Big Data in US Professional Sports NBA, Hockey, NFL, Baseball
Overview:
Background to Project It is estimated that annually more than 4,000 athletes play in the top professional leagues for baseball, basketball, football, and ice hockey (Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League, (NFL) and National Hockey League (NHL)). Professional sport requires imposes high physiological, biomechanical, and psychological stress, which can increase and predispose a professional athlete to greater increased injury risk. Injuries in professional sports have been reported as high as 3.61 per 1,000 athlete exposures in baseball, 19.3 in basketball, 64.7 in football, and 49.4 in ice hockey. Sports-related injuries have a healthcare cost, and, in some instances, have long term physical and psychological implications. For years now, sports medicine professionals and organiszations have attempted to implement injury risk reduction strategies and promote safer participation. A four- step sequence for injury prevention by van Mechelen et al. : comprises incidence and severity of sports injuries, the recognition of risk factors and injury mechanisms, identification of potential modulators and evaluation of preventive measures. The time trend analysis of injury patterns is an essential step in this process for both the identification of risk factors identification and evaluating the evaluation of the effect of potential modulators. Many interventions have been shown to reduce specific injury risk. For example, incorporating Nordic eccentric hamstring training has been shown to reduce hamstring strains in professional baseball players. Further, implementing proprioceptive and balance training reduced ankle sprains and low back pain in professional basketball players. However, while injury risk reduction strategies are effective, these risk reduction such strategies may be adopted in one sport, but while another sport, with similar injuries, may not adopt the same injury mitigation interventions, potentially creating disparate injury rates.
There is currently a lack of comprehensive data on temporal injury trends (vary variation across seasons) across the four major professional North American sports mentioned above. This is despite the wide use of professional sports reporting, of not only of players’ characteristics, sports specific performance, and sports transactions, but also major injuries, in addition to coverage of the events themselves. With relevant publicly available data on player performance and injury data, professional sport presents a unique public platform to identify potential injury and illness risk factors in well-conditioned and healthy individuals.
Aims and Objectives:
Compare injuries by time, position, and experience across professional baseball, basketball, football, and ice hockey.
Key Findings:
Football and ice hockey reported the greatest concussion proportion incidence, with football demonstrating an increase in concussions over time, and a substantial increase in concussions from the 2014 to 2015 season.
Rookie athletes demonstrated the highest injury incidence at the ankle and increased risk across multiple regions.
The ankle and knee had the greatest injury incidence. Injury incidence was similar among basketball positions. Injury incidence increased throughout the season, demonstrating the potential relationship between player load and injury incidence.
Outputs:
- Bullock G.S, Murray E, Vaughan J, & Kluzek S. Temporal trends in incidence of time‑loss injuries in four male professional North American sports over 13 seasons. Nature Scientific Reports. April 2021. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87920-6
- Bullock G.S, Ferguson T, Vaughan J, Gillespie D, Collins G, Kluzek S. Temporal Trends and Severity in Injury and Illness Incidence in the National Basketball Association Over 11 Seasons. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine. June 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/23259671211004094
- Martin C.L, Arundale A.J.H, Kluzek S, Ferguson T, Collins G.S, Bullock G.S. Characterization of Rookie Season Injury and Illness and Career Longevity Among National Basketball Association Players. JAMA Network Open. 4 October 2021. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.28199.