Right before the match begins, you have butterflies in your stomach, with palms sweaty, while you think about your imminent strategy. No; this isn’t basketball, football, or baseball. This is esports, which is a type of sports competition played through video games, such as League of Legends or Overwatch. Like any other sport, virtual or physical, injuries do occur and are prevalent among esport athletes. According to Dr. Hallie Zwibel, director of Sports Medicine at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, the field of sports medicine needs new protocols to address health issues for esport athletes.
On average, esport professionals practice three to ten hours per day, with goals of perfecting their strategies and improving their reflex speed. The athletes make on average 500 action moves per minute that include attack combinations, swift movements, and defensive maneuvers. These repetitive movements, excessive screen time, and prolonged sitting can cause a myriad of health issues. Dr. Zwibel and his research team conducted a survey of esport athletes. He discovered that these esport athletes experience many different health issues: 56% with eye fatigue; 42% with neck and back pain; 36% with wrist pain; and 32% with hand pain. Another possible inciting factor could be that 40% of the esport athletes deny getting any physical activity on any given day. Other health issues include blurred vision, carpal tunnel syndrome, and metabolic dysregulation. Symptoms can headaches, finger fatigue, dehydration, and sleep imbalance. Only 2% of the athletes who reported health concerns sought medical treatment.
Image Source: ljubaphoto
Esports can be just as physically and mentally taxing as traditional sports such as football or basketball. Dr. Zwibel notes an example of Hai Lam, a professional League of Legends player, who retired at the age of 26 because of chronic wrist pain. Despite the risk of injury, esports continues to grow, as indicated by esport leagues and competitions’ increasing popularity with expansion at the high school and collegiate levels. Currently, there are 80 U.S. colleges that support esport teams, and this number continues to grow each year. In 2019 alone, the global esport industry earned north of $1 billion and encompassed an audience of almost 500 million.
Dr. Zwibel’s overarching message is that sports medicine should better support the health needs of esport athletes. Like any other athlete, they also need trainers and physicians to help manage their current health conditions, improve their performance, and maintain long-term health. For example, trainers can help prevent deteriorating health by designing specific training regimens and teaching back and wrist exercises to minimize fatigue. The field of sports medicine needs to catch up to the growing popularity of esports and provide improved access to medical care to a new and different generation of athlete.
Feature Image Source: © ohishiftl / Adobe Stock.
