Wear Your Mouthguard

Sad to see Mike Copeland go down early last night at UNC's opening night scrimmage. Reports are that an elbow to the face loosened a couple of his front teeth.

I've always pulled for him since he came to Carolina and worked hard with Strength and Conditioning Coach Jonas Sahratian to overcome some past injuries.

For a 20-minute exhibition scrimmage, it was an intense game, especially in the paint. If this is how they compete in a scrimmage, imagine what it's going to be like during practice! Games might be tame by comparison.

While intense competition in practice is nothing new for this team, I have one suggestion for Mr. Copeland. If you're going to be going up against Deon Thompson, Alex Stephenson, and Tyler Hansbrough in practice everyday, please, please wear your mouthguard.

Best of Luck...

to Sean May, who will be undergoing microfracture surgery of his right knee later this week.

Dr. David W. Altchek will perform the surgery on Tuesday, Oct. 9, at the Sports Medicine and Shoulder facility at the Hospital of Special Surgery in New York City. Mr. May is expected to be on crutches for up to eight weeks afterwards and full recovery likely will take six to 12 months.

Quoted in the Bobcats press release, their team physician said “We are hopeful that this procedure will allow him to resume his career and be the player that he wants to be.”

Me, too.

Passing Plyometrics

When people talk about plyometrics, most of us think about working on a basketball player's vertical jump or lateral speed, but did you know that plyometrics can also improve your (team's) passing?

This article in the most recent edition of the National Strength and Conditioning Association's Performance Journal discussed plyometric training of the upper body.

The author recommends throwing a medicine ball upwards while lying on a bench (make sure someone is spotting you!) and performing clapping push-ups (where you clap your hands together at the height of your pushup and catch yourself before your hands hit the floor).

While he doesn't mention it, the thought occurred to me that these exercises might be useful in improving basketball passing velocity (chest pass).

A little research led me to a 2006 article from the Japanese Journal of Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine which concludes that "plyometrics, by using the drop jump and medicine ball throw, are effective training methods for improving jump, footwork and chest pass ability in competitive basketball players".

While I can't comment on the accuracy of these findings (anybody out there able to translate Japanese?), it shouldn't be too hard to add these two plyometric exercises to the routine of an older teenager.

It just might improve their passing ability.

That Hurts! - Part 2

In my last entry http://basketballmedicine.blogspot.com/2007/09/that-hurts-part-1.html , we reviewed the injuries to women collegiate basketball players.

Now, let's look at the men's injuries.

In their recent Journal of Athletic Training article researchers reveiwed 16 years of NCAA injury surveillance data for men's basketball to identify the types and locations of injuries these athletes sustained.

They found that:

* Approximately 60% of all injuries were to the lower extremity, with ankle sprains being the most common injury overall (26%).

* 1 out of every 4 ankle sprains was a repeat ankle injury ((Please see my previous posts about ankle injuries and their rehabilitation and get yourself into an appropriate program so this doesn't happen to you!).

* Other common injuries included knee injuries (10%), thigh and hip bruises (3.9%) and concussions (3.6%).

* A player was more than twice as likely to sustain an ankle or knee injury in a game than during practice and was 3 times as likely to sustain a concussion in a game as in a practice (This is not surprising since practices are a more controlled and *sometimes* less intense setting than games).

* A trend of increasing incidence of injuries to the head and face was noted over the course of the study with an average increase of 6% each year.

Like the women, the men's college game is getting more and more physical. As the athletes get bigger and stronger, and the court stays the same dimensions, physical contact has become the "dominant cause of player injury".

The authors of this article felt that "the increased in head and facial injuries may indicate that officials need to assess the increased tolerance for physical contact", that is, call the game closer. We also need to encourage the use of mouth guards, but that's another blog entry .

That Hurts! - Part 1

Last month, I spoke about the Perils of Pre-Season, the increased injury rate in pre-season college basketball practices noted in an article from the latest edition of the Journal of Athletic Training.

This month, let's take a closer look at the types of injuries found during men's and women's college basketball play between 1988-2004.

Ladies First .

In this study, researchers reviewed data from the NCAA's Injury Surveillance System to look at the types of injuries sustained by female college basketball players in Divisions I, II and III.

The first interesting piece of information is the number of programs fielding teams. Between 1988 and 2003, the number of varsity women's basketball teams increased 34% from 766 schools to 1026. This likely reflects the significant increase in participation by female athletes and bodes well for the future of the sport.

Now to some of the findings:

Over the 16 years of the study, the rate of injury in a game situation was almost twice as high as the rate in practice. (This is not surprising since practices are a more controlled and *sometimes* less intense setting than games).

More than 60% of all game and practice injuries were to the lower extremities (hips, thighs, knees, ankle, feet).

In both games and practices, ankle injuries were the most common injuries. Of these, 30% were identified as being a repeat injury to an already injured ankle. (Please see my previous posts about ankle injuries and their rehabilitation and get yourself into an appropriate program so this doesn't happen to you!).

Other common game injuries included knee injuries (contact and non-contact) and concussions. Yep, that's right, concussions were 3 times more likely to occur in games vs. practices. This demonstrates that women's basketball is a fast-paced, physical game where heads, elbows and knees often collide.

Anterior cruciate ligamen (ACL) injuries accounted for 8% of game injuries - with more than half of them happening without contact. (There are many risk factors that cause female basketball players to have a 3-6 times greater incidence of ACL injuries. While some factors cannot be changed, there are neuromuscular training programs that have proven to be effective in reducing ACL injur risk and every basketball coach should know about them and integrate them into their players' training).

One other concerning finding was the increasing trend in the rate of stress fractures in the bones of the lower leg and foot. While this could be due to improvements in the technology used to diagnose these injuries, it can also be due to poor footwear (when are players going to stop wearing smaller versions of men's shoes and put on a well-made women's basketball shoe?) poor nutrition (anorexia, low calcium and vitamin D intake, etc.), and insufficient recovery time between games and training sessions.

The authors state that "As the size of players and the speed of the women's game continue to increase, basketball will complete the evolution from a finesse sport to more of a high-risk contact sport". I think that this has already happened and coaches, parents, and trainers need to work together to help reduce the risk of injury for these players so that they can continue to play, and learn from, the game.

Wishes for a Speedy Recovery

Just wanted to send out wishes for a speedy recovery to Greg Oden of the Portland Trailblazers.

First it was hand surgery at Ohio State, then it was inflamed tonsils during the NBA Summer League and now, it's cartilage damage in his right knee.

He underwent microfracture surgery yesterday and may miss this entire season. Many times, an athlete feels that s/he is defined by what is done on the court, and can become depressed and angry when an injury prevents them from playing.

I hope that Mr Oden understands that his job now is the same as it is for any injured basketball player - to rest, recover, and work hard in rehabilitation so that when he returns to the court, he'll be in better shape and better able to contribute to his team.

Names, Not Numbers

Last week, to honor Coach Roy Williams' induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame, the Raleigh News & Observer published a special keepsake poster in their Sports Section.

Unfortunately, they missed a golden opportunity to recognize the essence of what Coach Williams is about. By focusing on "his" number of wins, numbers of NCAA tournament appearances and winning percentage, the paper did him a disservice.

If they really wanted to illustrate his impact, they should have written the names of every player he's ever coached in the background of his photo.

While I understand that a coach is usually evaluated by his won/loss record, the true measure (and example) of a great coach is not the numbers of wins or losses; it's the positive effect they have had on the people around them.