Hi everyone, Emily here! One of the Physio’s at Miami Physio.
Today I wanted to talk about a really common issue I see in netballers throughout the season — overuse injuries and training overload.
As a netballer myself, I understand first hand how demanding the sport can be.
Netball involves repeated sprinting, jumping, landing, accelerating, decelerating and changing direction, often multiple times throughout a game. When you combine this with weekly training’s, games, carnivals and gym sessions, it can place a lot of stress on the body. This is why helping netballers prevent and manage injuries is an area I am particularly passionate about, and it is something we regularly assess and treat at Miami Physio.
So, what exactly is an overuse injury?
Unlike an acute injury, such as rolling your ankle or hurting yourself during one specific movement, an overuse injury develops gradually over time. It occurs when the amount of stress being placed on your muscles, tendons, bones or joints is greater than your body’s ability to recover and adapt.
A simple way to think about this is like a bucket. Every training session, game or gym workout adds water to the bucket. Your recovery — including sleep, nutrition and rest days — helps empty that bucket. When the amount going in consistently outweighs the amount coming out, eventually the bucket overflows, and that’s when we start to see pain and injury. Some of the common overuse injuries we see in netballers include Knee pain, particularly around the knee cap, Achilles tendon pain, Shin pain or shin splint, Foot pain, Hip and groin pain, Lower back pain, Shoulder pain, especially with repetitive throwing and shooting
Often these injuries don’t appear suddenly. They usually start with small warning signs — maybe a niggle after training, stiffness the next morning, or pain that settles during activity but returns afterwards. These signs are your body’s way of telling you that something needs attention.
A major factor contributing to overuse injuries is training load. Training load is essentially the amount of stress you are placing on your body. This includes not just your games and trainings, but also gym sessions, running, extra fitness and even activities outside of sport. The problem often occurs when there is a sudden spike in load.
For example, Adding extra training sessions Playing multiple teams Increasing your game time Returning too quickly after an injury Starting a new gym program Going into a tournament or carnival without enough preparation. It’s not that these things are bad — in fact, they are often positive for performance — but your body needs time to gradually adapt. Another important part of injury prevention is recovery. Recovery is not something that happens when you’re not training — it’s actually when your body adapts and becomes stronger.
Some simple ways to improve recovery include:
- Prioritising quality sleep
- Staying hydrated
- Fuelling your body with enough carbohydrates and protein
- Including recovery days in your week
- Building strength and conditioning into your program
- Listening to early signs of pain and fatigue
One of the biggest misconceptions with overuse injuries is that you always need complete rest. In many cases, that isn’t necessary. Often the best approach is modifying your training rather than stopping completely. This may involve reducing your training volume, changing certain exercises, adjusting game time or gradually rebuilding your capacity. This is where physiotherapy can really help. At Miami Physio, we regularly assess and treat community netballers with overuse injuries. During an assessment, we look at what may be contributing to your symptoms, including your strength, movement patterns, training load and overall capacity. From there, we can develop an individualised plan to help reduce your pain, improve your strength and safely return you to the court. The goal isn’t just to settle your symptoms — it’s to understand why the problem occurred in the first place, build resilience and help prevent it from coming back. So, if you’re a netballer experiencing ongoing aches, pain that keeps returning, or you’re unsure whether something is just normal soreness or an injury, don’t ignore it. Getting on top of these issues early can often prevent them from becoming bigger problems and help you stay healthy throughout the season. Thanks for reading, and hopefully this helps you better understand how to look after your body and keep playing what you love.
