Prevention is the Best Cure- How to Keep your Team Injury Free

  • August 30th, 2018
  • Eleanor Durr

Each week thousands of passionate netball players take the court to play the sport they love. According to the International Netball Federation, over 20 million people currently play netball in more than 70 different countries... now that is a whole lot of love!!

As we all know, netball is a fast paced, high intensity game that calls for a lot of quick changes of direction, jumping, landing and throwing. For what is technically a 'non-contact' sport, the game manages to provide a high risk for a number of injuries, particularly in players knees and ankles. Knee and ankle injuries account for 85% of netball injuries (OPSMC, 2017). In fact, netball has been often described as a game prone to ankle and knee injuries. With the number of netballers increasing, the importance of coaches to bring injury prevention into their athletes training schedules is becoming more important than ever- being physically fit is just not enough.

The importance of injury prevention is often under appreciated, particularly as 21% of netball dropouts are due to suffering an injury (England netball attrition research, 2015). Therefore, as injuries often require extended periods of rehabilitation and recovery, we can try to prevent these from even occurring in the first place- prevention is the best cure! According to Sports Medicine Australia (SMA, 2008), a recent netball study found that even simply not warming up before a game increases the risk of injury by 48%.

With the injury rate for netballers being 14 injuries per 1,000 hours played, the importance of injury prevention can no longer be ignored (SMA, 2008). Sportplan's Netball injury prevention section provides a number of simple drills, requiring minimal equipment, that your players can do in their own time in order to minimise their risk of an injury. This will ultimately enable your players to play the sport they love for longer, without having to take painful timeout to recover.


Let's take a look at our biggest netball injury culprits...

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We all know how devastating an injury can be, to not only the individual but to your whole team. You, as a coach, have a vital role throughout your players netball journey. Help reduce your players risk of injuries and consequently allow them to play the sport they love for longer. Here at Sportplan, we have created a number of drills to help minimise your players risk of injuries. These areas cover core stability, ankle and knee stability and hip and shoulder mobility. Head over to our Injury Prevention page now!

Disclaimer: The information contained in this blog is general in nature and does not constitute medical advice from your doctor or health professional. While all reasonable attempts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this blog, Sportplan, cannot accept responsibility for loss, injury, claim or damage resulting from the use or application of information within this blog.