This is an accident that happened around me. My father’s colleague’s son is a college student who loves sports. During his daily basketball game, he got a little injury. He didn’t care at the time, until one day he realized he couldn’t walk anymore.
If your children also like playing basketball, you should attach great importance to this activity as basketball has one of the highest injury rates compared to other sports. We will introduce the most common injuries in basketball players and effective measures to prevent basketball injuries.
The Most Common Basketball Injuries
Here are five common basketball injuries. We will make an introduction about them from the symptoms, reasons, and prevention measures.
Ankle Sprains
Ankle Sprains
Spraining ankle refers to ankles flexed and inverted (the foot turned inward toward the opposite foot or on the outside). Most basketball players have suffered sprained ankles because it is one of the most common injuries in athletes.
The forming of ankle sprains
The main intrinsic risk factor of ankle injury is previous injury, especially recent injury, such as incomplete healing of lateral ligament injury. An ankle injury may cause mechanical instability of the joint or damage the function of the neuromuscular system, that is, losing the ability to control and correct the position of the foot.
External risk factors include the uneven or hard surface of sports fields. An ankle sprain is usually caused by leaping to the ground, such as running on an uneven basketball court or leaping to the ground. In team sports such as basketball and volleyball, ankle injuries are often caused by athletes stepping on other players’ feet when they jump to the ground.
Measures to prevent ankle sprains
Here are some reasonable exercise measures which can effectively reduce the occurrence of an ankle sprain. It will be beneficial to practice more.
1. Balance Practice
Stand on the shaking board with one foot, lift and bend the other foot 90 degrees, cross your arms in front of your chest, use dynamic ankle and joint stability to keep your body balanced, minimize the movement of arms, hip joints, and knee joints, and improve your balance ability, which can effectively prevent an ankle sprain.
2. Braces and Ankle Protectors
Wrap a bandage or strap around the ankle before exercising to fully protect the ankle.
Note: Be sure to pay attention to the tightness of the winding, and do not backfire because the winding is too tight.
3. Warm-up Exercises
Adequate preparation for the ankle before exercise is beneficial to reduce the viscosity of the joint ligament and prevent an ankle sprain.
4. Suitable Shoes
Wearing moderately poor shoes or shoes that don’t fit your foot structure is very likely to cause an ankle sprain. Suitable shoes can play a preventive role. Shoes with strong support functions can improve flexibility and side stability and reduce the chance of ankle injury.
Knee Ligament Injuries
It is caused by damage to the four major ligaments in the knee joint: the medial collateral ligament, the lateral collateral ligament, the anterior cruciate ligament, and the posterior cruciate ligament.
- Medial Collateral Ligament: An injury primarily caused by excessive valgus rotation of the knee joint. The injury is often accompanied by damage to other structures, such as the meniscus.
- Lateral Collateral Ligament: An injury primarily caused by excessive inversion of the knee. The lateral collateral ligament is generally less susceptible to injury.
- Anterior Cruciate Ligament: An injury primarily caused by excessive outward rotation of the knee or excessive extension of the knee. The injury is often combined with a medial meniscus injury.
- Posterior Cruciate Ligament: An injury caused by excessive posterior displacement of the lower leg during knee flexion, often caused by an external force.
Symptoms of Knee Ligament Injuries
- Severe pain: The ligament injury is often associated with severe pain.
- Swelling: After an injury, swelling occurs in the knee joint, often accompanied by bruising of the skin.
- Compression pain: It refers to pain that occurs when pressure is applied to a part of the person’s body.
- Fluid accumulation: Localized heat and pain and swelling in the knee joint.
- Knee muscle spasm: Severe pain and stress will lead to stiff muscle and involuntary muscle contraction.
- Sound: A ligament tearing sound is generally heard when you get a knee ligament injury.
Prevention measures
Strength is the foundation, proprioception, and movement (balance, dexterity, control) are the prerequisites, and sport-specific training is the core.
Deep squats, hard pulls, lunges, etc. (large) weight-bearing movements can improve strength.
Single-leg movements or practice with balance balls can improve proprioception.
To prevent injury through controlling body confrontation, jumping, and landing, change of direction.
Patellar Tendonitis
Jumper’s Knee
Patellar tendonitis can be also called jumper’s Knee which is usually caused by overuse or injury to the patellar tendon. Once you overuse your knee in sports like running, jumping, or playing basketball, tiny tears will be formed in the patellar tendon.
Symptoms of Patellar Tendonitis
- Pain beneath your kneecap when moving
- Swelling
- Bruising or redness
- Stiffness of the knee while jumping, kneeling or squatting
- Leg or calf weakness
- Pain when bending the knee
Prevention Measures
- Warm up before and cool down after exercising.
- Wear suitable shoes and kneepads.
- Gradually increase the intensity of your workouts.
Cross Basketball Necklace
Now you have grasped the practical measures to keep basketball injuries at bay. But as a Chinese old saying goes that plans couldn’t catch up with change. Sometimes good luck plays an important role in an accident. So if you want to seek for psychological comfort, a piece of cross basketball necklace would be a good choice. God will bless you with good health.
Featured with its creative style, the combination of cross and elements of basketball, this piece of necklace is designed for basketball lovers. Crafted in sterling silver, it is sweat-proof, best choice for people who often exercise. If you want to seek more jewels for sports lovers, please feel free to visit YFN Jewelry.
More basketball chains are available.
