5 Tips to Prevent Injury in Badminton
There are many possible injuries one could potentially get as a result of playing badminton. The common ones are lower back pain, sprained ankle, tennis elbow and ligament tear.
If you are a serious badminton player, you should take precautions to prevent these injuries. The more intense you are during your game, the higher chance that you’ll get these injuries.
1. Warm Up/Warm down and Stretching
The reason why professional badminton players spend about 30 minutes in total to warm up/warm down is because they know the risks involved if they skip their warm up sessions.
Failure to warm up and stretch before exercise might result in muscle pulls. Not only does warm up and stretching help prevent muscle pulls; it will also help increase your performance when you play.
Therefore, do not get too eager to start playing when you reach the badminton court. Spend a few minutes to warm up and stretch so that your muscles are loosened and are more flexible during your badminton session.
2. Correct Technique
It is also important that you perform the right badminton techniques at all times. Performing the wrong techniques not only makes you perform poorly, you might get injured!
For example, the non-racket arm plays a very important role in helping you maintain body balance in badminton. It’s important at all times that you use your non-racket arm to balance the weight of your racket arm.
If you execute a badminton jump smash without using your non-racket arm to maintain balance, there’s a high chance that you will injure the muscles around your waist, hence causing lower back injuries.
Similarly, doing the wrong badminton strokes might cause you exerting unnecessary strength. This might make you pull a muscle.
3. Use the Correct Racket
Using the wrong badminton racket is a common cause for injuries. Seek advice from the racket dealer or any professionals on what racket best suits you.
For example, choosing a racket with a heavy head (power racket) might cause shoulder injuries to beginners. Power rackets are difficult to control and require the user to have good badminton strokes technique.
4. Correct String Tension
Similar to choosing the right badminton racket, you must use the correct string tension!
Higher string tensions are for control. Lower string tensions are for power.
Most professional players use string tensions above 30lbs (very high tension).
It is good for you to choose between 20-26lbs. Remember, the higher the string tension, the less power in your stroke. This results in a higher chance of getting injured while trying to put in more power into your strokes.
5. Right Badminton Shoes
You should get a pair of badminton shoes. Badminton shoes are specially made to absorb shocks and impacts.
The way the game of badminton is played is harmful to the knee cap. You must get shoes that are good shock absorbers to prevent injuries on your knee cap and your shin bone.
6. Do Not Play for Too Long
Too much of anything is not good. This common expression applies to badminton too.
Playing badminton for long hours will hurt your shin bone/knee cap/ankle as you continuously lunge forward to receive the shuttle.
Lunging forward is harmful to your dominant leg as it will need to absorb all the momentum from your lunge. That’s why the right badminton shoes helps reduce the impact.
Conclusion
Overall, like any other sport, injuries can be prevented easily if you take the necessary steps to reduce the chance of injuries.
Source by David Tee
