title: Full-Contact Practice and Injuries in College Football.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite recent restrictions being placed on practice in college football, there are little data to correlate such changes with injuries.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Football injuries will correlate with a team's exposure to full-contact practice, total practice, and total games.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive epidemiological study.
  
  
  METHODS
  All injuries and athlete injury exposures (AE × Min = athletes exposed × activity duration in minutes) were recorded for an intercollegiate football team over 4 consecutive fall seasons. Weekly injuries and injury rates (injuries per athletic injury exposure) were correlated with the weekly exposures to full-contact practices, total practices, formal scrimmages, and games.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The preseason practice injury rate was over twice the in-season practice injury rate ( P < 0.001). For preseason, injury exposures were higher for full-contact practice ( P = 0.0166), total practices ( P = 0.015), and scrimmages/games ( P = 0.034) compared with in-season. Preseason and in-season practice injuries correlated with exposure to full-contact practice combined with scrimmages for preseason ( P < 0.008) and full-contact practice combined with games for in-season ( P = 0.0325). The game injury rate was over 6 times greater than the practice injury rate ( P < 0.0001). Concussions constituted 14.5% of all injuries, and the incidence of concussions correlated with the incidence of all injuries ( P = 0.0001). Strength training did not correlate with injuries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Decreased exposure to full-contact practice may decrease the incidence of practice injuries and practice concussions. However, the game injury rate was over 6 times greater than the practice injury rate and had an inverse correlation with full-contact practice.
authors.affiliation: Harvard University Health Service, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Steiner
authors.affiliation: Harvard University Health Service, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Brant D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Berkstresser
authors.affiliation: Harvard University Health Service, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.affiliation: Harvard University Health Service, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Elia
authors.affiliation: Harvard University Health Service, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology; D003163:Competitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005538:Football / Q000293:injuries*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D064797:Physical Conditioning, Human / Q000009:adverse effects*; D055070:Resistance Training / Q000009:adverse effects; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014495:Universities
keywords: concussions; football; injuries; injury exposures