Contact Sports
Sports with frequent contact between players, such as football, basketball and rugby, have a higher risk of injury to shoulders and lower limbs. Common injuries include muscle sprains, ligament tears, soft tissue injuries, bone fractures and dislocation.
Types of Sports and Related Injuries
Prevention of Contact Sports Injuries
To lower the chance of contact sports injury, it is important to strengthen your muscles and improve the stability of joints, tendon flexibility and your overall physical agility. In addition to helping you protect yourself against injuries, these can help you react more quickly when being tackled and improve your game.
Inner thigh muscles
When strengthening thigh muscles, most movements work on the bigger outer muscles but neglect the smaller inner thigh muscles. Gradually, this will create an imbalance of strength between these two muscle groups. Eventually, knee joints will become unstable when the leg stretches. To train inner thigh muscles, deep squatting exercises are recommended.
Lean against a wall with feet parallel and shoulder width apart. Slowly lower buttocks. Your feet should point outward while pointing knees forward. No pressure should be felt in the knee joint.
Hamstring muscles
Exercise balls can be used to strengthen hamstring muscles and thus enhance leg stability.
Lie flat. Place your legs on a ball. Slowly bend your legs and raise your lower body to pull the ball closer.
Calf muscle
Strong calf muscles, which help you move forward and jump, can be strengthened by lifting weights. Tiptoeing and standing on one foot can improve the strength of your calf muscles and ankle stability, helping you prevent sprains.
Stretching exercise to prevent knee pain
Repetitive movement of the knee joint will cause pain to the outer thigh muscles. To reduce friction and prevent knee pain, stretching exercises are recommended.
A crossed-leg stretch can improve the flexibility of outer thighs and reduce friction inside the knee joint.
High agility lowers the chance of injury
Contacts sports such as rugby involve full physical contact. Players will jump, twist or turn around to pass a ball in response to an opponent's attack. Only agile joints and limbs can react in time before you get knocked down or receive a direct blow.
Response training can help your joints get used to responding quickly and your limbs become more agile, thereby lowering the chance of injury during a game.
Proper footwear and protective gear are essential for preventing injuries.
Basketball shoes
Shock-absorbing air pads in basketball shoes absorb the impact of jumping and hard running, as well as the side-to-side motions used in defence and ball handling. Most basketball shoes are high strap to protect your ankles. They are also tight fitting to minimise friction.
Football shoes
On hard fields, players can wear trainers but on grass pitches football boots with studs on the bottom should be worn to aid grip. Shoe materials should be thin and flexible to allow the ankle to move in different directions. However, they should also be durable for longer-lasting wear. Basketball shoes are not suitable for football games because the thick materials will add pressure to the ankle that could lead to sprains.
Protective gear
These can include ankle braces for football players to prevent sprains and mouth guards to your teeth and chin for rugby players. A full set of protective gear is essential for rugby players to absorb and reduce the impact of high force collisions during matches.
A balanced diet with the right nutrients plays a key role in preventing sports injuries. Contact sports demand both explosive power and muscular endurance, making carbohydrate intake especially important. Besides loading up before exercise, you should replenish carbs during activity.
For basketball players, consuming 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates and 250 to 500 millilitres of fluid during play helps maintain normal blood glucose levels and replaces water and sodium lost through sweat. Sports drinks are a convenient way to meet these needs.
Athletes should also consume enough protein (about 1.4 to 1.8 grams per kilogram of body weight) to support muscle recovery and enhance performance.