Introduction: Basketball is a global sport. If we consider FIBA's data, more than 450 million people in 2007 played this sport. Basketball players often suffer from ankle injuries during their careers, which is usually a consequence of landing on the opponent’s foot or a sudden change of direction. The most important risk factors are: playing in the paint, playing as a centre and former ankle injuries. External ankle stabilizators are effective in reducing ankle injuries, but safety of their usage needs further research. They are uncomfortable to wear if they are put on incorrectly, they can irritate the skin and can be relatively expensive. An alternative can be found in preventive training programs. Preventive training includes neuromuscular exercises, proprioceptive exercises and balance exercises. What they have in common is improvement in ankle control and in stabilisation. Purpose: We want to find out how effective preventive training programs are in reduction of ankle injury incidence and how to implement them in everyday basketball practice. Methods: Databases PubMed, ScienceDirect and Cohrane library were included in our literature review. Articles published between 2003 and 2018, in English or Slovene, that covered prevention programs which intended to decrease ankle injury incidence were included. We excluded studies that did not include training programs and that were connected to other sports. If a study included multiple different sport categories including basketball, the results regarding basketball players had to be published separately. Results: In accordance with inclusion and exclusion criteria, 6 researches were included in further analysis. They examined different exercise programs and samples of basketball players. Only two studies conducted on basketball players over the age of 14 confirmed an important reduction of ankle injuries. Discussion and conclusion: We found out that preventive exercise programs effectively reduce the incidence of ankle injuries in adult basketball players, probably by improving balance. Because of the inhomogeneity of the studies, the comparison was difficult and a generalisation of results was possible only for basketball players over the age of 14. To determine the effect on players under the age of 14, further researches are necessary.
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