Soccer is a rough sport to play and often people have injuries to their ankles or feet. This article will help promote more safety on the playing field.
Soccer is a great team sport that can help you keep active and fit. But the number of soccer related injuries are steadily growing as this sport is gaining more popularity in America. Many injuries incurred could have been avoided with just a few precautions. Remember that the most dangerous positions in this sport are the goalkeeper and forward positions.
Head injury is one of the more common injuries. Repeated heading of the ball has been known to cause chronic encelopathy, also known as brain damage.
This injury is occurs mostly in children who are under thirteen years old. At this time, when the whole body and brain is still growing, the brain is the most susceptible to this type of injury, and children should be discouraged from heading the ball.
If you are heading, use the proper technique by keeping the head and neck rigid while using the body’s momentum to force the ball up and away. If you do not do the heading correctly neck injuries can be sustained.
Over-stretching of muscles can lead to many different strains. If the stretch is sideways, the probable injury is abductor strain, and if the stretch is forward with the leg, the injury might be a hamstring strain.
To avoid stretching of muscles you should always warm up properly before each soccer practice, and care should be taken when reaching a ball. Often when injuries do occur, the ball can’t be reached anyway, and the excessive stretching will just injure you. Judge distances to the ball, and don’t try to go for it if you are going to miss anyway.
Since soccer is a contact sport, kicks to the shins can cause fractures of the tibia. Often when you do a move to trick your opponent into thinking the ball is in front of them, and you do fancy footwork, they will kick and often into your shins. To avoid injury in this way, make sure you wear shin guards and try to be careful when you are kicking as well.
Spraining your ankle is another very common soccer injury; in fact about 31 percent of soccer injuries are related to ankle sprains. This is pretty serious and can hurt more then braking your ankle. Usually the ankle is sprained if the foot twists more then your ligaments allow, stretching them farther then they should.
To help avoid ankle sprains you should make sure that the shoes you wear offer support to your ankles. Make sure that the shoes are of high quality and that have good traction. Also wear socks that are breathable and absorbent to ward off the development of blisters.
The knee is another hot point when playing soccer. Knees are often sprained when the body is twister a large amount without moving the foot around too. Knees can also pop out if you twist the body too much.
To help avoid these types of injuries it is also good to warm up, and to practice twisting quickly without using only one knee for the leverage. Use the ball of your foot to rotate and do not use your knee for this purpose. Wearing a knee guard is also a good idea if you fall to your knees since it will absorb some of the shock.
Collisions are one of the most serious injuries. About thirty percent of soccer injuries are collisions and the result is often very painful. If the injury is head to head, loss of consciousness can result or even neck injury.
Legs can also be broken or fractures can be incurred and a visit to the emergency room in a hospital is inevitable. To help shield against this injury wear protective patting and don’t run without look in the direction you are running to. This injury is often caused because people look at the ball instead of where they are going.
Soccer toe is an injury caused when the player tries to turn too quickly and uses the big toe to do this. The toe will become swollen and painful at the base, and the player will need to stay off the toe for a few days to help it heal better. To avoid this injury make sure you wear hard-toed shoes that fit perfectly, so that the entire ball of the foot is used for turning as opposed to only the large toe.
After playing you should always remember to stretch. This will save you hours of pain from sore muscles. Finish off with a light jog around the field and drink plenty of water in each break to keep your body hydrated. When running breathe through your nose to retain the humidity more and to filter the air.
Then there will be less allergic reactions to the environment. At the beginning of the season, make sure you start slowly – your body will not be used to the same pace you played at last year, so let it get used to the pace for the first few games. Just remember that it is better to be safe then sorry, especially when you are playing soccer.
