Basketball Injuries and Preventions

Injuries in sports are as common as an apple falling down a tree. They happen no matter what you do or what sport you play. What's crazy about injuries is the more you fear about getting an injury, it'll most likely happen. The exuberant sport of basketball outstripped the list of sport injuries due to how common injuries happen throughout an athletes sports career. The gender-based differences in traumatic and overuse injuries endured by basketball players are quite significance.

Women

For instance, female basketball players are more prone to injuries than male players are in basketball. According to Deitch, women were found to sustain 60% more injuries than men do (Deitch). It's been noted that female players have higher risks of ACL injuries (male: 30.3%, female: 48.7%), the anterior cruciate ligament tearing due to sudden stops and twisting motions. The rate of ACL injuries during games are found to be three times higher for female players than male players. In basketball, female players will have a more stiff landing which results to tearing their ACL and rolling their ankle.

Furthermore, lower extremity injuries are more continual in women's basketball. For example, female players have a slightly higher risk of knee and ankle injuries than men and are more likely to require surgery. Females will injure their ankles and knees more than males due to how they are jumping, pivoting, cutting, and most of all, landing in awkward positions during games. The proportion of ankle sprains (male: 58%, female: 64.4%) is fairly high among female basketball players followed by stress fractures (male:4.4%, female: 7.4%). Ankle sprains, the most recurrent injury in the game of basketball, is an injury to the lateral stabilizing ligaments of the ankle. A navicular stress fracture occurs fairly among basketball players by too much stress on the navicular bone when performing repetitive sprinting or jumping.

Men

On the other hand, male basketball players are more rough when it comes to playing this sport; however, they don't get injured quite as much. Osgood-Schlatter disease (male: 12.5%, female: 1.%) and jumper's knee (male: 14.8%, female: 7.2%) are more present in male players than women players. Patellar tendinopathy, the scientific term for jumper's knee, is an overuse injury that affects your knee. According to Ito, the risk factors for patellar tendinopathy in basketball players are reported to be age, playing at national level, and being male (Ito). Furthermore, a possibility of these injuries present among male players may be a higher quadriceps muscle strength and tightness.

In opposition to female basketball players, upper extremity injuries occur more for male than female. Joint dislocation (male: 33.8%, female: 25.7% ) occur more in male players. In a high-impact sport such as basketball, it results in excessive falling or stretching, causing an injury to a joint, a place where two or more bones come together. Unfortunately, this injury temporarily immobilizes and deforms your joint.

Moreover, basketball injuries can be treated and prevented. Getting a pre-season physical examination can easily tell you what you're in for. It's important to follow what your doctor tells you to prevent basketball injuries. Also training/conditioning is highly recommended when trying to prevent injuries because you're maintaining proper fitness; therefore, decreasing the chances of injuries.

In conclusion, female and male basketball players differ by the sports injuries. Female players are more prone to injuries than male players due to the bone structure of the female body. Although both genders get injuries, some injuries are more directed towards a specific sex.

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