Preventing Badminton Injuries
Badminton injuries are usually overuse injuries which develop from repeated overhead movements. Injuries to the shoulder, elbow, wrist, knees, and ankle are common. Injuries to the lower limb can also occur due to the high proportion of jumping and quick changes of direction.
Warm Up
Imagine someone waking you up and forcing you to sprint, this is what your muscles experience when you go straight from your car to the game. Warm up is often overlooked but should be part of your injury prevention routine. A good warm-up will:
Increase the temperature of muscles – they work better at a temperature of 40 degrees.
Increase blood flow and oxygen to muscles.
Increase the speed of nerve impulses – making you faster.
Increase range of motion at joints reducing the risk of tearing muscles and ligaments.
Warm up will not only help avoid injury but will also improve performance.
A warm-up should consist of:
Gentle jog (or another form of pulse raiser) to circulate blood and oxygen supplying the muscles with more energy to work with.
Dynamic or active stretching drills and badminton specific exercises
Research has shown that dynamic warm ups are the best way to prepare the body for physical activity/workouts such as Badminton! Dynamic stretches ease the muscles and joints into flexibility through a particular motion, while also increasing your heart rate and body temperature, effectively preparing you for the game.
Badminton, which uses many major muscles groups such as the calves, quadriceps, biceps, chest, forearms and shoulders, require players to have an extensive warm up routine to prevent injury and boost performance. Reducing muscle stiffness before exercise has be proven to reduce the risk of the dreaded overuse injury. Dynamic stretching is ideal warm up prior to Badminton to prepare the joints for movement and muscles for optimal activation.
Cool Down
A cool down is also all too often overlooked but can help avoid injuries and boost
performance. The aim of the cool down is to:
Gradually lower heart rate.
Circulate blood and oxygen to muscles, restoring them to the condition they were in before exercise.
Remove waste products such as lactic acid.
Reduce the risk of muscle soreness.
The cool down should consist of a gentle jog followed by light stretching.
Different types of stretching
Equipment
There are three pieces of equipment in badminton that could help to prevent injury. The first is the safety eyeglasses. The second is the shoes. These must have a non-slip sole to prevent falls when you are moving around the court. The third is the racket. The main considerations are the weight and the grip size. A lighter racket is less likely to cause injury, especially in beginners, when the wrist and forearm muscles are not strong. Having the wrong grip size can be the cause of tennis elbow. A grip which is too small will cause you to have to grip hard and place extra strain on the wrist muscles. However, a grip which is too large will not enable you to move the racket well in your hand. Try measuring from the center of the palm to the top of the middle finger. This should equal the circumference of your grip.
References
Carla Wanderburg, Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre | University of Calgary
Mike Welden. (2019). Stretching Exercises & Preventing Badminton Injury. Retrieved from https://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/rehabilitation-exercises/stretching-exercises
