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I have had three starters go down in 3 games with knee injuries...one is a sprained MCL....one is a torn ACL...and the other is a suspected ACL injury...MRI done next week...What does everyone do to help prevent these injuries? Has anyone else had a lot of problems with girls and knee injuries?

1 in 10 college female athletes will tear her ACL. . .

There is a ton of information on the proclivity toward knee injuries in females out there, but little solid proof for how to avoid—

Strength training might help—I suspect that proper training might help—

BUT a really strong correlation exists between a torn ACL and a female's period. . .so many of the factors are probably out of our control, including the angle of hip to knee in females v. males. . .

There is a lot of information out there on prevention, understanding it and implementing it are more difficult. At Spartanburg we had all girls screened for weaknesses, running styles, etc. This was done for free by an orthopedic office. We then implemented a warmup routine each practice called the PEP program to help reduce injuries. It is a combination of running/jogging and stretching, stretching specific muscle groups and plyometrics. So far, so good.

www.aclprevent.com/pepprogram

I took Andy Robinson's program from Eastside that he developed at The Plex in Columbia. It involved 5 exercises and we added plyometrics training:

Mule Kicks
Fire Hydrants
Prisoner Squats
Jumps with balanced landings from 6" (later 12", then 18" now)
Vertical Jumps with body weight only
Plyometrics:
1. Lunges straight ahead
2. Lunges at 45% angles
3. Lunges at 90% angles

We added several Dynamic Flex (moving) exercises in our running/jogging warmup program.

We have done these religiously since preseason conditioning started and:

Last year, Blue Ridge had 7 knee injuries among 15 players, and 5-6 were severe. This year, knock on wood, 0! Not even a tweak.

Andy Robinson (Eastside Coach) told me that he had never lost a player to a knee injury. I am not smart enough to invent something that would prevent that result, so we just copied his program. Thank you, Coach Robinson.

Now, if we could just copy his success.

Rolie Sumwalt
Blue Ridge High School

Thanks for the info guys. I tried to follow the link for the PEP program but it did not work. This one did http://www.aclprevent.com/pepprogram.htm and I can't wait to hit my girls with it when they return from spring break!

Fort Mill's Bailey Brafford had ACL surgery on Wednesday and she is out for at least six months. Bailey was hurt in the Lady Jackets first match of the season, versus Hilton Head in the Viking Cup.

Bailey tore her other ACL in August of 2006 but recovered extremely quickly in order to play most of her freshman season in 2007 where she was a significant contributor to the Lady Jackets. Bailey was penciled in to start at forward or midfield for Fort Mill this season.

Good luck to Bailey and we wish her another speedy recovery.

I have heard that there is a higher incidence of ACL injuries when wearing molded cleats on artificial turf surfaces like at the Plex in Columbia or Manchester Meadows in Rock Hill. Does anyone have any references to ACL injury stats for wearing molded cleats versus turf shoes (multi-studs) on these type of surfaces?

We had a knee injury sustained wearing molded cleats in our game at Manchester Meadows this past Sunday. Still awaiting the results of the MRI analysis.

PM, don't post, that info! I've heard all I want to hear on that subject!!!

Coach P:

I have seen a really recent study, with pretty substantial evidence—but no one has yet to explain fully WHY—

Correlation is a tricky thing, but hormonal shifts in females affect the elasticity of the tendons, apparently, and may cause joints to behave differently. . .If I can find the original study I'll post—without using any terminology that apparently troubles some on this thread. . .

FYI: here is an article that seems to be referring to what I have seen recently:

http://www.islandpacket.com/sports/hhca/story/243653.html

Trying not to use disturbing terminology.. Since it is theorized that the hormonal changes affect the elasticity, one might wonder if certain hormone medications would have an affect. The one small study I found indicated no relationship between the frequency of ACL injury and the use of certain hormone medications.

Women's bodies transform pretty dramatically in order to endure childbirth; one would imagine that other monthly shifts would be nearly as powerful.

I would suspect that hormone meds would tend to fall well below the normal shifts—though I don't know for sure—And simply taking hormone meds may not replicate the full set of changes that occur during the time we shall not name.

A great study would be female hormone therapy on MEN—to see if the risk increases. Maybe some on this discussion board could volunteer. . .

Hey Dale, Jr.

You seem to be little shy with the terminology. How is it you coach these women? Do you have a female assistant coach to help you out with these facts of life???

Ususally I stick my fingers in my ears and go "Lalalalalalalalalala" over and over until they walk away. You'd be surprised how I've perfected the technique over the last seven seasons

It works Coach. The continuous exercising of the knee area and the constant strengthening really do make a difference. We actually had two girls who had knee pain before conditioning started and it has gone away.

Good luck with the program. Call Andy Robinson at Eastside for the whole deal - I believe that he and his people at PLEX initiated it.

Coach Sumwalt