Volleyball safety

Volleyball is a popular sport for kids and teens in the U.S. And just like any sport, there is a chance of getting hurt while playing. The experts in sports medicine at the Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine at Children’s Health℠ are here to help your volleyball player recover from even the most challenging injuries, and help your child avoid future injuries. Our main goal is to foster young athletes' health and well-being and support their return to play.

What are common volleyball injuries?

Volleyball often involves repeating the same movements, like spiking, jumping, and blocking. As a result, volleyball players have a higher chance of hurting their shoulders, knees, fingers and ankles. Common volleyball injuries that require advanced orthopedic treatments and sports rehabilitation include:

• Shoulder injuries

  Volleyball players often develop shoulder overuse injuries due to repetitive overhead arm movements. Overuse injuries happen when muscles, tendons, bones, or cartilage sustain damage from repetitive actions without adequate rest. This continuous stress triggers inflammation, leading to pain. Symptoms of shoulder overuse injuries include pain during serving, hitting, or setting, occasional swelling, decreased performance, and persistent dull pain. If your child experiences these symptoms for an extended period, consult a doctor specializing in children's health or sports medicine.

  Another common shoulder injuries among volleyball players is rotator cuff tendinitis, causing discomfort in the muscles supporting shoulder stability and power during serving and spiking. Rest and physical therapy exercises can help, but persistent pain requires medical attention.

  Learn more about shoulder instability.

• Finger injuries

  When volleyball players do actions like blocking, setting, and digging, they can hurt their fingers in different ways. Common finger injuries in volleyball players include:

  • Fractures — broken bones
  • Dislocations — when the bones in your finger joints move out of place
  • Ligament tears — ligaments are the tissues that connect the bones together

  If your child cannot bend their finger or the pain is hindering their daily activity, it is important to talk to a sports medicine professional or an athletic trainer. The treatment your child needs will depend on how bad the injury is, and it can be different for each child.

  Learn more about hand injuries.

• Knee injuries

  In volleyball, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee can often get sprained or torn. This happens when your child twists their knee too forcefully — like after jumping or while suddenly changing directions. When this injury happens, athletes might hear a popping sound and their knee can swell drastically within a few hours.

  To help prevent this injury, it is a good idea to learn the right techniques for jumping and landing properly. That’s why the Sports Performance Powered by EXOS team at Children’s Health focuses on these skills during their sessions.

  Sometimes knee pain that develops slowly over time can be a sign of other problems like:

  • Patello-femoral Pain Syndrome (Runner's Knee) — pain in the front of the knee caused by stress on the muscles and tissues around the kneecap. It can be addressed with the right training and physical therapy.
  • Osteochondritis Dissecans — a defect in the cartilage of the knee that can become noticeable over time, especially during activities that involve a lot of jumping.
  • Osgood-Schlatter Disease — inflammation in the front of the knee caused by stress to the growth plate at the top of the shinbone (tibia).
  • Patellar tendinitis — inflammation of the tendon that connects the kneecap to the shin. Forceful jumping activities, such as spiking and blocking, can cause patellar tendinitis. Physical therapy focused on stretching and strengthening are beneficial, as well as your child paying specific attention to how they land when jumping.

  Learn more about knee injuries.

• Ankle injuries

  A common volleyball injury is an ankle sprain, where the ankle rolls outward, damaging the ligaments that hold the joint in place. This can occur during things like landing or quick direction changes. Treatment depends on severity—milder cases may heal with rest, but persistent pain should be checked by a medical expert.

• Low back injuries

  The main reason for most low-back pain is when muscles or ligaments get strained. This pain usually gets better with rest and exercises recommended by a physical therapist.

  However, if low-back pain also makes your child’s legs feel numb or weak, it could be because of a herniated disk. Volleyball players have a higher chance of getting stress fractures in their low backs, or spondylolysis—an overuse injury caused by frequent hyperextension of the lower back.

• Strains and sprains

  In volleyball, strains and sprains happen when muscles, ligaments, or tendons get stretched too much, causing tiny tears in the tissue. When this happens, it can result in pain and swelling, making it difficult to move comfortably.

  Volleyball players are more prone to spraining or straining in the following areas:

  • Ankles
  • Knees
  • Lower back
  • Wrists
  • Fingers
  • Shoulders

• Head Injuries

  Sports concussions, a form of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), can happen when a volleyball player bumps their head against a hard surface like the floor or another player.

  If a player gets a concussion, they must be taken out of the game right away, even if they seem okay and do not pass out. Our Sports Concussion Program has experts who help volleyball players recover from concussions, so they can safely get back to playing in matches and supporting their teams.

Volleyball injury prevention

Your child can stay injury-free by:

• Making time to recover. Your child must always properly cool down after practice. They should also take time off from volleyball between seasons, even if it is just to play a different sport.
• Preparing the body for activity. Your child should always warm up muscles with stretching and light aerobic exercises before playing. They should also always stay properly hydrated by drinking plenty of fluids and wear the right footwear and gear that fits correctly.
• Interval training. Volleyball requires a different kind of endurance compared to sports like long-distance running. Since volleyball involves quick bursts of activity lasting only 20 to 30 seconds, doing long cardio workouts does not offer many benefits for volleyball players. Instead, interval training with cutting and changing directions can simulate the movements in a game.
• Strength training. Building strength in the core and legs can improve balance and jumping ability for volleyball players. It is also important to strengthen the rotator cuff and scapular muscles in the shoulders to prevent overuse injuries in volleyball. This helps make the shoulders stable and strong, which is necessary for the repetitive movements like hitting, serving, and spiking the volleyball.
• Wearing braces or athletic tape. If your child has already sprained an ankle or hurt their knee in the past, they can prevent re-injury by wearing a brace or athletic tape over the area to offer it extra support while playing.
• Routinely seeing their doctor. Schedule your child’s annual physical before their season of play. Make sure your child follows their doctor’s instructions for managing pain or injuries.

When to see a doctor

In general, it is best to take your child to see a doctor if they:

• Develop any ongoing pain or soreness (for more than a couple of days) after or during activity
• Experience a sudden onset of swelling or pain, or pain that does not go away after two weeks of rest
• Develop any numbness or tingling, or the injured area looks different or out of place
• Experience a sudden change in how well they can perform
• Are using anti-inflammatory medications to cope with arm fatigue before or during activity
• Limp for more than 48 hours
• Experience swelling that gets worse the next day despite using ice and over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medication, or soft tissue swelling on both sides of a joint, often seen easily around the knee or ankle

With most sports injuries, diagnosing issues in the early stages reduces the likelihood your child will need surgery.