Hurlingham Autumn 2019 - page 26

hurlinghampolo.com
TA L K
26
haematoma / contusion / bruise
minor injury
fracture
muscle rupture / tear / spasm / cramp / haematoma
ligament injury
concussion
dislocation / subluxation / instability
undiagnosed injury
abrasion/ laceration
dental injury
tendon tear / tendinopathy
eye injury
injury to meniscus / articular cartilage
other bone injury
nerve injury
P O L O I N J U R I E S
B Y T Y P E
T H R I L L S A N D S P I L L S
Sam Coates and Victor Chua of the HPA Safety Advisory Committee report on the
findings of a survey conducted to investigate the rate of injuries in polo
Winston Churchill once famously said:
‘There is nothing better for the inside of
a man than the outside of a horse.’ And,
while this may be true for the inside, our
four-legged friends have also proven to
be quite damaging for the outside, especially
in the polo world.
We have long been dissatisfied with the
quality of injury statistics in our largely
volunteer-run sport. Unlike sports such
as racing, where race medics collate
statistics on fallers and fractures, our
sport relies on volunteers at all but the
biggest clubs to collect data, and at
the end of the year many clubs claim that
no injuries occurred.
To get a better idea of our injury rate, and
how we compare to other horse sports, we
surveyed members in 2019 on HPA sign-up,
asking about injuries they suffered in 2018.
Around 439 submissions later, a 20%
response rate, we found the most commonly
injured area was the head and face, and the
most common type of injury was a fracture.
While 439 responses is not bad, we are
hoping an increased response rate in the
future will help us to get a more accurate
view of injuries, especially since people who
were injured may be overrepresented in the
responses. This survey also assumes that
players in the 2018 season return for the
2019 season but does not take into account
those who sustained injuries so serious that
they have had to hang up their boots during
or after the season. We are aware of a
handful of such cases. Thankfully, there
were no deaths during polo in 2018.
As for the results, the most common type
of injury sustained last year was a fracture,
with 25 respondents having sustained one.
Another common type of injury was a muscle
rupture or ligament injury, with 14 reported.
Five players reported concussion, and a
further five experienced dislocations. It is
important to bear in mind that these
numbers should be multiplied by five, in
order to get the overall rate of injury.
Interestingly, despite the amount of
injuries reported, polo has a very low rate
of injury per chukka, of 0.12%. This is the
same as Irish flat racing, which has a 0.12%
injury rate per race start. Irish Point to Point
has 0.89%, and Irish National Hunt has the
highest of them all, at 1.07%.
Alongside injuries, the results of the
distributed survey also show us the average
number of chukkas played per club. However,
25
13
11
8
6
5
3
3
3
1
1
1
1
5
5
©WWW. I M A G E S O F P O LO. C O M
1...,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25 27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,...68
Powered by FlippingBook