Traditionally, when an athlete is injured playing for their local club, they typically self manage their injury or may be referred to a doctor, physio or some other medical professional - depending on the injury.
The club may record some basic information about the injury and this may be in a spreadsheet, a WhatsApp chat, the trainers notebook or something else.
That was the extent that most clubs - not all - went to, to record and monitor athlete injuries.
The introduction of concussion protocols demanded a greater level of recording of the injury, with concussion assessments (CRT6 or HIA) that needed to be documented, with copies to be provided to the athlete and retained by the club.
When an athlete fails a suspected concussion assessment, they are provided guidelines (in paper form) regarding what activities they can do and when they should be doing them.
They are sometimes referred to the Head Check app, which is a great resource, but with some shortcomings - I’ll explain later.
In most cases, the athlete is sent on their way to rest and recovery, recommended to see a doctor and reminded to bring their doctor's clearance before they can start playing. If the athlete attends training, they may be asked how they are feeling, but not too much more.
This is not all clubs There are a lot of problems within the above scenario.
Community Athletes can play more than one sport and be members of more than one club. When injuries are recorded at a club level - they never leave the club and if the athlete leaves the club the information becomes forgotten and/or deleted Some injuries, such as concussions, should be made aware to the other clubs and sporting codes the athlete plays, to ensure the athlete properly recovers from their injury. Athletes and parents may not be transparent about their injuries. Documentation of Injuries HIA and CRT6 Concussion Assessments are typically hand written, with the original given to the athlete and a photo taken by the trainer using their personal phone, which raises some privacy issues. Basic injury documentation is not standardised - every club has a different approach and captures different information.
Many of these problems cannot be solved using the existing approach, as you can’t just ask a club to open up their injury database and share it with other clubs.
The entire model needs to be challenged and a change in approach needs to happen.
AthHQ challenges the current methods and mechanisms of how community based sporting clubs record and monitor injuries of athletes under their care.