Judging when to return to basketball as an athlete can be difficult and is often a combination of overcoming physical and psychological challenges. However, if athletes are allowed to return to sport once they have normal range of motion and are not in pain we are doing them a significant disservice.
There are certain physical criteria that are non-negotiables for basketball athletes to ensure they are not putting themselves at an increased risk of either re-injury or a new injury; they are “strength” and “hop testing”.
- Strength: Athletes should not begin the return to play process until they have achieved 85-90% limb symmetry on strength testing, that is that the injured leg be close to as strong as the non-injured. Strength testing can be done multiple ways depending on what equipment is available. Ideally, the testing would be done objectively using specific strength testing equipment such as force plates. However, if that is unavailable 1,3,5 or 10 repetition maximum testing can be used as a substitute under guidance and observation, to ensure safety as well as movement quality.
- Hop Testing: Similar to strength testing, on court return to play criteria should not begin until the athlete has achieved 80-90% limb symmetry on both horizontal and vertical hop testing. Should the athlete typically be a 1-foot jumper and the injury was to their jumping leg, this criteria should increase to be 100%+. Hop testing can be done using force plates which has the benefit of providing the information on the total force output and the rate of force generation (explosiveness). It can also be done on a wall for vertical hop and a tape measure for horizontal.
Return to Sport Process
Once an athlete has achieved the above criteria, the return to play process can begin. This involves progressing through on-court agility work, for example defensive sliding, repeat close out drills or Illinois agility. From there, the athlete can start to work in some non-contact and non-competitive training before returning to contact and full training. The weeks of pull practice required before returning to play is dependent on the injury, time off and athlete confidence however, an athlete should never return to play without a full week of training.
Once the athlete has ticked these boxes they are able to safely return to play with the lowest chance of re-injury. Even with this process it is often advisable to return to play with a minutes restriction, especially in cases where an athlete has missed over four weeks of games. There are some injuries that require more stringent protocols and these criteria are a general guide of the minimum requirements required for play. We would always recommend to see a Physiotherapist or Osteopath when returning to play from injury to ensure the athlete is as safe as possible. We would work with you to create a tailored rehab program to get you back doing what you love, playing basketball!
If you’d like more information or would like to book in for an appointment, please call us on 9439 6776.
This blog is written by Bailey van Hout, Physiotherapist at Back In Motion Eltham.
Reference:
- Waldron, K., Brown, M., Calderon, A., & Feldman, M. (2022). Anterior Cruciate Ligament Rehabilitation and Return to Sport: How Fast Is Too Fast?. Arthroscopy, sports medicine, and rehabilitation, 4(1), e175–e179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asmr.2021.10.027