Common Table Tennis Injuries

Unlike most popular sports such as basketball and soccer, table tennis is a "non-contact" type of sport. This means that players don't have to physically touch, push or hold one another. But despite of no physical contact involve, injuries may still occur.

Slippage Accident

Here are some of the common injuries that may happen while playing table tennis:

1. Slipping Down on the Floor

Table tennis or ping pong is a fast-paced type of sport which involve quick body movement. With such speed, try to imagine yourself that you suddenly slipped down on the floor. You will surely suffer a painful impact on the floor's hard surface. And depending on how you land on the floor, the consequence can be severe.

Most slippage accidents actually results in dislocations of joints. In some rare cases are head-cuts. It's because there are some instances that when a certain player slipped, his or her head will land on the table. Chances are, the player's head might hit the corner-edge of the table which results into a cut.

Some common reason why slipping accidents occur are drops of water, sweats (from previous players) and any other liquids that are unnoticed on the floor. Thus, before you intend to play, always make sure that the floor is thoroughly cleaned before using it.

2. Unstable Table

Most common manufactured tables these days are those with rollers which allows you to move it around without any help from another individual. Other than the roller, the table can also be folded inwards for storage so that it does not take too much space. There's actually a threat with this two features of the table.

First, there are some instances that the person who setup the table may fail to properly lock the roller-brakes. The accident occur when players begins to play. Their movements (especially jumping) can cause the roller-breaks to be released. And as a result, the table could hit one of the players in such a bad way.

Second, there are really some players who have the bad habit of sitting or leaning on the table. So if it happens that the table is the foldable-type and it isn't properly locked, the table won't be able to support the weight of the sitting or leaning individual which will most likely collapse.

3. Cracked Blade

There was one of my experience about a cracked blade incident that I couldn't forget. It was when one fellow member of our table tennis club had forgot to bring his own paddle. Unfortunately, none of us had an extra paddle to lend it to him. The only available paddle was the old paddle with a small crack on its blade laying around the storage room.

Being too lazy to go back home, he took and used the old paddle.

After playing for about 15 minutes, the blade suddenly snapped and it went flying up into the ceiling and landed right onto the head of one of the spectators from the bleachers. Thus, the moral lesson is not to use broken or cracked blade.

4. Stepping on the Balls

Some players may be training themselves with "Multi-Balls". These is a type of training where the player receives multiple served balls to improve their counter shot skill. As a result, some of the balls that fell may roll under nearby tables with other unaware players playing on it.

An accident occur when one of the player from the nearby tables will step on the ball resulting into slippage.

5. Collision with another Individual

You have to know that when a certain player is playing or practicing, he is fully concentrated on his front view but isn't aware on his back. However, the common accident that usually happens is that, there are some individuals who choose to walk or pass behind a busy player. If it happens that the player aggressively move backward at the same time that another person is passing behind, the collision between the two could result into a potential serious injury.

6. Body Pain due to Stress

Some players are putting too much effort into their practice where they often ignore stress or body pain. You have to know that everyone has its own limits. If you choose to exceed the limitation of your body, this could result into some serious life-time body pain conditions.

Such body pains are the following:
a. Lower back pain
b. Knee joint pain
c. Wrist joint pain
d. Shoulder joint pain
e. Ankle joint pain

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