Don’t jump through hoops to find a great basketball PT
Physical Therapy for Basketball Players
Playing Offense Against Injuries
Basketball is a popular sport amongst kids, teenagers and adults. A great way to socialize with friends and teammates, stoke the competitive fire and get some exercise, playing basketball has many benefits. Most players are looking to gain a competitive edge and many hope to be able to play the game for years. Some even have aspirations of playing professionally. One important aspect of longevity in basketball is high quality injury rehabilitation and prevention programs. To get the most out of these programs, working with a sports or orthopedic physical therapist familiar with the sport of basketball is a smart choice.
SUCCESS IN BASKETBALL
You don’t get to be Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan without thousands of hours practicing basketball drills and skills on top of time spent in the fitness room. No matter what level you participate in a sport, preparing your body physically for the demands of that sport is an important way to minimize injury risk, promote longevity and improve performance. Physical therapists use their understanding of the unique physiological and anatomical demands of a sport like basketball to train and rehabilitate their athletes. Let’s take a look at the components of fitness and movement that are important for basketball players to maximize performance and decrease injury risk:
Strength: Muscle strength refers to the amount of force a muscle can develop, the amount of force or pressure it can withstand or the amount it can move. Whole body strength is important for basketball players who need to run, jump, change directions and shoot a ball.
Power: Power is a component of muscle performance in which strength or muscle force is developed rapidly in order to perform ballistic movements like passing a ball to another player or taking a jump shot. A player that is strong but slow will be at a disadvantage in many situations.
Flexibility: Appropriate muscle flexibility is essential for players to move through their full ranges of motion without straining muscles.
Joint Mobility: Joint mobility is important for the execution of movements requiring more extreme ranges of motion like shooting a ball overhead.
Joint Stability: The ability to control joint position while rapidly changing directions or while landing from a jump, for example, is important to help prevent sprains and strains.
Proprioception and Coordination: Joint proprioception and neuromuscular coordination are important components of the skills required to be a great player.
Muscle Endurance: Strong muscles with poor endurance will have difficulty performing at a high level for the duration of practice or game play and injury risk increases as muscles fatigue.
HOW PHYSICAL THERAPISTS CAN HELP
Having a great physical therapist on your team is a huge benefit. PT’s have two main roles when it comes to athlete management. First, they use their knowledge of components of movement and fitness that were outlined above to screen athletes and identify impairments that increase their risk for injuries and may be compromising performance. This type of athlete screen allows for a proactive approach to injury prevention and athlete development. Some of the components of a screen that your physical therapist may select to use are isolated muscle strength, length and power assessments, joint range of motion measurements, muscle coordination and control tests and functional movement screens.
You may feel confident about the training and work you are doing on certain body segments like your legs, but physical therapists know that the body is connected from head to toe and are able to identify impairments throughout the body that can have a negative impact on your performance. Once they have identified these impairments your physical therapist can prescribe a series of treatments and exercises that you can implement in off-season, pre-season and/or during the regular season to support performance and minimize injury risk. By taking this proactive step you can get ahead of potential injuries and you may even see your performance improve.
The second role that physical therapists play in the management of basketball players is injury rehabilitation. Despite a good training program and injury prevention program, injuries can still occur and proper rehabilitation can make the difference between returning to sport at full capacity and sitting on the bench. If you play regularly or competitively, finding a good physical therapist that you trust before you get injured gives you the opportunity to get support as soon as a problem arises. For example, it is common to ignore small, recurring aches and pains until they become a bigger problem. When you are working with a physical therapist, you should alert them to these symptoms right away so they can advise you on how to address them before they become season-interrupting injuries.
When an injury strikes, the steps you take early on are just as important as the steps you take later in the recovery process. Knowing when to rest completely, when to modify activity and when to continue playing is an important skill that physical therapists have developed based on their education and practice. Basketball-related injuries can occur during practice, during games and even in the training room. Some examples of injuries that physical therapists often treat in basketball players are as follows:
Achilles tendon tears
Achilles tendinopathy
Muscle contusions
Concussions
Calf injuries
Each of these injuries has a unique timeline for recovery and protocol for rehabilitation and working with a physical therapist that understands basketball will help them tailor your rehabilitation plan of care to support return to sport. Injuries are never fun and sometimes taking a break from sport is necessary to allow for optimal healing, but teaming up with a physical therapist you trust will help make the recovery process that much easier.
CHOOSE EVOLVE PHYSICAL THERAPY
At Evolve PT we want to get you strong and healthy so that you can get back to playing the game you love. We apply an individualized approach to athlete assessment and rehabilitation and our goals are to help you become the best player you can be. If you are a basketball player recovering from an injury or wondering if there are steps you can take to prevent one in the future, call Evolve PT today.
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About EvolveNY-
Brooklyn's Premier Holistic Physical Therapy Clinics-
There’s physical therapy, there’s training, and then there’s EVOLVE. We use the science of biomechanics merged with fitness to help our patients get better and stay better!
First we evaluate, then we heal, then we strengthen our clients so they can reach their goals, feel better, and live happier lives. We do so by utilizing a range of core techniques and specialized treatments to reduce pain, improve mobility, enhance physical strength and deal with the underlying issues, not just the pain itself.
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