after injury.

RESULTS

Thematic analyses revealed that participants perceived many unique benefits from skateboarding, including interpersonal benefits, mental and physical health benefits, pleasure, personal growth, and identity development. Participants uniformly identified that a major drawback was the risk of injury, with trickle-down effects of injury including a loss of social contacts (e.g., missing friends), challenges to individual identity from not participating, and injury-specific negative outcomes (e.g., pain, physical limitations). When exploring reasons participants returned to the sport and to the trick or activity that precipitated their injury, the primary theme identified was that the benefits of skateboarding significantly outweighed the costs associated with potential re-injury.

CONCLUSION

Results paint a nuanced picture of psycho-social factors that impact youths' skateboarding and decisions to return to the sport after injury. Implications for injury prevention are discussed.

BASE: Pragmatic Injury Prevention for Practitioners

Unintentional injury remains a leading health problem in developed nations, making injury prevention imperative. Practitioners are primary stakeholders in the injury prevention process but rarely can devote significant time to complicated prevention efforts. Furthermore, theory-based approaches to support injury prevention are less common than atheoretical approaches. We propose a simple method for injury prevention grounded in concepts found in antecedent models. Barriers, attitudes, social context, and environmental factors (or BASE) are suggested as a simple injury prevention model practitioners can follow when working with patients. We present each component of BASE and offer examples of how the approach can be applied to risk factors associated with several types of injury risk behavior.

Prevalence and Factors Associated with Pain and History of Musculoskeletal Injuries in Skateboarders

Objective  (a) To identify the prevalence of current musculoskeletal pain and injury in the last year and (b) to verify the association of the presence of current pain and the history of injury with demographic, sports, and health characteristics in skateboarders. Method  A cross-sectional observational study was conducted with 64 skateboarders who answered a questionnaire addressing demographic, sports practice, and health characteristics. The Fisher exact test verified the association of these characteristics with the presence of current pain and with the report of injury in the last year. The chi-squared test verified whether there was a difference between the observed and expected distribution for the body segment reported with pain and history of injury, and with the type of injury. Results  The prevalence of pain was of 82.8%, and the observed frequency was higher than expected ( p  < 0.01) in the knee, the ankle, the lumbosacral region, and the foot. The presence of pain was associated with age ( p  = 0.05) and with whether the patient had already undergone physical therapy treatment ( p  < 0.01). The prevalence of injury in the last year was of 68.8%, and the frequency observed was higher than expected ( p  < 0.01) in the knee, the ankle, the wrist, the hand, the foot, and the shoulder. Sprain and fracture showed a higher frequency than expected ( p  < 0.01). The history of injury was associated with the use of protective equipment ( p  = 0.01), having already undergone surgery ( p  = 0.02), and physical therapy treatment ( p  = 0.03). Conclusion The practice of skateboarding presents a high prevalence of pain and injuries in the last year. The findings may contribute to the planning of preventive strategies.

Proposal for evaluation and registration of sport injuries in skateboarding. Professional skateboarding injury prevention survey

The recent incorporation of skateboarding as an Olympic discipline has aroused interest in the epidemiological analysis of injuries suffered in this sport with the aim of adopting preventive measures and thus reduce the athlete's time out of training or competition. There is little published on the topic. The few statistical data available refers to amateur practice and analyzes information obtained retrospectively. This situation leads to bias because It does not register relevant data that could be seen directly on the field of play or through video analysis. For example: issues involving the mechanism of injury, type of fall, etc. We propose this survey to be trialed in professional competitions and training in order to collect information from non-amateur practice of skateboarding. It will allow us to make effective decisions on preventive actions. All international federations should have access to it.

Postural Control and Functional Ankle Stability in Professional and Amateur Skateboarders

Basic maneuvers in skateboarding, such as the ollie, put the player at high risk for ankle injuries because of the position of the feet required to perform the maneuvers. This study investigated ankle stability and reaction time for the tibialis anterior, fibularis longus, and fibularis brevis in professional and amateur skateboarders. In total, 16 professional and 16 amateur skateboarders were recruited as participants and underwent range of motion assessments, balance testing, and muscle reaction time measurements. The results revealed that professional skateboarders had a significantly smaller inversion angle compared to amateur players, which suggested better joint control and hence greater safety in the former. Balance testing results indicated better balance in professional skateboarders, and healthy skateboarders had better balance than did injured professional and amateur skateboarders. No significant difference in muscle reaction time was observed between amateur and professional skateboarders.

Injury Profile Among Street Workout Practitioners

Background:

Street workout (SW) is an urban sport based on calisthenic exercises. Injury profiles and risk factors are widely explored in various sport disciplines. However, because of the lack of research in SW, injury profiles have not yet been established.

Purpose:

To investigate the characteristics and prevalence of injuries and variables that may increase these odds in SW practitioners.

Study Design:

Case-control study; Level of evidence, 4.

Methods:

An electronic survey was conducted between September 2018 and March 2019 in order to obtain practitioner information, physical activity level, training characteristics, and injury information of SW practitioners. Responses from 93 practitioners were eligible for analysis. Univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analyses were used to examine the association among several variables and the presence of injury in the past 12 months based on odds ratios (ORs).

Results:

Overall, 62.4% of the 93 participants reported an injury in the previous 12 months, and tendinopathy was the most reported diagnosis (31.0% of injured practitioners). High injury frequency was reported in the shoulder (23.0%) and back (upper and mid) (18.4%). Overtraining was the most reported perception of cause of injury (56.9%). Most injured practitioners (20.7%) performed freestyle exercises before the injury, followed by upper body exercises. A history of previous injuries (OR, 4.078; P = .005) and the middle and higher tertiles of vigorous physical activity (OR, 4.370; P = .015 and OR, 5.634; P = .003, respectively) were associated with a higher odds of injury.

Conclusion:

In SW, the shoulder and back (upper and mid) were the most injured body parts, with tendinopathy being the most frequent diagnosis. Overtraining was typically reported as the perceived cause of injury, with freestyle and upper limb exercises the most performed exercises when injured. A history of previous injuries, along with vigorous physical activity, was found to augment the odds of injury. More research is needed to corroborate our findings, along with increased knowledge about SW practice and injuries.

Epidemiology of Sports-Related Injuries and Associated Risk Factors in Adolescent Athletes: An Injury Surveillance

The present study aimed to determine the epidemiology of sport-related injuries in amateur and professional adolescent athletes and the incidence of different risk factors on those injuries. Four hundred ninety-eight athletes aged 14 to 21 voluntarily participated in this prospective injury surveillance, conducted from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019. The information collected included: personal data, sports aspects, characteristics of the injuries, and lifestyle. Forty point four percent of the participants suffered an injury in 2019 (39% of them in a previously injured area). The average injury rate was 2.64 per 1000 h. Soccer presented the highest rate (7.21). The most common injuries were: lumbar muscle strains (12.24%), ankle sprains (11.98%), and bone fractures (9.31%). Ankles (36.12%), knees (19.32%), and shoulders (6.47%) concentrated the highest number of injuries. Fifty-nine point twenty-eight percent of the injuries occurred during practices, and 40.72% during competition or peri-competition. Higher injury rates were associated (in this order) with the following factors: (a) Greater number of hours of practice per week. (b) Not performing warm-ups. (c) Using inadequate sports facilities. (d) Being aged 14–17. (e) Not performing physical preparation. (f) Inappropriate training load. (g) Not performing injury-preventive activities. (h) Performing sports technique without the supervision of one sports coach. (i) Inadequate sports equipment. In conclusion, since most injury risk factors are modifiable, it is imperative to implement strategies to reduce amateur and professional adolescent athletes’ injury rates.