The Incidence of Head Acceleration Events During Pitch‐Based Training and Match Play in Professional Men's Rugby League

TL;DR

This study found that head acceleration events during rugby league matches are much more frequent than during training, suggesting that interventions during matches could be more effective in reducing head impacts.

Contribution

The study provides new empirical data on the frequency and magnitude of head acceleration events in professional rugby league training and matches.

Findings

Head acceleration events during matches were 17 times more frequent than during training.

Most training sessions had no high-magnitude head acceleration events (>25g).

Interventions during matches may be more effective in reducing head impacts than those during training.

Abstract

This study aimed to describe the incidence of head acceleration events (HAEs) during pitch‐based in‐season training and matches in professional male rugby league. Data were recorded using instrumented mouthguards from 108 players (70 forwards and 38 backs) at nine Super League teams (2024 season), resulting in 468 player‐training sessions and 665 player‐matches included. Peak linear and angular acceleration were calculated from each HAE and analyzed using generalized linear mixed‐effects models. During the 468 player‐training sessions, 814 HAEs above the lowest magnitude threshold (5 g and 400 rad.s−2) were observed and the mean HAE incidence rate per player‐hour was 1.52 (95% confidence intervals; 1.34–1.70). This was substantially lower than matches (25.78 [23.28–28.27] per player‐hour) with HAE incidence being 17 times greater during matches compared to training (incidence rate ratio 16.96 [14.92–19.01]). Higher magnitude HAEs had a lower incidence in both training and matches (e.g., > 25 g 0.04 [0.02–0.06] and 2.01 [1.79–2.24] per player‐hour). Out of 468 player‐training sessions, 307 (~66%) had no HAEs > 10 g and 441 (~94%) had no HAEs > 25 g. Overall, the incidence rates of HAEs during training were low and substantially lower than match‐play. However, a small proportion of relatively high in magnitude HAEs do occur during training, which could be the target of prevention interventions in training. However, given the different HAE rates between training and matches, interventions targeting matches (e.g., law modifications or reduced exposure) would have a larger effect on reducing HAEs for players than training interventions.

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