Rolling your ankle

It depends how violent the rolling is. I've rolled my ankle literally thousands of times, quite harmlessly, walking in the mountains.

On the other hand, a single bad roll in badminton gave me a sprained ankle.

When you roll your ankle in badminton, it is very wise to stop playing for at least (say) 5-10 minutes. Following any roll, even a mild one, the ankle loses stability to some extent. In mild cases, this stability should return quickly.

If the roll is more violent, it's wise to stop playing for the rest of the day. I've learned this the hard way; be cautious.

Try to make sure your footwork is safe. When you lunge, always lunge with your toes pointing in the direction of the lunge -- never lunge onto the side of your foot, which may cause a sprain. That's what I did, you see, before I learned the correct footwork

 

Lunging onto the side? So your leading foot lands sideways? I've never even imagined trying that

Eurasian, I think that the reason for little pain following a roll is to do with how the human body treats pain - it tends to numb things down over time. I know, 4 months ago I rolled my ankle too - about 5 - 10 minutes later I was back on the court (albeit playing a slightly slower paced doubles due to the roll).

Typically all injuries are serious, though some more than others. The factors that I look out for are:

a. Swelling up.
b. Becoming tender to touch afterwards.
c. Hurting. Lots.

Another reason why it may not hurt when you're walking could be that walking is vastly different to rolling. Walking was fine for me after my roll, but when I went to physio I "roll" my foot around (pain when positioning my foot the same way it was when it rolled). Different muscles, different strains I guess.

Did I mention it took about 3-4 months to recover? Typically it should be 2, but playing badminton whilst injured did slow it down a fair bit... go figure

 

i have something the same as u but its on my left foot (not my racquet hand foot) lol. it didnt hurt at first but now occasionally it hurts. i just put a support on it every time i play.

 

What are some things/best thing to do AFTER you roll your ankle? for example: ice? some kind of rub(what kind), etc...

 

Stop the activity immediately and apply ice. The acronym for the treatment method is (D)RICE. Generally,

Rest
Ice immediate 20minutes for up 2 hours
Compress for 24-48 hours to contain the swelling
Elevate until the swelling subsides

From my numerous :crying::crying: experience, the above has helped me alleviate a lot of pain.

 

Just be very careful. Just because you dont have pain straight away does not mean there is no injury. While your playing your muscles are warm, surrounded by lactic acid and the shock of rolling your ankle actually increases your adrenaline level.
So a minor injury may not be noticable.

At u19 Nationals i rolled my ankle whilst warming up for my first game...Got up and was fine and played the entire day pain free. The next day was a different story. If it wasn't for our team trainer who was a physio i wouldnt have played another day at nationals.

 

thanks alot, it's always good to know what to do to minimize the injury

 

In my experience (99% of my ankle sprains are playing sports other than Badminton) there are two kinds of ankle sprains, the little tweeks and the big blowouts.

With little tweeks I often find that it's better to keep moving. I feel that by walking (or even playing if it's a small tweek) I flush out the extra fluid that would build up and it's usually a little sore the next day but not too bad.

With big blowouts (sometimes associated with a popping sounds and always associated with excruciating pain, immediate swelling and an inability to put any weight on it) you should follow Weeyeh's advice (although I like to add another i in there: Rest Ice Ibuprofen Compression Elevation).

For me I can tell the difference by standing up and walking a bit on it. If I can do that then it's just a tweek. If I can't put any weight on it, then it's a big one.

One more thing about ice, don't use it for more than 20 minutes at a time (20 minutes on then then 20 minutes off is a good rule) and never directly on the skin. You can cause damage to your skin (frostbite). I usually ice once or twice a day for a week afterwards. Ice is a really powerful anti-inflammatory and your goal is to reduce the inflammation so that healing can begin.

For a bad one I find that I need to take 2 to 4 weeks off for it to heal and then when I come back, it's usually kinda weak still. For other sports I've used an ankle brace (I like the active ankle: http://www.activeankle.com/), I don't know if you'd be able to use something like that for badminton but it does a great job of making sure that you don't roll your ankle while healing.

 

How long should we wait before playing again?

I know it takes arround 2-4 months to fully recover, but how long does it take to be able to play badminton again?

I've read somewhere that 4 weeks was enough to start doing sports again, but I don't know if this applies to all sports...

Thanks

Edit: nvm, someone already replied before I got to post my question

 

unless you have done serious damage 2-4 months is rediculous to restrict yourself to no play.....a minor sprain should take 2 weeks to recover. Higher caliber strain will take 3-5 weeks to recover. The reason why it still feels week is due to not playing for this lengthy period of time.

 

Actually I disagre, the reason it feels weak is because you stretched the ligament in the ankle.

You'll notice that the other ankle won't feel weak despite the fact that you haven't played on it.

That's why I like to use some sort of ankle protection when I go back to playing after 2-4 weeks.

 

Hi, I just roll my ankle. I plan to use an ankle strap to protect it next time. The doctor told me that I have an ankle fragility and there's nothing to do about it. Should I keep it forever? And does it restrain your performance?

 

I think the more common ankle roll in badminton is following a block jump where you are trying to push off in the opposite direction of your momentum. And because these jumps are not at maximum height (unlike volleyball) the ankle sprain is minor.

 

Could you ask your doctor if there are any strengthening exercises you could do? When I was in my teens my ankles and knees were very weak and I couldn't walk too far without being in some pain (growing pain). My doctor told me to do certain exercises and gradually build up muscles in the ankle. For the knee he said to be patient, still do exercise but stop if I felt any pain at all. Now everything is fine.

Don't start doing exercise without your doctors advice, you'll just make it worse if something serious is wrong.

Supports do restrict movement, but they aren't as restrictive as not being able to play at all. Although again ask for advice on support type.

 

A few years ago i rolled my ancle playing soccer, then broke it a week later playing basketball... once i got the cast off i broke it again from a guy slide tackling me in soccer... go figure. i was out for the whole summer. anyways since then i got an ancle brace which i use for all sports, badminton and soccer. i got a smaller one that fits under the shin pad for soccer and i use it for badminton and since then i have only had minor rolls. if you use one and still roll your ancle bad remeber this, DONT take off your shoe or your brace, instead tighten your shoe. this will make it so that it doesnt swell up. most peoples first reaction is to take of their shoe and grab their ancle or ice it, but its best to leave it on and not put weight on it for at least and hour. This really really reduces the pain, swelling, and recovery time. also i was in physio for a while and the best excercise to do is just go up and down on your toes. once it gets stronger then do it holding a chair with just one leg, then no chair one leg, then eyes closed one leg, ahah about 20 reps to start and slowly working it up from their, never never go to the point where you think your going to fall over or your ancle gets tired. once its tired it means its worked out and can properly heal and get stronger. dont push it. good luck and i hope no one has any more wasted time from rolling an ancle.

 

Yes , this is what I do aswell.

The RICE acronym has helped me through a lot of injuries

 

If as i said we are talking about "sprains" then there should be no sort of serious stretching or damage to the ligiments.

Blowouts as u mentioned before are the more serious injuries and in that case ofcourse there would be significant weakness due to the damage. But simple sprains such as twisting or bruisin a certain muscle do not result in weakness because your muscle has been bruised....its because you have that time off for recovery and the lack of impact/high end use with badminton ofcourse will mean the muscle relaxes and weakens.

If he has a serious ankle injury then yes its most likely some sort of ligment stretch which is causing the weakness. But if its a simple sprain then i really dont think ligiment damage has anything to do with the weakness whatsoever.

Sorry if i was unclear.

 

You should maybe get some yonex shoes because of their 'anti twist system' which can reduce the chance of rolling your ankle.

 

He he, good idea. Unfortunately I was wearing Yonex SHB90, and rolled my ankle once.

Reason is, that day I didn't laced up tightly enough and went for the reverse smash and scissor kicked. Rolled my ankle and a swelling mess.

Just try to lace up your shoes very tightly, I haven't roll my ankle since.

Just take note some shots are relatively risky for ankle roll:

lunging, anything to do with scissor kicking and jumps.

IMHO the reverse jumpsmash is the most dangerous for ankle roll because you jump and scissor kick.