STUDY ON SPORTS INJURIES AMONG STUDENTS - VOLEYBALL ATHLETES.

Sports injuries are common, although apart from high-level sportsmanship, sport is practiced mostly as a means of health prevention. Injuries in volleyball have been relatively widely studied, but it is of interest to us to establish the status of the problem in students who are not professional players, but are engaged in volleyball, primarily at the university level. The aim of the study is to determine the type of the most frequently received injuries and their causes in student-competitors in volleyball, by deriving relevant recommendations for their prevention in practice. A survey method was used to achieve the purpose of the study. 84 volleyball players from representative student teams from universities in the Republic of Bulgaria were included in the study. The results of the study show that the most common injuries are of the lower limb, namely of the ankle joint, followed by injuries of the knee joint. Upper extremity injuries are less represented than lower extremity injuries, with more than 80% involving the shoulder joint. The conducted survey outlines trends for the prevention of sports injuries at the university level, allowing recommendations to be made, especially for athletes and their coaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]