SPORTS FEATURE
Rise above the game
Hoop injuries and how you can prevent them
By Rick Olivares; Photographs by Paolo Picones of M4 Collective; Imaging by Glen A. Concio
I am a force of nature. I am relentless. At 5’10” I had long legs to cover the length of the court with gazelle-like strides and long arms made for rejecting weak-ass shots. Only I was a late bloomer.
It wasn’t until after school when I came into my own and learned to really play basketball. My classmates, long accustomed to my sitting on the sidelines to heckle, now raised their eyebrows indisbelief. I was a frustrated basketball fan who learned the game after endless viewings of Come Fly With Me. It felt great to actually execute (minus the rim-rattling dunks of which I had none of the elevation for) what every ballplayer fantasized about after watching an NBA game.
But after a bit, the weekend warrior in me began to slow down, hobbled by an unknown ailment. In denial and still flushed with inspiration, I went on playing, ignoring the signals my body was sending. Why not? I was young and indestructible; or so I thought. If His Airness could play through the pain, I reasoned out (though half-convinced), then so could I. I was too chicken to go to the doctor until the pain got to the point where I had trouble going up and down the stairs. The explosiveness I once displayed fizzled out real early.
Turns out that all that pigging out, a misplaced belief that one can be young forever, and going through a misguided weight training program had done me in more than foes on the hardcourt.
The career I dreamed of was over before it got even underway.
Injuries are an athlete’s worst nightmare. For professional athletes it could mean an end not only to their career but also their financial stability. For weekend warriors like you and me, it could be the bitter end to a childhood dream and a means to stay fit.
A study by the American Center for Disease Control (CDC) found that 4.3 persons are treated every year for sudden sports trauma in emergency rooms. That telling statistic doesn’t begin to tell the whole story.
The figure is exclusive of the millions of weekend warriors who engage in athletic activity as a means of staying fit or satisfying their competitive urges. Since there is no national sporting body to keep track of this, conservative estimates would place the number of sports-related injuries to 10 million annually.
There is no surefire way to avoid sports injuries unless you avoid playing like the plague. For many, it’s a way of life. They grew up active in sports and in many ways, it defines them.
What follows are information on familiar injuries, and stories of inspiration to survive them. Read and learn. So you don’t wind up as another statistic.
» Fitness archive
Men's Health Philippines - July 2006 Issue
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3 Kinds of Sports Injuries
1 Acute Injuries A purely accidental injury from a single sudden incident, such as pulling a muscle or being struck in the face by an elbow
2 Overuse Injuries Injuries that develop because of improper stretching and conditioning
3 Chronic Injuries Injuries that occur after playing a sport for a long time. Symptoms of these include pain when playing, a dull ache when you rest, and swelling.
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