Finally! You are in the starting lineup for your first basketball game, when suddenly you incur a sprained ankle, a pulled hamstring, or a torn knee ligament – You can no longer play basketball until you recover. Let’s explore these injuries and learn how you can ensure complete recovery in a timely manner.
Jarrett Raymond (‘29) has played basketball for over three years – formerly, he played as a guard; an essential position where the player facilitates the team’s offense. Currently, he plays organized basketball for the Boys & Girls Club and has no interest in trying out for the boys basketball team at Arlington High School. Raymond stated that he hasn’t been injured from playing basketball. However, if an injury such as one he mentioned – a “torn acl” were to happen, it would take lots of practice and rehabilitation to fully recover and bounce back to normal playing level.
R.I.C.E is a common acronym in the injury world that stands for: Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate. If you get injured, ensure you are in no place that will risk continued aggravation of your injury – immediately take rest, ice the injured area, then compress and elevate the injured area to minimize swelling and pain. These steps are vital to speeding up the recovery process where you will be back to playing the sport you love in no time.
The most common injury while on the court is an ankle sprain, it can easily occur when you go for a layup or a rebound and on the way down – ultimately landing on someone’s foot. This can cause your ankle to bend too far inward or outward which causes a strain in your ankle ligaments, leading to the popular ankle sprain.
While enduring a light to moderate ankle sprain, AHS Girls Basketball Manager, Adrian Fabian (‘26) counted on the R.I.C.E method to support in his recovery process. It took him around two weeks to fully recover from his injury, Fabian says, “I just rested my ankle, just iced it.” Aside from resting and icing his ankle, he also needed to practice playing basketball again to return to normal playing abilities without further complications.
Wyatt Carter (‘29) plans on trying out for the AHS Boys Basketball team this winter – previously, he played organized basketball in the small forward position. Two common injuries that Carter has endured were “ankle sprains and like, jammed fingers and stuff..” The length of recovery “could take anywhere from like, a few days to, like, multiple weeks to recover… depends a lot on how severe it is.” Short term recovery could involve taking “painkillers… also just getting the rest that you need.” Carter said.
