Treating a sports injury with drugs, injections and a lay off period while ignoring the underlying cause is no better than no treatment at all.

The best approach is to treat the cause of the injury and not just the result. It has been said that a little time will heal most wounds, but the sports person has no time for temporary recovery. They may feel physically recovered only to find that resumption of full activity brings on the problem again. And the individual is plagued with injuries whenever they push themselves towards quality performances. The key to injury prevention in many sports is Plyometric resistance training.

For example Basketball and Netball have a very high rate of injury particularly involving wrists, elbows, knees, sprained ankle, achilles tendonitis or tendon rupture are also common. Soccer, Rugby, League etc, incur ankles, knees, many lower limb injuries.

These injuries often occur as the result of either colliding with other players or attempting to ward off an impending collision and coupled with constant changes of direction and this the key, preparing for the change of direction in some sports,
The reason for the high incidence of injuries in netball and basketball players is typically such that the high centre of gravity induces relative instability resulting in heavy falls.. This is particularly in rough under basket play when a player must leap off the floor to play the ball. In this situation, even slight body contact with an opponent or team mate anywhere below the hips tends to upset him/her
Incidence of injury can be reduced with a high level of exercise resistance and instability or Plyometrics "jumping" conditioning rather than masking a problem with constant drug therapy.

Plyometric exercises are designed to simulate the movements that take place during sport and should be used for prevention of common injury related to a particular sport.

Plyometrics vertical and side jumping exercises, strengthen and protect the muscles and tendons used in netball, basketball, volleyball and soccer or rugby, off road running and Rogaine or orienteering. In addition to injury prevention Plyometrics provides "ballistic" strength and "speed" And I have seen it used with sprinters and distance runners in Sports Institutions in Canberra, Sweden and Italy for speed enhancement.

Arthur Lydiard the N.Z. Coaching legend used a form of Plyometrics with reactive strength training using hill springing, rabbit jumps, skipping and hopping and found that the running economy drive off ankle strength, oxygen efficiency and overall speed improved.

Dr Sebastian Coe the former world 1500 m record holder, ran low mileage but relied heavily on Plyometrics for speed and strength.

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