Edition #3 - Nov 2020
GAA Handball have teamed up with Tommy Gallagher Injury Management to provide members with important information in relation to Performance, Injury/Injury Reduction, and Rehab in Handball. This "Court Ready" series will consist of monthly articles, supported by key images and videos. Downloadable PDF's with exercises will be available at the bottom of each article, and permanently located in our Coaching Resources section.
Today we focus on Ankle Mobility.
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Have you ever gone over/out on your ankle? Apart from being extremely painful, it can lead to withdrawals from games and long periods on the injured list. We often see this in handballers due to the fast paced, multi-directional, quick reaction, nature of the game.
Very few of us pay a lot of attention to building strength or increasing mobility in our ankles. With the foot being the ground contact force, the ankle is the most important joint in determining how that foot reacts as we move about the court. During any given game, there are hundreds of movements happening around the ankle joint in multiplanar directions – lateral, medial, anterior, even posteriorly. On the outer side of the ankle, the most commonly injured, you have ligaments and tendons stabilising the joint. When the ligaments, in particular, are unable to adequately stabilise the joint, and the joint receives a force, you usually end up with an Eversion sprain. To cause this the force is usually from a lateral or anterior direction. What tends to happen is that as your foot plants on the ground, the force continues laterally or anteriorly, or both, and the ligaments are unable to react in the way that they should. As a result there is excess movement in the joint and the ligaments get stretched. By the way, ligaments don’t stretch very well!
We see a higher incidence of lateral ankle sprains in joints that are less mobile, so increasing your ankle mobility should be a priority. The benefits of an ankle mobility and proprioception (balance) programme is more than to simply reduce the risk of injury. As a handballer, mobile, strong ankles create the platform for you to attack every shot and react aggressively in every defence. If you feel that your ankle needs more mobility, start by writing the alphabet with your foot multiple times during the day. Working on your calf strength will help increase the strength of your ankle. Working on your balance will improve your proprioception. Below we show you a quick way to test the mobility of your ankle joint, along with some simple exercises to improve your strength and proprioception.
See video for Ankle Mobility exercises.
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