How To Prevent Injuries in Cornhole

Injured from playing cornhole?

When you think about injuries in cornhole, most people will laugh. But just like many other sports, you can get seriously injured. Let’s take a look at what you are doing and the movement which is much like a softball pitcher. You are throwing a 1 pound bag underhand through the air, 27-30 feet away and you are doing this 4 times each round for multiple rounds per game and multiple games per day, week, month, etc.

The game of cornhole is not new but people are not just playing it in the backyard anymore. It has grown to a professional sport and most that play, do it multiple times per week. Leagues, tournaments, playing the ghost and more, we are throwing so many bags that injuries are inevitable. And much like vaping, we do not quite know the long-term effects.

Some of the most common injuries amongst softball players are shoulders, elbow, wrist, back and knees. Since the cornhole as a professional sport is still new, we do not have any data to create a list of injuries in cornhole. But we have to believe it will look identical to those of a softball pitcher.

Shoulders will most likely be the first injury due to the nature of swinging and tossing the bags. Neck, elbows and wrists will be following right along. And let’s not overlook the back and knees. All that bending over to pick up the bags off the board or, hopefully, pull out of the hole. Heck, you can get out of bed the wrong way and throw your back out. So, we outlined a couple things you can do to help prevent injuries.

4 ways to prevent injuries in cornhole

1. Stretch before throwing. When was the last time you went to a tournament and saw someone stretching before throwing? Probably never, but you will always see an athlete stretch first to get those muscles loose and prevent injury. So why should cornhole be different. Stretching can help prevent injuries in cornhole.
2. Don’t play with pain. If you have pain or already have an injury, take time off to heal. I know, you’re addicted and don’t want to lose all the progress you made.  It took so long to get your game where it is today. Keep playing through an injury and you may never play again. REST AND HEAL!
3. Follow the rules. How many times have you been tempted to see what the farthest airmail you can make is? Just the other night I found myself trying to do just that. Instead of throwing straight across, we went 3 boards over diagonally, throwing the bag as hard as you can just to try to land on the board let alone airmail. This is a great way to get injured! Can’t say I won’t do it again, but I will definitely think twice.
4. Bend with the knees. Instead of bending over to pick up the bags, squat. Yea, kind of like getting some exercise while playing cornhole. We may not be in the best shape but with all the squatting we will be doing to prevent injuries in cornhole, we will have some rock-hard legs and tight butts, LOL.

After doing a quick search in Google of injuries in cornhole, we did not find much of anything except a celebrity that sprained her ankle during a winning celebration and some fight that erupted at a cornhole tournament. But make no mistake about it, when there is throwing, bending, squatting and celebrating involved and then go and add alcohol into the mix, you can bet there will be injuries!