I received a message from a good friend and one of my colleagues as to how to prevent common basketball injuries. This is really apt for people who like playing pickup basketball, and for those who want to prolong their careers in the sport.
The most common injuries in basketball involve: The foot and ankle (ankle sprains); hip and thigh (hamstring pulls, groin pulls); knee (ACL tears); wrist, elbow and shoulder (pulls, strains and sprains); and the head and face (concussions, abrasions).
Granted, injuries are also accidents. But with proper physical preparation, most chronic injuries can be prevented.
Ankle sprains
This happens when you roll your foot and the ligament holding a part of your foot is pulled. How do you prevent this? Work on your foot stability by incorporating single leg exercises, and progressing them to doing single leg hops in different directions. This improves your proprioception when landing in different directions.
Hamstring pulls
This typically happens when sprinting and stopping. How do we prevent this? Work on hamstring strength by incorporating Romanian deadlifts, leg curls and Nordic curls into your program. It also helps to practice sprinting, deceleration and change of direction mechanics.
Wrist, elbow and shoulder injuries
Incorporate more pulling movements in your exercise, not just shoulder raises and bench presses. Pulling movements strengthen the shoulder girdle.
In the next installment of this column, I will focus on ACL injury prevention and why I think there is an epidemic of ACL tears in youth sports across the globe.