Competitive Surfers Training Profile And Injury Prevalence And Patterns: Data From Brazilian National Youth Championship

INTRODUCTION: Surfing demands multifatorial tasks and continuing interactions with impredictable scenario. Depending on swell characteristics, surfing demands multifactorial physical fitness and continuing interaction with environmental variables, such as tide, wind, wave size and swell direction. Training issues involving physical fitness are challenging, and since adults, aging and young, as also children are engaging in such modality, risk factors should be modulated to better understand the surfer’s profile worldwide. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze youth elite national competitive surfers’ training pattern. We analyzed specific surfing training sessions: duration, frequency (daily and weekly) and number of sessions/days; and extra surfing training sessions: type of training, duration and frequency. Injury prevalence and type of injury were also analyzed and correlation performed. METHODS: 82 young athletes (16 ± 4 years; 62 male, 20 female) were screened for main health risk factors on musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, metabolic, and overall matter. Training pattern, surfing and extra surfing were analyzed. Descriptive datas and Pearson correlation were performed for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Injury prevalence was 53%, being muscular injury 21%, tendon injury 16%, ligaments 17% (78% of those in lower limb) and cervical, thoracic, lumbar spine injury 16%.About surfing sessions: 77% of athletes surfs more than 5 days/week, 68% of them the duration is >90 minutes, 45% has more than 1 session/day. Extra surfing training sessions is performed in more than 90% of surfers. Weightlifting prevalence is 26%, functional training 70%, flexibility specific training 25% and cardio 46%. Yoga, 6%.66% of athletes trains extra surfing 2 to 4 days/week, being the duration between 60-90 minutes in 54% of athletes.There was a positive correlation between surfing sessions duration, and injuries, and a negative correlation between extra surfing sessions frequency/injuries. CONCLUSIONS: Surfers athletic performance should be focused on a multifactorial matter and training pattern is mandatory focusing on preventative and improve of performance. Initial screening and continuous follow-up should focus on performance and health, specially on the early stages of competitive surfing.