Injury is THE detrimental factor someone can be worried about in sports. A sportsperson with great potential and a bright future might be one big injury away from failing to reach their prime. Or even worse, retirement! That’s where injury prevention becomes essential.
Injury is inevitable in a sports career. Still, it doesn’t have to be serious if you are well-prepared. Injury prevention can help you to keep the damage to a minimum. Understanding this whole thing is crucial to leading you toward a prolonged sports career.
In this article, we plan to discuss how injury prevention can lead to a long career in sports. Besides taking a closer look at the importance of injury prevention and preventive measures, we will discuss the major principles of injury prevention.
Importance of Injury Prevention in Sports
Injury Prevention is a set of activities, a guide, a routine, or an exercise plan which prevents physical harm. Sometimes, preventive measures reduce damage taken as well. It’s the bridge that closes the gap between a potential sportsperson and a successful career. But the question is, why?
An Illustrious sports career takes some work. Talent contributes to the process. However, talent for something won’t be enough if you aren’t consistent. Also, the more you are on the field, the more time and opportunity you get to nurture and polish your skills.
The hidden formula of a successful career looks something like this: consistent performance > a breakthrough > level up consistent performance > next level breakthrough… and so on. The more consistent you are, the more attention you will get, and the more doors will open for you.
One of the major challenges to overcome in this journey is avoiding injuries. The most common ones in sports are sprains and strains, knee injuries, sore muscles, fractures, shoulder injuries, etc.
While some of these can be recovered within weeks, others can keep you out of the game for months and even years!
We all can name a few players who couldn’t live up to their potential because of regular injuries. If you like football, you’ll understand why Messi & Ronaldo have reached the highest peak of success while Neymar somehow vanished from the leaderboard despite having great potential.
Professional players are always on high alert about injuries as much as they are focused on their performance. It’s pretty much a simultaneous process. They dedicate an equal amount of time to injury prevention activities as they do to crafting a foolproof strategy for securing victory in a game.
An injury can cost you if you don’t have a smart healthcare plan. Medical bills, a couple of tests, medications, and physiotherapy costs are pretty much the least of them. Again, if the injury is severe and you need to undergo surgery, then it can cost you a fortune.
Severe injuries that take a long time to heal will also negatively affect your health. Your metabolism will be slower as you’ll be restrained from all kinds of physical exercises. You’ll gradually gain weight which can lead to obesity. Your quality of life will be significantly compromised as well.
You can’t just expect your performance level to be the same right after coming back from a serious injury. Your treatment will be followed by physiotherapy to help you move like before.
That takes time, and it’s quite frustrating too. It takes a lot of focus and determination to keep up with the pace in a real game.
Then if you push yourself too hard to perform like you used to, you might get injured again. Sometimes things can go the other way around as well. After going through all that anxiety, isolation, and frustration, some players grow a fear of getting injured again.
This kind of fear can have a counterproductive effect on some sportsmen.
They subconsciously refrain from pushing themselves too hard or trying something new. This doesn’t just hamper the gradual improvement but also makes it worse. As a result, regular players spend most of their time sitting on the bench.
A serious injury also takes away many opportunities from a potential sportsman. Frequent injuries often result in missing major games and tournaments that could be a good boost for their career. That includes missing nationals and prominent club events.
The pain and effects of some injuries will manifest when you start aging. These injuries can be brutal if you don’t do something about it in the early stages. Physical activities that were supposed to keep you healthy might be the reason for your suffering!
It must be terrifying to think about all that as a sportsman, right? It doesn’t have to be like that if you take injury prevention seriously. Yes, having sufficient knowledge of injury prevention and putting it to work can really help you avoid all that. That’s how vital injury prevention really is!
What We Should Do to Prevent Injuries
In this part of the article, I’ll discuss essential steps that are the cornerstone of injury prevention. Following these principles can be fruitful for those who aspire to have a successful career as a sportsperson. Here are the principles and how they can extend your career in sports –
Warm Up and Cool Down
Our body functions like the engine of a car. It’d be foolish to kick your car into the highest gear immediately. Similarly, you can’t put a maximum workload on your body from the start. You need to warm up so that the muscles gradually loosen up and allow you to be flexible.
Your body won’t cope with a sudden workload when the muscles are stiff. That can lead to muscle tears and sprain. Cooling down at the end is as important as warming up at the beginning.
You can’t just switch from 5th gear to 1st gear at once, can you? Our body can’t cope with the sudden transition if we stop movement right after an intense game.
Cool-down workouts and activities help you to bring your elevated heart rate and breathing back to normal. It’s actually slow pace exercises that help your hyped-up muscles return to normal condition slowly so that you don’t get cramps suddenly.
Good Mobility
Good mobility is one of the key ways you can prevent injuries from happening. Mobility can be defined as the ability to direct one’s movements effectively. People focus on building muscles but sacrifice mobility in the process. For a sportsman, muscle without mobility is pretty much a waste.
You need to be flexible and able to move your body as per you need while playing. The key to good mobility is having good control of your leg muscles. If you can accelerate and stop at your own will, you won’t just be able to avoid injuries but also produce many skills moves.
Flexibility
Flexibility is the ability to move your muscles with less restriction than usual. It can be defined as the combination of balance, strength, and coordination. It allows you to avail extra range and control. Besides increasing performance significantly in all kinds of sports, it helps to avoid serious injuries.
A flexible person with good mobility can easily avoid collisions in contact sports. They can jump higher and run with large strides without the risk of sudden cramps and tears. It’s also convenient for sudden landings.
Endurance
Endurance is the physical capability of your body to withstand activity for a prolonged period. It refers to how long you can keep doing something without fatigue. It involves building stamina, resilience, and muscular endurance to reduce the likelihood of fatigue-related injuries.
No matter how skillful you are, you can’t make the best of it without enough endurance. When you lack endurance, your nervous and muscular systems become dull. You lose control of your body, and that leads to a serious injury.
Rest & Recovery
Sometimes athletes and sportspersons push themselves too hard in training and games to produce results. While this kind of character and enthusiasm is appreciated, doing so without proper rest can lead to serious injury.
Our body needs proper rest and sleeps to regain energy. If you keep putting pressure on the muscles without enough rest, you’re most likely to get injured.
Sometimes small injuries can lead to serious injuries if you don’t give your body time to recover. Sometimes it’s hard to sit on the bench and watch others playing. But it’s important to understand that it’s for your own good and your team’s sake.
Protective Gears
Wearing protective gear can significantly eliminate the possibility of injuries. Different kinds of gear are allowed in different sports based on the body parts more prone to injury. Wearing this gear is especially important in contact sports such as – football, rugby, ice hockey, boxing, etc.
Key Takeaways
We have the tendency to learn only after we really suffer. However, sometimes it can be too late! Injuries can’t be taken lightly if you want to be a successful sportsperson. Injuries that can end a successful career can be easily averted with proper knowledge of injury prevention.
If you want to prolong your sports career, ensure you take injury prevention seriously. The principles of injury prevention aren’t something you focus on one day and forget the next. It’s a continuous process that’ll help you improve daily by enhancing your body’s capability.
We have written this article based on our experience and knowledge of this matter and thorough research. The information in this article should help you stay on track and focused. Hopefully, you found this helpful.
