Exercises to Reduce Injuries?

The Republic reports:

Kelsey Reeves knew lots of girl soccer players who had torn their anterior cruciate ligament. But she didn't think she had injured her own ACL as she lay on the ground in pain during a high school game last spring. There was no contact, just one misstep.

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But Reeves' injury was typical of most ACL injuries. About 70 to 80 percent of ACL injuries come without any contact to the knee, and women are about eight times more likely to injure their ACL than men, according to Darin Padua, an associate professor and director of the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

The injury is most common in girls' soccer, volleyball and basketball.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent numbers show that 46,000 females age 19 and younger had experienced an ACL sprain or tear in 2006. More than 30,000 required surgery. Numbers are not kept for contact vs. noncontact-related knee injuries. Click here to continue reading.