Hello, I am a beginner player on my school's badminton team. I just started playing a couple months ago as a recreational thing, but when I started playing more intensely in our practices, my ankle started hurting. It felt like a kind of snapping at the back of the ankle, and it would cause a sharp pain whenever I stepped on it a particular way, otherwise there would be no pain. It was really bad after the first practice, to the point where I couldn't walk/rotate my ankle without getting that snapping feeling, but it got better in a few minutes and I was able to walk home. However, it returned the next practice, but since then it has gotten better and I rarely feel it. It has been a few weeks since then, and now my knees and ankles have been feeling rather sore and unstable during and after practices - my knees buckle a bit during intense games. This has been going on for a while, and I thought it would get better as my body gets used to playing, but it hasn't changed. Should I start getting some kind of knee support, or would taking vitamins help?
Go see a professional, a physiotherapist or similar. You don't really want to guess at what's wrong. Do it soon before you cause any serious injury. My personal guess is that you need to build up the strength in those area without straining them like you are by playing. Also, ALWAYS warm up and do lots of stretching.
Like Druss said, always warm up and do lots of streching before the game. How much practice/game time do you play per day? Increase it gradually and rest day in between.
Like druss said see a professional. But for the time being rest up your leg and maybe look up that sort of injury on google. I am confident that the RICER healing technique will be of some use for your ankle.
Hey Chobap, welcome to BForum! Knee and ankle pain are symptoms of your body not used to the rigours of the sport. Even when you keep training your skills, you need to strengthen your muscles (especially your legs) to be able to move easily around the court. With the stop and start movement of badminton, it's so easy to get hurt due to weak muscles and improper technique. Since you mention that you have only recently joined the team and started training properly, your physical conditioning isn't meeting the physical demands required to perform on the court. With stronger legs, you will have better balance on the court and less likely to injure yourself when opponents push you around. Take vitamins by all means, but don't get knee support yet unless you're playing injured. Ask your coach what plyometric and weight exercise you should do outside of the drills. You need to get in better shape to play at a higher intensity. Incidentally, ice compress is great when dealing with acute injuries to keep the inflammation down but not so good for muscle recovery. Warm/hot compress is more suitable dealing with non-injury related muscle soreness. Inflammation is our body's way of repairing the micro-tears in muscles after a workout by flooding blood in areas that need it, and often times we hinder our recovery by icing the sore muscles.
If you are injured, take a rest or see doctor until fully recover. Continue training with knee and ankle injuries will not help, worst case - injuries can become permanent! One must learn proper foot steps in badminton to minimize injuries on knee and ankle. Shoes without proper cushion can cause serious knee injuries especially on hard floor. Back in the old days, my coach emphasized proper badminton foot steps very seriously - no chance of hitting the birds on the court until we all master the correct foot steps which take years depending on your talent.