Volleyball is a game played between to opposing sides, with six players on each team, where the players use mainly their hands to hit the ball over a net trying to make the ball land in the opposing teams side of the court. Volleyball is played by over 800 million people world wide making it on of the most popular sports in the world. Volleyball has some risks involved with it because there are some injuries which occur with in players that are quite common. These include ankle injuries, shoulder injuries, foot injuries and knee injuries.
Ankle sprains
The Majority of sprained ankles in volleyball occur when a player is at the net, either blocking or Spiking. The reason why ankle sprains occur at the net is because both blocking and spiking involve jumping and possibly of landing on an opponents foot causing the injury. Approximately 50 percent of all sprained ankles in volleyball occur when a blocker lands on the attacking players foot, while about 25 percent occur when a blocker lands on their own teammates foot following a block with multiple blockers involved.
One possible situation that has the possibility to cause a player to sprain their ankle is when the ball is set to tight or close to the net. As the ball is to close to the net the player who is attempting to spike the ball has to jump closer to the net meaning that they have a higher possibility of landing on or over the center line on the court. By doing this both the blockers and attacker are at an increased risk of spraining their ankle. There are some simple ways in which ankle sprains can be prevented, which include rule changes, technical training and strapping or bracing the ankle.
Shoulder injuries
There is currently a high number of shoulder injuries in volleyball and it is still unknown to how this number can be managed. Shoulder injuries are great in number because the shoulder is constantly placed under stress during the spiking movements and can often result in injuries to the shoulder.The stress is caused by the rotating of the arm around the shoulder joint at a high velocity. There are however multiple spiking techniques, including traditional and alternative techniques, that have different risks to the shoulder. The alternative spiking method is said to be a possible prevention to some injuries that occur in the shoulder and also enhance an athletes performance.
Jumper's knee
Jumper's knee is injury term used in volleyball circles that describes the mechanism of the injury known as patella tendinopathy, patella tendinosis or patella tendonitis.Jumper's knee is defined as a syndrome of tendon pain, localized tenderness and swelling that is detrimental to an athletes performance.in the initial phase of the Jumper's knee injury the tendons with the knee are usually inflamed.If Jumper's knee becomes a chronic injury ,which usually occurs as age increases, the tendons show an increasing degree of degeneration and little to no inflation present. As the etiology and pathology of Jumper's knee is not know the treatment varies and is largely based on a trial and error basis.