What do you guys think

[cingularity83]

I love playing basketball too much, and I think its become an addiction. Playing ball is good and all because its good cardio and excercise, and the fact that I am a very competitive person by nature helps alot. The problem is that most of the time I play ball I end up spraining my ankle. Its gotten to the point where I sprain my ankle every month now. After an ankle sprain, Its hard for me to do regular cardio, leg excercises. Then foolishly 3 or 4 days later before the ankle even heals I go to the gym, get on the court and see some friends playing ball and I want to play again. I don't know if I should just stop playing completely, believe me I've said that like a 100 times after every injury, and then a week later I'm on the court shooting jump shots. As you might have guessed, I sprained my ankle today and I'm considering not playing at the very least this whole month. I have no idea what to do....I don't want to have a day where something terrible happens to me before I realise that I should've stopped playing along time ago.

[Haven]

Whoa. I sprained my ankle badly once while playing soccer, and the doctor told me to stay off of it for at least several weeks.

 

I don't think you have to stop playing basketball, you just have to let your sprained ankle heal before you start playing again. I guess you didn't sprain it that badly, otherwise the pain would keep you from playing... but eventually it might, so imagine limping around with a swollen ankle after you've sprained it the 12374the time because you never let it heal. Try to keep this mental image of pain and injury in mind the next time you're tempted to play basketball, okay? Because serious injuries are not fun, and I'm no doctor, but I think you're definitely risking that by not letting your ankle heal.

[bhzmafia]

Go out and buy an ankle brace. Im just like you - I love basketball, and my ankles are wrecked from it. I bought this really hardcore ankle brace from a chemist, it cost $70, but its worth every dollar, especially if you are going to use it.

With the ankle brace, it will prevent any further damage, and also let you use your ankles.

 

No such thing as too much basketball

[cingularity83]

Hey...

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to have to work on my self discipline. Sometimes I might in be in pain and I just play thru it. Alot of people I play with call me a warrior because of the fact that I play thru injury sometimes. I know its dumb especially since I'm not getting paid for it or anything like that.

[bhzmafia]

With an ankle brace, there is no pain to play through... thats the whole point

[RayKay]

Everytime you injure your ankle, you make it weaker, and more likely to injure again. If you do not wait for it to heal, you are increasing your changes of a SEVERE injury. And that WILL leave you off the court for a LONG time.

 

I would suggest that first of all, you go see a sports physiotherapist, so they can help you strengthen the ankle, and make sure you are using proper shoes and equipment (ie like the brace). Flexibility is important, as most injuries to ankle occur due to tight calves, ankles and hamstrings. In basketball you are doing a lot of sudden movements, side to side and twisting which increases chances of injury. It may also be that you don't give your body enough rest to recover and heal, so it is more prone to injury.

 

While it may seem like an inconvenience now, in the future it will possibly be a much bigger problem, so you have to take care of yourself. I sometimes get injured in my activities too (well, mountain biking especially by it's very nature is crash-a-plenty) but there is a difference between going on after you got a gash to your arm or leg, and pushing through when you have a broken collarbone or continuing to run when you have plantar fascitis. The first will heal, despite it, the latter will worsen and cause even further problems that can risk your ability to do that activity at all.

 

You don't need to stop basketball, but you need to be smart about it. As your ankle heals, switch to low impact activities like swimming and cycling.