Sports Injury Prevention in Badminton

This is the 3219th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

Badminton is a very popular sport, loved by men, women, young and old, but incorrect posture or insufficient warm-up during the sport can lead to injuries to joints and muscles. Generally speaking, most of the injuries in badminton are soft tissue injuries, mainly involving muscles, fascia, tendons, tendon sheaths, joint capsules and ligaments.

Shoulder Injury

When smashing the ball, the power should be concentrated on the wrist joint, and the muscles should be contracted at the moment of hitting the ball, and the muscles should be relaxed at other times. If the power is concentrated on the shoulder joint when hitting the ball and the muscles are always tense, it is easy to injure the shoulder joint.

Elbow Injury

Elbow joint injuries are also relatively common. For example, "tennis elbow" is a common injury in all racket sports. In badminton technical movements, wrist flexion and forearm rotation are more common. For example, when hitting the ball backhand, when the elbow joint is at 130-180 degrees, the combined force of the extensor muscles is most concentrated, and the lateral ligament is also stretched the tightest. At this time, if you use the greatest force to do the throwing action, you may be injured. Therefore, it is very necessary to strengthen the protection of the elbow joint and prevent the occurrence of tennis elbow. Improvement measures for tennis elbow: fully move all joints before going on the court, swing the racket for a few minutes before playing, and gradually increase the strength when you first start playing, especially in winter when it is cold; hold the racket loosely, and don't keep your elbow too straight when hitting the ball; gradually increase strength exercises, and wear elbow pads.

Wrist joint injury

Due to the technical requirements of badminton, whether it is hitting, smashing, hanging, picking, pushing, slapping, or hooking, the wrist is required to have basic extension and abduction movements. Then, according to different technical essentials, the wrist is quickly straightened and flashed to whip the ball, or the wrist is extended and abducted to adducted, internally rotated and flashed to cut the ball. In this rapid extension and whipping movement, the wrist also continuously makes internal, external rotation and flexion movements at different angles. The wrist is very easy to be injured, so the triangular cartilage disc, the weak link of the wrist, is constantly damaged by rotation and squeezing. There is also the problem of the racket. If the poundage is too high or the racket is too hard, it is easy to hurt the wrist. Therefore, in badminton, not only should we pay attention to the warm-up of the wrist, but also choose a racket that is convenient for you.

Psoas muscle injury

The technical characteristics of badminton require the waist to be in constant hyperflexion (such as lunge to receive the lob, stride to receive, rub the ball in front of the net) or hyperextension (such as spike, smash, hit the backcourt high ball). The waist is easily injured in the repetition of these movements. Amateurs are not focused when playing, their muscles are too relaxed, their movements are wrong, and their warm-up exercises are not sufficient. These reasons can easily cause acute lumbar sprains. When acute lumbar muscle sprain occurs, persistent localized pain occurs in the waist. Pain occurs immediately on one or both sides after lumbar muscle sprain. When acute lumbar sprain occurs, stop exercising immediately, and send to the hospital immediately if the condition is serious. Prevent the condition from becoming chronic due to delayed treatment. In the early stage of sprain, it is advisable to sleep on a hard bed. Pay attention to keeping warm and resting. Severe cases need to rest for 2-3 weeks. Try to avoid spraining again after recovery.

Knee Injury

Knee joint injuries are often related to poor landing posture after jumping and smashing. Be extra careful when doing jumping movements, because when landing after jumping, the human body is prone to lose balance or the legs are not close enough, causing the calf to suddenly abduct, externally rotate, or the calf to be fixed, and the thigh to suddenly adduct and internally rotate, which may cause medial knee ligament injury or even medial meniscus injury; if the flexed knee joint, the calf suddenly adducts, internally rotates, or the calf is fixed, and the thigh suddenly abducts and externally rotates, it will cause lateral knee ligament injury and even lateral meniscus injury. Improvement measures for knee joint injuries: Use static half squats or weighted static half squats to increase the strength of this part. If the quadriceps are strong, the ability to bear the load during exercise is strong, and the possibility of strain will be smaller. When doing strength-enhancing exercises, the angle of knee flexion can be started from a small angle to the angle where knee pain occurs, and then slowly increased to no more than 90 degrees. The time for each exercise can be gradually increased from 5 minutes to more than half an hour. During the exercise, it is until the quadriceps trembles slightly. Wearing knee pads during exercise can effectively prevent knee joint injuries.

Ankle Injury

The ankle joint is also a very vulnerable part in badminton. Due to the large change in the landing point of badminton, players need to keep moving their feet. Many people rush to the net to catch the ball and are used to landing on their toes because of the fast speed. This practice can easily cause local overload of the ankle joint. In addition, insufficient muscle strength leads to sprained ankle ligaments. Long-term incorrect posture can also cause traumatic synovitis of the ankle joint. The correct landing method: when stepping forward, the outer back side of the heel touches the ground first, and then move forward until the entire sole of the foot touches the ground. When landing, you should try to make your steps light and avoid sudden and violent landing. It is best to play in a venue with a wooden floor. The soles of sports shoes should have a certain thickness and elasticity to reduce the chance of injury to the ankle, knee and other joints. According to a survey, there are as many as seven reasons for ankle injuries in badminton, and the two that account for the largest proportion are excessive local load and poor venue.

Based on the common injuries in badminton, in addition to health care regulations, it is also important to prevent them from the equipment aspect before playing.

1. Reduce the tension (tightness) of the badminton strings

Looser strings provide a greater string bed effect, allowing the ball to be hit faster and harder while transmitting less vibration.

2. Choose a racket with a larger sweet spot

The so-called sweet spot is the best hitting area on the racket face. When the hitting point is in the sweet spot, you can have enough hitting power, ball control, and little vibration, and you will feel very comfortable. The larger the sweet spot of the racket, the less likely it is to hit the non-sweet spot when hitting the ball, so there is less chance of vibration and less chance of injury.

3. Check the size of the handle

If the grip of the racket is too small, when the ball does not hit the sweet spot, the racket will have a greater torque, which will cause greater damage to the arm. If the grip is too large, the palm will not be able to hold the racket firmly, and fatigue will occur easily. The appropriate size should be that there is a gap of about 5-8mm between the ring finger and the fish muscle when holding the racket in the forehand.

4. Check the hardness of the racket

A racket with a hard shaft requires the player to exert more force when hitting the ball, which makes the arm more easily fatigued and more prone to injury. A racket with a soft shaft does not require too much force to hit a more powerful ball, reducing the possibility of arm fatigue. The average hardness of the current badminton racket shaft has been greatly reduced compared to previous years. Of course, a softer racket shaft will have a worse control over the direction of the ball.

5. Pay attention to whether the batting posture is correct

Incorrect batting posture is an important cause of injury, such as: hitting the ball too low, too far back, not leaning sideways enough when hitting the ball, swinging your upper arm to hit the ball, etc. Ask the experts around you to correct your mistakes.

I hope that a healthy way of playing badminton can help you experience a happier life.

Author: Tian Tianning, Shanghai Seventh People's Hospital