Screening

Playing sport means preparing well before the sporting season starts. Before pre-season training, every player should be screened to assess their health, lifestyle and physical condition. Injuries from the previous season should be assessed to ensure full fitness for return to play. If a player is injured during the season, they should be re-screened to assess whether they are fit to return to play. The goal of the screening programme is to help prevent future injuries.

What is screening?

Screening identifies players at risk of injury and identifies factors that may make players prone to injury. It can measure fitness and help match players to the position or grade most suited to them.

The information gathered from a screening questionnaire can be used to measure the effectiveness of training programmes and to develop conditioning programmes targeted at individual weaknesses.

How to develop a screening programme

There are four steps to developing a successful screening programme:

1. Health questionnaire
2. Lifestyle assessment questionnaire
3. Physical assessment
4. Follow-up screening

1. Health questionnaire

Create a health questionnaire that asks players to:

• list their known medical conditions and how severe they are (for example, they may have severe asthma or mild epilepsy)
• list their previous injuries, the treatment they received and their treatment provider
• provide information about drug use.

Note:
If possible, have a doctor confirm any undiagnosed medical conditions. Provide examples of medical conditions and injuries to prompt players' memories.

2. Lifestyle assessment questionnaire

Design a lifestyle assessment questionnaire to establish a player’s:

• job
• transport and living arrangements
• personal characteristics or behaviours
• dietary habits.

This information will help identify the suitability of training and therefore reduce the player’s risk of injury, or improve their performance. For example, a player who works on a construction site for 40 hours a week may need a different fitness programme from someone who works in an office.

3. Physical assessment

A physical assessment by a sports trainer or physiotherapist can identify factors that may put players at more risk of musculoskeletal injury. The assessment should test for strength, flexibility, balance, and anatomical and biomechanical abnormalities. Measuring speed, fitness, agility, body composition, strength and power can also provide helpful information for identifying changes or improvement.

4. Follow-up screening

Schedule follow-up screening at an appropriate time to make sure players get consistent assessments. If a thorough pre-season screening is done, a follow-up physical assessment mid-season is appropriate. Remember to record any changes in a player’s medication. Compare information collected during follow-up with the baseline results, to measure improvement and training effectiveness.

Examples of screening forms

Screening forms can reveal key information to help enhance performance levels and keep players injury-free. Respect the confidential nature of the information that is given, and keep these forms safe.

Choose a screening form that best suits your sport and your team’s level of activity. The screening forms have been created to collect the right amount of information for the selected activity level.

Last updated:20April2009

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