As a Chiropractor by day and Netballer by night, I see my fair share of injuries. Throughout my many years on the netball court and my time in practice, I have witnessed first hand the toll of injuries on athletes and the impact it has on future playing careers and longevity. In particular the rise of knee injuries in adolescent athletes and female athletes, particularly Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries. They are more common in young athletes aged 14-19 years and incidence being significantly higher with females in sports such as netball and basketball. Consequently ACL injuries continue to be the largest single problem in orthopaedic sports medicine despite multiple successful prevention programmes. But research has shown that a well-designed injury prevention programme can dramatically decrease the risk of ACL injury. (1)
Injury Prevention Programmes
This aforementioned research has shown that a successful injury prevention program must include proper neuromuscular training to decrease the forces on landing going through the athlete’s knee. What exactly does that mean? The objective of neuromuscular training is to improve the ability to generate a fast and optimal muscle firing pattern, to increase dynamic joint stability, and to learn movement patterns and skills necessary for activities of daily living as well as sports activities. This involves enhancing hamstring strength and power and decreasing hamstring to quadriceps strength imbalances. Whilst increasing gluteus medius and hip abductor strength to aid in deceleration techniques. With a real focus on landing biomechanics and positioning. (2)
With the knowledge and skills I have developed over the years as a Netball player and a Chiropractor, I have created a tailored warm up that will help decrease your team’s injury toll and help take them to the next level for reaching their goals. This warm up is designed to be completed in a 20 minute period, ensuring the players are adequately warm and switched on ready to hit the court running as that first whistle blows. But the great thing about this warm up is it doesn’t have to be netball specific. It is designed with a netball court and netball team in mind, but the foundation can be taken and adapted to your specific sport to help your team or individual with injury prevention as well.
THE WIPP
The “Warmup and Injury Prevention Plan” for Netball
Warm Up
Jog
- To the transverse line and back x8 (mixing up forward, back and side facing movements)
- Snake movements up and back
- Dodging up and back
- Dynamic stretches
- High knees, jog back
- Butt kicks, jog back
- High skips, jog back
- Side step up and back
- Grapevine (karaoke) up and back
Dynamic stretches
- Leg swings
- Forward and back 8x each leg
- Side swings 8x each leg
- Calves
- Low back
- From the base line twice up and back
- Hamstrings scoop
- Supermans
- Sumo squats and QL stretch
- Glute stretch
Pre-Activation
- With a partner pushing from behind:
- jumping and landing on both legs x5
- then on the right leg x5
- and finally on the left leg x5
- Hopping from two feet onto one 5x each leg
- Hopping on one leg and holding stance 5x each leg
- Jump, jump, side land on one leg 5x each leg
- Line on ground, jumping over either side 6x each leg
- Ski jumps x10
Sprints
- Fast feet back and forth over the transverse line. On go, sprint through to top of circle then decrease speed through to transverse line x 3
- Pitter patter on the line, 3 calls mixing up movements with right, left, up or down, then after third call, sprint through to transverse line
Ball work
- Working in groups of at least 3 with two balls in each group:
- Forward pass receive x6
- Forward pass receive, one end bounce pass, other end high-ball x6
- Double back receive (if group of 4, Hi-5 in middle) x6
- 10x surprises
2x Team Drills
- For example:
- Four corner variation
- Normal
- 3 ball
- Special (normal plus go back to line and work around)
- Train tracks
- 3 point drill
- Goaler’s drill
- Four corner variation
Half court or Area Specific drills
- Half court in positions of starting 7
- Area specific drills
- Mid court – up on transverse line, right and left receives then drop to circle, passer drives onto circle and worker drives up the court
- Defence – player acting as a post, passer and worker. Worker comes around posts body for two passes, up to thrower with hands over, around the thrower then down the court for a long drive past the post.
- Attack – working the ball for 3-4 passes in the circle then putting a shot up.
Warm Down
- Jog up and back x2
- Skip up and back
- Walk up and back with dynamic stretching x2
- Static stretching
- Hamstrings
- Quads
- Adductors
- Low back
- Calves
- Shoulders
