I just found that in some studies done in the past 5 years, it shows that high school female athletes (14-18 years old) are at a 3-4 times higher risk at tearing an ACL in sex comparable sports like soccer and basketball. Females at age 16 are shown to have the highest rate overall and soccer causes the most tears for girls. Studies are saying that this is partly due to a set of factors that affect female risk of ACL injury. The factors for females are, anterior-posterior knee laxity (looseness of the knee when bending) and BMI. Male factors were different, and they were posterior knee stiffness (when the leg, on the back side of the knee, feels pain when bending the knee), navicular drop (height of non-weight bearing part of the foot) and decrease in standing quad angle (angle of the leg from hips to the knee). It is important to know about these findings since they can contribute to pre-season training with athletic trainers and coaches. It helps players and parents to understand and know what to look for and take preventative measures as well. Does this information affect any opinions about playing high school level soccer or other topics?


Sanders, Thomas L., et al. “Incidence of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tears and Reconstruction.” The American
Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 44, no. 6, 26 Feb. 2016, doi:10.1177/0363546516629944.

Vacek, Pamela M., et al. “Multivariate Analysis of the Risk Factors for First-Time Noncontact ACL Injury in High
School and College Athletes.” The American Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 44, no. 6, 29 June 2016.
NCBI, doi:10.1177/0363546516634682