Every day, athletes at the recreational, competitive and professional levels go through intensive training to put their skill sets to the test, but over time their bodies get worn down.
This tends to be the problem during a player's season, which could span across months, perhaps years of uninterrupted activity. Although this problem can happen in many sports, the most visible example of such is during the Winter or Summer Olympics. Many of these participants are committed to their full-time jobs, but they must also set time aside to prepare with the national team.
While research among the pros has been increasing over the years, three Australian researchers realized that there is not enough data on youth and young adults who also participate in these activities.
Researchers found that collecting data on these athletes was difficult because some athletes did not want to discuss personal injuries, so they set up an SMS service.
"Considering the lack of personnel and resources for tracking injuries in community sport and owing to the ubiquity of mobile phones, texting has the potential to be convenient for both players and researchers and may represent a feasible option for future research and injury tracking," lead author Christina Ekegren told Reuters.
Every week over an 18-week period, members of four Australian football teams received a message asking if they experienced an injury. Going with this approach was intended to see of people would be comfortable with reporting back privately.
Ekegren added that this method was extremely successful, with a 90-98 percent response rate from players, and it shows that text messaging is still one of the most common and trusted ways to communicate with one another.
Sports clubs that want to increase communication with their athletes can benefit from a secure SMS API because they'll have a record of the injury. Allow Swift SMS Gateway to help your organization implement these mobile solutions.
