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From John Thomas,
Your Guide to Volleyball.
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If you play volleyball for any length of time, you have or will suffer from an ankle sprain. Ankle sprains are one of the most common and painful injuries volleyball players suffer. Like all traumas, when players suffer ankle injuries, they should immediately seek the council of a physician. There are a lot of different things that can go wrong in your ankle and you need to know the FAQs. The About.com Guide to Orthopedic Medicine, Dr. Cluett, tells us, "a sprain results when the ligaments of the foot are either stretched too far or tear due to the injury." While as simplistic as that sounds, there are many different degrees of ankle injuries and a physician can give you the best recovery regimen for you injury. Also, many other bad things that you would not be able to detect could have happened and may result in an unstable ankle - something that would kill your volleyball career.

Both doctors and sports medicine trainers strongly suggest treating most kinds of ankle sprains using the R.I.C.E. formula. Simply put it's the following:

• Rest for 24-48 hours while slowly attempting to put weight on the ankle
• Ice during the first 48 hours after the injury; follow these instructions
• Compression - get a wrap and wrap that ankle up and elevate it. This will help lower swelling and thus the pain
• Elevate - keep that foot higher than your heart as much as possible. You may also want to take over-the-counter drugs to help alleviate pain and swelling. Swelling is often the cause of a majority of the pain, so make sure you are taking the correct drugs.

If you find that you are twisting, straining, or spraining your ankles often you may need to try some balance training. The Guide, tells us that pain caused by sprained ankles in athletes has little or nothing to do with strength or flexibility. In most cases sprains and strains are caused by poor balance, or proprioception. Luckily, balance can be learned so balance training is a great prevention tool.

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