How to Prevent Basketball Injuries

greg oden

Basketball players as all other sportsmen in general try to stay away from injuries during their careers. This is because there have been many incredibly talented players who have had their career hampered only and exclusively by injuries.

There have been some players who spent much more time on the treatment table than on the basketball court that bookmakers such as sport.netbet.co.uk have made it their regular practice to check for injured players in each of the team’s rosters when creating the odds for the match.

In this article we will look at different things which basketball players can do to stay injury free. These things are often relevant not just for basketball players, but for sportsmen and sportswomen in general.

Have a High Intensity Preseason

Training in preseason is one of the toughest things for basketball players out there. All of the highly demanding physical drills and exertions are incredibly tough not just on the body, but also on the mind of the sportsperson.

However, it is exactly because of this difficult and demanding preseason training that players avoid injuries during the regular season. During this period, the body of the basketball player gets used to the grueling demands of the modern game and does twice or three times as much work as it would do in a regular game.

This conditioning of the body pays dividends in the latter stages of the season, when players who have had good preseasons actually kick it up a notch while those who have missed the preseason due to injury or have taken part in a relatively light preseason workout get left behind, or worse, get injured.

Listen to Your Body

This piece of advice goes a little against what we have written in the part regarding preseason, but listening to your body is crucial if you want to go through a season injury free.

Lots of basketball players push their body to the limits, especially in post season, and end up paying the price and getting sidelined. This is because the mind and the body don’t often work hand in hand when it comes to basketball as the rewards for playing a match are always higher than the rewards of sitting out or not giving 100% in it.

However, knowing when to listen to what your body is saying and slowing down a little from the hectic pace of the modern game is often the difference between staying injury free and plagued by injuries for the rest of your career.

Don’t Let the Pressure Get to You

Staying injury free is as much having the right training regiment as is having the right frame of mind. Players who are under lots of pressure are often much more injury prone than those who don’t take the game so seriously.

Greg Oden is the perfect example for this. The seven foot giant was the first pick in the 2007 draft, but never managed to string more than a few games because of injuries and the pressure of justifying the huge expectations of him.