In the past few years there has been an increase in the number of athletes receiving oblique injuries. A few years ago it was rare to ever hear of an oblique injury. Most of the attention to this problem is on diagnosis and treatment. I have not seen or heard of any team trying to determine the cause of such injuries.
Because of this I believe that the number of oblique injuries will continue to increase. To put a stop to such injuries it would first be necessary to identify the cause. If you can stop the injury from occurring there will be no need for the lost playing time and money now being spent on treating the injury. There is no questioning the fact that treatment is ultra-important and that there should be effective treatments if the injury does occur.
However, it is a lot simpler to prevent an injury than to treat it. Most effective in this regard is to have teams hire or develop technique analysts so that they can determine whether the players have effective and safe skill execution. But, teams do not have any specialists in this area, nor are they looking for experts who can determine the causes of injury.
But yet, technique and the physical qualities related to the technique is the key factor in oblique and other type injuries. One or both of these factors will always be involved in an injury. This is why these two factors should be foremost in the training and evaluation of any athlete — if injury prevention is important. Note that these two factors are also the key to improved athletic performance.
Another bonus from doing technique analyses and determining specialized strength capabilities for oblique and other type injuries, would be the prediction of possible injury. The analyses can show which muscles or joints are lacking so that steps can be taken to alleviate the problem and prevent future injury. As a result, teams would not have to spend so much time on developing general physical qualities while ignoring technique and special physical abilities.
For more information on this topic, read Build a Better Athlete