Basketball Injury – How Can Physiotherapy Help You?

Basketball Injuries and Physiotherapy Treatment

Speaking of sports that feel like they have been around forever, basketball is one of the most common sports played in the world. It is a college sport, played in a lot of universities and schools worldwide. It is also among those sports that parents enjoy watching with their children. Haven’t you ever passed by a basketball hoop and felt the urge to shoot a basketball at it? It is that ingrained in the human mind. However, you need to be careful about basketball injuries.

Basketball can be played by many ages, and even between two people for fun. It is a great way to make friends. Most residential complexes have at least one or two basketball courts within their premises. It is a way to get people together in a healthy manner but sometimes things might go wrong and you can get a basketball injury. Nevertheless, it is a method of social interaction and a way to build physical strength and endurance. Most people believe that those of a particular height and above can play the sport well. This is a misconception. Physical attributes such as height might offer an advantage, but do nothing against pure talent or skill.

Basketball gaining popularity in youngsters

A lot of the youngsters are drawn towards basketball these days for these reasons. Some people surmise that the sport might be most prevalent in Canada in the next hundred years. It is understandable once you realize that the game was invented by a Canadian physical education professor in the first place. Back in the early 1890s, James Naismith discovered a way to keep boredom at bay by shooting a ball through a basket. Since then the sport has become an international phenomenon with millions of both professional and amateur players.

However, being a contact sport, basketball has seen its fair share of injuries. Like all other sports injuries, however, basketball injuries can be treated completely. One just needs to be careful and visit a physiotherapist as soon as a symptom shows itself. Most of the time, the most common symptoms of a basketball injury are swelling and pain.

There is a particular case we can bring to light in order to make it more understandable. Let us tell you the story of Liam. Liam and his friends are quite enamored by the sport of basketball. Personally, he has a great passion and talent for the sport and is often seen shooting hoops after school. Liam wants to get into college with a sports scholarship for basketball. His high-school basketball coach tells his parents that Liam has great skill and should attempt to pursue a career in the sport.

For Liam, this is indeed something he truly aspires to. This means, however, that he needs to take very good care of his body. After one particularly tiring day of school, however, Liam starts feeling an unusual amount of fatigue. And he starts feeling a shooting pain in his leg. After a few days of pain, his parents brought him into Pillars of Wellness in Burlington for a proper diagnostic. After a manual exam, it was discovered that Liam had a very new meniscus tear in his knee. It is a basketball injury most sportsmen have seen.

Basketball and the risk of injury

In a survey conducted by the Canadian Public Health Association, basketball was among the sports that contributed to most playground injuries in the youth. Basketball sees many such lower-limb injuries for both male and female players. The rate of basketball injury is more in males than it is in females. No sport is truly exempt from the risk of injury. Contact sports like rugby, football, and basketball have a higher risk of injury, however. This is because they have a higher rate of acute injuries rather than overuse injuries. Acute injuries occur during the course of the act of playing. They can be accidental injuries or injuries caused by the unexpected force on a particular joint or tendon of the body.

Basketball also has repetitive motions of forceful movement. Movements like jumping, pivoting, running can all affect the muscles and bones in the body. These motions lead to overuse injuries.

Basketball injuries and physiotherapy treatment

In basketball, there is a high chance of re-injury. Re-injuries are more painful because it is like putting salt on a wound. This dangerously decreases the possibility of a faster and complete recovery. In Liam’s case, our expert physiotherapists realized that the injury was not truly unexpected. This was because of the discovery that Liam had once undergone a knee sprain that had never properly healed before he went to the court again.

This is dangerous. Rest is absolutely crucial to a physical injury for any sport. The factors that increase the possibility of initial injury include:

• Lack of exercise
• Lack of proper training
• Low core strength and stamina
• Lack of proprioception training

The most common injuries seen by basketball players include:

• Strains and sprains: In the ankles, knees, neck, and wrists
• ACL tears
• Back Muscle Pain
• Meniscus tears
• Rotator Cuff Syndrome
• Posterior ankle impingement
• Fractures: Caused by excess stress, or by a prior unhealed injury

Physiotherapy is one of those multidisciplinary fields that makes sure to physically understand the body in order to augment its natural healing. With physiotherapy and exercise, you can reduce the potential risk of initial energy. Physiotherapy can help build your core strength, stamina, and proprioception. 56% of injuries were discovered to occur in the second half of the basketball game, which means fatigue is a big factor. This can be made better with physiotherapy training.

At Pillars of Wellness Clinic, Liam was given a routine for physical check-ups. Because of the tear, he underwent surgery. Fortunately, he was brought in very early, which made it possible for his treatment to begin at a fortuitous stage. The worst thing you can possibly do is not allow yourself to see an expert physiotherapist after an injury. Especially in Liam’s case, where it was a re-injury. Physiotherapy treatment helps in rebuilding your body stronger than before.

The sooner you seek treatment, the faster you recover. After eight weeks of rehabilitation, Liam was able to walk well. It would take another four weeks of physical training for him to return to the basketball court in all his former glory. With proper exercise and physiotherapy treatment, it would not take him long to excel!