No one really thinks about their physical well-being when it comes to dodgeball. People think it’s just a good ol’ school gym game; “You can’t hurt yourself and it can’t be that exhausting?!”

This can be true for some, but once you start playing outside of the recreation mentality, dodgeball becomes a sport. What comes with playing ‘sports’? Ailments: joint pain, bones breaking, ligament tears, sore muscles, hip issues, knee pain, rolled ankles, and a whole other list of things I have seen.

I have been playing dodgeball for approximately 4.5 years and in this time I have hyper extended my big toe, injured my shoulder, dealt with hip pain, twisted my knee, hyper extended my throwing arm, hit my head on a wall, and have had a few muscle issues that happen when I don’t warm up and stretch.

Over the next few blogs I will discuss different techniques to help you on and off court. Please note: I am not a sport therapist or doctor please talk to your doctor or physio/sport/chiropractic practitioners before you start a new routine or sport.

BRO DO YOU EVEN WARM UP?

I’m guilty for not warming up, there are a few extracurricular activities I may do before I head to a game such as ride my bike to the game, or go for a run for my half marathon training or  I run to the car because I take too long to look for my dodgeball hat.

It’s suggested you should warm up before any physical activity and I don’t mean throw a ball as hard as you can at a wall. I mean get your heart/blood flow moving before you pick up a ball and throw. Try one of the following for a minute or two:

-run around the gym/outside
-high knees back and forth along your court
-skip rope
-line runs
-run drills

Getting the blood moving improves your performance, prevents injury and gets your mentality into the game. The capillaries (small blood vessels) in your muscles are closed when your muscles are cold. You need these opened before playing to get them to increase the blood flow to warm up your muscles. With warmed up muscles the blood flow will help the muscles contract and relax quicker and will work more efficiently.

If you have cold muscles and you just start playing you are likely to get small tears in your muscles which may contribute to the soreness and pain you feel during and after a game. Long term injury may occur if you continue to play this way.

To stretch or not to stretch after a warm up? Stretching is a debate topic for some and I will not get into stretching today. Lets save it for another post. I will leave you with this: Listen to your body, if you are not feeling ready to go on that court after your warm up take a moment to do the stretches you enjoy.

I appreciate the time you took to read this post. I’m a dodgeball enthusiast and love the sport, please check out some links below related to dodgeball, for all your off court needs.

See you on the court.

https://dodgeballfitness.wordpress.com/

https://soundcloud.com/dodgeball-syndicated