INJURY PROFILES OF WOMEN BASKETBALL PLAYERS

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to identify the injury profile of a women basketball team during a season. A total of 16 players from a local league women basketball team voluntarily participated in the study. During the 2006-2007 season, injury characteristics such as injury types, localizations, causes, severity, and recurrence in less than two months were recorded. A total of 31 injury reports were declared in all. Injuries occurred during ball training (51.6%), competition (19.4%), and strength training (6.5%). Injury rates were higher in competition (0.31 per match hour) than during training sessions (0.057 per training hour). In terms of causality, 22.6% of injuries were overuse based, and the rest were of acute traumatic origin. The most commonly injured body sites were the ankle (22.6%) and the knee (19.4%). All ankle injuries were lateral sprains and 66.6% of knee injuries were “jumpers’ knee”. About 45.2% of the injuries were mild (return to activity between a week to a month), and 16.1% were of major nature (return to activity >1 month). Recurrence rate was noted as 33.6%. Injuries are more likely to occur in competitions than in trainings, especially with knee and ankle localizations. When time loss and recurrence rates are taken into consideration, identifying injury profile characteristics specific to basketball seems to be an important step in the development of evidence-based, targeted injury prevention programs.