ABSTRACT Haverinen, Henna. 2013. Sport injuries in floorball: males and females. Department of Sport Sciences, Master Thesis of physical education, University of Jyväskylä. 67 p.

In recent years floorball has dramatically grown its popularity. At the same time floorball has many risk factors like sudden changes of direction, acceleration and brak-ing as well as uncontrolled contacts with opponents, sticks and balls. The purpose of this study was to examine the incidence, injury types, causes and severity of the injuries in male and female floorball. In addition the study was to examine the possible the risk factors of the injuries and the difference between two different surfaces, artificial floors and wooden floors.

Floorball players (N=147) from 7 top-level female and 6 top-level male Finnish floorball teams took part in the study. Players answered to a questionnaire about personal back-grounds, practice and game hours of floorball, old injuries and injuries which had occurred during the season 2011–2012 in internet. In this study an injury was defined as a sudden injury which means that the player was forced to interrupt the training or the match.

During the season 46,4 % of females and 35,9 % of males suffered from overuse injuries while 40,6 % of females and 44,9 % of males suffered from traumatic injuries. The incidence of the injuries in floorball was 1,6 injuries/ 1000 practice hours and 17,6 inju-ries/ 1000 game hours. Most of the injuries were minor and were targeted to knees and angles. The most common type of injury was a strain and a sprain. The most of common causes of the injuries were sudden changes of direction or braking as well as contacts with an opponent. The playing surface didn’t effect on the incidence of the injuries. On artificial floor males had more injuries than on wooden floor where as females got more injuries on wooden floor. Minor strains and sprains occurred mostly on artificial floor compared to wooden floor while playing surface did not matter with severe injuries.

The largest differences in the incidence of the injuries were differences between the injuries in practices and games. Most of the injuries occurred in games. The ankle and knee injuries were most common and therefor to the prevention of such injuries should be focused.

Key words: floorball, injury, incidence, injury type, risk factor, game surface