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Physical Education

Prevention of injury

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When you take up a sport, there’s always that worry you might hurt yourself. Some sporting activities, like white water rafting, are obviously more dangerous than others because factors including the environment, weather and the raft itself influence how safe you’ll be. Calculating the risk of injury helps you assess the chances of injuring yourself, while authorities set the rules and provide referees. You too can minimise risk by improving your fitness, warming up and playing by the rules.

Calculating risk

Risk is how likely something is to be harmful. All sports carry some risk of injury and some activities are riskier than others. You need to be able to identify the risks involved to you and others taking part.

Consider:

Skiers should use protective clothing to minimise risk of injury

Frequency: how often do injuries occur in the activity?
Severity: how serious are the injuries?
Precautions: how could you help to minimise the risk of injury?

Example: Skiing

Frequency = falls are common
Severity = serious injuries and death
Precautions = wear appropriate protective clothing (eg helmet, gloves and goggles), use the right equipment and check the weather forecast and snow conditions.

Overall risk: moderate to high risk

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