Recently i had discussion about the usage of support stuff apparel on badminton coz one of my friend had little ankle accident (fortunetly not end up bad, just need to rest for a while, his doctor said). Some suggest to wear ankle brace & i had 1 friend from other group that wear complete set of support (i call him zombie coz he wrap his whole body). 2 knee sleave + knee pad, right side ankle brace, right arm sleave. He dont have injury just his routine is like 3-4x a weeks so be think all those would help him reduce injury risk. Well... My urge to know force my finger to googling around & found some article about health mention that wearing brace for long term are bad. Simply by to much dependant to this kind off support weaken our muscle long term & suggester only use it when in recovery or rehabilitation but under normal condition, its better not use it but train our muscle strength & flexibility. So... What do you think about it? Do you also wear support stuff when playing? I myself own 1 knee sleave & 1 knee pad but hardly ever use them. Only when im playing & kinda feel uncomfort to my knee, i would wear it.
Totally depends on each person and their medical preconditions. For example, I had ankle sprains in various degrees on a regular basis. My ligaments and tissue around both ankles is just a bit weak and I didn't manage to get through two years without any sprain incident. And yes, I tried all sorts of stuff to strengthen my ankles over the years without much effect. After the last one (with partially torn ligaments) I started wearing Aircast A60 braces during badminton (only when playing badminton!) and behold - it has now been 7 years without any sprain or any other ankle related incident. 100% happy with going that direction and I will surely not go back. Of course it will be bad for the body if braces are worn constantly and for everyday use. But it totally makes sense to provide extra support for certain activities that cause maximum stress for knowingly weak parts of your body.
I have this as well when lunging in singles. My solution was to improve my landing technique to turn the foot pointing outwards. I have a habit of turning the foot inwards when landing like Loh Kean Yew. Shoe technology started changing some years later with more solid bases. After that I stopped wearing extra ankle support. In fact, I wore ankle support because it made my ankle fit better in the shoe which translates to better stability. Not because it directly helped the ankle to be more stable. I do regular gym work now and no problems with playing badminton, either knees or ankles. I am skipping for the gym warmups and I think this helps my calf and foot proprioception and coordination as well as general lower limb strengthening. I have meniscus injuries and wear a knee sleeve - that’s not to support the knee but to make sure I don’t bend down to extreme flexion.
Training muscle strength is basically what I do. When I first started with gym work (a number of years ago), after about six months, I was playing in an annual tournament. I hadn’t seen some of the people in the year from the previous tournament. Some of the guys mentioned I was a lot more stable in my movements. This actually surprised me because I didn’t notice it myself. It was only noticed by people comparing me to the year before version. After their comment, I was even more convinced of benefits of gym work, even for ordinary players. Before starting gym work, I had had plantar fasciitis, golfer elbow, knee pain. I needed shockwave therapy for the plantar fasciitis - after that I went to taekwondo where the trainer did core and gluteal muscles training plus some HIITs as part of the warm up. Basically, those pains never came back and after getting fitter from TKD, started gym work, boxing and Muay Thai.
Now i questioning my friend (the zombie man). He never had any injury but he play almost everyday (3-4x a week). Does all his set of support do help him as he had least recovery - resting. Reduce the risk of injury. Or all the set actually makes him to much dependant on it & didnt makes his muscle to grow & able to sustain the stress by themself.
Hello, I would definitely assume that regularly wearing extra brace/support in absence of injury would make the joints/muscles dependent on these aids. And also less competent in injury prevention. But these supports would also keep him away from all the overuse soreness. Finally, consider a rider who religiously wears all the protective riding gears to someone who is just a responsible rider with defensive driving practices. The geared up rider is definitely safer with an added layer of protection, whereas the sensible rider has to rely on his sound road safety rules and experience for crash prevention. Another example would be weight lifters/bodybuilders using wrist supports, knee supports, abdominal belts etc for injury prevention. They got both categories, with & without brace. It's always much harder to lift heavy without a support because there are constant mini adjustments which are needed to lift a heavy load throughout the range of motion in a controlled fashion. That's where small stabilizer muscles come into play.
