ACL Injury Prevention Program

Ridgefield's HamletHub reports:

Sportsmetrics, an ACL injury prevention program designed specifically for high school age female athletes, will be returning to Ridgefield High School for its 4^th season.  The program, which runs from June 26^th to August 23^rd, teaches jumping and landing technique, strengthening and balance to help females combat their significantly higher risk of knee injuries.

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1 in 100 US female high school athletes will suffer a serious knee injury. In sports involving cutting, jumping, landing and pivoting the risk of tearing the Anterior Cruciate Ligament becomes 2 to 10 times higher in female athletes than in male athletes.  “It’s the way females land from a jump, or the way they cut when running” say Kate Campbell, a physical therapist and Director of the Sportsmetrics program. “Females don’t have the strength to get into the right position like males do.  We teach young women how to jump and land properly, and that’s what makes the difference."

Past Sportsmetrics programs conducted at RHS have provided positive results for participants.  Almost 100 girls have attended the program and not one has suffered a non-contact ACL tear from sports.  In addition, biomechanical testing performed before and after the program has shown a 38% reduction in the number of athletes considered at “high risk” for major knee injury (as determined by knee position on landing).

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Building the Modern Athlete

ESPN reports:

"Performance Analytics," an MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference panel of John Brenkus, Mike McCann, Kevin Pritchard, Angela Ruggiero, Mark Verstegen, and moderator Peter Keating, says that while our understanding of the athletic body is fast-progressing, there are, and will continue to be, hurdles.

The issues, surprisingly, are more scientific than moral.

The central conflict comes between a player’s right to privacy and the team’s imperative to get as much actionable information about them as possible. Genetic testing that identifies predispositions to, say, ACL tears or inflammatory conditions, could help the team better identify risks and help the player avoid them. But it would also leave players at a disadvantage in contract negotiations and draft positioning.

Genetic testing also can create some red herrings. Brenkus pointed out that predisposition to a condition and actually having a condition are two different categories: Someone with a predisposition to ACL issues might have trained and strengthened their ligament to the point that the predisposition was mitigated or completely wiped out. In this case a monomaniacal focus on genetic markers can lead a team astray.

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ACL Sprain

Outside Online reports:

ACL injuries rank as the number one ski injury, representing 17.2 percent of all injuries in the sport, according to a 2012 study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine. More than 20,000 U.S. alpine skiers damage their knees every year, and most of those injuries involve the ACL.

The ACL itself is one of four main ligaments in the knee, and its main role is to stabilize the knee during rotational movement. Rotating a knee too far to one side or the other, or hyper extending it, can tear or even rupture the ACL. Recovery time ranges from six weeks for a moderate sprain to six months or more for a rupture, which typically requires surgery to repair. One study showed that athletes suffer an ACL tear are seven times more likely to develop osteoarthritis in that knee than athletes who have not injured their ACL.

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Female athletes can help prevent tears with warmups

Med Page Today reports:

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Adolescent girls playing soccer in Sweden had drastically fewer anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears when they had at least one 15-minute warmup session each week, a researcher said here.

In a randomized trial involving some 4,500 members of girls soccer teams, the group assigned to perform the neuromuscular exercise sessions had 64% fewer ACL tears than the control participants (HR 0.36, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.85), reported Markus Walden, MD, PhD, of Linköping University in Kristianstad, Sweden.

Speaking at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting, Walden added that, when the analysis was restricted to the players who had at least one warmup session each week, the reduction in ACL tears reached 83% (HR 0.17, 95% CI 0.05 to 0.57).

Walden said he and his colleagues believe the study was "the largest sports injury prevention trial in the world." The results essentially confirmed those of several previous, smaller studies, including some randomized trials.

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What you need to know about ACL Tears

The Coronado Patch reports:

If you are involved in sports at all you probably know someone or you yourself have experienced an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tear. The ACL is a stabilizing ligament in the knee and when a person experiences a tear in the ACL the knee can become unstable. Sufferers report feeling like their knee is going to give out on them.

What causes the ACL to tear?

The ACL can tear because of a sport injury, car accident, rough play or fall. Interestingly, about 70 percent of sports-related ACL injuries are non-contact. I would have assumed that contact sports like football and rugby would account for a higher percentage of ACL tears, but that is not the case. Most sport ACL tears occur from pivoting and landing after jumping.

The ACL can also tear when the foot is planted on the ground and the person changes direction or is hit by an opposing force. Sports like soccer, football, basketball, and skiing are likely to see more ACL injuries. However, Tiger Woods, a PGA golfer, suffered an ACL tear and following the conclusion of the U.S. Open, he missed the remainder of the 2008 season to properly rehabilitate his knee.


Why are women more likely to tear their ACL than men?

While everyone is vulnerable to an ACL injury, statistically women are more likely to suffer a tear than men. Dr. Sharon Hame, associate professor in orthopedic surgery at UCLA, explains possible reasons why women experience more ACL injuries than men. First, women have smaller bones and ligaments, Hame told the Daily Bruin, which make them more prone to injury. Second, some research indicates that a change in hormone level during menstruation could impact the way a woman responds during physical activity.

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Cassie Bohn commits to St. Norbert College following ACL injury

My.hsj.org reports:

Cassie Bohn, NDA senior, will play basketball at St. Norbert College next year.  Irnoically, the commitment comes as she recovers from ACL surgery.

“I didn’t know how I was going to play in high school or even college after my injury,” said Bohn in expressing her concern about playing her final year of high school.

However, her basketball records from previous years were so good that she had been spotted and offered a spot at many colleges to play basketball.

Bohn originally dreamed of going to Madison or Marquette for her college experience. She had not intended, or even wanted to go, to St. Norbert College because she wanted to get out of Green Bay and experience new things. Click here to continue reading.

Adding warm-ups may prevent injuries

CBC reports:

Targeted warm-ups may help reduce the risk of knee injuries in female athletes who play high school soccer and basketball.

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The study in Monday's issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine looked into neuromuscular warm-ups, which start with easy cardiovascular exercises and progress to focusing on muscles and motions used in the sports.

Girls have between a five- and eight-times-higher risk of damage to the anterior cruciate ligament or ACL— which can cause knee injury — than boys, according to the Canadian Physiotherapy Association. Click here to read more.

Women learning to move differently to prevent ACL injuries

The Sun Times 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.

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.

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.

Chapel Hill working on ACL injury prevention

Chapel Hill News reports:

Kelsey Reeves knew lots of girls soccer players who had torn their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), but she never thought it would happen to her.

She didn't think she had injured the crucial knee ligament even after she lay on the ground in pain during a Leesville Road High game last spring. There was no contact, just one misstep.

"I had never been injured," she said. "I knew anything could happen, but I never thought something like this would happen to me. Even after I was hurt, I didn't think it could be an ACL." Click here to continue reading.

Can female ACL injuries be prevented?

Penn Live reports:

Anterior Cruciate Ligament knee injuries occur four-to-six times more frequently in female athletes than in male athletes playing the same sports.

It is believed that the difference in neuromuscular control, or the way our muscles contract and react, is one of four primary factors contributing to why women are more susceptible to knee injuries than men. Other discrepancies are anatomical (men and women are structurally different), hormonal (women's hormonal makeup affects the integrity of the ligament, making it more lax), and bio-mechanical (the positions our knees get in during athletic activities).

Seventy percent of all ACL injuries occur without contact. Most ACL injuries occur at foot strike with the knee close to full extension during quick deceleration or landing maneuvers. To read more about ACL injury prevention in female athletes, click here.

New research on ACL injury prevention

The News Observer reports:

Kelsey Reeves knew lots of girls 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 Leesville Road High game last spring. There was no contact, just one misstep.

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"I had never been injured," she said. "Even after I was hurt, I didn't think it could be an ACL."

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 females are much more likely to injure their ACL than males, according to Darin Padua, an associate professor and director of the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. To read more, click here.

Purdue expecting fewer injuries through better sports conditioning

jconline reports:

What happened to high-profile athletes during an 11-month span in 2010 remains one of those hard-to-believe periods in Purdue University athletic history.

Each of the school's marquee sports teams -- football, men's and women's basketball, and volleyball -- were affected by torn anterior cruciate ligament tears, or ACLs.

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The football team was hit the hardest, not just by ACL tears, but by a rash of other injuries. And this past week, another football player was added to the list. Click to continue.

Exciting news for ACL injury prevention

The Orlando Sentinel reports:
Because of the way they're built, girls are up to eight times more likely than boys to suffer an ACL injury to the knee. The SportsMetrics program at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children is working to lower those odds, and recently got some funding to do so.

This week Kohl's department stores donated $313,000 to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children's Pediatric Sports Medicine Center. Some of that will go toward preventing anterior cruciate ligament injuries.

As girls hit puberty, their hips widen. The new, angled relationship of hip to knee can make the knee joint less stable. Female hormones also cause ligaments to loosen, making girls more prone to ligament tears, said Dr. Jay Albright, director of pediatric sports medicine at the hospital. Click to continue.

The six-week SportsMetrics training teaches girls jumping strategies that could help them jump higher, land more safely, achieve more balance during play and protect their ACLs. In other sports centers that have used the program, the rate of female ACL injuries drops to just twice as often as boys'. Boys benefit from the training, too, said Albright.

5 ways to prevent sports injuries

Your sports require you to have strength and skill to excel in the game. Not only do you need to hone your technique, but you also need to be proactive about injury prevention to guarantee you’ll have the opportunity to compete.  Below we’ve listed five great ways athletes can prevent sports related injuries. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it’s a great place to start.

1.      Condition – To stack the odds in your favor, it’s important to stay in shape year round. If your body is constantly in top form, you’re muscles are more likely to react in sync and your body move properly.  Your sport requires your muscles to be able to pivot and move at a moment’s notice. Conditioning prepares your body. (Source http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org/sports-injury-prevention.aspx)

2.      Hydrate – If your body does not take in the proper amount of water in relationship to your exertion, you run the risk of dehydration. Not to mention, drinking more water can actually improve your performance as well as prevent injury. Renee Melton, MS, RD, LD, director of nutrition for Sensei, a developer of online and mobile weight loss and nutrition programs states, “If you start out dehydrated, you won’t get a good workout. You’ll get dizzy, lethargic, your muscles won’t work as well, you won’t feel as sharp mentally, and you’ll get cramps sooner.” (source: http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/water-for-exercise-fitness?page=2)

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3.      Ice – Proper recovery after exercise is just as important to injury prevention as what you do before exercise. Icing sore or heavily worked muscles will help speed recovery and reduce inflammations so you can get back out there and play the game. (source: http://sweatscience.com/ice-baths-for-recovery-15-minutes-at-10-c/)

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4.      Don’t ignore pain – If your muscles and joints are sore, that’s one thing, but if you are in real pain, don’t play through. Pain is your body telling you that something is wrong. A twinged muscle can heal in a couple of days, but ignoring that twinged muscle could lead to a pull or a tear and derail a season.

5.      Wear technical compression gear – Aspaeris designed their shorts specifically to help the female athlete prevent ACL injuries and tears by guiding the wearing into proper posture. It is also a compression short that will help your muscle recovery post exercise.  (source: aspaerispivotshorts.com)

Stay in the game.

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Injuring your ACL stinks, but you’re in good company. Everyday another 548 people suffer too. Are you injured? Have you been injured? I’d love to hear your story. Email me at Aspaeris@gmail.com and we’ll feature you on our blog!

Are you at risk for an ACL injury?

As an athlete it’s almost guaranteed that an injury has touched you somehow.  Maybe you’ve been hurt or maybe a teammate or friend. Often the shock and pain are nowhere near as upsetting as the recovery process, sitting on the sidelines watching your team compete.  With an injury like an ACL tear, you or your teammate could be out for an entire season.

Obviously, you aren’t trying to get hurt, but it’s also nearly impossible to prevent every injury. However, the first step towards injury prevention is education. You’d think, since our bodies were created for athletic activity, it would be fairly instinctive for how to keep ourselves in injury-free.  Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Knowing what causes an ACL injury can clue you in on how to stay safe on the field and keep you in the game.  While there are certain, unavoidable causes, like a blow to the side of the knee or other contact-related, mishaps, it’s the non-contact causes that should be explored. 

Coming to a quick stop, combined with a direction change while running, pivoting, landing from a jump, or overextending the knee joint (called hyperextended knee), also can cause injury to the ACL. (source: here)

Because of certain biological factors unique to women, we are somewhat cursed with the knack for hurting our ACLs more easily than men.  As our hips develop during puberty and early adulthood, our knees tend to shift inward. This “knock-kneed” stance puts added pressure on the ligaments in our knees and can lead to ACL trauma while doing routine sports related activities. (source: here)

Essentially, if you suffer from “knock-kneed” posture, when you jump, pivot, and land, you are doing so off balanced. When your body tries to react and stabilize, injury can occur.

To better understand if you are more likely to have an ACL injury, work with a coach, trainer or a friend (your spotter) and perform to simple tests.  Take a video so you can see yourself.

The Squat

Have your spotter stand directly in front of you

Stand with your feet hip distance apart

Squat deeply – repeat 10X

If your knees shift inward when you squat down, you have some degree of Valgus Collapse

The Jump Shot

Have your spotter stand directly in front of you

Take a bounce pass – then a basic basketball jump shot

Take 10X shots

If your knees shift inward at you stopped to shoot, you have some degree of Valgus Collapse

If you video your test, post it to youtube and send us a link! We’ll feature it here so everyone can learn from your examples.

This is all to say that you shouldn’t be afraid to participate in sports, but just more aware.  Another option to help remedy your posture and form is to wear Aspaeris Pivot Shorts™ which are specifically designed to guide you in the proper “knees over toes” alignment.

Stay in the game!

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Injuring your ACL stinks!  On an average day, over 500 women athletes suffer an ACL injury too.   Have you been injured recently? I’d love to hear your story. Email me at Aspaeris@gmail.com and we’ll feature your story on our blog!