Although tennis may not seem like all that physical of a sport because it doesn’t involve contact with another person, one only needs to watch tennis at a high level to understand just how physically demanding the sport really is. Athletes are constantly running. jumping and pushing with their feet, exerting immense stress through their lower body as they work to strike the ball and chase down return shots.
Play tennis or other racquet sports like Pickleball long enough, and there’s good chance that you’ll suffer a lower body injury. And while there’s no way to completely eliminate this risk, there are some ways you can work to greatly reduce your injury risk. One of the secrets to lowering your injury risk during racquet sports is tied to your ankle health, and we explore that training tip in today’s blog.
Ankle Mobility Is Key For Tennis Players
If you want to significantly reduce your likelihood of a lower body injury while playing tennis, work to improve your ankle mobility when you’re off the court. Targeted strengthening exercises, flexibility training or an activity like yoga can do wonders to improve your ankle flexibility, and research shows that ankle flexibility is closely tied to injury risk. A recent study published in the journal Physiology found that injury risk was closely tied to a tennis player’s ankle flexibility.
For the study, researchers tracked the biomechanical performance of 32 tennis players of different skill levels. They found that players with poor ankle mobility and control were not only more likely to lose power in their shots, but they were also more prone to overloading their feet and ankles during play. As you can imagine, repetitive overloading, especially on an ankle joint that is less equipped to handle these forces, is a significant indicator of injury risk.
The good news is that if we are aware of this association, we can work to reduce our injury risk by slowly improving our ankle flexibility and mobility. Of course, you’ll also want to follow some other smart tips when it comes to protecting your feet from injury during racquet sports. Be sure to wear shoes designed to support your feet during the athletic activity, take time to warm up before activity and gradually increase your workload so as not to overstress your feet in the short term. If you keep these tips in mind and connect with an orthopaedic specialist if a new injury develops, we’re confident that you’ll be doing what you can to keep foot and ankle injuries from keeping you off the court.
For more information, reach out to Dr. Silverman by filling out this contact form.